Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by bookappeal
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
4.0
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.