Comments on: Writers on Goodbye

By: Teri Carter

Teri Carter — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:09:25 +0000

Stacy, you might also like Lucy’s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE. I read it right after TRUTH & BEAUTY. It brought the story full circle, and it’s beautifully written.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:42:52 +0000

Thank you all so much for the great suggestions. Another book comes to mind that is very special: Ann Patchett’s TRUTH & BEAUTY about the author’s relationship with the talented Lucy Grealy, who died way too soon.

I also wanted to share a post the Jennie wrote with a special request to make a peanut butter pie in his honor on Friday, August 12 http://mamachronicles.typepad.com/in_jennies_kitchen/

I will be attending his memorial tomorrow, but I have a friend who is baking in my absence and we will eat the pie together and think of Jennie, Mikey and their beautiful family.

By: Teri Carter

Teri Carter — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:26:25 +0000

My latest favorite read was THE MEMORY PALACE by Mira Bartok. It’s one of the smartest memoirs I’ve come across in a long long time. I’m a Mary Karr fan all across the board. And one memoir that no one really talks about is Rick Bragg’s ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN’ which is no less than spectacular, a love story really to his native south, and when he wins the Pulitzer and takes his mother to the ceremony, you can hardly take it.

Beautiful, poetic writing, all.

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:55:05 +0000

This comes in a week when a friend lost her beloved husband to lung cancer. I’m going to his wake this afternoon. While I can’t think of a book that fits the request, reading the blog posts one after the other, clicking down from one layer of pain to the next, then seeing that video–I’m moved by how the grief of one woman’s loss, a woman I don’t know, who lives in a place hundreds of miles away can come so close. Almost unbearably sad.

By: Steve Masover

Steve Masover — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:41:54 +0000

It’s not a book, but Aleksandar Hemon’s searing article in _The New Yorker_ — “The Aquarium: A child’s isolating illness” — was “mercilessly open-eyed” (am I allowed to quote my own blog posts here?) about his infant daughter’s fatal illness and what it taught him about life and about language. If you didn’t read it, run don’t walk. And brace yourself.

By: Stephanie Cain

Stephanie Cain — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:14:47 +0000

I admittedly don’t read many of this type of book, but Jim Beaver’s book LIFE’S THAT WAY was an amazing book about his wife’s diagnosis with stage IV lung cancer, their struggle with the disease, and her death in too short a time.

By: marisa

marisa — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:40:26 +0000

Elizabeth McCracken’s book is one of my favorites because I also had a 9 month stillborn. Anne Lamott is always like reading a letter from your best friend and Carole Radziwill was very poignant in What Remains. The idea that the man you hug in the morning could be gone at night is a reminder that maybe the constant boob-grabbing isn’t so annoying after all. Okay. It is. But I wouldn’t trade it.

By: christi

christi — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:32:49 +0000

I don’t read memoirs like that or I’d bawl like a baby all the time. A very poignant song, however, is ‘What Sarah Said’ by Death Cab for Cutie. In case you are unfamiliar with the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5W3RhkI2SU

It helped me through my own loss.