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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Vulnerable, smart, emotional - Delia Ephron drives straight to the heart. A fascinating look inside grief - for a loved one and for oneself - love late in life, and health trials/ regeneration.
dark
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Highly recommend the audiobook, though I imagine the print version is equally charming. She claims Nora was more of the reporter, but I learned a lot about transplants and treatments from this, as well as the glorious “confluences” of the universe.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I couldn't stop turning pages. The author went through hell, but she keeps a relatively light tone throughout. Her anxiety was relatable.
I enjoyed this book for a few reasons: 1. She went through a horrible treatment for cancer and pretty much fell apart. I was ill in 2013 (but not deathly ill) and had tons of anxiety. I was relieved to hear someone else had reacted that way. I often read how folks were so stoic even in the face of death and think HOW???? 2. She found love again and found how much here friends loved her and took care of her.
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Everyone needs to listen to the audiobook. Even if you are not a person who listens to audiobooks or prefers to read a physical book or an ebook, I don't care; you need to listen to this specific book as an audiobook. I don't know how else to describe it other than listening to this book feels like listening to your grandmother tell stories of her life in the way only people who have lived so much life can.
Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life is a book that is sold as a second chance at love after the death of a spouse and a second chance at life after a battle with cancer, but it is so much more than that. It is about someone getting a second chance at love, at creativity, at friendship, at sisterhood, and above all, at life. But also what it takes, the mental and physical turmoil it takes to fight for the life, and the people who hold your hand along the way. It's strange to say that Peter is a spectacular character because he is a real person, so I will say he is a spectacular man. He is a large portion of this book and a pivotal figure in this part of Delia's story. Their meeting is blindingly beautiful and something almost out of the romantic movies that surrounded Delia's life. Delia mentions how much luck it took her to find Peter (or for Peter to find her) after the loss of her husband, but I believe she's lucky to have two great loves in one life.
Two other individuals who are not physically present, but are still incredibly important individuals to the story are Delia's late husband and sister, Jerry and Nora. They may have already passed by the time page one opens up, but they are everywhere. In every page, every sentence, every word. Towards the end of the book, Delia thinks back to her sister; how much she misses her, how things could have been different, how much her older sister has done for her even in death. After going through the best and the worst with Delia, you can believe that her sister and husband looked down on her and thought up the best way to repay Delia for all she did for them. For the way she stuck by their sides during their illnesses, for the way she loved them until their last breaths, for the way she memorialized them as people in her writing. The only thing they could do was find someone who would gift Delia with all that love and support that she gave them. They sent her Peter.
As much as I love a good love story, I was particularly blown away by the way this story centers the other people in her life. Her friends, her neighbors, her medical team, her "friend daughters." People love to glorify the phrase "love conquers all." And while love definitely made hope easier to hold on to, it was those friendships that carried the ship that had washed so far out to sea back to shore. Those friendships took care of Delia at her sickest, cheered for the successes in her medical journey, looked out for Peter when all he could think about was Delia, held on when Delia gave up, and made her second chance at life—and all she did to fight for it—worth it. It takes a village to make a life worth living.
Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life is a book that is sold as a second chance at love after the death of a spouse and a second chance at life after a battle with cancer, but it is so much more than that. It is about someone getting a second chance at love, at creativity, at friendship, at sisterhood, and above all, at life. But also what it takes, the mental and physical turmoil it takes to fight for the life, and the people who hold your hand along the way. It's strange to say that Peter is a spectacular character because he is a real person, so I will say he is a spectacular man. He is a large portion of this book and a pivotal figure in this part of Delia's story. Their meeting is blindingly beautiful and something almost out of the romantic movies that surrounded Delia's life. Delia mentions how much luck it took her to find Peter (or for Peter to find her) after the loss of her husband, but I believe she's lucky to have two great loves in one life.
Two other individuals who are not physically present, but are still incredibly important individuals to the story are Delia's late husband and sister, Jerry and Nora. They may have already passed by the time page one opens up, but they are everywhere. In every page, every sentence, every word. Towards the end of the book, Delia thinks back to her sister; how much she misses her, how things could have been different, how much her older sister has done for her even in death. After going through the best and the worst with Delia, you can believe that her sister and husband looked down on her and thought up the best way to repay Delia for all she did for them. For the way she stuck by their sides during their illnesses, for the way she loved them until their last breaths, for the way she memorialized them as people in her writing. The only thing they could do was find someone who would gift Delia with all that love and support that she gave them. They sent her Peter.
As much as I love a good love story, I was particularly blown away by the way this story centers the other people in her life. Her friends, her neighbors, her medical team, her "friend daughters." People love to glorify the phrase "love conquers all." And while love definitely made hope easier to hold on to, it was those friendships that carried the ship that had washed so far out to sea back to shore. Those friendships took care of Delia at her sickest, cheered for the successes in her medical journey, looked out for Peter when all he could think about was Delia, held on when Delia gave up, and made her second chance at life—and all she did to fight for it—worth it. It takes a village to make a life worth living.
inspiring
medium-paced
Very easy read about a women’s second “stint” in life after the death of her husband. A chapter of new love quickly dimmed by the arrival of cancer. It’s a story of hope, a person’s tenacity, and about the village of support surrounding her.
Left on Tenth was not what I was expecting. I thought I was going to get a sweet second-chance-at-love story. Instead, I got a distressing read on cancer. Ephron is a good writer and seemed delightful in so many ways. I was never anxious to pick up Left on Tenth but enjoyed it when I did.
3.5 Stars
3.5 Stars
This is a memoir about three years in Delia Ephron's life in her early 70s. It begins with the loss of her beloved husband of 33 years, only three years after the death of her elder sister Nora from leukemia. Over the next three years, Delia will fall head over heels in love again, remarry and come close to dying from leukemia herself. A doctor tells her that she has probably 4 months to live, with her only option being a bone marrow transplant which has an extremely gruelling 12 month recovery period and only a 20% chance of being successful. She opts for the transplant, but decsribing it as gruelling is an understatement.
I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's an easy and interesting read but - big but - I found it hard to warm to Delia and that affected my engagement. She's a very sociable person, the sort of person who within a very short time of meeting you would know your entire life story - and your parents' life stories too - and have told you most of hers. I suspect that if I actually met her I'd find her extremely warm and charming and entertaining, but on paper she comes across as spoiled and self-centered.
This is a woman who solves the problem of how to let her friends know that she has cancer by writing an OpEd for the NY Times. Who when she throws a screaming tantrum in hospital about having an MRI (the cancer treatments having affected her mental state), writes that she is sorry about what she put her friend and husband through. But doesn't mention the hospital staff. Who expects - and gets - larger hospital rooms so her husband can always stay with her and has her housekeeper keeping him company at the times that he can't be there.
Most of the reviews of this have been very positive and I suspect it comes down to how much you warm to Delia or don't. The fact that I didn't doesn't mean that you won't. But I would only classify this as being ok.
I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's an easy and interesting read but - big but - I found it hard to warm to Delia and that affected my engagement. She's a very sociable person, the sort of person who within a very short time of meeting you would know your entire life story - and your parents' life stories too - and have told you most of hers. I suspect that if I actually met her I'd find her extremely warm and charming and entertaining, but on paper she comes across as spoiled and self-centered.
This is a woman who solves the problem of how to let her friends know that she has cancer by writing an OpEd for the NY Times. Who when she throws a screaming tantrum in hospital about having an MRI (the cancer treatments having affected her mental state), writes that she is sorry about what she put her friend and husband through. But doesn't mention the hospital staff. Who expects - and gets - larger hospital rooms so her husband can always stay with her and has her housekeeper keeping him company at the times that he can't be there.
Most of the reviews of this have been very positive and I suspect it comes down to how much you warm to Delia or don't. The fact that I didn't doesn't mean that you won't. But I would only classify this as being ok.