Book Review: A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
Published October 23, 2007
In 2005 Frank Warren launched a blog as an experiment in community art, inviting strangers to mail him anonymous homemade postcards with their secrets written on them. The only rule is that it has to be a true secret that you have never before shared. Be creative he told the masses. The response he received was overwhelming.
Each Sunday PostSecret is updated with all new secrets and every Monday morning, before I’ve poured my coffee or checked my work e-mail, I check PostSecret. Why do I read PostSecret? There are a lot of reasons. Each week it's different and each week I find a little bit of me in someone else’s words. Some make me cry, making me glad that I've come into the office early enough that I can cry in peace. Some make me laugh. Then there are the ones that steal my breath, break my heart, and make me want to reach out to who ever was brave enough to commit those words to paper. It’s all about making a connection even if it's only for the briefest of moments through an anonymous postcard and a computer screen or book. 
In a Lifetime of Secrets, Frank Warren’s fourth collection, he says “I've selected postcards that show how secrets can reveal a momentary impulse or haunt us for decades and arranged them by age to follow the common journey we all take through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, maturity. Stretched over a full lifespan, the secrets expose the meaningful ways we change over time, and the surprising ways we don't.”
Happy, sad, beautiful, ugly, ecstatic, ornate, simple and everything in between; this is another collection worth looking for a bit of yourself in. Where ever you are in your life right now, whatever your path there is someone else out there who knows what it’s like. It's nice to think that maybe you aren't really alone.I was reading secrets online a few weeks back and I saw one that really struck a cord with me. “We are all part of something bigger and we are all part of it together."
Do you have a secret? Share it. Let it go and know that somewhere out there someone will laugh, cry, or realize that their life isn't as lonely or as hard as they thought. Today is the day to let go.
PostSecret
13345 Copper Ridge Rd
Germantown, Maryland 20874
- Book Review: A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
- Published: October 23, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Entertainment, Books: Nonfiction, Culture: Arts
- Writer: Katie Trattner
- Katie Trattner's BC Writer page
- Katie Trattner's personal site
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This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!