I thought this was a cute book. It's filled with letters with love, hate, separation, passion, etc. I enjoyed the handwritten ones a lot better than the typed letters. Perfect for anyone in a relationship or a hopeless romantic. ( )

This collection of actual love letters is not as cringe-inducing as say, Gov. Sanford's overwrought e-mails to his Argentine lover. There are some such moments but on the whole, these letters are quirky, cute, ordinary and mostly thoughtful. There are also breakup letters, ultimatums and confused revelations of the heart. There's a voyeuristic thrill to reading other actual love letters but it will also inspire you to dig up your old love correspondence. I did! ( )

This was a very interesting read. It was rather like going through somebody's shoes box. Some note were sweet and some were funny. A refreshing look at love! ( )

A fun, interesting and quick read. ( )

Similar to the PostSecret website and books, Other People’s Love Letters is meant to lay bare the souls of everyday people, perhaps revealing insights about humanity and our similarities along the way. However, I did not find this book at all as interesting as PostSecret, even if the concept is somewhat similar.

In the introduction, the editor describes how he stumbled upon a girlfriend’s love letter from a past lover. He began musing on collecting love letters not intended for his eyes and proceeded to do so. However, some of the correspondence included in this book cannot be classified as love letters – many are break-up, post-divorce, or even ‘I hate you’ letters. The rest are mostly trite and badly written, to the point that reading this book reminded me of having to slog through countless entries of bad poetry as editor of my high school poetry anthology way back when. But, some of the letters were heartfelt and deep, and those were truly touching to read. It was also interesting to stumble upon some rare finds, such as letters dating back to the early 1900s. The book ends with a postscript – a sort of “where are they now” section on some of the letter writers and recipients. I would have liked to see these back stories on the same page as the corresponding letter, rather than later when I no longer remembered the exact contents of the letter (and to be honest, was too lazy at this point to go back and try to find the letters a second time).

Overall, this book is a quick read and the physical design of the book is a work of art, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book as I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I would have anticipated. ( )