Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I haven't participated in this before, but this upcoming book is really cool so I want to spotlight it here:

The book is Letters to Jackie, edited by Ellen Fitzpatrick.  Here's the blurb:  It is perhaps the most memorable moment from the 20th century—a moment that left a family and a nation mourning, a moment that many recall as their first historical memory—the assassination of President Kennedy.


Within seven weeks of the President’s death, Jacqueline Kennedy had already received over 800,000 condolence letters. In the two years following President Kennedy’s death, the volume of correspondence exceeded a million and half letters.

The letters, essentially untouched for 46 years, bring to life the hope, idealism, and sense of possibility JFK embodied to many Americans during his brief presidency, and how his death inspired a universal and profound sense of purpose and sadness, the feeling that our country had been changed forever.

I'm especially excited about this book because one of the letters was written by the father of a woman who works for me.  She vividly remembers typing it for him to send as he dictated when she was 16.  Her father is long dead now so when they contacted her and her brother about the letter it brought back all kinds of fond memories for the family.  I love the ways that books open all kinds of doors and this is great example of that.