Description:
How do we find love? How do we live and love fully? And can we find healing and purpose after loss?
In her quest to understand love and healing, Alison van Diggelen explores how empathy, self-love and personal growth can transform ordinary lives into extraordinary ones, distrust into loving intimacy, and grief into purpose. The Love Project looks at a community through the lens of love - romantic, familial, platonic -- and the quiet, yet powerful bonds we share with community and nature.
With candor and compassion, these real love stories reveal how people overcome challenges, grief, trauma, and societal prejudice. From the windswept beaches of Carmel to moments of quiet self-discovery in neighbors' homes, each story reminds us of the human spirit's resiliency and capacity for growth and connection.
Whether you are seeking inspiration for your own journey of self-improvement or the comfort of knowing you are not alone, The Love Project offers a gentle guide to finding love and hope, living authentically, and embracing life's most transformative moments.
Brief description: Alison van Diggelen is a regular contributor to the BBC World Service and has appeared on NPR, PBS, and BBC TV. Her writing features in the NPR book, On Fatherhood. As the host of the Fresh Dialogues interview series, she's had intimate conversations with Oscar winners, Nobel Prize winners, and tech visionaries. Alison hails from Bonnie Scotland and now lives in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Visit AlisonvanDiggelen.com or Instagram @alisonvand.
Review Quotes:
"Alison van Diggelen has spent years interviewing the rich and famous, asking the kinds of questions that some of us ponder but never dare to ask. More than a profession, for Alison, asking questions is an art. In this remarkable collection, she combines that art with her own deeply personal revelations, connecting with neighbors from widely different walks of life who tell their stories and share their hearts like brushstrokes on a canvas, painting answers to a series of quintessential questions: What is love? What is a neighbor? What is this gift we call life? And, most of all: How will we choose to live? I found it hard to put down. Every character I met, every story I read, made me want to meet and read the next. What an amazing community of souls."
-Sharon Randall, award-winning columnist and author of The World and Then Some
"Reading The Love Project feels like being welcomed into a circle of confidantes. These stories of love-discovered late in life, found in unlikely places, tested through hardship-are told with honesty, tenderness, and unflinching detail. Alison van Diggelen has created a collection that is both balm and spark: a celebration of connection, resilience, and the surprising ways love continues to find us."
-Julian Guthrie, NYT bestselling author of Alpha Girls
"The story of grit, love, and beautiful chaos. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll probably call your mom when you're done."
-Guy Kawasaki, NYT bestselling author of Enchantment, host of the Remarkable People podcast
"Alison van Diggelen brings her considerable interviewing skills and empathetic storytelling to The Love Project, a book that provides its readers with a wonderful range of deeply human tales, a veritable gallery and wide spectrum of portraits of people whose lives touch our own and who touch us. There is much wisdom and caring concern here about the inner lives of others-inspirational, emotive, and revelatory of the power, nature, mystery, and pain of love. Alison adds much from her own life, coupling it all with the importance of the book's magical and unmatched setting of Carmel, California. The Love Project is a journey well worth being part of."
-Michael J Krasny of NPR's KQED Forum, host of The Grey Matter Podcast
"The Love Project is a soul-stirring reminder that everyone carries a story worth knowing. Whether our defining moment of love broke our heart, curled our toes, or made us feel seen like never before, that love continues to shape the way we live. Alison's story of vulnerability and her insightful questions tap into our deep truths and make this a must-read book. Her very relatable stories made me think deeply, laugh out loud, and weep."
-Shana McLean Moore, author of Caffeinated Ponderings and founder of The Gigis
"What makes The Love Project so special is Alison's remarkable gift of being able to understand the underlying truth of what matters most. Her insights capture the essence of people, situations, relationships, and incredible stories of love. Beautifully written and meaningful, the book is powerfully intimate, yet charmingly entertaining. A compelling read."
-Wanda Straw, author of Sasha Noodle String Theory