Woman to Woman: Letters to Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, and Friends

This exquisite book was on someone else's coffee table, and in a moment of boredom, I started shuffling through it. My boredom evaporated immediately, though I don't usually spend time reading 'books like this' - coffee table books always seem like a waste of time, money spent for a quick flip through a soon-to-be dusty book.This isn't a book you can shuffle through, and it probably won't gather dust because it's really a treasure of reproductions of little hand-written letters women have written to each other over years gone by - mothers to daughters, daughters to mothers, sisters to each other, friends-to-friends and (yes, I think) occasionally a lover-to-lover.Mary Shelley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Austen, Emily Dickenson, Louise May Alcott and others have letters. In addition, there are pages of quotes from other exchanges. But the amazing thing is that the stationery, the script, even the envelopes are reproductions of the actual writings, and so look genuine - they are tucked throughout the book in tiny envelopes, printed or hand-written as the originals one.Each letter has a transcript in the back, as the 'originals' may be difficult to read due to script styles or language (Marie Antoinette's letter en francaise to her mother is, of course, in French - loose sheets in calligraphy, folded inside a larger piece of paper).This would be a wonderful gift for a sister, mother, daughter, friend, especially if she's interested in history as the letters and the rest of the content of the book have information about the times of each letter writer.If this book is available in paperback, don't get it - the hardcover is the one!

This is a gorgeous book to give a daughter, sister or friend who loves beautiful little treasures.