by Stefania Shaffer ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 27, 2013
An engaging document of a daughter’s emotional journey.
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A 40-year-old woman moves back home to care for her elderly mother in this impassioned memoir.
Shaffer (Heroes Don’t Always Wear Capes, 2005) had been estranged from her 85-year-old mother for seven years (for undisclosed reasons) when her mother suddenly called her requesting a visit. Although the author still struggled with raw, painful feelings, she accepted her mother’s olive branch, hoping to repair their relationship. It marked the beginning of the author’s five-year quest to get her mother’s house in order. She left behind a boyfriend and her job as a seventh-grade English teacher and moved back into her childhood home—now littered with ants, cat urine, rodent droppings and mounds of unattended financial documents left over from her father’s death 13 years earlier. As Shaffer sorted through a lifetime of belongings, she unearthed long-buried memories. She also faced the gargantuan task of readying her mother for hospice care, while also grappling with her tumultuous relationships with her four siblings. (She refers to them only as numbers—“brother one,” “sister two.”) As her mother hallucinated during her last days, the author confronted the seemingly insurmountable chores of cleaning, shopping and organizing. During this emotional time, however, Shaffer married a roofer, Greg, whom she hired to get her mother’s house in salable condition; Greg gave her love, support and experience, as he’d cared for his ex-wife during her battle with cancer. This heart-rending story offers readers engaging lessons, but it isn’t a step-by-step manual on how to care for an elderly loved one. Shaffer’s “9 Realities” are instead weaved into personal anecdotes; they include such tasks as hiring an accountant and an attorney, documenting phone calls and e-mails, creating binders of documents and receipts, and drawing up a will and assigning a trustee. This unique memoir not only addresses the logistics of elder care, but also the unexpected love, fear and anger that can rise to the surface in the process.
An engaging document of a daughter’s emotional journey.Pub Date: July 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0977232529
Page Count: 504
Publisher: Pressman Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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