For me, it started with Nonna Jennifer-Anne on Facebook, posting links and asking us, “Have you heard of this book?”
She meant this book. It came out on January 17th - that's eleven days ago. It's in Amazon's top ten best seller list. If you get as far as typing "One..." in the search box on Amazon, "One Thousand Gifts" is their second suggestion! Today it has 170 reviews on Amazon - eleven more than yesterday!! Whoa!!!
As the days went by I was coming across more and more instances of people talking about Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts. They were not saying, “Jolly good book,” they were saying they will never be the same again because it has transformed them, turned their lives upside down. They couldn’t stop reading, they are buying as many copies as they can afford to give away.
Here's one review, by Katherine Mary Johnson. Does anyone else get reviews like that??
I must get this book I thought (naturally). It’s published by Zondervan and only just out, so it’s not yet available at a sensible price on UK Amazon. Obviously the thing to do would be to buy it at US Amazon, but while I was just pondering this an email came in from my good friend Julie F. She’s really Julie B, but to me she’s Julie F for Julie Faraway. And she’d written to say: “I am reading a book right now that is literally rocking my world . . . I'm about 1/3 of the way through her One Thousand Gifts and I hope I never recover. Like your books, I will want to read this over and over, and I am not someone who reads books again very often.” And she was offering to send me a copy as a gift! YAY!! So I said “Yes, please!” :0D (I left that bit in about my books – thanks Julie!)
But Julie also asked had I seen Ann Voskamp’s blog A Holy Experience? I had seen it briefly because I read a post on it about Christmas, in December; but I went across and had a proper look at is as a blog rather than just reading a post, if you see what I mean. Oh, my! I am so impressed. Friends, if there are any writers among you reading this and wondering how to navigate your way across the seas of blogging – take this as your compass. Ann Voskamp has everything! Not only are her promotional and design ideas clever – seriously savvy – but the soul behind them is authentic; honest and wise and interesting and beautiful and luminous. You can promote until you’re blue in the face but if all you are is a storefront and the goods are second-rate, people will spot that sooner or later. But Ann Voskamp is the real deal. Her creativity is amazing, her talent is stunning, her way with words is superb. And there’s something else too that what I’ve said so far hasn’t covered – something in my description that leaves her sounding a bit less than she is. There’s Holy Spirit in what she’s doing; it has the touch of grace (one of her favourite words, I think).
And now I have to confess something. I am also a writer – and I work hard at what I do: and boy, when I saw what she is and what she has achieved, did I feel jealous!! Quakers, as you know, never doffed their hats to anybody. In the case of Ann Voskamp, I make an exception. Go, lady! What a phenomenon. And guess what? She’s beautiful as well !
Get that book in the post, Julie F! I am so looking forward to reading it!