Modern Loss audiobook

Thank goodness our college library has unlimited renewals for books if there isn't a waiting list. I checked this out and then didn't want to face the fact that I, indeed was experiencing modern loss after my dad died. Alas, I cracked it out on a camping trip and breezed through it in about 4 hours. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and realizing that I'm not alone in my experiences 7 months after my dad died. It was cathartic to read this, as I don't have many people -- especially locally I can talk to about his death and how I'm reacting to it.

A collection of essay written by different people that have experienced grief. A lot of them are the type of essays that will make you laugh, and you'll feel comfort knowing others have felt the same way you do.

Diverse range of grief experiences, which I really appreciated. Hit those spots of connection that I need when I feel isolated in my grief. Didn’t give this 5 stars because there was randomly SO much fatphobia, it was honestly egregious.

This was a good collection of essays about grief. The essays covered a broad range of topics relating to grief and were written about losses of people of varied relationships to the writer, ranging ages, and many different causes of death. Some were about being newly bereaved and others were years down the road. I didn't relate to all of the essays, but I found my own experiences reflected in a lot of them. I liked the illustrations and that some of the essays were funny and hopeful as well as sad.

These are real, beautiful, human stories about grief. The writers in this book have been affected by grief in so many different ways, and their stories are an intimate look into how their lives have changed as a result of that grief. I highly recommend this book for both those who know grief and for those who just want to understand grief a little better.

There is no one way to feel grief, no one way to react to it, no set order or timeline to the experience. That's obvious. But it is still soothing to read these short essays by those who have been there.

Can I give it six stars??I hate that I had reason to love this book, but it felt like a warm hug from my mama (whose loss, coincidentally, is why I had reason to read it) alternating with a big belly laugh. There is, indeed, humor in death.Some books about grief are ultimately productive to read but are painful to get through. Though this book had me in tears several times because I could identify so strongly with the writers, it was easy to get through. In fact, I found myself wanting more. I'm lucky that my mom has been the only major loss in my life so far, but I appreciated the essays from those who had lost children, spouses, parents, friends, etc. I wanted to hug some of the writers; their warm insights had me wanting hugs *from* some of them. Though one would obviously get more out of this book if they had lost someone, this could be a good read if you're trying to understand what a friend/partner/etc is going through in their own grief.

I've read a lot of books about grief over the past year. My guess is if you are reading books about grief, there is a reason for it and at least for me, all have provided some comfort.There are no complete answers, and no complete roadmaps. But Modern Loss provides an essay, sometimes just short, on a whole host of various scenarios in dealing with the loss of a loved one. Or maybe one who wasn't so loved.There's a lot here and sometimes (often) I cried, but I also smiled with recognition. Grief is personal, but it's also Universal. We just have a hard time understanding that.

A great assortment of essays on grief which reminds readers that while this feeling is common to anyone who ever lives, there are endless ways it can play out in our lives. Thoughts, feelings, needs, and actions taken by the writers of these stories might not all be applicable to all of us but somehow it still grounds me in the humanity and commonality of dealing with loss.Some essays are standouts. But I’m guessing that we take what we need and the ones that felt like filler to me may have meant much more to others. Excerpts:Hemingway: the world breaks everyone and afterward some are strong at the broken places. I’ve been made strong at the broken places. The modern world doesn’t allow most of us to raise our children as we should: in clusters and groups. So that while love is abundant, the sense that one person is indispensable is not as powerful as the sense that others Will always be there. Because just as death can come in unexpected and life-changing ways, so too can care. There is, after all, no reason why a person can’t be both a mother and a mother figure, Why we can’t both fully grieve a mother and still continue to be fueled by what she showed us all how to Do so well: to weather suffering and emerge with the joy of being even more connected after the worst has passed.And then… I’ll never have to worry again about whether or not Anthony is going to die. This thought surprised me because I’d never anticipated having it or wanting to have it. It just occurred to me that as bad as it was to have him dead, he’d never die again. The profound simultaneous morbidness and lightness of that thought struck me as extremely silly. Instead of thinking about it further, I just found myself feeling relief and allowing the relief of that thought to replace the grief.The yearning for human connection, whether two hours or a few sweet months is it a desire to be taught, to be shown new things, To hear new stories, to hear a slightly widened worldview. Then he looked everyone in the eye and promised he wouldn’t let this destroy our marriage. He looked at me and said this would not destroy us. I want to ask each of you to hold us to that. … New polo shirts that my dad bought and never had a chance to wear; A post it note with a message on it, the last thing my father ever wrote. Death turns everything into an heirloom. It was an admission that yes, the first year is the hardest except for, in their own way, all the others.You were an astrophysicist. You were way smarter than everyone…You loved James Taylor and Billy Joel and Africa by Toto. I called you Dede when I was learning to talk. You had bad skin as an adolescent. Puberty was roighr on you. You are big hearted and brilliant and affectionate like our father. You were angry and brilliant and dark like our mother…. You liked Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut. You did OK in school but never as well as you should have. Me too. You had a terrible temper. You would get consumed by rage set off by I don’t even remember what….I have a rad little boy now and he’s a lot like you in all the good ways. He carries your name and we talk about you all the time. He asks enormous questions about the nature of time and space and i say that I wish that you were here to answer him. Today the twins are, like my grief, 10 years old. … fittingly, they just finished the Harry Potter series, ending book 7 a few days after the 10th anniversary of my father‘s death. I take comfort in the fact that the boys whose new lives buffered me through my first experience with death now know the lessons of that series. That the dad never truly leave us. That scars serve as both pain and protection. That love is the most powerful force on Earth

“We are imperfect people mourning imperfect people imperfectly. But these imperfections make us no less deserving of empathy and loving expressions of grief.”honest and witty. i didn't expect a collection of essays about death to actually make me laugh, but this book was pretty funny! and also helpful — well, as helpful as a book on grief can be. my dad, who i was very close with growing up, is about to pass away, and so i ordered a few books on loss. this book was a well-written collection of essays from various authors (some of them famous) exploring the death of loved ones. i related to some essays more than others — gabrielle birkner's story of her parents passing in a horrific murder was heartbreaking, but i related far more to the stories of losing a loved one slowly to a much less violent but also miserable death than that tale. but yeah! i enjoyed this collection overall; i did definitely like some essays more than others but it was fairly strong in general. i also really liked the illustrations!

This is one of the funniest, sweetest, most raw and poignant books I have ever read on the subject of grief and loss. Maybe that's because every essay is not written by a person who has studied death, loss, or grief, but by people who are dealing with that pain themselves. These essays are real, entertaining, heart-wrenching, and clearly demonstrate what these individuals were looking for when they walked through the darkest places of their lives. There are also hilarious and honest charts and bits of information about dealing with loss shown in illustrations throughout the book. Modern Loss has helped me to see the world through new eyes. It has helped me understand the human race a little better, and for that I am humbled and grateful.

I lost my mother a little over a year and a half ago and was gifted this book. Little did I know it would change my perceptions on grief and life as a whole. This book tells an excellent story of how our life connections and emotions inspire us into who we are today through personal testimonies. There is a story in this book everyone can relate to and I absolutely love how grief is depicted through different kinds of losses, whether that be death of a loved one, loss of a friendship, and more. I would absolutely note that some chapters could be triggering but this book is not in a cover to cover format and allows the reader to choose what section and stories to read at their leisure. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Candid essays by a variety of authors on grief, loss, death, and everything that accompany them from inheritances to triggers, secrets to identity crises. Not too dark, not too funny, I found this approachable and thought-provoking. I was hoping for a bit more of an emphasis on the modern tech implications, since the summary begins with: "At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain..." But I'd say the majority of the book wasn't focused on commentary along those lines, so I knocked a star.

I enjoyed reading the essays in this book. They are of course difficult to read if dealing with grief. They will bring out tears for sure. Not only for the story tellers but for your own hidden pain. It was good in the sense that I understood in some ways how we process grief, and the challenges we face after loosing a loved one. I am inspired to write my own modern loss story and process my grief through words.

Easy and difficult (emotionally of course) to read all at once. One of the few books I have read about grief that has allowed me to feel freely about my own loss without the idioms or metaphors to make death sound pretty.

I love essay collections!!! This was so good. Obviously heavy at times, but also so insightful and hopeful and interesting.