November | 2015 | Absolute Bookishness

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick (aka Josephine Leslie)
Published: September 23, 2014 by Vintage
Other work(s): The Devil and Mrs. Devine, Light and Shade
Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 192
Rating: 5/5, PG-13

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir follows the life and times of Mrs. Lucy Muir, a young widow and mother of two, in search of a life that is truly her own, away from the influence of her in-laws and others. Her search leads her to purchase the former house of Captain Daniel Gregg, who stills haunts its halls (which Lucy is fully aware of when she decides to live there…interesting). Even with her new move, Lucy’s quest for independence (of thought and action) is not without challenge Continue reading →

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Expected Publication: January 12, 2015 by Random House
Other work(s): N/A
Genres: Autobiography/Memoir
Pages: 256
Rating: 4/5, PG-13

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.

When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity – the brain – and finally into a patient and a new father.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away?

Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.

An intensely thought-provoking, heart-rending memoir of another life ended too soon.

In When Breath Becomes Air, 36-year-old Paul Kalanithi, a budding neurosurgeon, eloquently reflects upon his life-long search for meaning and his attempts at a meaningful life, while facing a future made uncertain by terminal illness. Though lung cancer ultimately claimed his life, Kalanithi revealed that it did not claim his identity, his ambitions,… Continue reading →