i returned home last week to find this new year’s card from sydney. sydney is a teenager with congenital heart disease, and about a year ago she wrote to me telling me she was saving up money to buy my book. so i sent her one, instead. a year later sydney still remembers me. thanks, sydney. this is the best holiday card i could hope to get.

aimee bender’s new book, the particular sadness of lemon cake, was released this week and is already skyrocketing up the charts at amazon. i’ve known aimee for a few years now and feel quite honored to have one of my pictures used as the author photo in this new book. it’s very nice to see situations in the world where success, recognition and acclaim come to those who actually deserve and appreciate them. aimee is the genuine article, no doubt. like many fine people that i’ve been privileged to know, aimee deserves your support, and deserves to be made so wildly successful that she can bathe in hundred dollar bills and stop responding to my emails.

buy aimee’s book here.

————

From: tara@————-
Subject: My Heart vs. The Real World…
Date: September 4, 2008 10:36:01 AM PDT
To: max@msgphoto.com

Hello Max,
I am a mom of a 7 year old boy, Theo, with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.

I bought your book for us to look at and read, and I just feel compelled to write and tell you what a difference it is making in our lives.

Every night, we read books together. Theo picks one, and his little brother
Tommy picks one. Every single night since we have owned your book, it is the
one which Theo picks. The first night, he lay on his bed and looked through
every single page. Now, he picks one chapter a night. We have read and reread
the chapters. My kids know the names of every child in the book. Theo LOVES
the pictures, and loves hearing about what older children do. He is absolutely
enthralled. Admittedly, I pick and choose which text to read, since some of it
is a little advanced for the little people.

However, last night I took the book into my room and read it after we had read the “Grant” chapter for the fifth time in a row. I read the whole thing, cover to cover, and ended up actually crying. With real tears. Going through all
that we have been through I think that we sometimes become hardened, and it meant a great deal for me to feel that emotion. Not only sadness, but awe, and amazement, and beauty. It is an amazing book.

One thing which stood out to us was the child whose brother had Leukemia. Theo, in addition to having HLHS, had cancer when he was two. My children said, “look, his brother’s a baldie!”. I told them that his brother had cancer, and Theo said, “wow, they have been through a lot just like us.” Not in a pitying
way, but in an admirable, camaraderie-filled, way. You presented that so
beautifully, and in such an understated-yet-powerful manner. Touching.

You did a wonderful job, and it is much appreciated. Just wanted to let you
know.

Thank you.

Tara

————

and as i post this it occurs to me that today is september 5th. this means that i took the very first picture for the hearts book on this very day, nine years ago. (of grant, at camp del corazon) on the way back from catalina island our boat had engine troubled and turned back. i was stranded at an abandoned campground with a bunch of doctors and donors (and one photographer and photo assistant who i think were there from family circle magazine or something along those lines). anyway, in being stranded i missed aaron’s birthday party. so in addition let me also add, happy birthday aaron.

noted medical journal the lancet reviewed the hearts book in their august 23rd issue. the article was written by priya shetty, who was quite kind in her review. thanks, priya. my thanks also to lancet editor joanna palmer for kind permission to post a PDF of the review on the site.

read the full review here.

(reprinted with permission from elsevier (the lancet, shetty p., lancet 2007; 372: p525-526)

well, the hearts site is now up and (mostly) running. please visit it at:

www.heartkidsproject.org

also, you can watch a slideshow of pictures from the book, and hear me talk about it here.

more updates coming soon, just waiting on certain shoots to go to press before i’m authorized to post out-takes here. . .

i’m happy to say that the final files for the hearts book (My Heart vs. the Real World) are on their way to the press. our official release date is february 1st, 2008, but it seems to already be listed on amazon!

hell, i even have a sales rank:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,575,848 in Books

so, yeah. the book is coming out early next year, but you can pre-order it now, from amazon or even from the publisher’s website. we should have books in the warehouse for pre-sales soon. man, it’s been a long strange road to this one.

look for a dedicated website coming soon – and more promotional activities.

thanks as always to bill smith for his selfless efforts and impeccable good taste.