Free eBooks A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir Of Hope Available To Downloads
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Tom Brokaw, the bestselling author of The Greatest Generation, comes a powerful memoir of a year of dramatic change—a year spent battling cancer and reflecting on a long, happy, and lucky life.Tom Brokaw has led a fortunate life, with a strong marriage and family, many friends, and a brilliant journalism career culminating in his twenty-two years as anchor of the NBC Nightly News and as bestselling author. But in the summer of 2013, when back pain led him to the doctors at the Mayo Clinic, his run of good luck was interrupted. He received shocking news: He had multiple myeloma, a treatable but incurable blood cancer. Friends had always referred to Brokaw’s “lucky star,” but as he writes in this inspiring memoir, “Turns out that star has a dimmer switch.” Brokaw takes us through all the seasons and stages of this surprising year, the emotions, discoveries, setbacks, and struggles—times of denial, acceptance, turning points, and courage. After his diagnosis, Brokaw began to keep a journal, approaching this new stage of his life in a familiar role: as a journalist, determined to learn as much as he could about his condition, to report the story, and help others facing similar battles. That journal became the basis of this wonderfully written memoir, the story of a man coming to terms with his own mortality, contemplating what means the most to him now, and reflecting on what has meant the most to him throughout his life. Brokaw also pauses to look back on some of the important moments in his career: memories of Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the morning of September 11, 2001, in New York City, and more. Through it all, Brokaw writes in the warm, intimate, natural voice of one of America’s most beloved journalists, giving us Brokaw on Brokaw, and bringing us with him as he navigates pain, procedures, drug regimens, and physical rehabilitation. Brokaw also writes about the importance of patients taking an active role in their own treatment, and of the vital role of caretakers and coordinated care. Generous, informative, and deeply human, A Lucky Life Interrupted offers a message of understanding and empowerment, resolve and reality, hope for the future and gratitude for a well-lived life.Praise for A Lucky Life Interrupted “It’s impossible not to be inspired by Brokaw’s story, and his willingness to share it.”—Los Angeles Times“A powerful memoir of battling cancer and facing mortality . . . Through the prism of his own illness, Brokaw looks at the larger picture of aging in America.”—Booklist (starred review) “Moving, informative and deeply personal.”—The Daily Beast“The former NBC News anchor has applied the fact-finding skills and straightforward candor that were his stock in trade during his reporting days to A Lucky Life Interrupted.”—USA Today“Brokaw doesn’t paste a smiley face on his story. Again and again, the book returns to stories of loss but also of grace, luck and the beauty of having another swing at bat.”—The Washington Post “Engaging . . . [with] the kind of insight that is typical of Mr. Brokaw’s approach to life and now to illness.”—The Wall Street Journal “Powerful and courageous . . . [Brokaw] looks ahead to the future with hope.”—Bookreporter “Wryly good-natured . . . a wise and oddly comforting look at the toughest news of all.”—Kirkus Reviews
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (May 12, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400069696
ISBN-13: 978-1400069699
Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (495 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #35,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #10 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Doctor-Patient Relations #38 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology > Medicine #58 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Cancer
I’m always on the lookout for books that make it easier — there’s no easy way — for people to explain to others what’s going on when a person is told he/she has a very serious illness. Art Buchwald’s 2006 memoir “Too Soon to Say Goodbye” (Random House) is an excellent example and a friend just sent me this book (more about this later in the review). The graphic novel and later feature film “American Splendor” by Cleveland OH VA worker Harvey Pekar is another good one to read and get more than a laugh or two along with sage advice.The latest book in this vein — no pun intended, although people visiting doctors had better be aware of veins and arteries — is Tom Brokaw’s “A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope” (Random House, 240 pages, $27.00).By any definition, Tom Brokaw, born in South Dakota in 1940, has led a fortunate life, with a strong, loving marriage, a wonderful family, many friends and a journalism career culminating in 22 years as the respected anchor of “NBC Nightly News.”All this changed in the summer of 2013, when back pain led him to the doctors at the Mayo Clinic, his run of good luck was interrupted. He received shocking news: He had multiple myeloma, a treatable but incurable blood cancer. Friends had always referred to Brokaw’s “lucky star,” but as he writes in this inspiring memoir, “Turns out that star has a dimmer switch.” Another way of looking at it is capsulized in the Yiddish proverb “Man plans, God laughs.”Brokaw began to keep a journal, approaching this new stage of his life in a familiar role: as a journalist, determined to learn as much as he could about his condition, to report the story, and help others facing similar battles.
Tom Brokaw, seventy-five, is one of America's most revered newsmen. He was in Germany when the the Berlin Wall came down, interviewed Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison, witnessed the horrors and heroics of September 11th, and was on the scene during other transformative events both in the U. S. and abroad. He has been blessed with a happy marriage to Meredith, his high-school sweetheart and wife of fifty-one years. Tom and Meredith have three devoted daughters and five grandchildren who bring them immense joy.When Brokaw began to feel out of sorts in 2013, he thought little of it--a few twinges as one ages are not unexpected. When his condition did not improve he consulted various physicians, and discovered that he had multiple myeloma, an incurable cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow that can cause excruciating compression fractures in the spine. In his memoir, "A Lucky Life Interrupted," Brokaw discusses his shock at realizing that he had a serious illness; determination to do whatever he could to recover; and his gratitude to the incredible doctors and nurses who did so much to get him back on his feet.Brokaw's lucid, candid, and unaffected prose makes us feel as if he is speaking directly to us about some of the issues that are on his mind: his initial reluctance to let the public know that he was ailing (he still wants to work on documentaries and other projects); his realization that he needed strong advocates to help him navigate the maze of America's knotty health care system; and his ultimate acceptance of the fact that, even if his condition stabilized, nothing would ever be the same. He experienced debilitating pain, lost a great deal of weight, and felt his strength drain away. Throughout his ordeal, he remained curious about the people he met.
A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope Hope Against Hope: A Memoir Chef Interrupted: Discovering Life's Second Course in Ireland with Multiple Sclerosis Lucky Man: A Memoir Sleep, Interrupted: A physician reveals the #1 reason why so many of us are sick and tired Man, Interrupted: Why Young Men are Struggling & What We Can Do About It Death Interrupted (Vanished Book 1) Love Interrupted How to Get Lucky: 13 techniques for discovering and taking advantage of life's good breaks Lucky Dog: How Being a Veterinarian Saved My Life Christmas in Good Hope (A Good Hope Novel Book 1) Summer in Good Hope (A Good Hope Novel Book 2) Hope and the Billionaire's Triplets (Faith, Love, Hope and Destiny) Messages of Hope: The Metaphysical Memoir of a Most Unexpected Medium Fault Lines: A Memoir (2nd Edition) (The Cross-Cultural Memoir Series) Sam and the Lucky Money Ten Lucky Leprechauns A Berry Lucky St. Patrick's Day (Strawberry Shortcake) Instant Expert: Collecting Lucky Coins, Tokens, and Medals (Instant Expert (Random House)) The Lucky Years: How to Thrive in the Brave New World of Health
