The power of words and love for books have to change a life and ultimately her world
350147
Great POV narration for a heart wrenching tale. The author weaves a tale that can surely be any child's formative years that grew up in Nazi Germany during WWII. Heart breaking moments, which reminded me a lot of Les Miserables (orphaned girl, growing up poor in politically dangerous times)
Highly recommended, with the warning; You will cry, and feel for Liesel as she survives day to day with her family and friends on Himmel street.
1230403
Naked truth? I don't write reviews. Not because I don't want to shout from the rooftops how good a book was, but because I know that everyone reads a book differently, feels a book differently and is changed by a book differently.

Some books though, keep holding onto you after you close the last page, some books won't let you go when go to sleep and continue with work and life the next day. Some books require you to write something about them because you are suddenly page by page changing as a result of how the book creeps into your heart and enters your soul and stays there. Forever. You are no longer the same person who read those first words.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover is one of those books for me. It's a book that defies category, so don't look at the labels. I would even encourage you to go into it completely blind, without reading the blurb or back cover copy. Don't read any reviews. Just open the book and read.

Read and be changed. Read and understand people a little bit more. Read and be a little less judgemental. Read and become more compassionate. Read and love people just a little bit more. Read and be forever changed.

I have been a life long reader and I have loved and enjoyed a multitude of books, talked about them, even encouraged so many others to read them. I've made a career out of my love of books. But there are very few books that have changed me from the inside out that rocked me to my core so completely. In fact, I can count those books on one hand and still have room to add It Ends With Us. It belongs there next to those books, a very special place on my "keeper shelf". Someday I'll meet Colleen again, purchase another copy just so she can sign it.

Naked truth? I don't write reviews, but I will for this book.

Allow Colleen take you on a journey, let her words sink in, let her change you. It's worth every second you'll spend drawn into the characters' world of heartaches, dreams, tears, struggle, strength, faith, forgiveness, courage, hope, and love. <3
2136722
Nina Serrano chronicles the life through poem and painting of an amazing activist who protested the Vietnam War, lived in Cuba, spent years in struggle for solidarity with Nicaragua, ( among many other things ) - all the while giving birth and raising two wonderful children, watching them in turn raise several amazing grandchildren. Through this, Nina herself is writing falling in and out of love, saying good bye to old friends and embracing the joy of new ones.  Her poems come from her immediate experiences , the tiny moments that have made up the life of a loving and much loved woman, poet, actress, writer, screenwriter, director and forever social activist. Read this book to be inspired on your own life journey, to make a friend you will always remember as you read her poetic commentaries on a life well lived.
1308569
A book about the profound love of books, reading, and the lifelong relationships we have with them, I found it apropos to read THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB while at the Vortext Writers Workshop at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island. Author Will Schwilbes engaging voice gently pulls readers into the pages and makes them part of the book discussions he and his mother had during the last two years of her life.

An unexpected bonus is that by the time you turn the last page youve acquired an amazing, widely varied reading list!
1450124
Amy's new memoir STRANGERS TEND TO TELL ME THINGS is inspiring, beautifully written, romantic, real, wrenching, and in many ways life-changing because it deals with family, parenting, aging parents, death, moving back home as an adult, and in the end the universal experience we all share of the ups and downs of living a life. I was most moved by the way the book is also a love letter from Amy to her own Mom.  This book will be a treasured gift for MOTHER'S DAY or really for ANY DAY.
783917
This incredible memoir tells the story of Azar Nafisi's life. But it is far more than that. It's the story of a world collapsing around her.  And it's also the story of some works of literature.  This adds depth and dimension to the experience of reading the book.
Ms. Nafisi is Iranian and spent her college years in America.  When she returned in 1979, there was a revolution going on.  There were arrests, executions and new restrictions for everyone, especially the women. At the time, Ms. Nafisi was teaching English literature at the University.  Later, she held clandestine classes in her home for a small group of women.  They would arrive wearing heavy veils but would remove them when they got inside.  And their discussions of literature often related to their own lives.
She describes exactly what it is like to live in a totalitarian society where punishments are cruel for even slight departures from the rules.  For example, one of her female students, along with four other female students visited a young male friend.  All the women were heavily veiled and the six young people were sitting around a table on someone's patio.  All of a sudden the police broke in and imprisoned the five women. They were medically checked for virginity and then each given 25 lashes before they were released a few days later. The charge was that they were not properly chaperoned.  The young man, of course, was not charged with anything.
By the 1980s there was a war with Iraq going on and by then Ms. Nafisi had two young children.  I really related to her as a mother as the bombs fell around her on a nightly basis and she would sit in the hallway near her children and escape into her world of books.  It is this love of books and the teaching of literature that is one of the many glues that hold the book together.  In one of her classrooms the book "The Great Gatsby" is put on trial.  In another classroom she discusses Henry James.  And, of course, her interpretation of "Lolita" is the centerpiece from which flows her strong discourse on the view of women, not only in Iran, but throughout history.
The best part of the book is that it thrust me right into the midst of the author's world.  It certainly wasn't pleasant.  But I applauded the way she coped with the inevitable and influenced others to deal with their circumstances. Ms. Nafisi loves her country and takes pride in her Persian heritage.  And yet she deplores that fact that in public the women there are forbidden to experience something as simple as being able to feel the wind and the sun on their skin -- a freedom I've always taken for granted.
Ms. Nafisi now lives in the United States with her husband and children.  I feel glad she escaped but yet understand her sorrow for her country.
This book is one of the best I've ever read.  It altered my perceptions as well as enriched my understanding of literature.  I loved it and give it my very highest recommendation.  Don't miss it!
3973124
We need more of this in the book community. This masterpiece had to be written, not just for the sake of empathy but more importantly for awareness. I always challenge myself with the books I read, there are books that are easy to read and will be forgotten in the years to come, but also there are books that would stay with you  this book is one of them. The beauty of how it depicted the pressing issues in the society that we live in, lyrical yet with impact. Something that had to be said over and over drilling it into the minds of the closed-minded ones. I commend how rich and how it was able to show the other side of what people usually miss out. It wasn't just promoting awareness, but immersing ourselves into the reality that we face day in and day out. It was more of an invitation to do something about it, to finally stand up for what we believe in. Stand up for the things they often shut us out.

The poems varied from important social issues, to culture, womens rights and yes even environment. You would easily notice the authors persistence to make all these problems and all these issues be relevant, to be talked about and eventually resolve them, in whatever for it may come from. I commend that the author used his vast knowledge and experience in concocting a truly revolutionary work. I loved how he used the written words as medium to send the message across. It is as if it is a summon to awaken ones sense to see past the veil of oppression and passivity. It was more than a collection of poems, it is a voice that demands to be heard.

Take the poem Mothers Love for an instance.

Maternal love, love sublime

Inexplicable, unfathomable

Noblest of all emotions

Visible both on human beings

and other beings

xxx

Maternal love is transcendent emotion

Both human species

and other species possess

I am perplexed

by some sporadic disasters

A mother offering her

affectionate daughter

to please her lovers sexual urge

How could she throw her dead child

to the hungry wold?

How could she suppress

the divine emotion of maternal love?

also the poem I Can Hear the Groan of Mother Earth

I can hear the groan of mother earth

being raped by her own beloved human sons

Having sucked all milk from her mountain breasts

quarry deep out of construction mania.

and this passage from the poem A Nightmare

A lavish wedding feast was served in the town hall,

rich delicacies heaped on the plates,

were relished by the pompous guests

I could see two ragged girls outside

struggling with the dogs in the garbage bin.

Now this poem is my favorite: Pleasures and Pains

Pleasures and pains;

two sides of a coin.

We toss it early morning;

majority gets the pains side.

Pleasures come like sprinkle,

while pains fall like deluge

and continue like monsoon.

Happiness is a mist

while sorrows shower like snow.

There was something so haunting about his poems. KV Dominics poems were written in such a manner that it is easier to grasp and fully digest, it was straight to the point without any reservations whatsoever. It was as honest as it could get. My ultimate favorite would be the whole collection of poems under Write Son, Write.

Now I could highly recommend this one for someone who wants to branch out to poetry and at the same time would want to immerse himself in social awareness and the present predicament that the humanity faces. This would be the perfect book.
2411179
Ellie's writing has the power to cause one to stop for a moment in this busy world we live in and savor the good, mourn the sad, and heal.
297536
THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING. OMG. I've always believed that words are the most powerful things we have and this book proves that. Yes it's got your basic boy, girl love lost storyline but there's so much more to this story. There are so many powerful qoutes and it's literally set in a bookstore. The characters are avid readers who love words and believe in the power of them. I don't want to give anything away because I didn't know much going in and it made it all the better. All book lover should read this one at some point. I mean is there anything better than reading about people who love books a much as you do?
3959185
This book makes one realize how important book clubs and discussion of books is to the growth of the human spirit.
3039933
Can a few moments change your life forever? Willa, a night-spirit, pushes the boundaries of her clans rules about stealing from the day-folk as her curiosity about the unknown world of a settler in the Great Smoky Mountains takes over. Robert Beatty explores how Willa deals with the fragility of nature in an ever-changing world, her bonds with the way she was raised, and who she must become. Willa is a brave soul who sees kindness in another and fights for what is right. Robert Beatty creates a magical world full of adventure again in Willa of the Wood. I will be buying several copies for my classroom and the brave girls in my life.
3656429
Not to often does a book come along that can change your life. "it is not enough to be a reflection.....when we are called it is with our own light that we answer."  Mrs. Kay has written a book of beautiful small poems and what amounts to be a vision into the heart of an amazing person.  From page to page you see beautiful artwork and loving and witty poems and shorts.  It has become a sort of second Bible for me and only wish that the impact it has had on my life and how I view myself and others should be passed on to as many people as possible.  A treasure that you do not want to miss.
3428159
Firstly, I urge you not to be put off reading this book by any preconceptions about the subject matter. There are certainly many moving moments throughout the book, but overall, it's a testament to the life of an extraordinary lady. Both her personal achievements and, perhaps more importantly, her philosophy of life. And this is very much a book about living. It's also a literary journey, with the illness of the author's mother providing a framework to explore so many incredible books.

The discussions about books don't include spoilers and very helpfully, there's an appendix which lists all titles discussed. This really is what I'd call a 'readers book'. There are so many literary references; a memory lane trip if you've already read the books and an exciting taster for titles unread. For many reasons, it's one of the most powerful and thought provoking books I've read. It describes heartbreak without being mawkish or over sentimental. It's an inspired and inspiring tribute to a selfless, unassuming individual and through her experiences, I've taken a number of very positive lessons about life. Will Schwalbe has every reason to be proud of this work and I feel certain his mother will look upon it with a smile.

Copy of review posted on Amazon.co.uk
717807
Wow.

In 2007, Will Schwalbe's dynamic mother, Mary Anne, was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is always fatal. This was a shock to Will's entire family, as Mary Anne had always been a true force of nature, a crusader for humanitarian rights all over the globe, once the director of admissions at Harvard and Radcliffe, and truly an inspiration to everyone she encountered.

Mary Anne and her husband, Douglas, raised their three children with very strong principles of courtesy, faith, learning, and family, as well as a lifelong love of books. So it was not at all unusual when Will, sitting with his mother in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, asked Mary Anne, "What are you reading?" That conversation started the two on an incredible journey of reading, exploring new and favorite authors, and discussing topics far beyond the books they read.

As a voracious reader, I absolutely fell in love with this book on so many levels. The books that Will and Mary Anne read spanned many genres--fiction, mysteries, poetry, plays, psychology, religion, philosophy--and I was pleased that I had read a large number of the books they touched on, although I don't think it's necessary to have done so. As they read, Will recounted memories of his mother and her amazing life, as well as his childhood, interspersing them with the day-to-day challenges faced by a person living with "treatable but not curable" cancer.

"When you're with someone who is dying, you may need to celebrate the past, live the present, and mourn the future all at the same time," Will discovered at one point during this period of time. As he and his mother learned about new authors and revisited favorites from the past, he also learned a lot about his mother in the process--what motivated her crusade for humanitarian rights, what drove her to make each person she encountered feel as if they were special, and how she felt about dealing with her illness.

Schwalbe, who was editor-in-chief of Hyperion Books before leaving to found Cookstr.com, is a fantastic writer who makes his mother a vivid presence in this book. You feel fortunate to be a part of their conversations, and the things they discussed definitely made me think. But of course, you know where the book will end, so there is always a tinge of melancholy as you follow the path of Mary Anne's illness and the remarkable strength she showed.

As I've said before, I'm a huge sap, so this book was a powerful, inspirational, and emotional one for me, but so wonderfully written that I read the entire book in a day. This book reinforced my love for life and the importance of telling those you care about how much you love them and how proud of them you are, but also it reinforced how much I love reading. How can you not fall in love with a book that celebrates the love of books and reading?

One quote from Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader, which Will included in the book, really sums The End of Your Life Book Club up for me:

  "Pass the time?" said the Queen. "Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds."

I am grateful to Will Schwalbe for opening up his life and his mother's world in this book. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it definitely made me think.
1669478
An incredible woman shares her story of love, loss, spiritual growth and perseverance. Sue Fredericks gives us a true gift by inviting us to navigate through a literary journey of enlightenment and empowered.
3675544
When you love books as much as I do, and you do too, or you wouldnt be reading this, a book comes along every once in a while, that is so special that you feel like youve won the lottery. My expectations of Ann Hood were high and her new novel THE BOOK THAT MATTERS MOST exceeded mine. The book is touching, intriguing, a page-turner, intelligent, sad, and even romantic. In addition to all of that, this book is full of great literary references as she guides the reader through a densely packed story as seen through the eyes of the protagonists recent marriage fallout and we come to learn about how a tragedy in her past has shaped her familys future, all while she recently joined a tight-knit book club. There is so much to learn, so much introspection and what we find, as readers, is how books, at various stages of our lives, can lend wisdom just when we need it most.

While reading the book, you will undoubtedly find yourself thinking of which books had a profound impact on you at various points in your life. How you might relate to the characters in Hoods book. You almost feel like you could jump into the pages and feel like you are in the book club at their discussions, or wish you were.

To Ms. Hood, I say a heartfelt thank you for the creativity to imagine this story and the great depths you took to write such a beauty. This book is one that matters most.
3029096
I've read a few books that had the possibility of being called life changing, and this is one.