Thanks to author Steve Fadie for providing copies of these books for review.

The best-laid plans…always seem to go awry.  April is National Letter Writing Month.  The plan was to review and/or write about a number of letter-writing resources in March, in preparation, and do a special giveaway at the beginning of the month, so you all have plenty of time to actually use those resources during April!  The reality is that we haven’t seemed to be able to keep everyone in the household healthy for a whole week at a time for going on two months now, so everything is behind.

So we will be doing the giveaway…but some of the resource reviews and roundups are going to be a bit late.  (Especially since something else very exciting is happening later this month, that I can’t reschedule.  You’ll have to wait and see on that one, though!)

First up on the should-have-been-reviewed-last-month list: Words to the Rescue and Words to the Rescue 2.

Words to the Rescue

Words to the Rescue is the book you reach for when you have a note or letter to write and are at a loss for what to say.  Broken down into categories, it offers suggestions for appropriate phrases.  (Lest you should think that’s “cheating” or somehow tacky, according to The Art of the Personal Letter, such phrase books were commonplace back when written letters were.)

This first book includes sections for anniversary, apology, birthday, congratulations (subdivided into achievement, baby, graduation, new business, new home, retirement, and wedding), encouragement, friendship, get well, goodbye & miss you, romance & fun, sympathy, thank you, and thinking of you.

The design is fabulously functional.  Not only are the chapters labeled in the table of contents and at the start of each, the current chapter is marked clearly at the top of each page.  There’s also plenty of white space between each phrase.  This makes it very easy to flip through and find what you need quickly.

Many of the sayings also have underlined words or phrases as cues that these are words or phrases you can swap out to personalize the message.  Some of the underlined segments are fairly obvious things, like “we,” which might be replaced with “I” in some scenarios, or “uncle” in a “dear uncle” note which would of course be substituted with the name or title of whomever you’re writing to!  Some are not so obvious, though, such as “keep our hearts chuckling,” which could be replaced with a similar idea in your own words or even swapped out altogether for a whole new message.

Toward the end of the book is a section called “fast phrases,” which is just what it sounds like.  These are three- to five-word phrases which (for the most part) are designed to be used as part of longer messages.  When you can’t think of just how to word something, these come in handy . (They can also be helpful when you need something super-short, like on Twitter.)  These are also divided into categories, with one category per page.

Although not blatantly Christian, the book is written from a Christian worldview, so there are no raunchy phrases here.

The very end of the book includes a few lined pages so you can keep a log of your own favorite messages.

 Words to the Rescue: The sentiment guide for the tongue tied Words to the Rescue 2: The sentiment guide for the tongue tied 101 Ways to Say Thank You: Notes of Gratitude for All Occasions Finding the Right Words: Perfect Phrases to Personalize Your Greeting Cards

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(More) Words to the Rescue

Maybe you still need more.  In that case, check out Words to the Rescue 2.  This sequel gets both broader and more specific, covering some occasions the first one did not, and dividing some of the categories further into more specific sub-groups.  This very-much-not-an-animal-person could definitely have used this when my mother-in-law’s beloved dog died and I had to ask for help knowing what to say!

This second book includes sections for appreciation (employee, military, teacher, volunteer), birthday (to him, to her, adventures in aging, friend, kids), congratulations (achievement, adoption, baby, engagement, pregnancy, retirement), encouragement (cancer support, disappointment, divorce/split-up, pep talk, weight loss), get well (care/concern, the lighter side, family support), romance & fun, sympathy (loss of a child, loss of coworker, loss of parent, pet loss), thank you (gift, hospitality, kindness, support, wedding), and thinking of you.

Beyond these general occasions, several holidays are addressed, namely Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year.

Words to the Rescue 2 once again includes a “fast phrases” section (and a place to make note of your own favorites).  It also includes a new section called “personality picks.”  These are positive traits you can use to praise others.  (Only honestly, please!  But sometimes you just don’t know what word to use, to say what you want to say about how you appreciate someone.)

There are some distinctly Christian sentiments here, in the Christian holiday sections.

Do you have a favorite message or phrase to include in certain notes?  Share it in the comments and maybe we can add to the collection!