Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Uplifting Story of One Man's Dream

When it comes to pursuing your goals, the world can sometimes get in the way. It was always Joe Moglia's dream to be a college football coach. In 1983, he was the defensive coordinator for Dartmouth but with a family of four to feed, he left coaching for a career in business. Years later, after turning around floundering brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, Moglia left the corporate world to return to college level football coaching. 4th and Goal: One Man's Quest to Recapture His Dream, tells Moglia's inspirational story and is sure to be a hit with football fans and believers in the American Dream.

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 Story of One Man's Dream

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