Book Review: The End of Your Life Book Club

"I wanted to say so much more -- about the book club, about all she'd done for me, about how grateful I was for everything -- but it didn't seem like the time, it just never seemed like the time. And I knew I would start to cry and didn't want to. Not then. Maybe I didn't want Mom to have to comfort me. Or maybe I was scared that once I started, I wouldn't be able to stop."

One of my passions I indulge in is reading. I find that less and less I meet people that love reading as much as I do. Every time I meet someone, they speak of how they have been meaning to read this or that and how they wish they had more time to read. But in the end, they never get around to it. I, on the other hand, make it a point to make sure I read at least a little each day. Most of my reading is non-fiction. It ranges quite greatly from books about triathlon to mountaineering to political and historical events. I just really love the feeling of getting sucked into a good book and not being able to put it down. However, I am very familiar with the sorrow that can sometimes come with the end of a book. You have just been on this emotional journey and all you want to do is have someone look at you and know how you feel. With book, that doesn't really happen. Writing about them and the involvement they have in your life may help me release this feeling. For this reason, I've decided to include reviews of books I'm reading from time to time. To start, I've just finished The End of Your Life Book Club, by Will Schwalbe.

I've posted a synopsis (taken from Amazon) below:

“What are you reading?”

That’s the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, often in six months or less. 

This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues they discuss include questions of faith and courage as well as everyday topics such as expressing gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they are constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying. 

Will and Mary Anne share their hopes and concerns with each other—and rediscover their lives—through their favorite books. When they read, they aren’t a sick person and a well person, but a mother and a son taking a journey together. The result is a profoundly moving tale of loss that is also a joyful, and often humorous, celebration of life: Will’s love letter to his mother, and theirs to the printed page. 

Now, my thoughts on the book:

-To begin, I thought it was a very well written book. As a true book lover, I also enjoyed being able to read about all these great books (and getting titles to read). One part of the books discusses how one of their favorite books is a book that loves books, and I found the same thing happened with this book.

-Everybody experiences disease and illness in their life. Therefore, another great aspect of this book is that everybody can relate to it. My grandmother had a long and painful battle with Alzheimer's disease, so I found myself at times thinking about how much I related to the author. One of the unfortunate aspects of terminal diseases is that people generally don't enjoy discussing them. Often that leaves those who are dealing with them feel like no one really relates to them while in actuality millions do. This book made me realize that and made me feel like I wasn't alone in the feelings I had experienced.

-The anecdotes in this book are simply great and show you how good of person his mother was. There should be more people in this world like them. Her work not only involved talking about the issues within the world but actually doing something about it. This book provides a great biography of an amazing woman.

-Lastly, one of the most poignant messages of this book is the people surrounding those with terminal illnesses. A lot of the time, all the focus is on those who are actually sick. But sometimes, it is actually harder for those who are surrounding them. Watching them suffer and knowing you can't do anything about it can be like torture. Knowing someone you love is dying and watching that happen is very difficult to process emotionally. And they are the people that are still there after their loved one is lost trying to pick up the pieces. The best lesson from this book (I personally think) is that we need to focus on the people surrounding those with illness and make sure they are just as okay as those that are sick.

Fight on my friends!