The End of Your Life Book Club
Ratings11
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings11
Average rating4.3
'A wonderful book about wonderful books and mothers and sons and the enduring braid between them.' - Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays With Morrie 'a true meditation on what books can do.' - Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes Mary Anne Schwalbe is waiting for her chemotherapy treatments when Will casually asks her what she's reading. The conversation they have grows into tradition: soon they are reading the same books so they can have something to talk about in the hospital waiting room. Their choices range from classic (Howards End) to popular (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), from fantastic (The Hobbit) to spiritual (Jon Kabat-Zinn), with many more in between. We hear their passion for reading and their love for each other in their intimate and searching discussions. The End of Your Life Book Club is a profoundly moving testament to the unconditional love between a child and parent, and the power of reading in our lives.
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Will Schwalbe's mom is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Will and his mom decide to form an informal two-person book club and set off reading and talking about books they wish to share with each other.
And that's this book. Will's mom, it turns out, is an amazing person, with a long history of working to help the unfortunate around the world, especially refugees. We get to know his mom so well that we are terribly saddened by her (inevitable) death.
Any reader will love this story, finding herself rapidly adding title after title to her wish list as she reads along. Beautiful.
I wanted to write a glowing review of this book, but I find that I feel as if I will be digesting it, and learning from it for days, weeks, and even months to come. I've gained some perspective on a few things in my own life, and a rather substantial list of possible books to read from it, and I know that those are not the only contributions it's made to me.
A review would simply not do it any justice as every single person who reads this is bound to take something completely different from it, as it affects the differing aspects of their life.
It was not life-changing, but I enjoyed it enough to read it in one sitting. First, because Mary Ann Schwalbe was really someone worthy reading about, the kind of person who makes you a bit ashamed of yourself. Maybe I'm being condescending. Maybe you have fought for refugees, raised money for a public library in Afeghanistan and helped in a refugees' camp. I haven't, so I did feel ashamed of myself for my small complaints of everyday life, especially because it doesn't sound as if she felt she was some kind of hero, but only she was privileged enough to be able to help, and did so.
That said, if you enjoy books, it is enough reason to read it; they discuss interesting ones, on different topics such as religion, foreign culture or contemporary fiction, and I ended up with a small list of titles to my TBR.
