End-of-Life Books

Completely enjoyed this book - I like Davis anyway, and this one held me right away.
Buy it, read it, save it -she's classic.

I read "Until the End" and I thought it was a pretty good plot, but it wasn't as strong and as interesting as the first two books in the series. I was looking forward to learning more about Maris' and Lauren's relationship, but something seemed to be lacking. I would definitely encourage anyone to read the first two books first before reading this one, just to get a general idea of what is going on.

This is a very thoughtful and provocative collection of eight essays on various simulated spaces which have infiltrated the American landscape. The book's overall thesis is that public space and "authentic" urban life increasingly has been replaced by simulations of urban life, usually as spaces of commodification (e.g. malls, gentrified districts, theme parks). In this process of replacing public space, aspects of American public life--open space for assembly, the interaction of different people, concern for communities--also get erased. While simulated spaces may seem to improve public space and public life, they do so at a cost, one that the critics seem to suggest is the loss of real public space and perhaps even of democracy.

The purpose of this book is not only to describe these spaces, but to oppose them. Each of the authors point to the negative effects of simulated space. In many cases, the essays' implications jump right out of the page and into your neighborhood. Margaret Crawford's essay on the Edmonton shopping mall could be applied to any mall in Anytown, USA. Neil Smith's essay on gentrification points out the high price that comes with "revitalization"; one is reminded of many similiar projects outside his NYC example: Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle,and so forth. Edward Soja and Trevor Boddy both contribute well-written essays which demonstrate growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots." With these essays, extended and local comparisons with dying urban areas and suburbia, sprawl, gated communities, and so forth are appropriate. Michael Sorkin's own essay on Disneyland turns a well-wrought phrase, and gives the Disney Studies scholar much to think about. (NOTE: Those interested in Disney should read this article if nothing else in the collection, although many of the essays are applicable to the study of Disney.) Of the essays, it is perhaps the one least obviously applicable to "real" life. But then again, Sorkin notes the distance between the simulated environment of the theme park and the reality of the city is decreasing.

Of course, the scholars' analyses are dark and even depressing. And more than once, the authors manage to sound like angry young critics filled with more agenda than action. More than once, extended discussion of the issues raised in the essays would have helped--although many of these authors do have full-length treatments elsewhere--or perhaps alternative perspectives which would have varied the collection's tone and helped sustain readers' interest. And like any collection some of the essays are stronger than others. Overall, though, the collection makes a reader stop and think. Many readers will end up carefully reconsidering 1) the state of American life and its public space and 2) one's participation in these developments. Variations deserves recognition for addressing these issues.

This book enlists many different authors, who all have an amazing point of view on the built environment. From gated communities to Disneyland, every chapter expresses concerns of fast-changing developed environments. Our cities are quickly becoming cold, enclosed enclaves. This book helped me realize how our society has snubbed the utilizaton of public space. This is definitely a book for every person interested in city planning, urban studies,or sociology. Whether a student or leisure reader, this book will open your minds to what is really taking place in our cities, suburbs, resorts, and recreational facilities. Any place in which society is forced to interact with one another is referred to in "Variations on a Theme Park". Read it. It will open your mind!

An excellent book to prepare anyone for the passing of loved ones or themselves. the authors have done a great job of leading us through very difficult times without being morbid.
This should be a must read for everyone as death is ,of course, enevitable.

The pictures in this book are excellent. I very much enjoyed the book. I have been doing genealogy on my family and my husband's Boston Irish family. It gave me a good idea of what things were like back then.

For Americans who know London's East End only from Bob Hoskins' movies (e.g., "Mona Lisa") and the BBC (e.g., the "EastEnders" soap opera), Alan Palmer's "The East End: Four Centuries of London Life" interjects needed reality and perspective by surveying the East End since the 1600s.

Now, I would have appreciated more on the first two of those four centuries -- Palmer rushes so fast to the 1800s that his subtitle should be "Two Centuries of London Life." Still, he locates the essence of the East End in its people and public meeting places when much of the private property was on church land. Absentee ownership prevented long-term leases, encouraged short-term hangouts, and deterred investments that could've renovated the area. But through the centuries, Palmer makes plain, the one constant in the East End has been the creative tension produced by generation after generation emigrating from around the world. Thus it's long been more akin to New York City than to the quiet villages or university towns of English novels and their Masterpiece Theater dramatizations.

Palmer is a good writer, with a style at once spirited and blunt -- the two character traits of the archetypal East Ender. I especially appreciate Palmer's treatment of the 1990s, a decade during which the East End's blue-collar pubs and poverty were contrasted by glassy new Thameside skyscrapers and white-collared wine bars.

This book was brought to my attention when Amazon.com listed it under the name of Peter Ackroyd, who wrote its literate introduction. As complements to Palmer's history, Ackroyd's biographies and novels are surely the greatest contemporary writings on the story of London: on East End themes for the 17th century, read Ackroyd's "Hawksmoor"; for the 19th century, "The Trial of Elizabeth Cree" (American title for the British "Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem"). For the 21st century, read either of these Ackroyd novels, as he typically creates fictions where present-day London fuses with historical London. In this manner, we find agreement with "The East End" because Alan Palmer, too, describes the timelessness by which four centuries' worth of East Enders join in a communal effort to create what Palmer makes feels like the soul of London.

A wonderful conclusion to Books 1 & 2 adventure with the crew of the podship "Pioneer 4" from their castaway trials and tribulations from the Tauron Ambush; and, their subsequent survival on the benighted planet of the Thilen Nine System. Answers are given to a lot of the eluded plots set up in this novel's prequels, and The System society is further explained as well as the role of the Echelon. Nicraan and Retho's relationship blooms while Moela discovers a new love as Dara and Capel draw closer as everyone mourns the loss of Lunon on a journey "home". A great read for any science fiction adventurer who has a few heart-strings to tug on!

Henry May's work clearly exposes the ways in which American society moved out of the Victorian era and toward a vibrant reform period that most think occurred actually after the end of World War I. May shows through the actions and words of prominent figures ranging from literary figures, university presidents, and persons in prominent social positions that the undercurrent for such reform long predated 1919 and significant progress was undertaken to erode and eventually collapse whatever was left of the Victorian era before and during the war. May's work poignantly illustrates that for a person to properly view the Roaring Twenties, he must first begin in the early 1910s. The major difficulty here is that May states that his work lives in the field of cultural history yet he focuses exclusively on prominent persons, mostly well-to-do and powerful, and does not include any reference to the average people. He hints at and points to ordinary citizens but does not afford them the same coverage as the other characters who comprise the bulk of his work. Notwithstanding that sway in focus, this work remains a vital looking glass view into the inception of the post World War I era.

I'm not a nurse. I'm a pastor and graduate student in Social Gerontology. This book was an assigned text for a course I took on Grief and Loss. As a non-nurse, I found this book informative and helpful and am glad that it is part of my library.

The book provides insight and understanding of nursing as a profession to the non-nurse. Since it is written from a holistic perspective, other professions are able to draw from the material packed in the pages and apply it to their own field of expertise. As a non-nurse I found the book interesting in that common chronic health conditions and the death trajectories are described in an understandable manner. This kind of background information is helpful in understanding what is happening to people that I work with who have these chronic health conditions.

The death and dying process is outlined from several perspectives and the "scientific" or "medical" material is explained in such a way that the non medical professional can take away a greater understanding of the physiology of death and dying as well as the various methods of dealing with symptoms and the provision of comfort care.

I appreciated the fact that authors presented the grief and bereavement process from a variety of perspectives (Kubler-Ross, Wordon, and others). The authors also presented how grief is experienced and processed at different stages in the life cycle as well as how deaths of persons at different ages are perceived and handled.

There is solid information on Pediatric Palliative Care and prenatal, perinatal and infant death. Death and Grief issues of children and adolescents are discussed in a depth where the material can be useful in providing bereavement care to those affected.

The chapters on communication are most helpful to the non-nurse in that they provide helpful advice and models to talk about death and dying to family members. What is most important is that these chapters also provide people with the tools to talk to dying people about their experiences of 'living until they die'. These chapters are solid information for any human being wanting to make a human connection with a person at the end of life.

I couldn't put this book down. It is more than a peek inside a nursing home and assessment of today's health care for the elderly. This is an intimate viewing of a surprising relationship between two people who truly care for each other.
Paul is dealing with aging, Parkinson's disease and trying to find his "life" in a care center. Ruth is a scholar researching care for the aged, who discovers her role in his "life" is more than her work. Their age differences only seem to enhance the love they experience.

Anyone who is concerned with the end of life will find hope, humor and honesty in this writing.

I found Peter Youngrens thoughts to be very insightful. He has a deep understanding and wonderful relationship with Christ. To be able to place these 2 things in a book was ingenious.