Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Uplifting New Memoir: I'll Stand By You

Fourteen years ago Elissa Montanti was a part time singer/songwriter living in Staten Island. After the deaths of her mother, grandmother, and first love, she found herself crippled by anxiety and panic attacks and unable to write or perform music. When a friend asked Montanti to help with a fundraiser for Bosnian children, Montanti was so moved that she quit her job and started a charity to help bring wounded children to the United States to receive prosthetic limbs. As Montanti opened opened her heart to these children, she was able to heal herself. I'll Stand By You is an inspirational story of compassion and determination.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Uplifting New Memoir: I'll Stand By You

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