Will Schwalbe

Do you love books about books? Most serious book worms do. I know I sure love them. I am always happy to read a book that has the potential to add so many titles to my want to read list. If you're a reader, people like to ask what your favorite book is or what kind of books you like to read or what book changed your life. The answer to the latter portion of the question is that every book changes your life. Sometimes the ways in which this happens are big and obvious and sometimes the ways show more are so small as to be almost dismissable. Sometimes the ways depend on what else is going on in your life and your head when you read that particular book. I believe that each book, from the fluffiest fluff to the most serious philosophy becomes a part of you, shapes you and your way of thinking, changes you. So when a book like Schwalbe's essay collection about his reading life examined and illustrated with pieces of his non-book life comes along, it's a sure bet that I'll read it.

Schwalbe believes that you can find everything you need in a book and his collection of essays discuss what he has taken away from the books he's read, how it has made him look at his life in particular but also life and society in general. The essays center around a whole variety of books, classics and modern/recent books both. The reader sees right into the very soul of Schwalbe through the lens of the books that have shaped his thinking and his being and can, if they so choose, take Schwalbe's choices as suggestions for their own further reading and examination. His writing is conversational and accessible, personal and approachable. The books that touched Schwalbe came at just the right moment for him to read and reflect on them in terms of his life, his experience, and as such they are unlikely to represent the same things to his readers. I know several of the books he notes as seminal in his reading life left me cold but I have my own books that he doesn't mention. And that, of course, is the beauty of reading. We all come away from each book with something incredibly personal. Reading Schwalbe's insights into his reading did make me reflect on my own and seeing into the heart of someone else's life through their reading was fascinating. This is a type of reflective memoir I can really get behind. show less

From the first pages we learn that Mary Anne Schwalbe is dying of cancer. Her son Will's nonfiction book chronicles this trying time in their lives while also delving into Mary Anne's past. It deals with grief and joy in equal parts, giving a balanced look at one woman's reaction to being diagnosed with a serious illness.

One thing I loved about this book was the focus on life and not death. Yes it is about his mother's struggle with terminal cancer, but it's truly about the life she lived show more before she was ever diagnosed. She was an incredible woman! She gave herself and her time to so many causes. She started international organizations to help refuge women and children. She raised her own children to be unique and intelligent individuals who take risks in life. She was kind and generous with both her time and her money and she expected a lot from the people around her.

I love that reading was such an integral part of Will and his mother's lives that sharing the books they were in the middle of was a natural part of their interaction. As he comments at one point, people always used to discuss what they were reading but nowadays it's safer to ask what people are watching on TV , because they might not be reading anything at all. The Schwalbes take the lessons they get out of different books and apply them to their lives. They discuss them in detail and compare notes about themes and outcomes. When you read about other countries or lifestyles it allows you to live a bigger life. They recognize that and expanded their horizons with each new book they chose.

"...books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books, in whatever format you choose - electronic (even though that wasn't for her) or printed, or audio - is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in human conversation.”

Will's description of his childhood was captivating to me. I'm sure some of it can be attributed to seeing things through rose-colored glasses; our memories often become sweeter with the distance of time. But the fact that reading and culture were part of their lives was undeniable. That's not always the case with families, but if I have kids that's how I would want to raise them.

BOTTOM LINE: As I've said before, I'm a sucker for books about books. This is one of those, but it's also about living a life worth celebrating and remembering. It's about refusing to lose hope or give up. It's inspiring, but not in a saccharine way. I loved it and have already picked up a few of the books that Will read with his mother.

"He was the smartest and best read person any of us have every known, but he wore his learning so lightly and had such curiosity about other people that he had the ability to make everyone around him feel smart and well-read."

“Mom had always taught all of us to examine decisions by reversibility--that is, to hedge our bets. When you couldn't decide between two things, she suggested you choose the one that allowed you to change course if necessary. Not the road less traveled but the road with the exit ramp.”

"I often forget that other people's stories aren't simply introductions to my own more engaging, more dramatic, more relevant, and better-told tales, but rather ends in themselves, tales I can learn from or repeat or dissect or savor.” show less

This book has 70 reviews here on LT, most of them glowing and rhapsodic about how wonderful and inspiring and heartfelt it is. This will not be one of those reviews.

First, to summarize, Will Schwalbe and his mother, Mary Ann, formed a book club of two to share books and their thoughts on them during Mary Ann's battle with pancreatic cancer. They usually met at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in NYC where Mary Ann received her chemotherapy treatments. Okay premise, I lost my mother to show more cancer so I can relate, I like books about books, this should be just fine... Except it wasn't. It wasn't fine, it wasn't relatable, and it wasn't even a book about books. It was a hagiography of one woman who assumed Christ-like proportions and all-around perfection in the eyes of her son. Passing mention is made of the books they read, sometimes a couple of paragraphs are devoted to them, but the books are really a vehicle for the pedantic Mary Ann to deliver her Very Important Life Lessons to her naive and child-like son. (I don't actually believe he is naive and child-like, but the way he wrote about their discussions, I always pictured him with a wide-eyed sense of wonder, gazing up at his mother in hero worship.) And then those V.I.L.L. are delivered to us mere mortals courtesy of her son, who isn't much of a writer and likes to tell rather than show. This is obviously a book with a message, but the message is so clumsily delivered, I was embarrassed for both of them.

Other annoyances:
- These people occupy the rarefied world of upper class NY but of course manage to say all the right things about helping others and doing good but it all rang incredibly phony.
- I found Mary Ann incredibly patronizing and holier-than-thou, and while I didn't quite wish she would hurry up and die, I did almost stop listening a few times after some of her more annoying moments.
- Every time Will went on and on or felt the need to mention AGAIN all the wonderful things his mother did, I felt like the implicit message was that she had more of a right to beat cancer, more of a right to live, than some poor schmuck who just, you know, works hard every day to support his family. It's not like he's going to change the world or anything...

I really should stop because it is just making me madder and madder. And lest you think I am a complete monster, please know that I did tear up at the inevitable conclusion because cancer is a horrible thing and no one should have to die like that. Not Saint Mary Ann, not my mother, and not the millions of other people who fight daily to beat it but whose stories aren't told. Would that they had the connections to get a book published - I think their stories would be a lot more interesting.

PS: the narrator of the audio edition - Jeff Harding- was pretty bad. Every female voice sounded like the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live. show less

*Free e-book ARC provided by the publisher through Edelweiss/Above the Treeline in exchange for an honest review. No money or other goods were exchanged, and all views are my own.*

Will Schwalbe, the author of The End of Your Life Book Club, returns with another book about books: this one focuses on books that, while they may not be his favorites, have in some way influenced Schwalbe's life and philosophy.

There is something warm and comforting in reading a book by a fellow booklover, a show more recognition of a like-minded soul and a voyeuristic joy in peeking into someone else's reading brain. This one was no exception. I enjoyed the author's descriptions of books, his general way of dealing with spoilers (usually eschewing them except in the case of classics that most people would know the story even if they had not read it, but on one occasion warning those who still wanted to read a book that they should probably not read the rest of the chapter), and the way the most influential books would make connections and find their way into other chapters. While the idea of "books for living" sounds instructive, Schwalbe's style is more confessional than preachy. He's also not a book snob, and his list of influential books includes children's books and popular fiction as well as classics and less well-known texts. Some of the essays were heart-wrenching and others made me laugh, making for delightful reading from beginning to end. show less