by Susan Angel Miller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4, 2019
A worthy addition to the grief and recovery genre.
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In this debut memoir, a woman shares her struggles to move forward after the tragic loss of her daughter to a rare brain tumor.
In January 2009, 14-year-old Laura, the eldest of Miller’s three daughters, began experiencing severe headaches. A medical exam in mid-February concluded the headaches were caused by stress. Later that month, Laura suffered a seizure but seemed to recover in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Within four days, she was on life support. With power and clarity, the author recalls the moment-to-moment events of Laura’s final day. The neurosurgeon came into the waiting room and said: “Laura has suffered a massive brain bleed.…It’s catastrophic and irreversible.” She was legally dead. Hours later, Miller and her husband were approached by a woman from the Wisconsin Donor Network. Would they be willing to donate Laura’s organs? Their decision, urged in part by Laura’s 12-year-old-sister, Sara, would play a major role in the healing process. The family’s profound sense of loss was mixed with the need to navigate through a new normal. Miller writes plaintively: “Widow is the word for a woman who’s lost her husband, orphan is the term for someone whose parents are both deceased. There’s no name, however, for a mother and father who lose a child.” A week after the funeral, her husband was back at work and their two younger daughters were back in school. Miller slowly began to return to her volunteer work with Milwaukee’s Jewish Community Center and the National Council of Jewish Women. Her loving, frequently heartbreaking memoir gives full expression to her despair, anger, fears, and resilience. Albeit occasionally repetitious, the account is articulate and pleasantly unvarnished (“Laura wasn’t an easy baby. She needed us in a way that our younger two daughters wouldn’t”). Vivid anecdotes about Laura, the inclusion of her mature-beyond-her-years writings, and family photographs give her new life in these pages. But the book is more than a tribute to a lovely, talented young girl. It also serves as a strong promotion for organ donation, a cause the entire family has thoroughly embraced.
A worthy addition to the grief and recovery genre.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73249-603-3
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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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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