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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
This book was most interesting to me because of the character of the mother of the author. Amazing woman. Well told. Interesting book.
I loved getting to know Mary Ann Schwalbe and her son Will through Will’s memoir. What a fascinating, impressive, and tremendously well-read woman. Listening to the audiobook also prompted lots of bittersweet reflections on my mother at the end of her life and the ways I wish I’d better understood and been there for her. I added dozens of books to my “want to read” list thanks to Will & Mary Ann’s book club and am excited to get started.
Mary Ann Schwalbe is an inspiring, remarkable woman. So deserving of her son's memoir, a beautiful and loving tribute.
This is a touching perspective of how a nearly elderly woman faces stage-four cancer in the midst of a busy life and loving family. The book is mainly about cancer's effect on a family: attitudes toward life and death, and family reactions to an impending death. Using the medium of literature to talk both about things 'other' than cancer, and also about his mother's feelings about the disease, eases the difficulty of an experience such as this.
The books are given lots of space in this book as well, and it is uplifting to find two people share such a positive bond using literature. This is not an ordinary woman or family. They would seem to have extraordinary wealth and opportunity and in some ways this is a tad off-putting, but it is clear the mother is intent on giving back to the world, even through her difficulties. For this, she is to be commended as is her son, Will Schwalbe, for acknowledging her mark in this world.
The books are given lots of space in this book as well, and it is uplifting to find two people share such a positive bond using literature. This is not an ordinary woman or family. They would seem to have extraordinary wealth and opportunity and in some ways this is a tad off-putting, but it is clear the mother is intent on giving back to the world, even through her difficulties. For this, she is to be commended as is her son, Will Schwalbe, for acknowledging her mark in this world.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
This had a good premise, but I was again let down by the book club background of the novel. (similarly to the Jane Austen book club book I tried to read). I had all these high expectations for it and SPLAT it didn't live up to them.
This book was fairly dull. At some points, I felt like Charlie Brown with the adults saying "whah, whah, whah whahwahwah".
It’s no surprise Mary Anne Schwalbe is going to die at the end of this book. And Mary Anne would know, since she always reads the end first.
Will Schwalbe, a book editor, had always been close to his mother but a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and the resulting doctor visits and chemo treatments provided mother and son with a lot of time spent together. Why not read to pass the time? They read books with themes of death, survival (Mary Anne was active in the plight of refugees around the world), and how to live. Will recounts his mom’s journey, using the books they read as signposts. Sometimes the stories are indicative and pertinent to what Mary Anne was thinking or feeling - other times, they simply enjoy the pleasure and new thoughts that reading offers.
The Schwalbes are well off and Mary Anne has excellent health care but she never ceases to realize her good fortune or to worry about those who are forced to go without adequate treatment. She also claims she is not brave but her courage and her determination to continue to be a positive force in the world, even while mired in her own understated pain and fear, are obvious. She works tirelessly on building a library in Afghanistan, almost to her last day.
Will struggles with the steps of the end-of-life dance. The outlook for pancreatic cancer is bleak but Mary Anne beats the odds. There will be no cure but there may be more time - time to spend with her grandchildren; time to impart the wisdom learned of her travels in the world - both physically and through reading books; time to be fully present until she decides to stop fighting. Her faith in God and everlasting life is a comfort she wishes her son shared. But they are both adamant about the vital importance of reading and sharing books. In the books she loved and in the books she never got a chance to read but would have loved, Will finds a way to share his mom with others.
Will Schwalbe, a book editor, had always been close to his mother but a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and the resulting doctor visits and chemo treatments provided mother and son with a lot of time spent together. Why not read to pass the time? They read books with themes of death, survival (Mary Anne was active in the plight of refugees around the world), and how to live. Will recounts his mom’s journey, using the books they read as signposts. Sometimes the stories are indicative and pertinent to what Mary Anne was thinking or feeling - other times, they simply enjoy the pleasure and new thoughts that reading offers.
The Schwalbes are well off and Mary Anne has excellent health care but she never ceases to realize her good fortune or to worry about those who are forced to go without adequate treatment. She also claims she is not brave but her courage and her determination to continue to be a positive force in the world, even while mired in her own understated pain and fear, are obvious. She works tirelessly on building a library in Afghanistan, almost to her last day.
Will struggles with the steps of the end-of-life dance. The outlook for pancreatic cancer is bleak but Mary Anne beats the odds. There will be no cure but there may be more time - time to spend with her grandchildren; time to impart the wisdom learned of her travels in the world - both physically and through reading books; time to be fully present until she decides to stop fighting. Her faith in God and everlasting life is a comfort she wishes her son shared. But they are both adamant about the vital importance of reading and sharing books. In the books she loved and in the books she never got a chance to read but would have loved, Will finds a way to share his mom with others.