Welcome to Litsy!

“Intolerable sadness was tolerated by closing the book on a life, one never to be reopened.”

Another year of mandatory training and the only way to survive…a good book and a Pepsi

“To be finished with life, one needs to be utterly exhausted, and worn out by heartache”

This was a lovely listen. Kate Mulgrew does a fantastic job reading, and though (fortunately) my parents are quite to the age of sickness and dying, I was old enough to go through similar emotions with my beloved grandparents. #audiobook #morebookslessbullshit2019

This book is an exploration of Kate‘s parents‘ deaths and her family‘s closeness.

Kate‘s father passed away quickly from stage 4 cancer. He was aloof and the first half of the book reflects the short amount of time to reconcile this difficult relationship.

Her mother died slowly from Alzheimer‘s. They had a fun, loving relationship, and the second half expressed the difficulty of watching her mother‘s vibrancy taken piece-by-piece. 4.5⭐️

Compassionate and heartbreaking, read with tissues. The book must be listened to on audio in order to hear it magnificently performed by the author. Kate Mulgrew paints a vivid picture of a close-knit, large, Irish Catholic family coping with the impossible, yet all too common tragedies of Alzheimer's and cancer.

Mulgrew helped her parents die with dignity 😔

Great Kindle deal today on Kate Mulgrew‘s new memoir. Thanks Book Riot!

Y‘all, I‘m not going to lie. Today has been rough. It‘s been a struggle to get out of bed. I‘m so depressed, I can barely walk. We had a bad storm. The power went out. I still made some progress. I started this audiobook, and I love Kate‘s voice and her observations.

#24b4monday #bfc #bfcr2 #bookfitnesschallenge

This is up soon on #Audible. #TheHomecoming #StarTrekSummerJune

Kate returns home to Ohio to care for her elderly parents in this follow up memoir to her excellent Born with Teeth. I love her voice as well. #audiobook

Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek Voyager and Orange is the New Black fame shares her experiences with her parents‘ deaths in this memoir. Mulgrew is a capable writer; her voice is very authentic. I don‘t think I would have picked this book unless Page 1 had sent it to me. On the one hand, her parents‘ deaths from cancer and Alzheimer‘s are relatable, but most of us aren‘t actresses with bicoastal addresses. I loved Mulgrew‘s Mexican housekeeper Lucy!

I didn't read Kate Mulgrew's earlier memoir but this is really much more about her parents, particularly the ends of their lives and how she and her siblings were present for those long and painful periods of deterioration and change.
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Mulgrew is perceptive but really only talks about herself in relation to everyone else.. maybe that's life in a giant family. It's a nice comparison of stoic midwesterners and their New York City actress daughter.

On this Memorial Day weekend I am learning how to forget...🖤

#RememberMe #StarTrekSummerMay

This book, by none other than Voyager‘s Captain Janeway, comes out on Tuesday. I loved her first book, Born with Teeth, so much, I preordered her new one from #Audible.

It deals with, in part, caring for her mother who has Alzheimer‘s Disease. I‘m excited to learn more about her and her family.

Got out of the house and ran a few errands with the babe tonight! I finished early and had some time to sit in the car reading while waiting for my husband and oldest to finish with Cub Scouts. Youngest slept the whole time.

Started this ARC last night and breezed through the first 100 pages, which is fast for me. So far, this is a really interesting reflection from Mulgrew on her parents, family, and childhood. It reminds me a little of Then Again by Diane Keaton--not because their lives were the same, but because the style of writing forms its own kind of subgenre in the family memoir vein. Looking forward to the rest of this book!