great book as gift getting hardder to find

books:


	• I Hope You Dance Mark D. Sanders, Tia Sillers, 2000 - 64 pages average customer review:based on 64 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fantastic Book

Leeann Womack does a fantastic job at describing how the song came about and how to apply it to every day life.

Like Shining Amber, with a touch of Sap

Being a lover of this song and of gift books, I naturally couldn't resist ordering this book the minute I saw it in a store. The lyrics of Leann Womack's classic song is featured throughout the book, along with inspirational messages and beautiful photography from those who put the book together.

I did dock a star because the messages in the book that accompanied the song occasionally came off as a little too..mushy. I'm really not that harsh a critic, not of books like these, but the beautiful words of inspiration were, a couple of times, replaced by words that were definetly too syrupy for my taste. I prefer truly moving messages and stories to speak for themselves, but it occassionally seemed like the authors wanted to hammer the point home, overdo the sentimentality, and even make their message serious and cheerfully bouncy at the exact same time (trust me, that doesn't work.) For ex: throughout the book, the lyrics of the song are printed in large bold letters in order to differentiate them from the authors' separate words of inspiration. Usually, the pages featuring the lyrics had no other words on them, but at one point, right above the words of Womack's moving song, the authors' placed a bulletin that said, "Attention! This is BIG stuff!" Considering the fact that Leann's song more than speaks for itself and doesn't need any extra emotional boosting, I found those additional words annoying and almost jarring to the flow of the song and its message.

Elsewhere in the book, as I mentioned before, the sentimentality goes into overdrive. One page is dedicated entirely to love and begins with the words, "Love, love, love. You have to love." Again, I got that idea the first time. It's nice to compliment the song with additional words of motivation, but we don't need an interpretive page with every selection of the song. In another part of the book, while speaking of youth, the narrator says, "Ah, youth..new skin, wide smiles, clear eyes..the future so bright. If only we could bottle it up, sip it now and again.." This sounded more to me like a bad commercial for a fountain of youth than a motivational speech. I don't mean to sound cynical, I usually love gift books, but the tone in this one was sometimes just too sweet for my taste.

I also didn't particularly care for the version of the song in the bonus CD. There's a mainstream version with soft rock music and female voices in the background (which I prefer) and there's a country version with male voices in the background and the occassional awful twangy instruments; this one's the latter. If you like country music, good for you, but I don't like the country version of this song.

There are plenty of good points of this book to make up for the disappointments, of course. The song is wonderful, whether you hear it or read it, and some of the separate words in the book were lovely to read. My favorite part of the book's text, other than the song, was a beautiful little haiku that the authors wrote called "You", celebrating every individual. The photographs are also gorgeous, from grinning children to nature scenery. A beautiful package, altogether.

Now, if they'd only make a gift book celebrating the beautiful song "Private Malone"..

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Moved Me

I felt so connected to this and cried , I gave it to my daughter , who had just found out she had cancer . goldenyrs43

hope you dance

This book is very inspirational and can be used a a motivator for young people embarking on their life journey. The accompanying cd is excellent as well.

great book as gift getting hardder to find

This book is a great gift, especially to those enterring new exciting chapters in their lives. It could as a result of death, illness, or just starting a new chapter. Life is hard but enjoy gain strengh from that around you.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Named the CMA song of the year, I Hope You Dance is a challenge to make the most out of life: "And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance."

This beautiful gift book by the Nashville team that wrote the song includes a CD with an acoustic version recorded especially for this book by Lee Ann Womack. This is the perfect gift not only for fans of Lee Ann Womack, but for a new graduate, for someone that needs encouragement, or for anyone who needs or wants to participate in the dance of life.

"If you can figure out a way to keep the energy and gumption and fire alive, you'll always stay young. And where there's youth, there's hope... where there's hope, there's wonder... where there's wonder, there's faith... where there's faith, there's chance... where's there chance, there's love ...where there's love, there's music... and dancing. So in my heart of hearts, I hope you dance."

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