books i've been reading....

Here are some books I've been reading over the last six months--or a few of the ones I would recommend out of what I've read. If you are looking for a light read, then avoid every book below.

"McCracken, calls her astonishingly candid memoir “the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending.” When she and her husband Edward were nearing the end of a 2006 writing sojourn in southern France, and she was in the ninth month of her pregnancy, her unborn baby boy died. Now teaching in upstate New York, and raising her second child, McCracken says she wasn’t ready for her first “to fade into history”—hence, this therapeutic memoir. In amazingly insightful chapters, she shares her acutely sensitive thoughts about how she and Edward dealt with their initial grief, how friends and family coped, where the couple placed their futile blame, if any, and the emotional strings attached to their decision to attempt a pregnancy so soon after this tragedy." -Deborah Donovan

"Vicki Forman gave birth to Evan and Ellie, weighing just a pound at birth, at twenty-three weeks’ gestation. During the delivery she begged the doctors to "let her babies go" — she knew all too well that at twenty-three weeks they could very well die and, if they survived, they would face a high risk of permanent disabilities. However, California law demanded resuscitation. Her daughter died just four days later; her son survived and was indeed multiply disabled: blind, nonverbal, and dependent on a feeding tube. This Lovely Life tells, with brilliant intensity, of what became of the Forman family after the birth of the twins — the harrowing medical interventions and ethical considerations involving the sanctity of life and death. In the end, the long delayed first steps of a five-year-old child will seem like the fist-pumping stuff of a triumph narrative. Forman’s intelligent voice gives a sensitive, nuanced rendering of her guilt, her anger, and her eventual acceptance in this portrait of a mother’s fierce love for her children." -Amazon review

"Birth, like death, can be a messy affair. Though we all wish for beautful, healthy nine pound babies, we know that isn't always the case. Premature births pose all sorts of problems that present medical and moral dilemas for doctors, nurses, interns and parents, as well as for the little babies struggling to live, to fill their little lungs with life's breath or get their hearts pumping blood through their little bodies.Some of the babies whose stories are recounted in ALMOST HOME make it all the way home, others do not, but the stories collected here simply must be told. Some are unbelievably sad, and you will cry when you read them; others tell of babies who survived and did well against seemingly impossible odds; still others are embarrassing, as Dr. Gleason chronicles her tentative early years as a doctor-on-training. Taken together, however, the stories celebrate the miracles of modern medicine, mourn its failings, and marvel at the strength and resilience of the human body and spirit so evident in these little babies, their families, and the dedicated people who staff the intensive care units. ALMOST HOME is a remarkable debut book, the power of which lies in its abiding humanity and its intensely personal portrayal of the often fragile beginnings of a human life."-Amazon review

"If you have lost someone you love then this book can really help you understand and put your loss in perspective. The author lost three generations of his own family in one auto accident, his mother, wife and daughter. His Biblical wisdom and thoughtfulness has me going back to read and re-read often. One quote, in particular, I keep going back to and back to is, "I did not get over the loss of my loved ones: rather I absorbed the loss into my life, like soil receives decaying matter, until it became a part of who I am." This book has helped me immensely in dealing with the lose of my husband. I have also shared the book with many others. Right now I am reading it with friend who lost both a newborn child and her mother both within a year. I truly think this book has helped to give me a peace about the loss of my loved one that I could not have had without this author's uncanny understanding and willingness to share his thoughts."-Donna Williams

"Pete Greig, has written his most intensely personal and honest account yet in God on Mute, a book born out of his wife Samie' s fight for her life and diagnosis of a debilitating brain tumor. Greig asks the timeless questions of what it means to suffer and to pray and to suffer through the silence because your prayers seem unanswered. This silence, Greig relates, is the hardest thing. The world collapses. Then all goes quiet. Words can't explain, don't fit, won't work. People avoid you and don't know what to say. So you turn to Him and you pray. You need Him more than ever before. But somehow...even God Himself seems on mute. In this heart-searching, honest and deeply profound book, Pete Greig looks at the hard side of prayer, how to respond when there seem to be no answers and how to cope with those who seek to interpret our experience for us. Here is a story of faith, hope and love beyond all understanding."-Amazon review