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May 21

13

Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg: Guest Review

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 13, 2021
Posted in Book Tours • Memoir  | Tagged With: , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel MichelbergCrash: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

Publisher:  She Writes Press, (April 27, 2021)
Category: Memoir, Divorce, Parenting, Moral Conflict, Caring for Disabled, Caregiver
Tour dates: April-May, 2021
ISBN: 978-1647420321
Available in Print and ebook, 224 pages
Crash

Description Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg


Rachel likes to think of herself as a nice Jewish girl, dedicated to doing what’s honorable, just as her parents raised her to do. But when her husband, David, survives a plane crash and is left with severe brain damage, she faces a choice: will she dedicate her life to caring for a man she no longer loves, or walk away?

Their marriage had been rocky at the time of the accident, and though she wants to do the right thing, Rachel doesn’t know how she is supposed to care for two kids in addition to a now irrational, incontinent, and seizure-prone grown man. And how will she manage to see her lover? But then again, what kind of selfish monster would refuse to care for her disabled husband, no matter how unhappy her marriage had been? Rachel wants to believe that she can dedicate her life to David’s needs, but knows in her heart it is impossible.

Crash tackles a pervasive dilemma in our culture: the moral conflicts individuals face when caregiving for a disabled or cognitively impaired family member.


My Thoughts Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

Wow! A memoir that is both powerful and heartbreaking. I’m not ashamed to say that this one made me tear up more than few times.

Rachel Michelberg had been married to her husband, David when both of their lives were suddenly changed forever. David was flying a plane over the California countryside when he was involved in a crash that left him and his friend badly hurt. After being rushed to the ICU, it was determined that David had suffered massive brain injuries that would result in memory loss and other complications.

Now, David was deemed unable to care for himself and likely to remain that way for the rest of his life. Rachel had to decide if she was up to caring full time for her husband as well as taking care of their two young children and dealing with her own health issues and work as a cantor.

I put myself through university, working in group homes with adults with developmental disabilities.  Some of the people I worked with were also in wheel chairs.  I know first hand what back breaking work that is, even for well trained staff. I loved what I did because I knew I was making a difference  in peoples lives.  I was also gaining valuable experience that I knew will help me after I graduated with my social work degrees.  However, I understand that not everyone can do this type of work and that is okay.  Now, in my 50’s, there is no way I could do it but am so glad I got to do it when I was younger!

At home caregivers are people that are too often ignored or forgotten about in our society and this memoir is an excellent example of that. The difficulties that Rachel faced and the decisions about her husband’s care that all fell to her were affecting and upsetting. I can’t imagine having to face questions like that about a loved one and I hope that I never have to.

On top of everything else, before the accident, Rachel and her husband were going through a rough patch in their marriage and she was considering asking him for a divorce. Of course, after the accident, this question seemed impossible to bring up and Rachel had to decide if she wanted to remain married to this man and provide constant care for him.

I won’t spoil the ending, because this is definitely one that you should read yourself, but I felt such a hopeful and light feeling after reading this. I want to thank Rachel Michelberg for her bravery in sharing this very difficult time in her life and her honesty.  I think it could help others in similar situations.

5 stars for a beautiful and moving story and I hope Rachel is in a happier place now!
I received the ebook for my honest thoughts.

About Rachel Michelberg

Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

(c) Alicia Telfer

Rachel Michelberg grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and still enjoys living there with her husband, Richard, and their two dogs, Nala and Beenie. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from San Jose State University and has performed leading roles in musicals and opera from Carmen to My Fair Lady as well as the part of the Mother Abbess (three times!) in The Sound of Music.

When Rachel isn’t working with one of her twenty voice and piano students, she loves gardening, hiking, and making her own bone broth. CRASH: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver is her first book.

Website: https://www.rachelmauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelMAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RMichelberg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelmichelbergauthor/

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Crash: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

Sep 20

8

From the Lake House by Kristen Rademacher: Review

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on September 8, 2020
Posted in Books Read in 2020 • Memoir  | Tagged With: , , , , | 2 Comments

From the Lake House by Kristen RademacherFrom the Lake House: A Mother’s Odyssey of Loss and Love by Kristen Rademacher


Publisher:  She Writes Press (July 21, 2020)
Category: Memoir, Grief, Motherhood
Tour Dates August and September, 2020
ISBN: 978-1631528668
Available in Print and ebook,237 pages
From the Lake House

Description From the Lake House by Kristen Rademacher


Dizzy with grief after a shattering breakup, Kristen did what any sensible thirty-nine-year-old woman would do: she fled, abandoning her well-ordered life in metropolitan Boston and impulsively relocating to a college town in North Carolina to start anew with a freshly divorced southerner.

Dismissing the neon signs that flashed Rebound Relationship, Kristen was charmed by the host of contrasts with her new beau. He loved hunting and country music, she loved yoga and NPR; he worried about nothing, she worried about everything. The luster of her new romance and small-town lifestyle soon―and predictably―faded, but by then a pregnancy test stick had lit up. As Kristen’s belly grew, so did her concern about the bond with her partner―and so did a fierce love for her unborn child. Ready or not, she was about to become a mother. And then, tragedy struck.

Poignant and insightful, From the Lake House explores the echoes of rash decisions and ill-fated relationships, the barren and disorienting days an aching mother faces without her baby, and the mysterious healing that can take root while rebuilding a life gutted from loss.

My Thoughts From the Lake House by Kristen Rademacher


An absolutely powerful memoir about a mother’s love and the quiet pain of women.

I read this one in one sitting and then immediately had to go back and re-read the parts that resonated with me the most. For me, the parts where Rademacher talked about her experiences with loss and coming through her depression were the most moving.

Rademacher was affected by the terror attacks of 9/11, not only because of the great loss of human life but because of a personal loss she suffered on the same day. The attacks caused Rademacher’s long term boyfriend to rethink his life, and he decided to break up with her. Adrift and by completely by herself, Rademacher found that she had to rethink her own life in order to figure out what she intended to do next. She decided to go visit her brother in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the pace of life is slower and she would be able to think, plan and rejuvenate.

Very quickly, she fell into another relationship with a man who was almost entirely her opposite. Jason was a gun-loving, conservative, country boy whom Rademacher found charming despite their differences. She soon became pregnant and was elated to be creating new life. However, she was overdue and had to make an appointment to induce labor.  Shortly before she was supposed to be induced, Rademacher discovered that her daughter would be stillborn and that she had to go through the traumatizing experience of giving birth to a child that she would not get to bring home. Of course, after the birth Rademacher went through a host of mental health issues that plagued her for many years.

Writing about the birth of her child and the emotional pain and depression that she went through afterward, Rademacher truly shines. I sympathized with her pain so much that when I finished the book I felt deeply changed by reading it.  I highly recommend this chronicle of heartache and inner strength. Be sure to have a box of tissue nearby when you read it, I cried buckets. I already know that I’m going to remember it for a long time to come. Highly recommended with 5 stars.

I received the ebook for my honest opinion.

About Kristen Rademacher


From the Lake House by Kristen Rademacher

(c) C Clemons

Kristen Rademacher has lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina since 2002, which is when she began writing. FROM THE LAKE HOUSE is her first memoir. With a Master’s Degree in Education and a Professional Coaching Certification, Kristen is an Academic Coach and ADHD Specialist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also leads trainings and presentations at national conferences on the topic of academic coaching.

Website:  https://kristenrademacher.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristenrademacherauthor/

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Jul 20

17

Keeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels: Review

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on July 17, 2020
Posted in Biography • Book Tours • Books Read in 2020 • Memoir  | Tagged With: , , , | 7 Comments

Keeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca DanielsKeeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels


Publisher:  Sunbury Press, February 2019
Category: Memoir, History, Military, WWII, and Biography
Tour Dates June and July, 2020
ISBN:  978-1620061145
Available in Print and ebook, 284 pages
Keeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels

Description Keeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels


Daily Life of a Utilities Engineer at AFHQ in Europe During WWII; or, What to Say in Letters Home When You’re Not Allowed to Write about the War

Most people don’t realize that during the war in Europe in the 1940s, it took an average of six support soldiers to make the work of four combat soldiers possible. Most of what’s available in the literature tends toward combat narratives, and yet the support soldiers had complex and unique experiences as well. This book is based on personal correspondence, and it is primarily a memoir that creates a picture of the day-to-day realities of an individual soldier told in his own words [as much as he could tell under the wartime rules of censorship, that is] as well as giving insight into what it was actually like to be an American soldier during WWII.

It explores the experiences of a non-combat Army utilities engineer working in a combat zone during the war in Europe and takes the protagonist from basic training through various overseas assignments—in this case to England, North Africa, and Italy as a support soldier under Eisenhower and his successors at Allied Force Headquarters. It also includes some reflections about his life after returning to Oregon when the war was over.

The soldier involved is Captain Harold Alec Daniels [OSU, Class of 1939, ROTC] and most of the letters were written to his wife, Mary Daniels [attended U of O in the late 1930s]. They are the author’s parents, and she inherited the letter collection, photos, and all other primary source materials after her mother’s death in 2006.

My Thoughts Keeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels


“I married a hero,” one of Mary Daniels letters begins, and another states: “According to Life [Magazine], the engineers are the ELITE of the army. I’d rather he’d be in the finance corps.”

Such letters being sent to a young wife’s family members in 1941 were probably not all that uncommon. After all, World War II was raging, Japan had just recently bombed Pearl Harbor and countless men had been drafted to fight on the front lines. Many a wife was left at home, missing her husband and praying for his safety. But the situation with Mary’s husband was just a little bit different.
You see, Alec Daniels was not fighting in the trenches but he was battling against the Nazis in a slightly different capacity.

Alec was a support officer, a soldier who was in charge of maintaining the infrastructure, administration and logistical aspects of the war effort. As an electrical engineer, Alec’s job was, as the title suggests literally “keeping the lights on.” As the memoir says, these support troops were an enormous part of the war that is often overlooked and not talked about.

Because of the delicate nature of Alec’s work, he could only relay so much in his letters home, so he focused more on his thoughts and feelings about his work than any specific details. Many of the letters between Mary and Alec are used in the memoir and they add such a lovely element of realness that really makes the book sing.
Reading their thoughts from that time in their own words, along with the beautiful black and white pictures used throughout the memoir made this book a home run for me. A timeless story about love and war, ‘Keeping the Lights on for Ike’ is one to be read and read again. 5 stars!

I received the ebook for my honest opinion.

About Rebecca DanielsKeeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels


Rebecca Daniels has been a university professor for many years who has also simultaneously had a vital creative career in the theatre. Throughout her career, her work has always been a mix of performance, teaching, and her own writing.

Her groundbreaking book on women directors and the effects of gender on their work is currently still in print [Women Stage Directors Speak: Exploring the Effects of Gender on Their Work, McFarland, 1996], and she has been published in several theatre-related professional journals over the years as well. After her retirement in the summer of 2015, she was finally able to focus all her energies on this book.

Website:  https://rebecca-daniels.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.daniels.9

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Giveaway Keeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels


This giveaway is for 1 print copy open to Canada and the U.S. only. There are also 2 pdf copies open worldwide. There will be 3 winners. This giveaway ends August 1, 2020,midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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Keeping the Lights On for Ike by Rebecca Daniels

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