The End of Your Life Book Club

(Paperback, Large Print Edition)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

An "Entertainment Weekly" and "BookPage" Best Book of the Year
During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time--and an informal book club of two was born. Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne--and we, their fellow readers--are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we feel about and interact with the world around us. A profoundly moving memoir of caregiving, mourning, and love--"The End of Your Life Book Club" is also about the joy of reading, and the ways that joy is multiplied when we share it with others.

Reviews

"A graceful, affecting testament to a mother and a life well lived." --"Entertainment Weekly," Grade A
"Schwalbe . . . highlights not just how relevant but how integral literature can be to life." --"The Washington Post"
"[This] book is robust with love and laughter." --"Chicago Tribune"
" "
"Not only a son's heartfelt tribute to [his mother's] courage and grace but vivid testimony to the enduring power of books to create meaning out of chaos, illuminate values, and connect us with each other." --"The Boston Globe"
"A loving celebration of a mother by a son." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"A book that is expressly about books, about the purpose and pleasures of books, and the ways they connect us even as we read them as a solitary pursuit. . . . [It's also] about, in part, the consolations we can find in art, books in particular, as we struggle to face the terrible awareness of our own mortality." --"The Plain Dealer
"
"Moving." --"O, The Oprah Magazine
"
"An account of growing up in a bookish, artistic family, and a touching portrait of his energetic mother. . . . The [reading] choices that emerge are not a bucket list but an engagingly eclectic mixture of current and vintage, literary and commercial." --"The New Yorker
"
"Uplifting. . . . So much life is lived, and such powerful lessons are shared on this family's journey that the reader can't help but be moved and motivated." --"Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"
"Schwalbe's enthusiasm turns out to be contagious. As I was reading I found myself scribbling titles on a piece of paper so that I could order the volumes he and his mother cared about. Schwalbe is not just an avid reader, he is also an advocate, a cheerleader, a disciple." --Rachel Shteir, "The New York Times
"
"A warm reminder why we read and what our reading says about us and the ways we connect with others." --"The Columbus Dispatch"
"Completely engaging and difficult to put dow

"A wonderful book about wonderful books and mothers and sons and the enduring braid between them. Like the printed volumes it celebrates, this story will stay with you long after the last page."
--Mitch Albom, author of "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Time Keeper"
"Will Schwalbe's lyrical tribute to a life well-lived and a death graced with love and literature is a precious gift bestowed on all of us. What a unique and beautiful book this is, and how privileged we are to have it."
--Sherwin B. Nuland, author of "The Art of Aging" and "How We Die"
"With a refreshing forthrightness, and an excellent list of books included, this is an astonishing, pertinent, and wonderfully welcome work."
--"Publishers Weekly "(starred)
"Will Schwalbe's brave and soulful elegy to his remarkable mother, his recollection of their sparklingly literate conversations, is a timely reminder that one exceptional person, or one exceptional book, can be a torch in the darkness. You'll turn the last page wishing you'd met Mary Anne Schwalbe, vowing to be worthy of her incandescent example--and promising yourself to read more."
--J.R. Moehringer, author of "The Tender Bar"
"
""Will Schwalbe gives us two love stories in one: that of his relationship with his dynamo of a mother as her horizons shrink, and that of their mutual devotion to the printed word, infinitely and insistently engaging. Tender and touching and beautifully done."
--Stacy Schiff, author of "Cleopatra
"
"This touching and insightful memoir [will] appeal to readers of "Tuesdays with Morrie "and "The Last Lecture, "but also to people who love delving into books and book discussions . . . While it is a story about death, it is mostly a celebration of life and of the way books can enrich it."
--"Booklist "(starred)
"I was so moved by this marvelous book. Schwalbe has done something extraordinary: made a personal journey public in the most engaging, funny and revealing way p

Author Bio

Will Schwalbe has worked in publishing (most recently as senior vice president and editor in chief of Hyperion Books); digital media, as the founder and CEO of Cookstr.com; and as a journalist, writing for various publications including "The New York Times" and the "South China Morning Post." He is on the board of the Kingsborough Community College Foundation. He is the coauthor, with David Shipley, of "Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better."