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The Bibliophile

For many, self-expression takes the form of keeping a journal. Since time immemorial, people have committed their inner feelings to diaries and journals. These experts can help guide you in this worthwhile endeavor.

What’s Your Story? A Journal for Everyday Evolution, by Rebecca Walker and Lily Diamond, 232 pages, Sounds True softcover, 2020

Contemplating the post-pandemic world brings with it the opportunity to reset priorities and, for many, to recover from tragedy and isolation. Sorting through these emotions can be harrowing and confusing. Transform the anguish, fear and loneliness of the pandemic to craft a newer, more vibrant and more understanding self.

What’s Your Story? is a welcoming, compassionate companion for those wishing to keep a record of lessons learned. A workbook to help you privately plumb the depths of your emotions, it can bring coherence to the past and build a framework for positive growth in the future.

No one should wallow in tragedy. Explore new vistas that can be discerned through the aftermath of chaos and the upheaval of lives changed.

After three short introductory chapters, each of the subsequent 10 subject headings poses a series of questions. This format helps fashion your personal story. The soothing color palette of the blank pages in ecru, rose, mocha and mustard, among others, will relax the most hesitant writer.

Rebecca Walker is an essayist, novelist, lecturer, feminist and activist. She is the daughter of the renowned author Alice Walker and civil rights attorney Melvyn Leventhal. Co-author Lily Diamond is a writer, photographer and educator.

Everything Beautiful in Its Time: A Family Journal, by Jenna Bush Hager, 192 pages, Morrow Gift hardcover, 2021

Memories organized in the present are a gift to the future. This journal provides guidance in putting into words feelings of family connectivity through the generations.

Jenna Bush Hager, co-host of the fourth hour of Today, is the daughter and granddaughter of two American presidents. She published her own memoir in 2020. Her late grandparents kept daily journals which continue to enrich her life, years after they have passed.

In Everything Beautiful in Its Time, Bush Hager shares this key component of the strong intergenerational link that binds her resilient family. She takes readers by the hand so that they too can preserve their own life stories for posterity.

The journal is a blank workbook organized into these sections: your family tree; your home and memorable trips you’ve taken; values; relationships; the best and worst of times; and milestones.

Communicate to your progeny and loved ones your values and interests as well as the enduring life lessons you wish to impart.

My Pride and Joy: A Grandmother’s Memory Book and Keepsake Journal, by Laura Quaglio, 96 pages, Castle Point Books hardcover, 2021

This journal allows grandmothers to share their perspectives on the lives of their grandchildren, provide personal commentary and include photographic mementos.

Keep treasured memories organized and readily accessible. Follow along each of the eight chapters in this attractive volume. You’ll be guided with specific questions that are wide-ranging in scope and sure to elicit and revive deep-seeded and long-forgotten memories. There is room for photographs along with your written answers.

Share your take on these subjects: best summer memories, childcare skills that came back instinctively, how I spoil my grandchildren, new things I tried because of my grandkids. Quotations on the special love between grandmothers and their grandchildren add to the ambience.

Laura Quaglio has ghostwritten three previous heirloom journals. This effort is most worthy of her emergence from the shadows.

Start now so you can finish My Pride and Joy in time to give to your grandchildren for the upcoming holidays. Loved ones will appreciate that you took the time to express your thoughts and organize your photos.

The completed keepsake journal will provide years of enjoyment at family gatherings. And when you’re gone, it will keep precious memories alive for future generations. Transmit to the future your fondest reminiscences.