This concise memoir by an author dying of cancer explores the topic of death fearlessly, but it doesn't come off as morbid or sentimental.

"As we are enabled to live longer we are also condemned to die longer," Cory Taylor writes. She discusses the topic of aid in dying in a practical way. Taylor isn't religious, and I appreciated her perspective.

Taylor isn't afraid to discuss her terminal cancer diagnosis and her impending demise with a clear eye, but she also takes time to reflect on her fascinating childhood. Overall, the book is not depressing as one might think, and is a good read for those looking for a different take on death. ( )

Not for me. I wanted more about disease. The family story rambled too much. ( )

This is the first book I have read this year where as soon as I finished it, I flipped to the front of the book to read it again immediately. I found the book that good. It is also incredibly short at 140 pages that the two readings took one day. The reason why I wanted to read it immediately again is the book is wonderful poetic and insightful. It is one of those books where you know the author is bearing her soul for the world to read and you just have the desire to honor that story.

Cory Taylor died two months after the book originally came out in Australia of melanoma. This book is her walk through the beginning stages of facing her own mortality. She knows she is not going to get better and the only thing that will happen is she is going to die. There is not a miracle drug, a procedure that will reverse everything, or anything like that and she knows it. This memoir is her facing death.

She does not hold back in this book, which is why it is so powerful. The book opens with her confession that she has purchased a suicide drug from China. She proceeds to question whether or not suicide is an option for her and what effect it would have on her family if she did it. That is the opening of the book!

Throughout the rest of the book, she covers topics such as euthanasia, becoming aware of oneself, remembering when she was first conscious, love, her family, and of course death. The way she writes is in this wonderfully poetic and conversational style that draws the reader in. It isn't cold or distant, but warm and inviting. It is as if you were sitting with a cup of coffee with her as she faces her death.

Death is not an easy topic to read about, but this book is so worth your time. There were three really great books on death this year that should be on any shelf- This one, Option B by Sheryl Sandberg, and On Living by Kerry Egan

*I received an advanced copy of Dying a Memoir directly from Tin House Publishing. I received it in exchange for an honest review* ( )

First, I do love a physically beautiful book, and this is one of those, so kudos to TinHouse Books and cover designer Diane Chonette for the gorgeous, dust jacketless design. Second, I am profoundly sad, having finished this, that Cory Taylor died. Dying: A Memoir is perhaps the most clear-eyed, unsentimental, thoughtful book about death that I've read, which is all the more remarkable given that Taylor was well down the path to the grave when she wrote it. She examines her situation, family history, and life and death in general in a spirit of curious inquiry, and takes us down a path both familiar and strange. I appreciate that she made the effort to describe the view from her vantage point during her final year. ( )

I got tipped off to this from a New Yorker article that was taken from the book and I was interested because my best friend is a pediatric hospice doctor. How do you do that job every day??! Taylor writes frankly about her terminal illness and her longing to meet death on her own terms (which is not legal in her home country of Australia). She had the right drugs in her possession (internet order from China) but wasn't sure she had the courage to go through with it because of what it would do to those left behind. More than anything she wanted to be able to talk about the topic which she found was off limits in many circles for many reasons. She confronted the topic head on and also did some reckoning and reconciling in her own life, examining the break-up of her parents' marriage, her estranged relationship with her father and walking her mother through her own difficult death. No stone is unturned, but by the end, there is a sense of peace and acceptance and wonder at the events and people who shaped her. Once section divulges questions she has been asked -- no bucket list. Instead she has the ringing endorsement of loving what she's doing.
"It is my bliss, this thing called writing....writing, even if most of the time you are only doing it in your head, shapes the world, and makes it bearable." (30) It's a beautiful book and legacy of Taylor's talent and bravery. ( )