first off: i assumed this would be a work of fiction, and not a memoir. so i had some disappointment to deal with that may have lessened my opinion of this book... because... i didn't really like it.

besides being a downer - the author's mother is dying bit by bit after all - i found there too much unnecessary detail in the preamble to each book: a short description of the author's life, and/or a statement of who gave his mother the book (which the prerequisite story of how his mother knew that person), and/or brief mentions of other books that the author wrote and how they were received. even in mentioning his mother's friends or co-workers, there seemed to be a need to catalogue their accomplishments as well. i wondered if the son actually wrote a much more pared down book but then went back to fill in details that would please the people mentioned.

about midway, i got excited as the mother/son team starting reading books i truly adored: didion's year of magical thinking, olive kiteridge, the elegance of the hedgehog... yet will schwalbe and his mother saw none of the things i saw in these books...

and when this reading team hit books that i fairly despised - like the girl with a dragon tattoo - i noticed that they gave every single book they read a thumbs up. and i think disliking, or disagreeing with, a book can be just as helpful to personal development. i mean they - gasp - thought the last lecture was mana from above. i hated the audacity that this man wanted his child to know him (and not the other way around) (and granted i was more annoyed with the fanfare, tv appearances, and book pushing that follwed his first presentation of the last lecture. if the lecture was indeed for his sons, and he wanted to spend time with them, every moment on tv, or working on the book, was taken from them)

but even a bad book provides a few gems: i liked the author's summation of dealing with dying people - don't ask how they are feeling, ask instead: would you like to talk about how you're feeling...