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    The Best of Us: A Memoir
    The Best of Us: A Memoir
    The Best of Us: A Memoir
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Best of Us: A Memoir

    Written by Joyce Maynard

    Narrated by Joyce Maynard

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In 2011, when she was in her late fifties, beloved author and journalist Joyce Maynard met the first true partner she had ever known. Jim wore a rakish hat over a good head of hair; he asked real questions and gave real answers; he loved to see Joyce shine, both in and out of the spotlight; and he didn't mind the mess she made in the kitchen. He was not the husband Joyce imagined, but he quickly became the partner she had always dreamed of.

    Before they met, both had believed they were done with marriage, and even after they married, Joyce resolved that no one could alter her course of determined independence. Then, just after their one-year wedding anniversary, her new husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During the nineteen months that followed, as they battled his illness together, she discovered for the first time what it really meant to be a couple-to be a true partner and to have one.

    This is their story. Charting the course through their whirlwind romance, a marriage cut short by tragedy, and Joyce's return to singleness on new terms, The Best of Us is a heart-wrenching, ultimately life-affirming reflection on coming to understand true love through the experience of great loss.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9781681689777
    Author

    Joyce Maynard

    Joyce Maynard is the author of twelve previous novels and five books of nonfiction, as well as the syndicated column, “Domestic Affairs.” Her bestselling memoir, At Home in the World, has been translated into sixteen languages. Her novels To Die For and Labor Day were both adapted for film. Maynard divides her time between homes in California, New Hampshire, and Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.

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    Reviews for The Best of Us

    4.5/5

    52 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Beautifully written and narrated. This book resonated with me on so many levels. I want to read her other books now!
    • 5/5
      I love Joyce Maynard’s writing with all of it’s honesty and heart. This book shares a very personal story that everyone who has a true love, looking for a true love, having had experienced true love should read.
    • 5/5
      This is a very powerful book. I knew of and had read Joyce Maynard in the past. I always found her work interesting and I have a fascination with the manner of death so chose this book. I found myself not liking Joyce at first but I admired her for her total honesty in all things. She was lucky to find the love of her life at any age and it is heartbreaking that these two people had such a short time together. As I was reading, it was easy to feel as optimistic as she was in the retelling. Maynard's prose and style of writing is alluring to me and it was a hard book to put down.
    • 4/5
      The Best of Us: A Memoir by Joyce Maynard
      Sept 2017

      I received this digital book from Bloomsbury Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

      What a touching and honest memoir! Joyce Maynard displays remarkable strength in sharing her story. Every author has a story to tell, not just the ones conjured up with imagination. This is a deeply personal exploration into her brief but moving relationship with her soul mate. Most divorced people will be able to relate to her quest for a meaningful relationship post divorce. Although cliche, when you least expect something wonderful to happen is when you are presented with the unexpected.

      It is wonderful to read how they relished everyday together before and after Jim's diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. It is admirable the painful fight exerted against this growing "cancer" monster. They put up a vicious fight until the end. Accepting hospice is not "giving up" but a choice to once again take control over your life and death. I remember sitting with my father-in-law as he lay dying at home as he wanted. That takes courage to choose your ending by reflecting on your life and memories.

      This is truly a memoir written from the heart. It is an easily read book that is hard to put down for the genuine life lessons she shares. I could feel the grief and relief to which she must have felt to confront her deepest feelings through writing. Similarly, I believe we all have painful memories of situations in which we might've handled differently in hindsight. Although, it is said that the best life lessons are learned through experience.

      I had read, "Under the Influence", and had such mixed feelings about it. After reading this book, I find new meaning in those words. She was enduring her own challenges while writing that book.
    • 5/5
      I began reading this book just a few days after my father died from complications from kidney cancer. It was amazing to read this book and see how many similarities there were between Ms. Maynard's experiences and ours as we spent the last few months with my dad, right down to him dying at home in his bedroom. I would recommend this book to anyone who is going through something similar, as what she has to say about the process of dying is universal no matter what the cause. Ms. Maynard also raises some important points that we as a nation must address, such as when is too much treatment too much, when is it time to move toward quality versus quantity and how do we envision our own deaths. I am so glad I read this book, and even more so, when I did. I found a great deal of comfort in these pages.
    • 4/5
      It is only fairly recently that I have begun reading memoirs or biographies written by author whose book I love to read. I am amazed at the insight this provides when I next read their books, makes ten more meaningful in a way. This book is a wonderful, if heartbreaking, homage to a man she met and married late in her life, a man she had for too short a time.She allows the reader into the most personal of thoughts, actions, mistakes, regrets and joys in her life. It is searingly honest, if a times uncomfortably sentimental. It is both hard to read and a joy to read. It covers her first marriage and divorce, her children and other everyday things in her life. Her publishing career, the trips she made, her dating experiences, and her hopes and goals in her life.Her husband's cancer, treatments, how they struggled to make each day meaningful. So at times it is difficult to read as you can imagine, but it ends with love and hope. I can only wish her well, with a great deal of admiration and respect.ARC from NetgalleyPublishes September 5th by Bloomsbury.