End-of-Life Books

This is a must read for anyone who has recently been involved in a divorce. Hershey has combined his experience with the grace of God to let you know how to recover.

Terry Hershey has written a wonderful book to help those who have lost a loved one. I always have two extra copies on hand to give to my friends who may be experiencing a divorce or a death of a loved one. My own copy is highlighted and worn.

I first read this book when a friend gave me a copy several weeks after my ex-husband left me. I made some "flash cards" from especially moving sections. I would read them over and over during the two years it took for the divorce to be finalized. Amazingly it really helped me let go of a lot of anger and help regain lost self esteem.

The next time I read the book was after my mother died. She had been sick for awhile and her death wasn't a surprise. But after being her caregiver for several years, I felt so lost and useless. Reading Terry's words helped me through the pain once more move forward and begin life again feeling better about myself.

When a book influences you not once, but twice in your life the way this one has me, it makes finding adequate words of praise nearly impossible. That said, if you have suffered any kind of loss at all, read this wonderful book. I know I feel blessed that my friend thought enough of me to share it.

This is a great book. It reads fast and the photos of pandas are simply beautiful. I recommend it for all ages.

I really enjoyed the pictures and the inspiring words in this book.

The Midwest Book Review (April 2007) writes: Now in a newly and substantially revised and expanded third edition, "The Comfort of Home: A Complete Guide For Caregivers" continues to earn its reputation as the 'bible' for providing home caregivers to aged, ill or handicapped loved ones with a thoroughly 'user friendly' illustrated guide that covers everything necessary from daily living tasks to preparations for hospice care, to making funeral arrangements. This is a complete and superbly organized, 216-page, comprehensive 'how to manual that will help the caregiver to develop their skills, expertise, and confidence, which will in turn enhance their peace of mind with respect to the quality of life for the person they are caring for. [Vogel's Bookshelf - The Midwest Book Review, April 2007]

Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (8/07)

I was really impressed with the comprehensive material in this 3rd edition of "The Comfort of Home." As a Social Worker in a previous life, this would have been the book that I would have given to individuals who were considering becoming a primary caregiver. Nothing has been left out in this very well-written guide that a person needs to consider when undertaking this process.

"The Comfort of Home" is set up so that it can be read from beginning to end, or as a reference guide that a person can look up specifics. Oftentimes, taking on the task of a caregiver seems completely overwhelming. Meyer helps break the tasks down into manageable steps that include tips, questions that need to be asked and additional resources to follow up with. The author begins the book by helping the reader decide if home care is an option for them to consider. Her approach is honest and guilt-free for the person making this decision. Following this process, a person needs to decide what level of care is needed and whether this can be provided at home. I really thought that the section on paying for care through Medicare, Medicare part D, Medigap and the many other types of benefits was easy to follow.

As a proponent of long-term planning, I especially liked the section for setting up a care plan. Following these suggestions will make it easy to have someone step in as a temporary caregiver to give the primary caregiver a break, reporting to medical staff and in helping the caregiver not to make mistakes. Being a caregiver can be exhausting and keeping records on the patient, especially with important medication schedules. There are so many chapters that cover every aspect of a person's life such as exercise, diet, nutrition, special challenges and daily activities. Each area is thoughtfully addressed and ends with other available resources in dealing with that area.

The author does an excellent job throughout "The Comfort of Home" in reminding the caregiver to take care of themselves. She even includes a whole section on how to avoid burnout and ends with dealing with funeral arrangements and the grieving process. I would highly recommend this guide to anyone who is considering becoming a caregiver.

Carlos Alvarado's novel Cry Watercolors is poetic, lyrical and extremely moving. His keen eye and mind for detail creates a canvas so rich, characters so deep - it's magical to read. And I kept thinking to myself as I read on, that this would make a beautiful film.

Plot points and twists kept this reader intrigued and I'm looking forward to future work from this very talented writer.

If you want to escape your world and enter one that is not only beautiful but really makes you think about the choice you make in your own life, then I highly recommend Cry Watercolors.

The novel Cry Watercolors is Carlos Alverado's version of James Joyce's novels, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. Mark Balcon, Alverado's protagonist is similar to Joyce's Stephen Dedulus. As a child, like Dedelus, Balcon questions what he feels is an unsavory taste of Catholic guilt. Alverado writes, "Mark had grown up in an ethereal culture of Hispanic Catholicism, where sorrow, guilt, and prayer formed the cornerstone for primal absolution. Through this spiritual purification, one gained God's regard for the dispensation of judgment and granting of rewards..."

Both Dedulus and Balcon in their early years existed in a state of fear of sinning and prayed constantly for forgiveness and divine guidance. Alverado writes, "As real as himself, the angels, stewards of the holy Catholic Doctrine, stood in judgment of his every thought and act. Mark feared never doing right. While his family slept peacefully, he was often tormented with vivid imaginings of godly disapproval of his daily acts. At seven, supposedly too young to experience desperation, Mark challenged his confusion. In the silence of his darkened room, he firmly held the point of a knife against his belly, pain turned to anger when he realized it was the promise of eternal reward that allowed God to hold sway over his life. Without eternity, he reasoned, there would be no need for judgment, thus would be resolved his current agony." After reaching his "blasphemous" conclusions, young Balcon learned his father had died in a car crash. He blames himself and wallows through life in a self-made purgatory that follows him into adulthood and inhibits him, causing him to distance himself, never truly having emotional attachments.
Balcon turns into himself, his outlet, his pressure relief valve becomes writing. His writing has a quality that allows him to become affluent according to societal standards.

On the surface of his existence, he goes through the motions and he recognizes his own emotional limitations. When a young lady named Emilia expresses her interest in him and announces her amorous intentions, he withdraws, runs away and hides. And when he finally finds within himself the acceptance that he deserves and can return true love, he is informed that he has a terminal disease. His confusion and frustration increases, he questions his worthiness as a human being and his worthiness as partner for Emilia.

Cry Watercolors is an excellent portrait of so-called blossoming unconditional love. Alverado has written a great love story, a paean for anybody in awe of the romantic notion of people who are "meant to be"together. Alverado has also provided the reader a peek inside the writer's method of operation. Averado's experience as an Emergency Medical Physician has tempered and enhanced his insight and the lyrical beauty of his surgeon like skills with language.

I have read every left behind the kids book ever published!In fact I have them all!This is one of the best volumes of the series!It's all about Lionel trying to find his Uncle Andre.All through the book is danger,excitement,and surprises!And the end will leave you hanging till you read the next book!

Después que leer el cuarto libro (frente al Futuro) del "los Niños Izquierdos Atrás" la serie, yo sería espantado al ser aquí en tierra y experimento la tribulación y los acontecimientos que acompañan.

Diría que esto lo mantenga en sus dedos y en usted no querrá leer de parada. También le sale colgar en un precipicio, y usted querrá leyó el próximo libro de la serie.

Many futurist, spiritually-based writers seem to find reasons why the future is disastrous and find ancient-derived and channeled insights to justify their pessimism. Leslie and Hugh, on the other hand, using wit, extraordinary insight and intuition, well developed reasoning powers, and some of the same information sources, show the extraordinary future that lays ahead for us. All we need to do is claim it. A well written, optimistic and joyous handbook that does and extraordinary job of boiling down complex and sometimes-difficult-to-understand scientific and metaphysical subject matter into easy and entertaining reading. It is medicine and inspiration for all on a self-discovery journey.

If you have, even for a moment, ever thought about how quickly things around us are changing in the world we live in, then you definitely want to dig into this thought provoking...and extremely timely book. Will it scare you? It may. Will it disturb you? Perhaps. Will it empower you? Most definitely! The End of the World mixes humor with well thought out cultural research, it blends a refreshing spiritual optimism inot a subject that has otherwise been described by calamity, disaster and catastrophe. It's a fantastic book for anyone looking to shed some spiritual light onto the perceived darkness of the 'end times.'

The books are wonderful, but if you think that the books are gonig to be like any other version of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, you are dead wrong. If you read the introduction to the books you know that each version is meant to be different than the others. That is the beauty of Douglas Adams work. They are all unique but all worth you time.

Okay, for those of you who haven't read the book yet but did watch the movie you guys missed out on a lot the movie didn't include all the scenes that I personally though was very well.
Now that that's out of the way. Douglas Adams in his one of his possibly best know books really out did himself. In this adventure a boring simpleton named Arthur Dent living on the planet we call earth has befriended a guy named Ford Perfect, who is not as he claimed from earth but from a planet called Betelgeuse. Where he was sent from to do research for "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe" (it's a book where it has everything and anything that you could possibly need to know about the universe). Ford tells Arthur that he isn't from around here. He isn't from Earth. In telling Arthur this he also tells him that the earth is about to end.
And since they have gotten to be really close friends he takes Arthur with him when he hitches a ride with the Vogan ships (these are what the aliens are called that destroyed our planet earth). Vogan's in particular don't like hitchhikers very much. So they kick them off the ship, shortly after they get on. And by pure chance they get picked up. And the story goes from there.
Now that I've told you how the book starts I'll leave it up to you to read the rest of the book. And if you read this book, then watch the movie. You'll see that the movie is hardly based on this incredible book .

A major strength of this book is the author's mantra that he (with Bible in hand) does not have all the answers to suffering. This is a wise tone because the topic calls for a humble approach. The author begins by surveying how non-Christian worldviews handle suffering. The alternatives are not pretty and this must be kept in mind when tragedy occurs and the Christian God is doubted or mocked as a result. The author then explains the purpose of human free will, the fallen state of man, Christ's communion in suffering, God's redemptive plan, and heaven. This enlightening book is suited for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Short and written for a broad audience. The beginning is a bit philosophical, but the nature of the problem demands a philosophical treatment. For those who have read extensively on the problem of undeserved suffering, this book may be overly simplistic, but for anyone else, it serves as a good, honest inquiry into the problem and represents the Biblical view well. Page-for-page, it is the best introduction to the issue I have read.

I read this book in its first edition back in 1974 or 1975, when it had just been published for the first time. I'd completely forgotten about it all these years, but then came across a copy in a used book store, instantly recognized it, started reading it, and realized how much it had influenced my life these past 30+ years -- for the better. I just bought a copy of the revised edition for my daughters, one graduating high school, the other mid-way through college. This is probably the best book I've read on how to rationally plan one's life, emphasizing the probable outcomes of different choices, how to make the most of one's assets, and the importance of forging ahead while making sure to create options because while life is fairly predictable in its general outline, it is highly unpredictable in its specifics. The balance of optimism and realism in the book is perfect. This book should be required reading for every teenager. The revised version updates this classic making it even more valuable. I recommend it without qualification.

I LOVE this little primer about planning an effective and satisfying life. I first discovered If You Don't Know Where You're Going, You'll Probably End up Somewhere Else about 15 years ago and can well recall sitting on the beach and sharing passages from it with a friend. She liked what I was reading to her so much that she borrowed the book from me, and within a week she and her husband had resigned from their jobs, put their house on the market, and sent out resumes to potential employers. The message of Dr. Campbell's book is that powerful!

David Campbell's book is easy to read, sprinkled with neat quotes, and packed with practical advice written in an engaging, upbeat style. I recently reordered and reread the book and was just as delighted this time around as I was the first time, especially with certain passages. The one in which he describes life as a pathway with paths off to the side is a favorite, and I've always remembered his admoniton to make certain the choice is in your hands, not a gatekeeper's. Speaking of choices, Dr. Campbell says that the greatest tragedy in life is to have no options, and this book is all about helping the reader find and develop them.

To repeat, I loved it. How could anyone not like a book that ends with this quote by Henry Van Dyke? "Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look at the stars."

I can remember shedding some tears when Ms. Cunningham died. She was a hero of mine in the 70's when I was in college studying photography. This is a good overview of her work. Ms. Cunningham was never the greatest photographer of her generation, or any other. However, some of her photography is great. No, what made Ms. Cunningham great was the amazing length of her career and her willingness, until nearly the end of her life, to extend herself and experiment with new things. How many photographers have basically petered out when they have achieved some fame, to spend decades just printing their old work? Not Imogen--she indeed spoke with some bitterness near the end of her life about the unrecognized years in her career. She was unique, particularly for today--a woman who practiced environmental portraiture, going to people's homes and businesses to photograph them. She lived a lifestyle close to penury, yet her life can serve as an illustration to all of us exactly how little having money means to full and rich life. For me growing up, she showed how the love of photography can be separated from the preciousness of 'fine art'--all the while creating fine art. I'd recommend as a companion to this book, the volume "Portrait of Imogen", long out of print. It was compiled by Judy Dater, herself a fine photographer. It is a book of interviews with Imogen's contemporaries and a great insight into this complicated personality. In the end, and particularly after nearly thirty years since her death, Ms. Cunningham still earns notice as one of photography's greatest personalities.

Ideas Without End provides a great introduction to Imogen Cunningham's work. It includes a short biography, but focuses mainly on the plethora of beautiful pictures, showing a wide selection of them. Cunningham's photos are the kind that draw you into them, and bring you to the realization that a flower is so much more than just a flower, that there is more to a body than just nudity, and that everyday items possess a beauty of their own. The format is a bit unhandy, but the contents more than make up for that. In short, the book is an experience not to be missed.