Bartender's Choice: Products by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

One of my favorite books, as both a reader and a writer, is Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. As the Foreword proclaims, "I was not abused, abandoned, or locked up as a child. My parents were not alcoholics, nor were they ever divorced or dead. We did not live in poverty, or in misery, or in an exotic country... I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary." Yeah, well, me either. So it gives me hope that another "ordinary" someone out there has managed to find something personal and non-fiction to write about and make into a book.

Or, as it turns out, several books. I happened on this site recently, and it lists EoaOL, along with other books and products by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This woman's clever, y'all, and seriously cool. Every single one of these products screamed "gift!" to me: instead of a baby book, how about a Birthday Book, which chronicles a kid's birthday celebrations over 18 years. Or a book to record your little one's "sweet and amusing sayings." Thinking less as a parent and more as the naval-gazing narcissist that I am, these are both books I would have loved to see filled out about myself while growing up. Then there's good and bad Karma Checks, and the States of Mind journal, among the other gems.

I couldn't tell you how AKR managed to get this entire line of products into market, and I can't say I'd actually fork over the dough to buy any of them for our own family, but for gifts, I would give them serious consideration. And then, be advised, there are also the children's books. For all of her alleged ordinariness, I heart AKR.