A gem of a guidebook for readers who want to gain some control over the final stages of their lives.
Crucial help on navigating the process of dying.
In the second edition of retired hospice care company executive Bingham’s 2016 guidebook on how to prepare for the “final rite of passage,” his core message remains unchanged: that the terminally ill have choices about the last stages of life, and that they should express them to loved ones well in advance. He provides comprehensive information on pain control, Medicare, elder law, caregivers, hospice facilities, advance directives, wills, funerals, and solidifying one’s legacy. This updated edition includes more recent legal and financial developments and societal shifts that affect end-of-life decisions, including an added section on medical marijuana. It also covers how to deal with receiving a diagnosis, how to plan for death, and how to prepare others for it. But although the book deals with solemn subject matter, it’s never downbeat; instead, it’s comforting and empowering. Although no one can avoid death, Bingham says, one can, and should, design one’s own dying process. This short book is broken into straightforward sections that can be effectively consulted during each stage of the process. Bingham has a compassionate, nonclinical style, and he draws on his career in hospice and palliative care, which included countless hours with terminally ill patients. His approach aims to help readers make important choices, and then offers effective guidance on communicating these decisions to others. The book stands out from similar works, due to its specificity, as when it suggests language for delivering news of one’s impending death and responding to common reactions. For example, when a loved one expresses denial or evades the subject of death (“It’s too early to talk about that now”), Bingham suggests saying something like, “Yes, I know it is early, and I want to be sure that we are all aware of what is happening so that we can organize our lives as best we can. I want to be clear about what I would like while I can talk about it competently.”
A gem of a guidebook for readers who want to gain some control over the final stages of their lives.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4787-7879-0
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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