Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

18 reviews

nyom7's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is a must read for frankly everyone.  They say the two things you can guarantee in life are death and taxes.  Well this book deals with the mortality of man in a hopeful, profound, and easy to access way.  Having these conversations with your loved ones is imperative.  The humanity and compassion contained within these pages, shaped by the experiences of the author pours out.  READ.  THIS.  BOOK.  Tell your friends, your mum, your brother, the person you're sitting next to on the bus to READ.  THIS.  BOOK.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, Death, Dementia, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Cancer

electrickid's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This changed my brain chemistry, inspiring both my life and clinical practice. A really interesting, thought provoking, and delicately powerful read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Grief, and Dementia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Medical trauma

rigbylove's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Such a beautiful book that has already opened a conversation with my aging mother (who is reading it). A must-read for everyone, especially healthcare workers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Dementia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Death, and Death of parent

giannacolo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Death, Chronic illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Terminal illness

isabellew6's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Grief and Dementia

Minor: Suicide

brooklynchaise's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Very informative and perspective changing. It challenged me to think about mortality and the things that make life worth living, especially at the end. I will definitely recommend this book to others and reflect on its contents as I and my family grow older 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Drug use, and Vomit

maethereader's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is a very important book. It was inspiring, hopeful, sad, challenging. I learned so much about aging and terminal illness, nursing homes and alternatives, healthcare, hospice, and dying. That might sound grim, but so much of it was so beautiful and inspiring. It was so enlightening. I feel so much better prepared to go through the process of accompanying a loved one who is dying and to die myself. I also feel really interested in learning more about options for aging people and hospice in my community. And I feel better prepared to advocate for myself and loved ones in medical situations, this was a huge insight into what is happening when healthcare workers aren't giving you straight answers (and I think this carries over into veterinary medicine as well - had similar experiences with two pets who ended up passing away, and the days and weeks of working with the vet hospitals did not have to be that stressful and confusing).

I really think this should be required reading for everyone with a body who will one day have to face their mortality and that of their loved ones.

I listened to the audiobook for the last 1/3 of it, and I thought the narrator did a good job.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Cancer, and Death

Moderate: Grief

vivj's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cancer, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Dementia, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Medical content

ulmaridae's review against another edition

"People die only once. They have no experience to draw from. They need doctors and nurses who are willing to have the hard discussions and say what they have seen."

"I am leery of sugessting the idea that endings are controllable. No one ever really has control. Physics and biology and accident ultimately have their way in our lives. But the point is that we are not helpless either. Courage is the strength to recognise both realities. We have room to act, to shape our stories. Though as time goes on, it is within narrower and narrower confines. A few conclusions become clear when we understand this: that our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and the aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities that go beyond merely being safe and living longer. That the chance to shape one's story is essential to sustaining meaning in life. That we have the opportunity to refashion our institutions, our culture, and our conversation in ways that transform the possibilities for the last chapters of everyone's lives."

"The vital questions are the same. What is your understanding of the situation and it's potential outcomes? What are your fears, and what are your hopes? What are the tradeoffs that you are willing to make, and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?"

"The goal is not a good death. It is a good life, all the way to the end"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Vomit and Excrement

Minor: Pregnancy

cprince99's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I loved how Atul used his clinical knowledge, lived experience, and true humanitarian passion to explore this topic! He covers everything related to mortality; the challenges, the history informing how we treat our elderly in the present-day, what & why we should be doing more for our elderly, and how to confront the question we all should know the answer to; what is most important to us as we reach the end of our lives? 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Death, Medical content, and Chronic illness