Fiction Pick of the Week: The Beginner's Goodbye

The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler 2012

It seems we can learn a lot from the dead especially when they come back for a visit to let us know what really happened when they were alive. Often our memory of events is quite different from others, and so it is for Aaron and his wife Dorothy who was felled by an oak tree. Their marriage and house collapsed in one brief moment as Dorothy sat alone in the sunroom. Dorothy,although dead,visits Aaron to reveal a side of him that he never acknowledged. His loneliness and deep grief during this period is a time for reflection and introspection guided by Dorothy’s revelations. This self- knowledge allows him to take the first steps away from sorrow and so embark on a new life.

This is Anne Tyler’s nineteenth novel and is an emotionally and artistically satisfying read from a much loved and admired writer.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Paranormal

Paranormal: my life in pursuit of the afterlife by Raymond Moody, MD 2012

Raymond Moody has had a lifelong obsession with what happens when we die…or more importantly, when we die, but then come back. First as a philosophy student, then as a doctor, Moody has made a career out of the scientific study of near-death experience. A backdrop to this story is Moody’s unhappy relationship with his father and undiagnosed health problem. These issues lead to mental health issues for Moody and his own subsequent near-death experience as a result of his attempt to commit suicide. While most of the book is spent on near-death experiences, Moody also moves beyond the scientific approach to discuss past-life regression therapy and making contact with those who have died.