Social media- is it the great connector or digital divider of our generation? Amy Weinland Daughters undertook a social experiment of writing her entire “friend list” from Facebook to find out. Prompted by her discovery of an old camp friend’s son undergoing cancer treatment and ultimately losing his battle to the disease, she tackles the question are we really friends with those we claim to be online?

As anyone who lives in the 21st century can tell you, social media is the root of communication. Sadly, what we see projected on the screen does not accurately portray the lives of the account holder. Upon starting her journey, Amy definitely concludes that almost all of her so called “friends” are people she has not personally interacted with in decades, if at all.

In an attempt to bridge the communication gap Amy sought out 580 addresses to mail a handwritten letter. Ironically, most of the correspondence ended there. However, there was the occasional written response back or my favorite- digital comment posted to her wall!

While the concept of writing the entirety of your “friends” list is super original I found the book to be a bit repetitive. I wish she would have omitted the countless times she explains the process of why she is writing the letters. I felt that her repetitiveness was distracting and off putting. In the same vein I could have done with her omitting how she has such a wacky personality and how so many others on her list shared the same sense of humor. Ultimately, I wanted a more concise story that kept me engaged.

Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Paperback Publishing- She Writes Press for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

The premise of this book was intriguing - we certainly don’t have a close personal relationship with all of our social media “friends”. The development of the author’s friendship with Dana after a 30 year gap, coupled with Dana’s son’s illness, was fortuitous. But it felt like the author kind of forced the connection. Lots of references that felt like contrived foreshadowing.

From that point on it started to feel a little too heavy on the God scale, I was interested in the rest of her friends’ reactions to the letters, outcome of the outreach, etc. Certainly got a lot of example of that but seemed heavy handed with the “wow - God is great” sprinkled in. I get that her faith is a big part of her life, but found all the references tj “God’s blessing”, “God’s hand”, and “God’s intervention” too much. Lost interest, lost focus.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Imagine reconnecting with a friend on Facebook who you haven't talked to in years. Amy decides to send her a card several times a month. It takes sometime but she hears back from her friend and became even better friends. I enjoyed this thought provoking book and how the little things can mean so much.

A quick read and surprisingly enjoyable. This book is by and about a woman who decided to write a handwritten letter to each of her 550 Facebook friends. I thought it would be too gimmicky but it’s actually just sweet and earnest while also kind of funny. It is very Christian which was not clear from the blurb but it isn’t bad even though I’m not Christian and felt really surprised by how much time this woman spends praying and thinking about things as God’s will. She keeps mentioning how amazing it is that she is to write a letter to a specific person at x important time in their life but statistically it seems completely obvious that the letters will sometimes come near important events for some people. But other than that pushing for everything to have meaning when maybe it just didn’t, this woman was so kind and earnest and just genuinely good. She is a Southern Christian and a political conservative, and I am none of those—but I still admire what she did and think we might have fun if we ended up at a party together. Well done.

I was lucky enough to receive a free copy of the ebook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I’m glad I picked this one!

I really liked the concept of this book especially in today's day and age when writing on pen and paper and putting so much effort in interacting with others have become a thing of the past.
This book will especially prove an eye opener for people who believe everything they see on social media and by viewing the life of others start comparing their real life with their so called 'reality'.