HVS Lending Library

I am currently doing an internship at HVS, and loving every minute of it!  (I did the HVS 30 hour volunteer training in 2009.)  One of my “projects” is working in our library.  The only problem is I don’t know how I am going to find the time to read all of our more than 400 titles!  I will be posting reviews as I read my way through, and also letting you know about recent additions.

The books are organized under the following subject headings: Novels and Memoirs, Memorials, Essays and Quotes, Religion and Inspiration, Poetry and Images, Patient Care, Self Care, Death and Dying, Suicide, Alternative Therapies, After Death, Grief, Children and Teens.  Please stop in to peruse our collection!

~Karri Ingerson

Update on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 11:30AM by Shirley Ryan

My Grandfather's Blessings  by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen

(Religion and Inspiration)

If I had to choose only one book to read out of our library, this would be it!  My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging is a beautifully written collection of poignant stories that touch the heart and feed the soul.  Each story is a lesson and an inspiration.  Rachel Naomi Remen has been counseling people with terminal illness for decades.  Through the telling of her patients' stories, she shows the power of blessing the life in and around us, and that when "we can bless life, we can repair the world."     

~ Karri Ingerson

Update on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 11:43AM by Shirley Ryan

 Space Between Breaths, What loss can teach us about life  A film produced by Luther and Rosemary Smith.  Is is possible to find happiness after a loss, to put the pieces back together again?  This and more is explored in Space Between Breaths, a powerful uplifting film that shows how grief can become a motivational force that transforms our lives.

~ Karri Ingerson

Update on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 12:26PM by Shirley Ryan

We now have copies of A Healing Touch, True stories of life, death and hospice, edited by Richard Russo.

This volume is a collaboration between half a dozen writers and a group of extraordinary people who shared their remarkable stories.  They are as varied as the services Hospice provides to its clients, as individual as the people whose experiences are being shared, as stylistically idiosyncratic as the talented writers who recount them.  There's pain and loss, yes, but also laughter and love, faith and hard-won understanding.  Life, in other words.  - Richard Russo, from his introduction

~ Karri Ingerson

Update on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 12:28PM by Shirley Ryan

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

(Novels and Memoirs)

Keep the box of tissues close by!  Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, shares his journey of living with pancreatic cancer in a series of reflections he entitles “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”.  With raw honesty, incredible wit, and inspirational wisdom, he gives us a window into how he lives with his terminal diagnosis.  In his words:

 “I have an engineering problem.

           While for the most part I’m in terrific physical shape, I have ten tumors in my liver and I have only a few months left to live.

           I am a father of three young children, and married to the woman of my dreams.  While I could easily feel sorry for myself, that wouldn’t do them, or me, any good.

           So, how to spend my very limited time?”

~ Karri Ingerson

Update on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 04:15PM by Shirley Ryan

A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister by Julie Mars

(Novels & Memoirs)

Grieving the loss of her sister, and processing the intense experiences of being her caregiver for the last seven months of her life, Julie Mars is inspired to spend 31 Sundays attending various religious services.  As she explores the rituals and beliefs of the different religions, memories flow in.  She wrestles with how to make sense of these experiences and memories, and with what they mean to her/for her, now.  She is able to convey her grief in its wholeness - with tears and laughter.  Her writing is honest, transparent, real, and found its way right into my heart.  As soon as I finished A Month of Sundays, I started to read it again, this time taking notes on her many wise insights, and letting her poignant words sink even further in.

~ Karri Ingerson