I'm Not Dead, Am I?

I'm Not Dead, Am I?: A Paranormal Family Living in Rural New YorkFirst off, this was an enjoyable read. Berardi does a nice job of presenting both the seriousness of the health situation as well as the humor (that we can all see well after we live through our own traumatic events). She presents her family at a vulnerable time yet does not paint them as whiny or victimized, righteous or superior. They are a family, with all its beauties and blemishes.The paranormal element of this book was actually quite minimal. In today's ghost-crazed world (disclaimer, which is why I selected the book from the Buffet), my guess would have been multiple encounters with multiple deceased individuals, some famous, some family, some average Joes and the memoir to overtly claim divine, spiritual intervention in the healing of the mother character. Fortunately, the spirits that do appear in the novel are more of the comforting type that try to help the family get through the crisis. To my recollection, the claim that a spirit “healed” the mother character is not made once.Berardi's writing style is not colloquial, but quite conversational. The entire book reads like something the author would tell the reader over coffee. There are even a number of tangents in the book that follow the author's train of thought. While I found these jarring (e.g., biting political commentary in the middle of a touching chapter about the mother's transition to a nursing home to complete her recovery), they were brief enough so as not to completely disrupt the flow of the narrative. In truth, such ebb and flow may have been intentional given the book as a memoir.The second half of the book seemed to me to be more about the Nicole character (the daughter that is the medium) than the mother's health crisis. This point in the narrative related how and to whom Nicole gives readings and gives a number of stories about people to whom she's read and spirits that she has encountered. While interesting and, in some cases, touching, I found this shift in the narrative to be more troublesome than the frequent asides. The first and second halves of the book felt like (and perhaps should have been) two separate books. I can say that I would read both.In short, this book did not turn me off of the Kindle Buffet app. Though I am not typically a fan of memoirs, this one was a pleasant read and one I would recommend for someone looking for a light, weekend-morning book.