My Glory Was I Had Such Friends audiobook

It is rare to read a book and feel grateful to have read it. Not in the "that was a great book!" sense but in a "this book is changing me for the better" way.I'm going to admit right off the bat I had high hopes for this memoir. A celebration of friendship and an insider's look at illness and dying? SOLD. I was pretty sure I'd like it but truly, it exceeded all expectations and that is all because of the author.Amy Silverstein had a heart transplant at age 25 in 1988. At the time, her doctors predicted she might live another 10 years at best. Instead 26 years passed, during which time Amy married her husband Scott (who proposed while she was in the hospital awaiting the transplant!), finished her law degree, adopted a son, and amassed a wonderful collection of friends.People think once you get a heart transplant, life goes back to normal but Amy shows this is not the case. While she's lived a full life, she's also had to be vigilant about her health, dealing with numerous hospitalizations and close calls along the way. There's so much I hadn't realized about post-transplant life. When the book begins, she's learned her transplanted heart is failing and she'll need to undergo another transplant. This is not an easy decision for her and she does not hold back on taking readers through her mindset about whether to take on the odds.After hearing about her medical history, I have no idea what decision I would have made in her shoes. In the end, she decides to go for it and her friends immediately rally around her. Since Amy and Scott will have to relocate to LA for several months, nine of her friends decide they will take turns flying out and keeping Amy company while she waits for a heart.Talk about greater love! I don't know if I've ever read a memoir that details the dynamics of a group of friends. Often friendship memoirs focus on one friend or if they mention more, those friends are not connected to one another. Amy's friends come from different parts of her life- childhood to law school to where she lives- and most have met before or are even close friends themselves. I loved seeing how they related to one another and how their bond grew as they supported Amy.We learn about each friend- how Amy knew them, what made their friendship unique, their personality and some of their history. We see how they support Amy and when they get it wrong. It is a beautiful and loving portrayal of friendship. It made me think about how I support my friends and what I will do when my friends go through chronic or terminal illness. (I say "when" because it is bound to happen. I've walked alongside enough family members to know that.) This is an honest and unflinching portrayal of friendship and end of life issues. Her friends fight some of her medical decisions and do not always listen to her exhaustion in the face of her illness. They don't want her to give up, yes, but sometimes they forget to respect what she's gone through. Getting to listen in on the resulting conversations was powerful. Amy does not always come across as the best and admits it but we also get to see her grow and learn through the process of how sick she gets and as she confronts her mortality. At the same time, there is a lot of light in this book. I laughed out loud a couple of times and I cannot emphasize enough how much I loved Amy's husband and friends. The sacrifices they made (that they do not view as sacrifices) inspired me.Amy is a gifted writer and I'm so glad not only that she received a new heart in time but that she was able to write this account for us. It was incredibly moving and life-affirming. I will be encouraging my friends to read it and I'll be reflecting on its message for some time to come. The title- a line from Yeats- is apt. May we all be so blessed. Disclosure: I received an ARC from HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

I read Amy Silverstein’s first memoir, SICK GIRL (2001,GrovePress), which she wrote after living more than seventeen years after getting a heart transplant at twenty-five. Doctors at the time, didn’t give her more than ten years.Nearly twenty-six years after receiving her first heart transplant, her donor heart began failing and she needed a new heart immediately if she expected to live.Her new memoir, MY GLORY WAS I TRULY HAD SUCH FRIENDS (HarperWave) is the story of nine remarkable women: Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann and Jane who supported Amy daily, while she waited for her new heart. At first, her friends didn’t know one another, they lived across the country, but they had one singular goal – to be by their best friend’s side, while she was hospitalized first in New York City and then Los Angeles.A spreadsheet was produced making sure one of the nine women were with Amy. Whether on a cot in the hospital, holding her hand, rubbing her feet and back when the pain was grueling, applying lotion, every moment she was hospitalized she had a friend by her side. The women had their own obligations, family, children, careers, but put everything on hold while they rallied around their friend.“Our empathy had not ripened at twenty-five. At fifty, it had.”MY GLORY WAS I HAD SUCH FRIENDS shares how these women, each knowing Amy from different stages of their lives, recognizing Amy’s strength banded together sharing a sisterhood that only comes with age. These nine women didn’t talk about wanting to help, they showed up.Joy, Jill, Leja, Jody, Lauren, Robin, Valerie, Ann and Jane lived an example of how important it is for us to show up for the ones we love.I kept crying while reading MY GLORY IS I HAD SUCH FRIENDS. These women, or angels, as I’d call them are incredible. What a blessing for Amy to have such devoted, selfless  friends. Once you start reading MY GLORY IS I HAD SUCH FRIENDS, you won’t stop and once you’re finished, you will be grateful for … well everything.It’s important to note, that Amy’s husband, Scott was with her every step during this experience, but Amy chose to focus on her girlfriends for this memoir.

Even after allowing myself the time to decompress before sitting down to write this review, I'm finding it hard to express in words how grateful I am for the privilege to read this book, let alone have the honor of reviewing it. I can sincerely say that this book took me along for its journey and I have emerged at the back cover a different person than I was when I first cracked the spine. While I have not read Silverstein's first memoir Sick Girl, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm going to rush out and buy it right now. Silverstein's account of her struggle during her wait for her second heart transplant is awe inspiring. Ames, I feel like we're on a first-name/nickname basis now, is my hero. Any woman who can look a life of sickness in the eye and tell her doctors that she wants to forgo sedation during a procedure is a serious freaking badass. There were so many instances in the book that I wanted to be right there standing next to Lauren and Joy convincing Amy that it was okay to take the Valium to help her sleep, that she didn't need to be such a stubborn mule about it. But, at the same time, I respected her for her decisions, even the most difficult ones. This book made me feel like I was in the room, not just as a fly on the wall, but really sitting in Amy's hospital room watching these friendships bloom and grow stronger around me.Silverstein's voice throughout the book, even when she was at her lowest, filled me with so much emotion. I can't count how many times my husband walked into the room asking me why I was crying or laughing and crying. Her honesty and humor are what makes this memoir so unique and enjoyable. Through her writing, I felt like I really have learned to know her dearest friends. Silverstein describes each of them in such full detail, appreciating each little piece of hope, joy, and understanding they were able to give her. The amount of pure love pours from each page. These women, Amy's support spreadsheet of friends, are just so astonishing. I can only hope to have cultivated such strong relationships by my fifties.

A memoir - Amy is waiting for a donor heart after her first transplant is failing after 25 years. The story is about her many friends who support her as she waits. Definitely worth reading!

An intimate and self aware memoir unlike any I’ve read, Amy Silverstein’s My Glory Was I Had Such Friends is the most honest and inspiring book of the year.Silverstein paints a vivid picture of friendship and its ability to motivate us through the most taxing and emotionally devastating times in our lives. The world within the walls of Silverstein’s California hospital room is a sanctuary where privacy is nonexistent and conversations about death, pain, and the limits of true love are encouraged. Silverstein’s frustration, anger, exhaustion, and emotional fortitude are so frank and shockingly sincere that it felt at many times as if I was peering into her personal diary.The beauty in this book does not lie in the mystery of whether Silverstein will survive. It is self-evident that she outlives her failing heart, and receives a second, live-saving transplant. Instead, the individual conversations with the nine women who sit by her side as she waits for a new heart cause us to reflect on our own relationships, health, and what it means to unequivocally support those we love.In fact, what separates My Glory Was I Had Such Friends from other hospital memoirs is the care with which Silverstein details the nine women who visit her. These are strong women, fiercely loyal, and imperfect. Filled with empathy and understanding, Silverstein crafts the few days she shares with each woman into a literary portrait; a snapshot of a few powerful days, where a goodbye could very well be goodbye forever.Amy Silverstein draws you into her world in this glorious book. Yet, the real magic is that, when you put it down, you will immediately pick up the phone, call a friend, and tell them that you love them.

I liked a lot of this and DID NOT LIKE other parts of this, so this is a little hard to right. Off the bat, I think it got a little lengthy in parts - especially since so much of it is medical stuff (obviously). Amy also was such a bonehead at some instances, which she readily admits, that it was challenging for me not to feel a little twinge of annoyance at her.But, at the end of the day, this was such a powerful account of the power of female friendship. I was particularly struck by her realization that she had been a terrible friend at times, and that when they were younger these same friends didn't flock to her side nearly as strongly as they did now. As someone closer in age to her first transplant age (25) than when this book takes place (50), I took it as a lesson for how I live my own life and support my friends. And what an ending! I'm so happy that is how Amy's life has turned out.

I’ve read a lot of great books in my lifetime, but it’s rare that I read a book that actually changes my life.This memoir by Amy Silverstein is a must-read for everyone. Whether or not you think you like memoirs, I don’t care – put this on your list, right now.My Glory Was I Had Such Friends is about life, death, love, and friendship. As Amy sits in a hospital bed with a failing donor heart on the other side of the country from her home in New York, nine of her friends sign up for time slots to come and stay with her in California as she waits for a second transplant. Her first transplant was when she was only 26 years old, and now at 50, that donor heart is so diseased, Amy is dying quickly.For my full review, visit http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017...

What makes this book amazing is the story of these women who come together to care for their friend. It’s interesting to read about how much more willing they are to give of their time and energy as 50 year olds than they were when she was 25 and had her first transplant. Many times she says something about how they were all young and stupid and didn’t know any better. Haven’t we all been there? And it’s a good reminder to always make the call to say you’re sorry, always go to the funeral, always do something helpful without waiting to be asked. And while I appreciate her honesty about her state of mind and her condition, what makes it hard to read is just how mean and terrible she is to her friends and her husband. She doesn’t sugarcoat her behavior, but it’s still hard to read.

WowWhen I watched a segment on a Sunday Morning News show I knew I had to read Amy Silverstein's book. I don't cry when I read a book but this time the tears of joy couldn't be held back. An amazing story, & my sympathy & gratitude to the donors family.

You must go to Hoopla and search audio books then listen to this beautiful story! You won’t regret it.

Five stars for making me cry at least five times!! A great tribute to her fabulous friends.

I absolutely loved this memoir. I read Sick Girl when it came out and was very happy to learn that this time around, Silverstein feels good most of the time. The book is beautifully written and I laughed and cried with the author as she describes her friends and their time together in her hospital room. Silverstein is an inspiring woman as well as one of the most honest authors I have ever read; she is not afraid to present herself as she really is. I don't think anyone who has not been through it can really understand what it feels like to know that death is right around the corner, but the author does a wonderful job of showing readers her state of mind. One thing I can say for sure is that this is one incredible woman who must be incredibly special to have so many friends in her corner. It made me wonder if I would have nearly the same support in that circumstance. This tribute to friendship makes it clear that Silverstein must be a wonderful person and friend to all those who dropped everything to be with her in her wait for a new heart.