Book Review: Restorative Grief by Mandy Capehart
Restorative Grief: Embracing Our Losses Without Losing Ourselves
Author: Mandy Capehart
Published: May 25, 2021
210 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: July 1-6, 2021
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Restorative Grief is a 31-day guidebook and memoir of loss, life, and learning how to tread water. Follow the author on an exploration of tools and techniques to guide you through a healing process inviting your mind, body, spirit, and soul to the table. All aspects of your story are just that: yours. This is your chance to explore what life after loss can look like without the platitudes, minimizing, and dismissive methods used by so many well-intentioned grief supporters.
As grievers, we keep sorrow to ourselves to avoid rocking the boat or making others uncomfortable. And as grief supporters, the last thing we want is to increase the pain felt by our loved ones. Yet in both roles, we find ourselves repeating platitudes and minimizing our needs simply to survive the next wave.
In Restorative Grief, Mandy Capehart takes us through her story of loss and recovery both in and out of the church walls. While being raised in the evangelical tradition, she found church structures and understanding lacking for those who needed more than a quick sabbatical.
Restorative Grief provides practical tools, concepts, and techniques to empower grievers to take what they need and to find it for themselves in body, mind, and spirit. While her story is framed around the Christian experience, this work is approachable for anyone capable of reading with an open mind to chew the meat and spit out the bones. Find what serves and leave the rest.
Jessica’s Review:
Restorative Grief is a 31-day guide and memoir to help you work through your grief whether from a death, such as Mandy’s loss of her mother or some other type of loss. We all experience various forms of loss in different ways and we must all work through it. Mandy briefly shares her story and gives the reader a 31-day guidebook to go through the grief process. Though in a 31-day format, Mandy encourages the reader to take as much time as they need.
Each of the 31 days starts with a quote, gives a tool to use, a concept, and also techniques that may help the reader. Mandy also uses bible verses in her work. She acknowledges that bible verses will not work for everyone and to use what works for you. There is also a list of resources for reference and recommended books and also a list of support and concepts.
Mandy knows what she is talking about as she mentions the loss of her mother and her experience with that grief. She is also a certified grief and life coach, and she also founded The Restorative Grief Project. She believes in long term support of grief and Restorative Grief was truly her baby and she genuinely wants to help others in their times of grief.
The only critique I can really give is that as a reader, I was wanting more of Mandy’s story. We just got little bits here through the chapters. That is not really memoir-ish for me. This is a book that will help those that need assistance with going through their grief one day at a time. This book would work for those in the counseling/ helping professions to help others deal with their grief. This is a book that I will keep for future use when needed.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
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Book Review: Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Salem’s Lot
Author: Stephen King
Originally Published: October 17, 1975
672 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with the usual quota of gossips, drinkers, weirdos and respectable folk. Of course there are tales of strange happenings – but not more than in any other town its size.
Ben Mears, a moderately successful writer, returns to the Lot to write a novel based on his early years, and to exorcise the terrors that have haunted him since childhood. The event he witnessed in the house now rented by a new resident. A newcomer with a strange allure. A man who causes Ben some unease as things start to happen: a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed – nothing unusual, except the list starts to grow.
Soon surprise will turn to bewilderment, bewilderment to confusion and finally to terror . . .
Kim’s Review:
Creepy AF book. A story of vampires in the vein of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. My only real criticism is that the slow burn build up just felt too slow. Other than that, the creep factor was there throughout. I was emotionally invested and I mostly enjoyed the look into the lives of the townspeople. By the time I got to the end, I was wide eyed and freaked out! I kinda wanna go visit Jerusalem’s Lot, but then I probably wouldn’t survive. I also loved the origin story of Chapelwaite! Overall this is a classic horror story with a simple plot that’s just drawn out a little too far. I really enjoyed it!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
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Book Review: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
NOS4A2
Author: Joe Hill
Published: April 30, 2013
704 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.
Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”
Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.
Kim’s Review:
First Joe Hill book … worth it! As soon as I read the description, I was hooked. And he had me almost the whole time. The only reason I took away a star is because he unfortunately falls into the same flaw as his father, sometimes he just drew out the story when it should have been condensed. However, I still really enjoyed this book! I liked his timeline within the story. I loved the characters! There was a lot of growth and emotions. I didn’t know how it was going to end, but when the end came, I loved it. There were so many scary elements that kept me on edge. The mystical, metaphorical elements, I actually got most of them! I feel like I understood the story and I don’t always say that with these ambiguous plots. I really liked this book a lot. It kept me engaged (most of the time), I cared about the characters, and I understood it! I can’t wait to read more Joe Hill!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
