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kmrobbins's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
hannahemckay's review against another edition
4.25
This one almost made me cry at how nice the assisted living places were made to be :') Another one that was recommended by the palliative/hospice fellow that gave us a lecture a few months ago.
arletteandbooks's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars ✨
Super insightful!
Death doesn’t scare me too much but the actual dying part is terrifying. Aging and sickness is scary to think about when you visualize yourself or your loved ones slowly losing their autonomy.
This book urges you to reflect your true wants and what you consider to be a life worth living. It’s important to have these tough conversations ahead of time as an ending is inevitable.
The author (a doctor) provided very helpful insight into the role that medicine has played in how we care for the elderly and ill, and how this care has focused so much on the physical, that it has fallen short in caring for the emotional and mental wellbeing of this group.
I would recommend this book to everyone, including those who prefer reading fiction. Everybody dies. We may not know when though, so it’s better to think about these things, however uncomfortable it may be, in advance.
Super insightful!
Death doesn’t scare me too much but the actual dying part is terrifying. Aging and sickness is scary to think about when you visualize yourself or your loved ones slowly losing their autonomy.
This book urges you to reflect your true wants and what you consider to be a life worth living. It’s important to have these tough conversations ahead of time as an ending is inevitable.
The author (a doctor) provided very helpful insight into the role that medicine has played in how we care for the elderly and ill, and how this care has focused so much on the physical, that it has fallen short in caring for the emotional and mental wellbeing of this group.
I would recommend this book to everyone, including those who prefer reading fiction. Everybody dies. We may not know when though, so it’s better to think about these things, however uncomfortable it may be, in advance.
shoelessmama's review against another edition
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
In writing this review I mean no offense to books written about mortality by those who are faced by theirs. The poignancy is hard to replicate in a book not written by someone who has passed on by the time it's published. However, I found this book more impactful in the amount of things it made me think about.
**Update**
On this re-read I agree with what I previously said about this book, little though it was. There were two other books on mortality that I had read around that time, "The Last Lecture" and "When Breath Becomes Air", and I think what I was trying to say without coming right out and saying it is that those two books impacted me more emotionally than this one. I can only assume that that is due to the authors of those books being faced with their own mortality. In this case he dealt with patients mortality and family members and while aging, disease, and mortality were discussed in a very thought-provoking way it's just not the same. I've since read two other books about daughters facing their mothers deaths (Crying in H Mart & Dancing At the Pity Party). I absolutely loved both of those, but not being by doctors they were less clinical and more personal. I appreciate this author personalizing his topic where he could but the strength of this book was more in looking at how we as a society can better deal with death, aging, and terminal illness. This book offers more knowledge and the others offer more heart.
I re-read this for book club and I think this book should make for a very interesting discussion.
**Update**
On this re-read I agree with what I previously said about this book, little though it was. There were two other books on mortality that I had read around that time, "The Last Lecture" and "When Breath Becomes Air", and I think what I was trying to say without coming right out and saying it is that those two books impacted me more emotionally than this one. I can only assume that that is due to the authors of those books being faced with their own mortality. In this case he dealt with patients mortality and family members and while aging, disease, and mortality were discussed in a very thought-provoking way it's just not the same. I've since read two other books about daughters facing their mothers deaths (Crying in H Mart & Dancing At the Pity Party). I absolutely loved both of those, but not being by doctors they were less clinical and more personal. I appreciate this author personalizing his topic where he could but the strength of this book was more in looking at how we as a society can better deal with death, aging, and terminal illness. This book offers more knowledge and the others offer more heart.
I re-read this for book club and I think this book should make for a very interesting discussion.
tildahlia's review
5.0
I was a bit wary of this one as I'm quite squeamish when it comes to medical intervention matters, but this book fundamentally changed how I view ageing and end of life care. It cleverly explores the complexities that arise from medical interventions that see us living far longer than ever before in history - fundamentally shifting quality of life and also the relationship between elders, their families and the community at large. Lots of heartbreaking case studies that show not only our total vulnerability to death but also our ability to survive against extreme odds. Well worth reading.