Book Review: Alphatudes by Michele Wahlder

Author	Michele Wahlder
Title	Alphatudes - The Alphabet of Gratitude
Publisher	Life Possibilities Publishing
Date of Publication	January 15, 2010
Page Count	111
ISBN	978-0-9823645-0-5

I'm still not sure how I'm going to write the review for this one. It is obviously non-fiction, with the purpose to help people realize the positive things in life. I recieved this review copy from Rebecca from The Cadence Group and I'm really glad. Rebecca's mail came at a time when I was really annoyed with life in general and when I read that it was based on the alphabet I decided to read one chapter a day and let it sink. I wanted to take the most out of it, not knowing that the author suggested to read the entire book and then go back to those points the reader would like to improve.

Now, I think the layout is awesome! Each chapter starts with the basic principle, like Joy for J and a short quote about it - all on a double page with the most awesome pictures ever! I in fact missed my train a time or two just because I was so enthralled with the pictures! After this there's one page where Michele Wahlder explains precisely, what she means by the principle before she offers a prayer-like paragraph one can use to focus on it. Now it might sound a bit preachy or religious for those who are not at home with any specific religion, but I can assure you that it does not come across too preachy.

Reading the book helped me realize how I can manipulate myself for the worse, so I really hope I can use the suggestions made by Michele Wahlder. I found it helpful to see the small things in life we can be grateful for and think that we all might not always see the positive in all situations. I will let you know later this year if I could make good use of them - or whether I was too weak, too much of a push-over to go through with it! But I'll keep the book off of my shelves for future references, especially because I took a bunch of notes and have tons of sticky notes to mark pages.

One last thing I should mention: Olivia Newton-John has a song out which those who buy Alphatudes can download for free. You might not know it (yet), but I absolutely love her - ever since I saw Grease and absolutely fell in love with that movie (and her voice)! And for this I have to thank my music teachers who went the extra miles to have a band, an orchestra, two choirs and a few other voluntary groups at my high school. I was a member of our choir from 6th grade on and never left. In fact, I even got the permission to return for another year after I changed schools. And it all started with Grease!