One Perfect Word
One Word Can Make All the Difference
Award-winning, perennial bestselling novelist Debbie Macomber applies the best of her fiction writing skills to true stories that illustrate the profound impact focusing on a single word—such as balance, surrender, or believe—for a whole year can bring.
In One Perfect Word, Debbie encourages readers with stories of her changed life when she took the time to intentionally focus on a single word for a whole year. Debbie shows readers how choosing a word to focus—and act—on changed not only Debbie, but those around her. In the tradition of One Simple Act and God’s Guest List, Debbie tells inspiring stories of how living just one word can change someone’s world. In a world where too many meaningless words overwhelm us, the simplicity of one perfect word becomes profound. Words like “surrender,” “believe,” and “purpose” took on new meaning for Debbie when she tried to live them out.
Read how Debbie discovered that the word she chose often foreshadowed the crisis she would face in a particular year. For example, the year she chose the word “balance,” her career moved to a whole new level. The pressures on Debbie to be speaking, promoting, and practically living on the road were overwhelming. It was her yearlong focus on that all-too-difficult word balance, and a plea from a lonely granddaughter, that helped her refine her schedule. Readers will be encouraged to find their word for themselves, and see how one perfect word can make all the difference.
In One Perfect Word, Debbie encourages readers with stories of her changed life when she took the time to intentionally focus on a single word for a whole year. Debbie shows readers how choosing a word to focus—and act—on changed not only Debbie, but those around her. In the tradition of One Simple Act and God’s Guest List, Debbie tells inspiring stories of how living just one word can change someone’s world. In a world where too many meaningless words overwhelm us, the simplicity of one perfect word becomes profound. Words like “surrender,” “believe,” and “purpose” took on new meaning for Debbie when she tried to live them out.
Read how Debbie discovered that the word she chose often foreshadowed the crisis she would face in a particular year. For example, the year she chose the word “balance,” her career moved to a whole new level. The pressures on Debbie to be speaking, promoting, and practically living on the road were overwhelming. It was her yearlong focus on that all-too-difficult word balance, and a plea from a lonely granddaughter, that helped her refine her schedule. Readers will be encouraged to find their word for themselves, and see how one perfect word can make all the difference.
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Buy from us:
- Howard Books |
- 224 pages |
- ISBN 9781439190593 |
- January 2012
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Read an Excerpt
One
UPON MY WORD
Word (wûrd)
–noun A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning.1
I am often reminded of the power of words. In my office I have a number of author autographs lining the wall of my stairwell. Mark Twain. Harper Lee. Charles Dickens. Ernest Hemingway. Harriet Beecher Stowe. These writers are my mentors. As a young woman I read and cherished their stories. They remind me of my responsibility as a writer of fiction and most recently in my venture into the world of...
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Book Reviews
Reading Group Guide
The suggested questions for One Perfect Word are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. What is it about choosing just one word to chew on for a whole year that seems like such an adventure? Have you ever had a word or an idea crop up again and again over a short period of time? What was that word or idea? Why do you think it kept surfacing?
2. In 1977, the word that kept cropping up for Debbie was the word desire. What does that word conjure up for you? If you could name one desire—a secret dream—for your life, what would it be? (Don’t be afraid to dream big.)
3. For Debbie, the word believe came at a time of great uncertainty, right at the turn of the millennium with all the hype of Y2K. Does this give us insight into God’s timing as he gives us a word assignment? Why do you think he gave Debbie the word believe when she was facing misgivings and fear? Why not courage or another buck-up type word?
4. Debbie confessed that she chose hunger in 1979 as she struggled with her eating addiction. She thought the word would take her one place, but she ended up learning something entirely different. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever set out thinking you were going to explore one thing only t see more
Topics & Questions for Discussion
1. What is it about choosing just one word to chew on for a whole year that seems like such an adventure? Have you ever had a word or an idea crop up again and again over a short period of time? What was that word or idea? Why do you think it kept surfacing?
2. In 1977, the word that kept cropping up for Debbie was the word desire. What does that word conjure up for you? If you could name one desire—a secret dream—for your life, what would it be? (Don’t be afraid to dream big.)
3. For Debbie, the word believe came at a time of great uncertainty, right at the turn of the millennium with all the hype of Y2K. Does this give us insight into God’s timing as he gives us a word assignment? Why do you think he gave Debbie the word believe when she was facing misgivings and fear? Why not courage or another buck-up type word?
4. Debbie confessed that she chose hunger in 1979 as she struggled with her eating addiction. She thought the word would take her one place, but she ended up learning something entirely different. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever set out thinking you were going to explore one thing only t see more
