Why Do I Love These People?
This is another in
my unique style of social documentary, using incredibly real stories from ordinary people
surviving the challenges of their family.
Links
Sample Chapters
Listen to an Excerpt from
the Audio Book
Q & A with Po Bronson
Who's Reading This Book
For Book Clubs
WDILTP In the Press
Reviews
The Interesting Story of the Book's Cover
Letters to the Families
The Factbook on Family
Tour Appearances
Sample Chapters
Please go ahead and invite your friends and family to
read these and help spread the word. The ones that are complete chapters are in PDF
format, which are easier for you to print. (The four excerpts marked with an asterisk *
are available only temporarily.)
Our Blog
Ashley Merryman and I have begun a blog about topics relating to families and "Why Do
I Love These People?" (Ashley was my researcher on the book and she is my co-author
on The Factbook on Family.)
Who's
Reading This Book
Why Do I Love These People? has been shared among siblings, shared among friends - no surprise
there. It's brought people closer to their families, but it's also given many inspiration
to break from a certain member of their family. WDILTP has also been used by some
psychotherapists to help their client-patients. (It's also been a common gift from
patients to their therapists.) Many ministers and pastors have quoted from the book in
their Sunday sermons. And it's even being taught in writing classes, used as models to
help students tell their own family story. If you've been reading this book, either by
yourself or sharing it with your friends or family, please tell me about it. Thank you. My
email is pobronson@pobronson.com
More Reviews
In the Press
A nearly complete list of all the places WDILTP has been publicized.
Tour Appearances
Check out the bookstores and other places I was on tour, from November of 2005 to February
of 2006.
Book Clubs
If your Book Club is reading Why Do I Love These People?, please write me and feel
free to ask questions. I know it's rare for a book club to be reading a hardcover book and
I'm happy to help.
Here are some questions you can use for your book club.
Cover Story
Since I took the unusual step of polling 2,000 of my readers (500 at a time) to help pick
a book jacket (for the U.S. market), I owed it to them to explain how we ended up with the
muddy boots image - since it wasn't their first choice.
A Talk With The Author
This actually comes from my publisher's materials
Letters to the Families
If you have read the book, you can help me by writing a letter to the families in the
book, to let them know how their stories have affected you. No need to write any family
individually, just a general "To the Families" letter will do. A paragraph is
plenty. Please send it to me, with "To the Families" in the subject line, and I
will distribute them to the families. My email: pobronson@pobronson.com
The Factbook
Also, if you have read the book, you might be looking for the hundreds of pages of
research we compiled and synthesized - which I mention in the appendix. This is what we
call the Factbook. The
Factbook is a centralized storing house of memos we wrote on family issues, with
particular regard to cross-cultural comparisons and the history of family. Be prepared to
have your eyes opened by what you read. The Factbook would be a 600 page book by itself
were it printed out. It draws upon over 500 sources. To our surprise, nothing quite like
this yet existed on the web, publicly available. Family research has become so stratified
and specialized that there is no single place that covers most of the significant issues.
The Factbook is appropriate for both general readers and for scholars and journalists who
cover family issues.
Also, if you are
looking for the sources of the statistics and observations made either in the
"Halftime" chapter or in the Appendix, look at the bottom of the Factbook index.
Signed
first editions
Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered a signed copy. I
was in Portland signing your books. This was a huge success. I signed over 2600 without
taking a break. Was that a record? Yes, I was informed it was a record. Did I sign
every one? Yes. How long did it take? If I signed one every 14 seconds, that would take 12
hours. Did I sign one every 14 seconds? Gratefully. Was I tired? Not really. How many
books is that in the picture below? Only about 200.
Preview
of the Book
I don't have any excerpts of the book on my site, not
yet. I'm not afraid of giving it away - rather, it is the kind of book best read when you
have the whole book in your hand. However, this page
describes the book vaguely. I kept this on my site while I was writing the book, to
describe the process by which it came together.
Reviews:
"An incredibly moving book that no one should miss.
Bronson's unpretentious, down-to-earth style infuses the stories with compassion and
hope."
- The Richmond Review (Canada)
"Remarkable. All the stories are fascinating. The
result is a book that is real, complex, and intensely human."
- Sydney Morning Herald
"Heart
melting ... beautiful ... complicated and wonderful."
- Oakland Tribune
"A triumph of hope
... the three years spent by Bronson studying multicultural and
multi-generational families has been worth the effort." - Harmony Magazine, India
"Riveting ...
Intimate ... Achingly real"
-Seattle Times
"Gritty ...
inspirational ... Bronson's subjects emerge as ordinary heroes." - The Age
(Melbourne's daily newspaper)
"Deeply
comforting ... Wonderful ... tugs at the heart strings and makes you marvel. Funny,
insightful and concise, sorting the emotion from the stories into something applicable to
us all. Will most likely motivate many readers to be better sons, daughters, brothers,
sisters and parents."
- Sunday Telegraph (Australia)
"It's
difficult to have a dry eye when you get to the end ... In the hands of Bronson, their
years of struggle to keep their family together takes on a magnificence that
transcends"
-Atlanta Journal Constitution
"Absolutely
marvelous ... consoling ... a decent, heartening,
kind and healing book to read - and give. The integrity of Bronson's prose style as well
as the incredible sweetness of those he writes about give him 24-karat credibility."
- Washington Post
"* * *
*" (4 stars/highest rating)
- People
"Extraordinary"
-Daily Mirror (UK)
"Cathartic
... something for everyone ... you'll find the music of Bronson's families resonating
against the music of your own. These are meaty, meticulously-researched tales - the naked
truth without exaggeration for emotional effect."
- TownHall.com
"Inspiring
... Magnificent"
- Beliefnet's 'Ten Best of the Year'
"Stunning and
Profound"
- Barnes&Noble.com
"It will make you want to hug every relative in sight."
- Glamour, Editor's Pick
"Bronson is a
modern Studs Terkel"
- Glasgow Herald
"Spellbinding"
-Josh Kornbluth, The Josh Kornbluth Show
"Miraculous
and compelling"
- San Diego Union Tribune
"Don't
miss out on this celebration of the family. As you are drawn into the stories, you will
come across pain and suffering, but also deeply satisfying joy that comes essentially from
connecting with people. These are not band-aid solutions that you can copy-paste into your
life. What they will do instead is grab you by the heart."
-The Times of India
"Will tighten
the throat of just about any reader."
- Wall Street Journal
"Compelling
and inspiring. Stirring. Bronson emerges as an optimist in a field full of
pessimists."
- Seattle P.I. 'Books to Dazzle'
"Why do I
love this book? Because it proves its thesis. Don't look for a partner with whom you have
no problems, but one you are good at overcoming problems with."
- The Guardian (UK)
"Extraordinary
wisdom"
- Hawke's Bay Today (New Zealand)
"Mesmerizing"
- Book Reporter
"Remarkable"
- Richmond Times Dispatch
"Heartbreaking
... Each chapter can leave the reader in tears"
- Orlando Sentinel
"Surprising
revelations to a society accustomed to thinking no one's ever had it so bad. [Bronson
finds] tremendous beauty in the ugliness of family life"
-National Post
"Powerful ...
unlocks the essence of what it means to be a family in today's world." - Columbus
Parent
"Gripping"
-The Globe & Mail
"Besides
breaking down all those stereotypes we harbor, what Bronson's book will do is make you
think your own family is worth fighting for."
- Albuquerque Journal
"Compelling
and philosophical"
-Nashville City Paper
"A subversive
real life thriller"
- East Bay Express
"Inspiring"
- To the Best of Our Knowledge
"A powerful
statement about the state of family life. "
- BookBitch
"A powerful
reminder of the complexity of the family relationship and why it is worth keeping that
bond intact."
-Edmonton Sun
My email: pobronson@pobronson.com
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