The Power of Family Love: True Stories of Love and Courage

by Mary Pesaresi and Samantha Glen

When two women decided to write a book about family, they asked friends and relatives to contribute brief stories. But soon, word-of-mouth spread and hundreds of stories flooded in from strangers all over the world! And stories are still coming. In Power of Family Love, co-authors Samantha Glen and Mary Pesaresi share the best of these collected stories. Any reader, any member of a family, will relate to the 60 testimonies that vividly reveal the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761511024
• ISBN13: 9780761511021
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Loved it

I loved this book. The stories were great and reminded me of my family. I keep it on my bedside table, and I pick it up and reread favorite stories. I always find them inspiring.

Family is a keeper.

I was visiting the United States from overseas, and was given this book as a present. Until I read these stories, and stayed with a loving family who have since become my friends, my image of the United States was formed from images of violence on CNN, the TV show "Beverly Hills 90210" , and "The Jerry Springer Show." In short, I thought Americans were amoral, violent, and total exhibitionist. My parents were actually reluctant to have me visit the States because of these images. However, reading the diverse stories from so many American voices, and meeting my American friends, I know the United States has more wonderful, caring people who honor friendship and family, who are as shocked at the violence in their country as I am, who are striving to make life better not only for themselves and their families, but for others. My advice to anyone who wants to know Americans apart from Jerry Springer should read Family. This is more representative of the Americans I know and love than the wooden, amoral stick figures we see on TV, and the microcosm of violence we are fed in sound bites on CNN.

Family is inspirational.

I enjoyed every story written in distinct voices, from diverse points of view. I especially loved "The End of the Rainbow", a young girl's loving tribute to her grandmother. The story flooded my memory with images of my own grandma, and I wish I had had the opportunity to pay her such a tribute. Other particularly moving tales were "Libby, the Christmas Angel", a doctor's remembrance of a brave, little patient he viewed as a member of his family, and "A Plateful of Mortal Sins", the ruminations of a "former Catholic Schoolgirl" which had me laughing out-loud.

Family is a sweet/tart /loving tribute I have savored.

Family: Everyday Stories About the Miracle of Love provided me with shocks of recognition by way of shared experiences, with tears of sympathy and joy, with secret giggles and out-loud laughter, and, in the end, with a feeling of kinship with the more than fifty people who have shared their stories with Samantha Glen and Mary Pesaresi. Every contributor is an extraordinary, regular person, who has realized the smallest action, whether kind or cruel, can have the most enormous impact on all close to them. Family presents simple, lovely stories in beautiful prose, and I thank the authors for their caring and loving words that bring these experiences to brief, vibrant life.