Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book. It had added some many more books to my nightstand. I think we it really did for me is longing for a desire to have a better relationship with my own Mother. I wish we had a gateway through books to discuss issues like Will and his Mom.
I fell in love with Will and him Mom. For the few books, we all read, I wish I could have been a part of their discussions.
I fell in love with Will and him Mom. For the few books, we all read, I wish I could have been a part of their discussions.
I read this book for the 2023 Buzzwords Challenge. The words for January 2023 was LIFE and DEATH.
This is the memoir of the life and death of one woman in New York City who was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer in 2007 and who died in Sept 2009, 2 years later. In between the diagnosis and her passing, she and her publisher son (the author of this memoir) read and discussed quite a number of books.
I liked this book a lot. The only reason I did not love this book is because I am not very religious, and Mary Ann Schwalbe (the subject of this memoir) was a devout christian.
This memoir has rather a lot of similarities to my family and my life. Which is why it rates 4 stars. It would have been 5 stars had there been a lot less of the religion mentioned.
Will Schwalbe (the author) drifted away from the religion that he was raised with. I did the same. I left the church before I was 20 years old.
Mary Ann Schwalbe, the mother, was the total opposite of my mother. About the only thing they had in common was their devotion to their christian religion and their church.
Mary Ann loved reading books. My mother does not.
Mary Ann was actively involved with a number of charities, My mother is not.
Mary Ann went to college and was taught that she would have a career as well as a husband and children. Which is exactly what she did. My mother only went to nursing school, and promptly stopped working as a nurse as soon as she was married.
My father was diagnosed with bowel cancer around the time of his 60th birthday. He had surgery and an ostomy bag but was eventually unable to continue working, and was forced to retire at age 62. He was later also diagnosed with Prostate cancer (the slow kind)
He spent the next 17 years of his life, reading a ton of books, and walking a lot, and volunteering with the local Citizens Advice Bureau (the place where people could go to find out how to solve their problems).
From 2010 onwards, my family developed a regular Skype chat that would be sacrosanct and happened every week on Saturday mornings in New Zealand (where my parents live) and Friday afternoons in Canada, where I live. My family all lived for these chats. Dad and I would spend a few minutes of the chat discussing what books we were reading and thus were recommending to the other person.
In May of 2016, my father would often fall asleep during our chats. In early June he was moved to the Hospital for testing, but a week later he was moved to hospice care. He died at the end of June 2016 at the age of 79. He and my mother had been married for 57 years.
6 years later these chats are still a regular part of our lives. But now its just my mother, my sister and me.
In many ways this memoir gave me an insight into the last few years of my fathers life - even if he had a different kind of cancer.
This is the memoir of the life and death of one woman in New York City who was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer in 2007 and who died in Sept 2009, 2 years later. In between the diagnosis and her passing, she and her publisher son (the author of this memoir) read and discussed quite a number of books.
I liked this book a lot. The only reason I did not love this book is because I am not very religious, and Mary Ann Schwalbe (the subject of this memoir) was a devout christian.
This memoir has rather a lot of similarities to my family and my life. Which is why it rates 4 stars. It would have been 5 stars had there been a lot less of the religion mentioned.
Will Schwalbe (the author) drifted away from the religion that he was raised with. I did the same. I left the church before I was 20 years old.
Mary Ann Schwalbe, the mother, was the total opposite of my mother. About the only thing they had in common was their devotion to their christian religion and their church.
Mary Ann loved reading books. My mother does not.
Mary Ann was actively involved with a number of charities, My mother is not.
Mary Ann went to college and was taught that she would have a career as well as a husband and children. Which is exactly what she did. My mother only went to nursing school, and promptly stopped working as a nurse as soon as she was married.
My father was diagnosed with bowel cancer around the time of his 60th birthday. He had surgery and an ostomy bag but was eventually unable to continue working, and was forced to retire at age 62. He was later also diagnosed with Prostate cancer (the slow kind)
He spent the next 17 years of his life, reading a ton of books, and walking a lot, and volunteering with the local Citizens Advice Bureau (the place where people could go to find out how to solve their problems).
From 2010 onwards, my family developed a regular Skype chat that would be sacrosanct and happened every week on Saturday mornings in New Zealand (where my parents live) and Friday afternoons in Canada, where I live. My family all lived for these chats. Dad and I would spend a few minutes of the chat discussing what books we were reading and thus were recommending to the other person.
In May of 2016, my father would often fall asleep during our chats. In early June he was moved to the Hospital for testing, but a week later he was moved to hospice care. He died at the end of June 2016 at the age of 79. He and my mother had been married for 57 years.
6 years later these chats are still a regular part of our lives. But now its just my mother, my sister and me.
In many ways this memoir gave me an insight into the last few years of my fathers life - even if he had a different kind of cancer.
This is a book about books and how the truly great reads can not only open your eyes to new or unknown worlds, but can also help us discover the beautiful and mysterious in our own world.
There were many books mentioned throughout the story - some I'd never heard of, some I wouldn't read and others I was so glad to be introduced to. But it was the story of the author's mother that was more inspiring than any of the books mentioned. What an amazing woman! So proactive. I loved her ideas on doing something, anything, rather than doing nothing just because the task seems too daunting. We can all do something, was her message, a message she lived right to the end of her life.
Will Schwalbe writes such a beautiful memoir of his mother and the precious time they got to spend together in the last two years of her life. There were so many avenues of inspiration for me in this book - A son who loved his mother, a family that shared a deep love and appreciation of books, a story of a modest woman who truly lived for others and had an admirable love for people.
It also made me want to read more books of substance, books with a message, books that can move me and motivate me, much like this one has.
There were many books mentioned throughout the story - some I'd never heard of, some I wouldn't read and others I was so glad to be introduced to. But it was the story of the author's mother that was more inspiring than any of the books mentioned. What an amazing woman! So proactive. I loved her ideas on doing something, anything, rather than doing nothing just because the task seems too daunting. We can all do something, was her message, a message she lived right to the end of her life.
Will Schwalbe writes such a beautiful memoir of his mother and the precious time they got to spend together in the last two years of her life. There were so many avenues of inspiration for me in this book - A son who loved his mother, a family that shared a deep love and appreciation of books, a story of a modest woman who truly lived for others and had an admirable love for people.
It also made me want to read more books of substance, books with a message, books that can move me and motivate me, much like this one has.
Books are powerful things. I love reading them, I love talking about them and I enjoyed reading about a man's reading adventures with his mother, who was dying of cancer. They discussed some great books and I added quite a few to my reading list, but I didn't find Will and his mother as engaging as I had hoped. They are a well educated and wealthy family, travelling around the world when not holidaying in the country, at the beach or living in New York City. I felt like Will was trying too hard to show that his mother had a great social conscience and gave her all for many charitable causes. Sometimes she came across as impossibly saintlike - feeling guilty for using up blood when she needed a transfusion but saying that she had given blood every time they had a blood drive for the last fifty years, so it was probably OK, as an example. It is only right for a son to write of his mother's virtues, but I think it made them both a little less real.
I found Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life a better book about the power of reading, but I enjoyed this all the same.
I found Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life a better book about the power of reading, but I enjoyed this all the same.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
A lovely mother/son book club over the last two years of the mother’s life. Sage advice and countless book recommendations.
This was an amazing woman, but her relationship with her son was not entirely healthy. I think it might have helped if he had waited a little longer after her death to write the book. A little more distance and perspective would have been good to have.
Strange title? Maybe, but not depressing at all. This is a story about books read between a son and his mother dying of cancer and throughout the reading, you will feel the power of books providing courage, gratitude, faith, and more lessons learned than one can imagine.
-Anna L.
This story combines the author's love of books with the love of his mother! While it's a somber story, you'll walk away with a huge reminder that books are and should be a part of our lives physically and emotionally. For every major event in one's life, there is a title that partners with it!
-Laura C.
-Anna L.
This story combines the author's love of books with the love of his mother! While it's a somber story, you'll walk away with a huge reminder that books are and should be a part of our lives physically and emotionally. For every major event in one's life, there is a title that partners with it!
-Laura C.
What an absolutely amazing book. It was beautiful beyond words. Everyone who loves reading, loves his/her mother, and/or loves reading beautiful words of wisdom should read.
I wanted this book to be great. Love the idea, love the concept, but ultimately it was difficult to read and all over the place.
It did inspire me to start up the Case family book club though! Will report back after the first meeting in two weeks.
It did inspire me to start up the Case family book club though! Will report back after the first meeting in two weeks.