Barbara Becker's Blog: Gold Nautilus Award!
December 31, 2024
Excited to be published in Suleika Jaouad's new book!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Thank you, Suleika, for including my essay in your new book! Can't wait to celebrate with you when it hits the bookstands!
Thank you, Suleika, for including my essay in your new book! Can't wait to celebrate with you when it hits the bookstands!
March 26, 2023
Katie Couric "Books That Will Change Your Life"
I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to find HEARTWOOD on Katie Couric's "Books that Will Change Your Life" list. Right there with my personal favorite of all times, Walden!
Thanks, Katie Couric! I truly hope it finds its way into the hands of people who need it most!
https://katiecouric.com/culture/book-...
Thanks, Katie Couric! I truly hope it finds its way into the hands of people who need it most!
https://katiecouric.com/culture/book-...
September 7, 2022
USA Today Network features Heartwood
My childhood friend Ed Zier and I are featured together in an article out today: “Two Authors, in two 9/11 books, search for meaning in the twin towers”.
I’m not sure where these 21 years have gone, but I am certain that how I thought about life before and after that day are two totally different things. 💔
"Two authors, in two 9/11 books, search for meaning in the twin towers"
https://www.northjersey.com/.../911-b...
I’m not sure where these 21 years have gone, but I am certain that how I thought about life before and after that day are two totally different things. 💔
"Two authors, in two 9/11 books, search for meaning in the twin towers"
https://www.northjersey.com/.../911-b...
May 13, 2021
" If you like the work of Rebecca Solnit, this book is for you."
Amazing comments from the author and book critic, Joanna Rakoff!
"... slim, powerful, absurdly timely volume you see here: HEARTWOOD: The Art of Living with the End in Mind, which is out today. Ostensibly a series of linked essays reflecting on America’s “death-shy” culture, to me, this beautiful, complicated book reads as an autobiography through the lens of loss, the story of a life defined by the early knowledge that someone had to die in order for Barbara to live (a knowledge I live with, too, as many of you know). I love this book and think you will, too. If you like the work of Rebecca Solnit, this book is for you. And here is the rub: In the book’s final chapter, Barbara reflects on her mortality. A few weeks ago, Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, instead of launching her book, she is in surgery. She’s handled this turn of events with typical grace and humor, but I still feel like my heart is breaking for her. Tonight, we were supposed to be in conversation via our friend and neighbor’s bookstore; instead, we recorded the event yesterday, and I urge you to give it a watch—link in bio—and bask in her wisdom and beauty. And buy this book, which has so much to teach us about how to live."
"... slim, powerful, absurdly timely volume you see here: HEARTWOOD: The Art of Living with the End in Mind, which is out today. Ostensibly a series of linked essays reflecting on America’s “death-shy” culture, to me, this beautiful, complicated book reads as an autobiography through the lens of loss, the story of a life defined by the early knowledge that someone had to die in order for Barbara to live (a knowledge I live with, too, as many of you know). I love this book and think you will, too. If you like the work of Rebecca Solnit, this book is for you. And here is the rub: In the book’s final chapter, Barbara reflects on her mortality. A few weeks ago, Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, instead of launching her book, she is in surgery. She’s handled this turn of events with typical grace and humor, but I still feel like my heart is breaking for her. Tonight, we were supposed to be in conversation via our friend and neighbor’s bookstore; instead, we recorded the event yesterday, and I urge you to give it a watch—link in bio—and bask in her wisdom and beauty. And buy this book, which has so much to teach us about how to live."
April 23, 2021
A great review in Shelf-Awareness!
Book Review
Review: Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind
An unfortunate feature of contemporary Western culture is the denial of death. But as interfaith minister Barbara Becker demonstrates in her emotionally forthright, often inspiring Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind, a conscious engagement with this "last and greatest taboo" can be an invaluable resource in living a life filled with meaning and purpose.
Becker is eclectic in her selection of teachings from various spiritual traditions that illuminate brief but revealing vignettes, including her story of losing two daughters to miscarriages (she has two sons), and accounts of her experiences as a Zen Buddhist-trained hospice volunteer in New York City. Some of her most moving anecdotes involve her father, a neurosurgeon, whose first wife was killed in a boating accident only months after their wedding. Becker also offers a frank description of her parents' deaths, as her father's incisive mind crumbles in the face of Alzheimer's disease and her mother succumbs to heart failure. But her stories are not all somber, as illustrated by the history of Felix, a skeleton first used by her grandfather as a medical student and that remained a family heirloom for two more generations of doctors over 100 years.
Becker also finds deep meaning in a commemoration at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and in an improvised ceremony with a friend named Generous Bear at Manhattan's Corlears Hook Park, the site of a 17th-century massacre of Native Americans near her Lower East Side home. Her ability to integrate multicultural perspectives like these into her teaching adds breadth to her insights.
The portraits of Becker's encounters with hospice patients are equally revealing. Despite her training, she feared she would be unable to be a source of comfort to dying patients. But as she describes "Mrs. B," whom she assisted in writing farewell letters to family and friends, or "Mr. R," a Muslim man who was soothed by her repetition of a simple Sufi chant, little more was required of her than simple presence. With its many stories like these, Heartwood is a disarmingly unaffected book, but it would be an error to equate that accessible style with a lack of depth. This is a resource filled with wisdom and one that readers will find themselves returning to often in both good times and bad. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Interfaith minister Barbara Becker draws thoughtfully on diverse spiritual traditions to show how death can be one of life's great teachers.
Review: Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind
An unfortunate feature of contemporary Western culture is the denial of death. But as interfaith minister Barbara Becker demonstrates in her emotionally forthright, often inspiring Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind, a conscious engagement with this "last and greatest taboo" can be an invaluable resource in living a life filled with meaning and purpose.
Becker is eclectic in her selection of teachings from various spiritual traditions that illuminate brief but revealing vignettes, including her story of losing two daughters to miscarriages (she has two sons), and accounts of her experiences as a Zen Buddhist-trained hospice volunteer in New York City. Some of her most moving anecdotes involve her father, a neurosurgeon, whose first wife was killed in a boating accident only months after their wedding. Becker also offers a frank description of her parents' deaths, as her father's incisive mind crumbles in the face of Alzheimer's disease and her mother succumbs to heart failure. But her stories are not all somber, as illustrated by the history of Felix, a skeleton first used by her grandfather as a medical student and that remained a family heirloom for two more generations of doctors over 100 years.
Becker also finds deep meaning in a commemoration at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and in an improvised ceremony with a friend named Generous Bear at Manhattan's Corlears Hook Park, the site of a 17th-century massacre of Native Americans near her Lower East Side home. Her ability to integrate multicultural perspectives like these into her teaching adds breadth to her insights.
The portraits of Becker's encounters with hospice patients are equally revealing. Despite her training, she feared she would be unable to be a source of comfort to dying patients. But as she describes "Mrs. B," whom she assisted in writing farewell letters to family and friends, or "Mr. R," a Muslim man who was soothed by her repetition of a simple Sufi chant, little more was required of her than simple presence. With its many stories like these, Heartwood is a disarmingly unaffected book, but it would be an error to equate that accessible style with a lack of depth. This is a resource filled with wisdom and one that readers will find themselves returning to often in both good times and bad. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Interfaith minister Barbara Becker draws thoughtfully on diverse spiritual traditions to show how death can be one of life's great teachers.
March 17, 2021
Grateful to the world of death educators
It means the world to me when the gurus of the world of death advocacy/education read Heartwood. Many thanks this week to The American Thanatologist for this wonderful review:
https://americanthanatologist.com/blo...
Heartwood illuminates what a life happily intertwined with death and loss can look like. Becker is a non-anxious presence to the reader—which is no easy thing in the world of death and dying literature.
https://americanthanatologist.com/blo...
Heartwood illuminates what a life happily intertwined with death and loss can look like. Becker is a non-anxious presence to the reader—which is no easy thing in the world of death and dying literature.
February 27, 2021
My interview with Publishers Weekly
Thank you, Publishers Weekly, for including this interview along with Heartwood's starred review! I'm so glad to be getting the word out on working with grief during COVID.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...
February 18, 2021
My first book review!
Thank you, Publishers Weekly, for the starred review!
“Becker debuts with a stirring chronicle of the events, moments, and stories that led to her reconciliation with mortality…Becker’s eloquence is a salve for confronting a difficult topic…This will be a comfort for anyone contemplating their own mortality, or those in search of advice for others.”
“Becker debuts with a stirring chronicle of the events, moments, and stories that led to her reconciliation with mortality…Becker’s eloquence is a salve for confronting a difficult topic…This will be a comfort for anyone contemplating their own mortality, or those in search of advice for others.”
January 25, 2021
On writing & why it takes so long
'How long did it take you to write Heartwood?' I was recently asked.
About 7 or 8 years, truthfully. Maybe even longer.
I try to be kind to myself about this. I mean, I was writing about life and death, so it wasn't like I picked the easiest topic in the world ;)
Also, part of it had to do with the way I write. I try not to waste words. That takes a looong time to accomplish. It's like what Mark Twain once said:
“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
About 7 or 8 years, truthfully. Maybe even longer.
I try to be kind to myself about this. I mean, I was writing about life and death, so it wasn't like I picked the easiest topic in the world ;)
Also, part of it had to do with the way I write. I try not to waste words. That takes a looong time to accomplish. It's like what Mark Twain once said:
“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Gold Nautilus Award!
I have some exciting news to share!
HEARTWOOD has won a Gold Nautilus Book Award! Nautilus’s mission is “Better Books for a Better World.” I’m so grateful to the reviewers and judges who made this hap ...more
HEARTWOOD has won a Gold Nautilus Book Award! Nautilus’s mission is “Better Books for a Better World.” I’m so grateful to the reviewers and judges who made this hap ...more
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