Status
Available
Call number
Description
Jenifer Estess is a beautiful, successful, thirtysomething New Yorker with dreams of starting her own family when she is diagnosed with ALS, a fatal disease. Doctors tell her to max out her credit cards and prepare to die. That is precisely when Jenifer starts to live -- dreaming deeper, working harder, and loving endlessly. A girlhood pact with her sisters Valerie and Meredith -- nothing will ever break us apart -- inspires Jenifer as she faces down her most vicious enemy. Beautifully written and wholly inspiring, Jenifer's memoir forces us to reconsider society's notion of "having it all," and illustrates, more than anything, the power of memory, work, and, most of all, love.
Publication
Atria (2004), Edition: 1, 224 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member mymia
My sister and I bought this book the year my Mother died of ALS. The reality of living with ALS or caring for someone with ALS is almost indescribable. This author made a good attempt of portraying the day to day life of an ALS patient but I found the book to fall short of capturing the true
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picture of this disease. Show Less
LibraryThing member jules72653
A sobering look at the life of a vital person struck down by ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. I pray that a cure will be found for this awful disease.
LibraryThing member damsorrow
Like Sex & the City for the terminally ill. I wasn't sure who she (they?) were trying to write this to, and she seemed to spend a lot more time name-dropping than, uh, lift-upping. The only reason I didn't give this book 2 stars is because she died and I feel bad.
LibraryThing member tealightful
This is a book about Jenifer Estess' battling with ALS, a fatal disease which has know cure and no treatment.
I think Ms. Estess' was a very intelligent woman, fierce, determined and beyond sad that she befell the fate of ALS.
That being said, I did not think this book was very inspiring, funny,
I get the picture, lady. Celebrities clearly loved to hang out at your bedside and keep you company in your lush private jets, luxurious vacations, designer clothes and all the other fancy things you couldn't stop talking about.
Take out all the fluff and there is an inspiring story. A woman and her sisters embarked to raise a company up from nothing and turn it into the foremost (in 2003) research company for ALS (entitled: Project A.L.S.). That part IS inspiring. There was no medicine ready to use on Jenifer before her passing but the change they have brought to the neuroscience studies is incredible. In the future, I believe many people will be saved directly because of their tenacity in assembling the team and project.
Now, the last chapter was ridiculous, in my opinion. It was obviously written 100% by her sister because it opened up on the morning she [Jenifer] passed away. Yet the chapter continues on in Jenifer's POV, describing the flying feeling of death and peering down into her sister's lives after crossing over. Ho-hum to that.
I think Ms. Estess' was a very intelligent woman, fierce, determined and beyond sad that she befell the fate of ALS.
That being said, I did not think this book was very inspiring, funny,
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touching or anything else really. At no point in the book (which was transcribed the the author's sister, Valerie) did I feel like she was being honest about the suffering of ALS or giving a true-to-heart story about her personal struggles with it. This book came across as one big celebrity name-drop after another. And another. And another. I get the picture, lady. Celebrities clearly loved to hang out at your bedside and keep you company in your lush private jets, luxurious vacations, designer clothes and all the other fancy things you couldn't stop talking about.
Take out all the fluff and there is an inspiring story. A woman and her sisters embarked to raise a company up from nothing and turn it into the foremost (in 2003) research company for ALS (entitled: Project A.L.S.). That part IS inspiring. There was no medicine ready to use on Jenifer before her passing but the change they have brought to the neuroscience studies is incredible. In the future, I believe many people will be saved directly because of their tenacity in assembling the team and project.
Now, the last chapter was ridiculous, in my opinion. It was obviously written 100% by her sister because it opened up on the morning she [Jenifer] passed away. Yet the chapter continues on in Jenifer's POV, describing the flying feeling of death and peering down into her sister's lives after crossing over. Ho-hum to that.
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LibraryThing member nyiper
Very readable---but immediately, even with the tremendous work these three sisters did to get the A.L.S. organization they founded going----help comes with who-they-knew---especially Jenifer, in the celebrity field. Could they have done as much if it had been " just " three sisters? This is not a
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criticism---just a fact. When you need help, what makes it come? The expense of care for a person with A.L.S. are overwhelming--economically as well as emotionally. There was not a lot of detail about the actual costs except that you were certainly aware of them in terms of the types of experts and non-experts, as well as equipment, involved. To have this story told by the person with A.L.S. provided a lot but left me wanting lots more details. Show Less
Call number
C > Death, Grief
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
224 p.; 8.78 inches
ISBN
0743476824 / 9780743476829