A handbook that may benefit anyone seeking consolation after a loved one’s death.
Hewett follows up her previous publications (Good Words, 2011, etc.) with a guide that offers constructive ways to deal with grief.
After a funeral is over, how do survivors handle mourning in a culture that urges them to “get over it?” People feel uncomfortable with death, Hewett says, because, in part, it “reminds us of our own mortality, an uncomfortable truth.” Her personal experience after a series of losses in her own family inspired her to become a certified grief counselor. In this book, she provides generously varied approaches to living with the death of a loved one, reflecting her belief that grief is a process that connects body, mind and spirit. The book’s three parts discuss grief’s power, how to prepare for a loved one’s death, and practical activities, including suggested readings such as Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), making mourning blankets and albums, keeping a journal, writing letters to the deceased, or getting a pet. The book is designed to provide an array of constructive, creative ways for mourners to spend their time as they move toward adjustment and reconciliation. Although some material overlaps with Hewett’s previous books (including a condensed version of how to write a eulogy), she also brings fresh ideas to her topics, and it’s a particularly useful supplement her previous book. It’s not likely to be picked up for light reading, given the popular avoidance of death that Hewett discusses, but it seems a natural for hospital, hospice and public libraries. What’s most appealing about it is the author’s reluctance to suggest one “right” way to grieve or mourn, in favor of offering several practices, so that readers may select the ones most compatible with their own beliefs and lifestyles.
A handbook that may benefit anyone seeking consolation after a loved one’s death.Pub Date: June 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1490838090
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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