APRIL 2013 - AudioFile
In the middle of her wonderfully hectic life as a wife, mother of three, and successful journalist, Susan Spencer-Wendel was handed the terminal diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and given a year to live. Her decision to live that time in joy gave rise to this uplifting memoir celebrating life's small miracles, precious relationships, and joyous memories. With upbeat pacing and wry humor, narrator Karen White reflects the author's unbroken spirit and ever present wit while her wistful tone conveys all the pathos of the situation without ever becoming maudlin. White's moving presentation helps realize Spencer-Wendel's ultimate wish for her incredible book "to make people laugh and cry, and hug their children, and joke with their friends, and dwell on how wonderful it is to be alive." M.O.B.
© AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
Journalist Spencer-Wendel discovered she was ill when her left hand suddenly became withered. As she struggles to come to terms with knowing something is wrong—not wanting to find out, then not fully believing the doctor's ALS diagnosis—she writes with courage and strength. When she gets the news, the 40-something author is in her prime, blessed with a great reporter job at the Palm Beach Post and loving family. Using benefits from an insurance policy, she quits her job and decides to take trips with her family and friends, so that she can have all of the amazing experiences she's put off and create lasting memories. She goes to the final space shuttle launch with her youngest son, having never been to Cape Canaveral, even though her home is only hours away. A few months later, joined by her best friend, she sees the aurora borealis in the Yukon. It's there that Spencer-Wendel's philosophy plays out, as it does many times more, as she briefly caught the lights before tripping and missing the rest. She is appreciative and grateful for those few seconds and banishes regrets. There are certainly moments of heartbreak that she doesn't shy away from, such as when she goes shopping for bridal dresses with her teenaged daughter, knowing she'll miss any future wedding. Spencer-Wendel's life will sadly be cut short, but in writing her story, she shows her family and friends how to go on, choosing happiness and love over fear. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Susan Spencer-Wendel had to face the question, ‘What would you do if you had a year to live?’ This profound, tender, and often funny account of her experiences will remind readers of what really matters most: love.” — Gretchen Rubin, New York Times-bestselling author of The Happiness Project
“It’s a touching and brutally honest account of one mother’s inspiring attempt to get the most out of the time she has left.” — USA Today
“Her honesty and frustration are underscored with a wicked sense of humor . . .” — ABC News
“All you can do . . . is to turn the pages, slack-jawed, in awe at her insistence on having powerful, individual experiences . . .” — Huffington Post
“This heartbreaking and heartwarming good-bye will make you laugh as much as it makes you cry. Susan Spencer-Wendel’s determination to find the joy in life after having been dealt the ALS card is both inspirational and enlightening.” — Cokie Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters
“Spencer-Wendel writes with courage and strength. . . . Her life will sadly be cut short, but in writing her story, she shows her family and friends how to go on, choosing happiness and love over fear.” — Publishers Weekly
“. . . almost unbearably moving chronicle of how Spencer-Wendel went about creating lasting moments in that year for the ones she loved . . .” — New York Daily News
“A poignant, wise love story.” — Kirkus Reviews
“The inspirational account of a woman whose ALS diagnosis and subsequent physical decline don’t prevent her from enjoying life to the fullest, which she proves.” — O, the Oprah Magazine
“The tales are painfully honest, and they’re heartbreaking because we know the inevitable outcome. But mostly, they’re inspiring. Spencer-Wendel, even in the darkest of moments, remains insistent on happiness-staggeringly so.” — U.S. News & World Report
“Her heart-ripping book chronicles what she did immediately after her diagnosis: she decided to embrace life while death chased her down..…endearing and all too human” — New York Times
“The mother of three children ages 7 to 15 describes her poignant last efforts to travel the world and stay close to her family and community.” — AARP.com
ABC News
Her honesty and frustration are underscored with a wicked sense of humor . . .
USA Today
It’s a touching and brutally honest account of one mother’s inspiring attempt to get the most out of the time she has left.
New York Daily News
. . . almost unbearably moving chronicle of how Spencer-Wendel went about creating lasting moments in that year for the ones she loved . . .
the Oprah Magazine O
The inspirational account of a woman whose ALS diagnosis and subsequent physical decline don’t prevent her from enjoying life to the fullest, which she proves.
Cokie Roberts
This heartbreaking and heartwarming good-bye will make you laugh as much as it makes you cry. Susan Spencer-Wendel’s determination to find the joy in life after having been dealt the ALS card is both inspirational and enlightening.
Gretchen Rubin
Susan Spencer-Wendel had to face the question, ‘What would you do if you had a year to live?’ This profound, tender, and often funny account of her experiences will remind readers of what really matters most: love.
Huffington Post
All you can do . . . is to turn the pages, slack-jawed, in awe at her insistence on having powerful, individual experiences . . .
U.S. News & World Report
The tales are painfully honest, and they’re heartbreaking because we know the inevitable outcome. But mostly, they’re inspiring. Spencer-Wendel, even in the darkest of moments, remains insistent on happiness-staggeringly so.
AARP.com
The mother of three children ages 7 to 15 describes her poignant last efforts to travel the world and stay close to her family and community.
New York Times
Her heart-ripping book chronicles what she did immediately after her diagnosis: she decided to embrace life while death chased her down..…endearing and all too human
USA Today
It’s a touching and brutally honest account of one mother’s inspiring attempt to get the most out of the time she has left.
O: the Oprah Magazine
The inspirational account of a woman whose ALS diagnosis and subsequent physical decline don’t prevent her from enjoying life to the fullest, which she proves.
New York Daily News
. . . almost unbearably moving chronicle of how Spencer-Wendel went about creating lasting moments in that year for the ones she loved . . .
Library Journal
Diagnosed at age 45 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), Spencer-Wendel plunged into a live-each-day-fully whirlwind that has already made news (she was spotlighted in the Wall Street Journal, and the film rights to her story have been acquired for $2.5 million). Here she recounts trips to the Yukon to see the Northern Lights, for instance, and to Northern California to meet her birth mother. Most telling, she shops in New York with her 14-year-old daughter for the wedding dress she won't live to see her daughter wear. Foreign rights have been sold to nearly 20 countries, and the first printing is 250,000 copies.
APRIL 2013 - AudioFile
In the middle of her wonderfully hectic life as a wife, mother of three, and successful journalist, Susan Spencer-Wendel was handed the terminal diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and given a year to live. Her decision to live that time in joy gave rise to this uplifting memoir celebrating life's small miracles, precious relationships, and joyous memories. With upbeat pacing and wry humor, narrator Karen White reflects the author's unbroken spirit and ever present wit while her wistful tone conveys all the pathos of the situation without ever becoming maudlin. White's moving presentation helps realize Spencer-Wendel's ultimate wish for her incredible book "to make people laugh and cry, and hug their children, and joke with their friends, and dwell on how wonderful it is to be alive." M.O.B.
© AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
With the assistance of Witter (Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him, 2011, etc.), crime reporter Spencer-Wendel chronicles her life and the decisions she has made since being diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a wasting disease that progressively causes loss of control of voluntary muscle movement. In her mid-40s and a happily married mother of three with a thriving career, the author rejected the option of assisted suicide in favor of making her last years memorable despite the inevitability of increasing disability. Although not believing that her death would ruin the lives of her husband and children, she understood that it might "affect their ability to live with delight. To live with joy." Spencer-Wendel was determined to overcome her dread of losing mobility and to live her life to the fullest even as the disease progressed. As inspiration, the author found solace in Lou Gehrig's 1939 farewell speech, in which he described himself as "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth, even after 'catching a bad break.' " The author decided to spend her remaining time to travel to places she longed to see, taking friends and family with her. In this way, she left them a legacy of joyfully shared memories. One of the more difficult decisions she made was not to hoard her remaining good health. She determined that she would not search out experimental programs, nor even spare herself physical strain, even though traveling took a further toll on her mobility. Each of the trips more than met the author's expectations: a visit with her son to swim with dolphins, shopping in New York with her daughter and a journey with her husband to Romania, where they lived for the first two years of their marriage. A poignant, wise love story.
