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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Touching, intimate, and thoughtful. Perfect for those who love reading books about people who love books, though tread carefully if you had a parent or someone close to you die of cancer, particularly pancreatic cancer. I greatly enjoyed the book, but found some chapters tough to get through emotionally.
"We're all in the end-ou-our-life book club, whether we acknowledge it or not; each book we read may well be the last, each conversation the final one."
The title tells you the ending, yet all I wanted was to keep reading. Inspired me to find more to read and to cherish the time we all have together. Made me reflect though - is it better to face an unexpected sudden death of a parent where you don't live through watching the parent suffer and die, but you don't take the opportunity to say all the things that need to be said, or is it better to face a gradual but certain death where you see every moment of pain and suffering, but you are also given such an opportunity together to really live?
I loved this book for several reasons. 1. the name of his mother Mary Anne (spelled Ann actually ) is the name of my grandmother. I felt a closeness to my grandmother when reading this book. she had the same spit fire personality as she did and she loved to read. my grandmother also passed away from cancer. colon cancer that had spread to far by the time they found it she was gone in 6 months. I also lived this book because it was about books as it was about anything else. I now have a long list of books to add to my collection. I definitely say it's a book to read. it's not depressing even though she dies.
I was about to leave on a long flight to Nepal, where I would participate in a good will mission associated with Clown One Italia. A friend suggested I take along this book.I started it the day before I left--and finished it, with tears in my eyes, about ten minutes before the taxi came to take me to the airport the next morning. What a wonderful story. Yes, it is about books--any serious reader will feel right at home in its pages. But it's not primarily about reading. And yes, it is about end-of-life--a subject Schwalbe treats with great depth and care. Mostly, though, this is the story of Schwalbe's amazing mother--her humility in the midst of incredible accomplishments, her grace in the midst of difficulty. She was an inspiration; and because of Schwalbe's book, she continues to be. I left on my trip feeling so good about the fact that I was doing something, even this very small thing, to make the world a better place. I would challenge anyone who reads this to resist the motivation to make a difference in the world while you still can. It's impossible not to be inspired and motivated by Schwalbe's story.
This book reminded me of all the reasons I have loved to read. In recent years, I sometimes find myself reading to “finish” a book instead of fully taking it in. Many thanks to this author for writing a book about the love of reading and how that shaped a relationship between and mother and son.
i'm just over halfway through this, but i've got to move on to something else. this is not for me.
the whole concept feels like false advertising or poor marketing -- this is not the "book about books" it purports to be, more a family memoir and tedious chronicle. the discussion of the book club is a very small fraction of the book that feels like an afterthought. i am also not a fan of this author's writing style. it's quite bland, and it makes me feel even more distanced from the characters that i never got to feel very close with to start. the whole thing feels cliche, dull, and possibly too personal for the author to write a strong memoir about. i think it would have worked better as an essay.
anyway. moving on! hopefully someone else gets more out of this than i did.
the whole concept feels like false advertising or poor marketing -- this is not the "book about books" it purports to be, more a family memoir and tedious chronicle. the discussion of the book club is a very small fraction of the book that feels like an afterthought. i am also not a fan of this author's writing style. it's quite bland, and it makes me feel even more distanced from the characters that i never got to feel very close with to start. the whole thing feels cliche, dull, and possibly too personal for the author to write a strong memoir about. i think it would have worked better as an essay.
anyway. moving on! hopefully someone else gets more out of this than i did.
I am putting this one aside. I hear great things, but there simply is not enough of a plot for me to stay interested right now. Moving on to other things.
http://www.gerberadaisydiaries.com/2013/09/september-book-club-end-of-your-life.html
In a tender tribute to his mother, Will Schwalbe writes of the final two years of his mother's life and their shared love books. In waiting rooms, pharmacies, car rides, vacations -- Will and Mary Anne discussed the many books they read together -- their very own two person book club, minus the refreshments.
Will's mother was an amazing woman: Radcliff- educated, theatre trained, she went on to direct auditions for the London Academy of Music and Drama, was an educational administrator at Harvard, volunteered for months in a Thai refugee camp, founded the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and in her final years, raised funds for traveling libraries in Afghanistan.
I was a bit surprised I'd never heard of her.
I appreciated the author raising my awareness to his mother's accomplishments, her charity work, her friends, her love of literature and a life well lived.
However, I'm not sure if the author was trying to write a book club book, a biography, a family history. Or what exactly. In many ways this book was, as my friend Becca mentioned, a 300 page obituary with an attached reading list. There was no clear narrative, no clear direction, no clear focus. The books almost seemed an afterthought.
But my main issue with his memoir/tribute was its tone: Between the name dropping (they lived next to Julia Child), the overseas travel (we all could be so lucky to visit London and Geneva, whilst undergoing chemo), the political slant, and overall affluence, the entire story was laden with pretension. My take -- if you get cancer it's better if you're rich, because you can still vacation in Vero Beach, and upstate New York, and have your townhome in Manhattan. Oh and lots of books too.
Ultimately though, in a world where mother's are berated in print by their offspring, this book was a generous outpouring of love for a beloved mother.
In a tender tribute to his mother, Will Schwalbe writes of the final two years of his mother's life and their shared love books. In waiting rooms, pharmacies, car rides, vacations -- Will and Mary Anne discussed the many books they read together -- their very own two person book club, minus the refreshments.
Will's mother was an amazing woman: Radcliff- educated, theatre trained, she went on to direct auditions for the London Academy of Music and Drama, was an educational administrator at Harvard, volunteered for months in a Thai refugee camp, founded the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and in her final years, raised funds for traveling libraries in Afghanistan.
I was a bit surprised I'd never heard of her.
I appreciated the author raising my awareness to his mother's accomplishments, her charity work, her friends, her love of literature and a life well lived.
However, I'm not sure if the author was trying to write a book club book, a biography, a family history. Or what exactly. In many ways this book was, as my friend Becca mentioned, a 300 page obituary with an attached reading list. There was no clear narrative, no clear direction, no clear focus. The books almost seemed an afterthought.
But my main issue with his memoir/tribute was its tone: Between the name dropping (they lived next to Julia Child), the overseas travel (we all could be so lucky to visit London and Geneva, whilst undergoing chemo), the political slant, and overall affluence, the entire story was laden with pretension. My take -- if you get cancer it's better if you're rich, because you can still vacation in Vero Beach, and upstate New York, and have your townhome in Manhattan. Oh and lots of books too.
Ultimately though, in a world where mother's are berated in print by their offspring, this book was a generous outpouring of love for a beloved mother.
Real people who love literature, using it to deal with real-life pain. How could I not like this book? Books are salve.