Loss Books

An interesting book for a discusson group.

I agree with the previous reviewer. This book taught me so many things about how hanging on to past losses, failures, relationships, concepts and beliefs can be so unhealthy for us as human beings. Douty relates her own personal experiences as a way to help people feel they are not alone in these struggles. This book is very brave, honest account of how hanging on to the past can greatly impede our potential for peace and serenity in the present. This book was difficult for me to read at first because of the emotions involved and the extent to which I need to let go of so many things. But Douty comes out on the other side with lessons learned and a personal sense of inner peace that I aspire to every day. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is committed to travelling the sometimes frightening path to wholeness. This book will fill you with hope.

Tremendous, compelling writing. I couldn't put it down. I could relate to so many of the stories in this book. It talks a lot about bettering your relationship with God, but it is about so much more than that. There's something in this book for virtually everyone.

Our church book study group has read and discussed a large number of books in the last several years and this book provided the material to spark the deepest and most soul searching reading and discussion we have ever experienced. None of us being perfect, we found that all of the areas that the author explored were painful to many of us also. We appreciated that the end of the book gave concise guidelines on how to let go, and that the author was so painfully honest about the areas of her life she needed to let go.

After many years of going from one diet to the next I had completely given up any hope I had of being at my ideal weight. I've been dieting since I was 10 and I tried everything from very low-cal diets to trying to unlock the emotional reasons for overeating. No matter how hard I tried nothing seemed to work--in fact I was heavier than ever. On a whim I picked up a copy of Jean Antonello's book and for the first time in my life I felt as if I understand the reasons behind my weight problem and how to break out of the viscous cycle that has kept me there.

Antonello explains how it is really a basic physiolgical reason that drives us to overeat which has kicked in due to our determinations to diet. I think that many people in a similar situation as mine will find immediate relief from this book. From this book people, like me, will realize that they do not have some emotional or genetic defect that is keeping them fat and neither are they lazy or weak willed. Once you begin to eat according to your body's own needs your preoccupation with food and your weight will disappear. That alone is something to celebrate, but on top of that with time you will have the naturally lean body we were all meant to have. It takes time because it is not some quick fix. But it will feel like the most natural thing in the world. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who has ever struggled with their weight.

If you need help with your weight do yourself a really big favor and buy this book. I am not really a good writer and have a hard time putting into words how much this book helped me. I lost 60 lbs, very easily, after reading this book and have kept it off for 3 years and counting. So simple! The book just made sense to me and was a wonder. Truly an anti diet book. Trust me on this one. I wish they would bring it back in print. I learned so much from this little book and am so thankful that I stumbled upon it.

This is an amazing book, better than Intuitive Eating, Overcoming Overeating, and all the other anti-dieting books, because it proposes a completely physical explanation of how dieting makes you fat. I like those other books, but I never really bought the idea that my deep-seated emotional issues are causing me to overeat. This book explains very logically how restricting food stresses the body and causes it to react by overeating. I've read a million anti-dieting books, and expected this to be just another rehash of the same ideas, but it was a real life-changer for me. I just wish the title didn't make it sound like just another diet book, because it's really much more than that.

This book really opened my eyes. It enabled me to eat whenever I get hungry and feel good and be thin all at the same time. It's not a diet - it's all about listening to your bodies signals.
If you've been stuck in the world of dieting - starving yourself or food-obsession or so-called "overeating" - it will teach you how to let your body take control and become the thin person you're able to be. It teaches you how the body works and how, for many people, your body has adapted to store fat for the next possible famine (your self-created famine, called a "diet") AND best of all, how to change your ways so that your body will adapt to a world with unlimited food availability and stop storing fat - oui-la! a thin body. This book is out of print and people are still buying it and following it. It was written in 1991 and I'm writing this in 2002!

I have read this book and find it very helpful in dealing with my own recent separation from a wife of 31 years. His advice is very good and will cause one to think and better still to think positively. I'm going to buy a couple more copies to give to a friend and to my pastor to use / recommend in his counseling efforts

I read it a long time after my relationship ended. Somehow I couldn't get over it, because I didn't have any closure at all. And I didn't understand why it had ended the way it ended, and many other things regarding this issue. However the book helped me a lot to understand many things and to focus on myself, on what to do to get past all that emotional nightmare. It also helped me to understand why I was feeling the way I did so long after the breakup. It's an easy read, and it can give you a new perspective of how to mend a broken heart with a few steps to follow.

For those of you going through a breakup this book will surely provide comfort. It is small enough to carry around with you so as to keep you positive during hard moments. It has many wise words of wisdom that are quite enlightening and thought provoking. It does have a Christian base in it but for those of you who are not, this element does not take away from the true value of the work. It is highly recommended.

This book really hits all the right areas that you feel during a breakup. As he said he has been there too. Therefore you can tell that his advice is coming from the heart. I am not a religous person, but this book allows you to explore what beliefs you have and feel the comfort that you are not alone in this battle. Try this book, its inexpensive so you dont have much to lose. The advice is down to earth and put in terms you can relate to. The very exact thoughts that went through my head are described in the book and how you can manage those thoughts. Good luck to all of you. I hope this will help.

I picked up "I Wish I Could Hold your Hand: A Child's Guide to Grief and Loss" when my 5-year-old daughter's great grandmother was ailing and nearly 90 years old. It was a very sweet book and helped her cope with losing Grandma, which happened the next week.

After my husband told my daughter that Grandma had died, I read her this book again, and I think we were both blessed by it.

The book encourages children to expressing their emotions in healthy ways, telling them it's OK to be sad or even angry, and to cry. It gives them ideas for what to do when they miss the person, such as drawing them a picture, even if the person will never see it.

It could be used by a family of any faith tradition. It lends the idea that the person who is gone will always be with us. In our family we interpret that as them being in heaven, but it could also mean the person is with us in our memories or our hearts.

This book could be used in many situations where a loved one is gone, such as if someone goes to jail or moves away. I skipped over a couple words when it got to the part about a loved one going to jail. (We were dealing with Grandma's death and I didn't really want to stop and answer her inevitable questions just then, or scare her that it might happen to me or my husband).

Incidentally, a few weeks later a couple in our family got divorced. I wonder if some of the ideas in this book may have helped my daughter when she realized she would not see her aunt much anymore.

It has been a month since Grandma died, and my daughter has told me more than once that when she is a mommy and someone dies, she will read "I Wish I could Hold your Hand" to her children.

Reviewer's Book: Overcoming Loss: Activities and Stories for Children Who Have Experienced Grief and Loss

This wonderful fictional story follows a young girl in the process of grief and loss. The illustrations are wonderful and it gently explores the wide range of emotions associated with the loss of a loved one.

When the main character loses several important figures in her life- her pet dies, her father moves away, etc.- she feels the pangs of loss. This is a great book to read to children! So many children have experienced loss- when their parents get divorced, a pet dies, a grandparent dies, or a good friend moves away- but have no way of knowing that what they are feeling is NORMAL. This book helps explain that to children- that feeling sad is normal when you lose someone or something important to you. I recommend this book to anyone who has any contact with children- teachers, parents, sitters, etc. It is a great book!

Diane O'Quinn Burke's gentle duotone illustrations perfectly underscore Pat Palmer's deftly written and gentle "I Wish I Could Hold Your Hand...": A Child's Guide To Grief And Loss. Based upon sound psychology with respect to the grieving process in children, this sensitive and exceptional well written story will significantly assist a young child to identify their feeling arising from their grief including denial, anger, guilt, and sadness. The child will discover within the pages of this brief but superbly presented story that it is normal and natural to feel the pain of loss created by a friend or loved one moving away or dying -- and that they can and will come to accept the change in their life and eventually feel better.

A friend sent me this book when she learned of my miscarriage. It helped me deal with the various aspects of the grief. I loved how the author shared her personal story and gave excersises to do at the end of each section. In the scrapbook I made for my angel Isaac, I included this book as one of my diamonds in the dessert. I came to this site to order the book for a friend of mine who just lost a baby. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has lost a baby.

of my sorrow to other mothers that have lost babies. I absolutely loved this book. I have given out three or four of them. I lost three babies in a year. My miscarriags happened at 11 weeks, 4 1/2 months, and 7 weeks, all within a year. I felt my baby kicking. This book gave me the courage to name my babies, which are by the way Jordan, Taylor, and Isabella. Taylor was my baby that I could feel and saw many times as well as my boys. I have three boys here with me and three angel babies. This book meant so much to me that I used it's title on the memorial headstone we had put up for our babies that we lost. Taken into heavenly arms: The guidelines in this book are right on target. I like the way the book was put together. The very first chapter is called Shattered Dreams, that sums up the whole devastating lose. Thank you Dr. Bridgman!

I am so glad to have read the book. It has helped me deal with the worst loss of my life, my precious baby. Dr. Bridgman writes with authority gained from her own personal experience and professional expertise. Her words will help validate your feelings and thoughts regarding your loss, especially when you feel as if no one understands or cares. In Heavenly Arms is an emotional journey that brings closure and healing at the end of a very dark tunnel. It is a must read for anyone that has suffered a miscarriage. I have gained so much insight and understanding about my loss, that I can't say enough about the book.

This book helped me accept my miscarriage, grieve and heal. I highly recommend this to anyone else dealing with pain from a miscarriage. It was a great comfort to both my husband and I.

This book reaches well beyond connecting with those who have experienced a similar loss. It is a compelling story for everyone to read who wants to experience a full life. The emotions that the author feels while going through her process are unfiltered, and real beyond what is politically correct in these circumstances. It is as if I were living in her mind and heart -- as if the experience was my own. This is the only book I have read in one sitting in a long time -- I couldn't put it down!

An excellent memoir that is both refreshing and helpful for those people who are experiencing the death of a loved one from a terminal illness. There is no glossing over the author's feelings-they are raw, real, and significant. The beauty of the book is that it provides a person's real experience, not a theoretical experience. More importantly, it explains a person's grief, and the realization that people do survive the pain. This book is highly recommended.

This is a book you can't put dowm until you've read the last page. The true story of a woman's journey with her beloved husband through the medical maze of trying to conquor brain concer. The aability of the quthor's strengh to head after this trauma is inspiring to us all.

I've just finished my second reading of "In Sickness & In Health," and wanted to express to the author, Gail Lynch, my sadness for the loss of such a wonderful partnership, and my appreciation for the forthrightness with which she shares such intimate and moving details of Bob's final struggle, and her own struggle, and the struggles of their families. Her straightforward narrative offers the reader familiar yet bizarre scenes in a way that lets the reader bring her own emotional life to the account. I can imagine that this book will help many readers find the humanity and sweetness in the nightmare.

I think writing this book must have taken a lot of courage. I look forward to sharing it with my colleagues.

What makes "Janet and Me" so beautiful is that it combines all of the complex and conflicting elements that are such an important part of being the caregiver to the person who is the love of your life: the tenderness, the fear, the rage, and the anger at a heartless medical system that turns a deaf ear when people are at their most vulnerable. This is, without a doubt, one of THE most touching books about love, loss, caregiving and true friendship that I have ever read. I can't recommend any book more highly! (A shortened version of "Janet and Me" is also contained in the wonderful book on caregiving, "An Uncertain Inheritance," which is also sold on Amazon.com.)

Julia Schopick
www.HonestMedicine.com

This book describes in both narrative form and cartoons the story of Stan Mack's relationship with his long-time partner, Janet, and how he coped with her illness and subsequent death from cancer. Two primary themes emerged, with the first theme focusing on their love and commitment to each other. You finish the book thinking that they were lucky to have had each other in their lives. Stan's tender and total caregiving of Janet during the terminal phase of her illness was particularly impressive. The second theme concerned the reactions of the medical establishment to terminal disease, and the discomfort medical professionals have in confronting the fact that they will not always be able to cure their patients. One of the most heartrending parts of the book is toward the end, when Stan and Janet try repeatedly, in vain, to contact her physician (who had been wonderfully supportive at the beginning of her treatment) to ask whether her chemotherapy should be discontinued and what could be done instead. It was only when Stan started hospice care that Janet started receiving the home help and other sources of support that she needed to improve the quality of her remaining days.

Indeed, one of the features of this book that cancer patients and their families might find most helpful is that Mack provides a more realistic picture of the day-to-day aspects of caring for a terminally ill loved one. You get the sense that he wants to prevent others the trial-and-error efforts he had to go through to figure out what worked best. A related moral is that persistence is needed in dealing with insurance companies and the medical establishment. Lastly, his is a precautionary tale of the legal difficulties facing unmarried partners. Janet's will, naming Stan as executor, was challenged by her relatives, resulting in a legal battle that took over a year to resolve.

This last paragraph probably makes the book sound like it is cut and dried and concerned only with practical and logistical details. That is not at all the case. It is, first and foremost, a story of love and loss, and you will almost certainly be unable to read this book without being moved to tears by the depth of Mack's love and pain. But perhaps the greatest strength of this book is that Mack points out that, in real life, love and loss doesn't proceed like you see on bad made-for-TV specials, or "Love Story," where the heroine drifts off to sleep after a very short and essentially painless illness. In real life, love and loss are embedded in a host of not-so-pleasant details like "what kind of bedpan is best for the advanced cancer patient?" (answer: full-size bedside commode) and "how can I get her to take her pain medicine if she can no longer swallow?" The beauty of this book is that Mack shows so compellingly how love can shine through and conquer all those messy details.

I could barely put it down. It was painful to read, but worth every minute of the pain. Stan Mack is a person anyone would want to have around in a crisis. He is a rock, exhausted but understanding.
I met Janet Bode briefly twice. She approached me because, as she said, "I recognize your hairstyle!" I was bald at the time, having also undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer. We ended up having a long talk, and I was devastated a year and a half later to run into her again, and see that she was bald again. She was beautiful, not just cute.
This is a wonderful book. I am giving a copy to a friend of mine who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

This book is a unique, honest, and bravely told story of powerful emotions, true love, beautiful friendship, and perseverance. The author conveys the wide-ranging emotions of Janet, himself, and those around him without dodging a single one--no matter how hard-hitting, no matter how far out in left field. It's all here--the sadness of course, but also the anger, the humor, the desperation, the sarcasm. It's incredibly real and raw. The illustrations and "comic" style, rather than creating a lighter feel, enrich the story and make it even more accessbile to the reader. At the end, you feel you really know Stan and Janet and you really like them. It left me with a renewed faith in love, friendship, and the power of real human connections.

I Just ordered this book. I have a copy of chapter 2,and was very impressed. I am very lucky to have the coarthur as my theripist. The information on nutrition is great. The whole food approach is wonderful. All you have to do is count the foods you ate. No calorie counting.

The only secret in this book is how the system works on paper instead of verbally from meetings. There are no revolutionary or radical concepts here, just plain sense and common knowledge.
Sometimes it is helpful just to have what you already know about a subject restated to get a different view. The information in this book is collected and organized in a way that you can use it. There are no radical diets and the use of exercise is just as important as diet.... There are a few Appendixes and some menus.

This is a good book or should I say manual on the regimen. A few acquaintances were on it and it does work. As every other diet plan ever conceived you have to follow it to get results. That's the bottom line. This is one of the more effective regimens that I am familiar with and it does work. There are no frills, just proven basics here.

This is the best book on weight loss I have read. It is not only for weight loss but Jenny Craig gives you tools on how to manage weight. The more responsibility you take for creating your healthy lifestyle the more control you have and the better chance you will have for success. Jenny encourages you to write your thoughts, record your goals, and outline your strategies. You can chart your journey--see where you've been and where you are going. Your success comes from within

This book is a must read for anyone with breast cancer. It is very informative and insightful for the patient and caregivers (friends, family, etc). It provides important and useful information. The way in which the authors write about this information is in a very relaxed and comfortable setting; almost as though they are having a conversation with you and just sharing their experiences. Being a recently diagnosed breast cancer patient myself I found this book extremely helpful. I wish this book was availble when I began my treatments, it would have answered many questions for me. Thank you to the authors for being so honest.

As a new breast cancer survivor (March 2007 diagnosis), I found this book inspirational! I found comfort and support from the women in the book...like my own support group. At each stage of my journey, I can flip to the corresponding section to give me advice. I am thankful for these strong survivors who shared their stories!

What a truly unique book this is. It provides a wealth of information for everyone who is touched by breast cancer: those affected, their families, friends and caregivers. Information is provided clearly and concisely -- but is not overwhelming or over "technical". The women who wrote this book, giving so freely and unselfishly of themselves, are well on their way to helping countless others. We should all take a lesson from their honesty, bravery and perserverence. Take the time to read this book -- and pass it on to all those you know it will help.

This book is an incredible resource for young women with breast cancer. Not only does it document these women's journey in a frank and insightful way, this book provides tips, strategies, and personal experience to make this difficult time a little easier.
It is divided into clear sections, as not to overwhelm anyone reading it...read just the needed section at a time. The authors also included important information from leading doctors in the field.
Also, it is so nice to see the pictures of these young women, so beautiful and healthy, throughout the book.
I think this book will help and guide so many women on their path to wellness.

I have given this book to many people who are going through a health crisis. It speaks universally to the families of loved ones who are going through any sort of chronic illness. If you happen to be a family afflicted by Long QT syndrome, it makes the scientific knowledge of this genetic heart condition easily understood. I have also given this book to my children's teachers and the parents of their friends so that the diagnosis and treatment and day-to-day problems will be more readily understood and not seem as frightening to the adults who are in daily contact with my children.

I have given this book to many people who are going through a health crisis. It speaks universally to the families of loved ones who are going through any sort of chronic illness. If you happen to be a family afflicted by Long QT syndrome, it makes the scientific knowledge of this genetic heart condition easily understood. I have also given this book to my children's teachers and the parents of their friends so that the diagnosis and treatment and day-to-day problems will be more readily understood and not seem as frightening to the adults who are in daily contact with my children.

I have given this book to many people who are going through a health crisis. It speaks universally to the families of loved ones who are going through any sort of chronic illness. If you happen to be a family afflicted by Long QT syndrome, it makes the scientific knowledge of this genetic heart condition easily understood. I have also given this book to my children's teachers and the parents of their friends so that the diagnosis and treatment and day-to-day problems will be more readily understood and not seem as frightening to the adults who are in daily contact with my children.

I have given this book to many people who are going through a health crisis. It speaks universally to the families of loved ones who are going through any sort of chronic illness. If you happen to be a family afflicted by Long QT syndrome, it makes the scientific knowledge of this genetic heart condition easily understood. I have also given this book to my children's teachers and the parents of their friends so that the diagnosis and treatment and day-to-day problems will be more readily understood and not seem as frightening to the adults who are in daily contact with my children.