"Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher. Someone older who understood you when you were young and searching, who helped you see the world as a more profound place, and gave you advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of your mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn't...

"Life is supposed to go a certain way. You grow up, you fall in love, you partner up, and you grow old together. But what happens when your happily ever after is interrupted, forever changed by shattering news? Author Heidi McCann was just a young teenager that summer in 1990 when she first laid eyes on the boy who would become her first love, and eventually the man who would change her life. Curtis Roger Vance was handsome, popular, and just a...

In which the author describes her early life, how she met her husband and their early marriage, then relates how they coped with his diagnosis of A.L.S. also knows as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which is debilitating and ultimately fatal. They had a daughter, Lauren, and how they bring her through the challenge of her father's illness and death are part of the recounting. The author also made a film about their lives called Mind Games: a love story,...

Describes the symptoms, causes, and treatment options for Lou Gehrig's disease, and provides a brief biography of the famous baseball player for whom the disease is named.

Stephen Heywood was twenty-nine years old when he learned that he was dying of ALS -- Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight his older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine. The book brings home for all of us the hopes and fears of the new biology. In this dramatic and suspenseful narrative,...

"A profoundly honest and intensely personal story of a woman who cares for her husband after the devastating terminal diagnosis of ALS. Marty, age 57, was given a preliminary diagnosis of ALS by his family doctor. Seven weeks later, the diagnosis was confirmed by a neurologist. Ten months and ten days later, Marty passed away. ...An evocative memoir about the emotional impact of witnessing a loved one suffer from a neurological, degenerative, and...

"Winnie Friedman has been waiting for the world to catch on to what she already knows: she's hilarious. It might be a long wait, though. After bombing a stand-up set at her own bat mitzvah, Winnie has kept her jokes to herself. Well, to herself and her dad, a former comedian and her inspiration. Then, on the second day of tenth grade, the funniest guy in school actually laughs at a comment she makes in the lunch line and asks her to join the improv...