Best Selling Books by Will Schwalbe

Mary Anne Schwalbe was a renowned educator who filled such august positions as Director of Admissions at Harvard and Director of College Counseling at New York''s prestigious Dalton School. She also felt it incumbent upon herself to educate the less fortunate and spent the last 10 years of her life building libraries in Afghanistan. But her story here begins with a mocha, dispensed from a machine in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Over coffee, Will casually asks his mom what she''s been reading. The conversation they have grows into tradition: soon they mutually agree to read the same books and share them together as Mary Anne waits for her chemotherapy treatments. The books they read, chosen by both, range from the classic to the popular: from The Painted Veil to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; from My Father''s Tears to the Christian spiritual classic Daily Strength for Daily Needs. Their discussions reveal how books become increasingly important to the connection between a remarkable woman whose life is coming to a close, and a young man becoming closer to his mom than ever before.

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A warm, funny, irresistible memoir that follows an improbable and life-changing college friendship over the course of forty years—from the best-selling author of The End of Your Life Book Club • “A rare view of male friendship.”—NPR “Moving…salted with Schwalbe’s well-established literary intelligence and a palpable empathy.” —The New York Times Book Review By the time Will Schwalbe was a junior at college, he had already met everyone he cared to know: the theater people, writers, visual artists and comp lit majors, and various other quirky characters including the handful of students who shared his own major, Latin and Greek. He also knew exactly who he wanted to avoid: the jocks. The jocks wore baseball caps and moved in packs, filling boisterous tables in the dining hall, and on the whole seemed to be another species entirely, one Will might encounter only at his own peril. All this changed dramatically when Will collided with Chris Maxey, known to just about everyone as Maxey. Maxey was physically imposing, loud, and a star wrestler who was determined to become a Navy SEAL (where he would later serve for six years). Thanks to the strangely liberating circumstances of a little-known secret society at Yale, the two forged a bond that would become a mainstay of each other’s lives as they repeatedly lost and found each other and themselves in the years after graduation. From New Haven to New York City, from Hong Kong and Panama to a remarkable school on an island in the Bahamas—through marriages and a divorce, triumphs and devastating losses—We Should Not Be Friends tracks an extraordinary friendship over decades of challenge and change. Schwalbe’s marvelous new work is, at its heart, a joyful testament to the miracle of human connection—and how if we can just get past our preconceptions, we may find some of our greatest friends.

From the author of the beloved New York Times best-selling The End of Your Life Book Club, an inspiring and magical exploration of the power of books to shape our lives in an era of constant connectivity. "[A] gift, and one that keeps giving.” —USA Today For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, and to find the answers to life’s questions big and small. In each chapter, he discusses a particular book and how it relates to concerns we all share. These books span centuries and genres—from Stuart Little to The Girl on the Train, from David Copperfield to Wonder, from Giovanni''s Room to Rebecca, and from 1984 to Gifts from the Sea. Throughout, Schwalbe tells stories from his life and focuses on the way certain books can help us honor those we''ve loved and lost, and also figure out how to live each day more fully.

The essential guide or anyone navigating the often overwhelming world of email. Send—the classic guide to email for office and home—has become indispensable for readers navigating the impersonal, and at times overwhelming, world of electronic communication. Filled with real-life email success (and horror) stories and a wealth of useful and entertaining examples, Send dissects all the major minefields and pitfalls of email. It provides clear rules for constructing effective emails, for handheld etiquette, for handling the “emotional email,” and for navigating all of today’s hot-button issues. It offers essential strategies to help you both better manage the ever-increasing number of emails you receive and improve the ones you send. Send is now more than ever the essential book about email for businesspeople and professionals everywhere.

»Vad är det du läser?« Det är frågan Will ställer till sin mamma, Mary Anne, när de sitter i väntrummet på cancermottagningen. Det är november 2007, kort efter att hon diagnosticerats med långt framskriden cancer. Detta är den sanna historien om en son och hans mamma, och om den bokklubb som under hennes sista tid i livet för dem närmare varandra. I takt med att sjukdomen sprider sig läggs bok efter bok till läslistan, och i de personliga samtalen kring böckerna får Will och Mary Anne en möjlighet att återupptäcka sina liv och lära känna varandra på ett nytt sätt. I bokklubbens sfär är de inte längre den sjuka och den friska, utan en mamma och en son som tillsammans upptäcker nya världar. Bokklubben vid livets slut är en ömsint hyllning till en älskad mamma, och en inspirerande betraktelse över böckers förmåga att skapa mening och glädje ur kaos och förgängelse, att skänka oss tröst och vidga vår kunskap om oss själva och andra. WILL SCHWALBE är en amerikansk journalist och författare, som bland annat har skrivit för The New York Times och varit chefredaktör på bokförlaget Hyperion. Will Schwalbe är bosatt i New York. »En underbar bok om underbara böcker och mammor och söner och det bestående bandet dem emellan. Liksom böckerna den hyllar kommer den här berättelsen att dröja sig kvar inom dig långt efter sista sidan.« MITCH ALBOM, författare till Tisdagarna med Morrie »Medan jag läste skrev jag ner titel efter titel på en papperslapp, så att jag skulle kunna beställa de böcker som betydde något för Will och hans mamma. Schwalbe är inte bara en entusiastisk läsare, utan också en förkämpe, en hejaklacksledare, en lärjunge.« RACHEL SHTEIR, THE NEW YORK TIMES »Trots att det är en berättelse om döden är Bokklubben vid livets slut mest av allt en hyllning till livet och hur det kan berikas av böcker.« BOOKLIST

"O que você está lendo?". Esta é a pergunta que Will Schwalbe faz para a mãe, Mary Anne, na sala de espera do instituto do câncer Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Em 2007, ela retornou de uma viagem de ajuda humanitária ao Paquistão e ao Afeganistão doente. Meses depois, foi diagnosticada com um tipo avançado de câncer no pâncreas. Toda semana, durante dois anos, Will acompanha a mãe às sessões de quimioterapia. Nesses encontros, conversam um pouco sobre tudo, de coisas triviais como o café da máquina ao que, para eles, realmente importa: a vida e os livros que estão lendo. A lista vai do clássico ao popular, da poesia ao mistério, do fantástico ao espiritual. Eles compartilham suas esperanças e preocupações através dos livros prediletos. As conversas tornam-se um momento de profunda confiança e intimidade. Mãe e filho se redescobrem, falam de fé e coragem, de família e gratidão, além de serem constantemente lembrados do poder que os livros têm de nos reconfortar, surpreender, ensinar e dizer o que precisamos fazer com nossas vidas e com o mundo. Em O clube do livro do fim da vida, o autor faz uma declaração de amor à mãe, percorrendo a vida da corajosa e especial Mary Anne, a carreira nos anos 1960, o trabalho voluntário em países em guerra e, finalmente, o projeto de fundar uma biblioteca nômade no Afeganistão. Mesmo muito debilitada, ela não abre mão de fazer com que o tempo que lhe resta seja útil - para a família, os amigos ou uma criança necessitada do outro lado do mundo. Uma alegre e bem-humorada celebração da vida.

Una història tendra, honesta i commovedora sobre un club de lectura de només dos membres, una mare malalta i el seu fill, que faran servir els llibres per estimar-se encara més. Una celebració de la literatura, l’amor i la vida. En Will i la seva mare, malalta de càncer, saben que el temps de què disposen per estar junts no durarà per sempre. Per això volen aprofitar-lo al màxim i compartir el que més els apassiona: la lectura. Durant mesos parlaran de llibres de tota mena: clàssics i bestsellers, novel·les i memòries, comèdies i tragèdies... I, a través de les lectures, també revisaran les seves vides, les seves pors i el seu amor. Una emocionant oda a la vida i al reconfortant poder de les paraules. “Tots tenim molt més per llegir del que podem llegir i molt més per fer del que podem fer. Així i tot, una de les coses que vaig aprendre de la mare és aquesta: llegir no és el contrari de fer, és el contrari de morir.”

Als een vrouw aan een ongeneeslijke vorm van kanker lijdt, vormt ze met haar zoon een ''leesclub'' voor twee personen om het lijden te verlichten.

Als een vrouw aan een ongeneeslijke vorm van kanker lijdt, vormt ze met haar zoon een ''leesclub'' voor twee personen om het lijden te verlichten.

Simplified Chinese edition of The End of Your Life Book Club. Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2012. In Simplified Chinese. Annotation copyright Tsai Fong Books, Inc. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc.

Déclaration d''amour à la littérature et aux écrivains, hommage passionné à une mère, une oeuvre d''une grande délicatesse sur l''extraordinaire capacité des livres à nous ouvrir à l''autre, à guider nos choix de vie, et à insuffler beauté et poésie dans le quotidien le plus difficile. Qu''est-ce que tu lis en ce moment ? C''est avec cette question que Will Schwalbe brise la glace chaque fois qu''il accompagne sa mère, Mary Anne, à ses séances de chimiothérapie. Car pour lui, éditeur new-yorkais, comme pour elle, fondatrice de la bibliothèque universitaire de Kaboul, lire, c''est le contraire de mourir ; lire, c''est vivre. John Irving, J-R-R Tolkien, Khaled Hosseini, Irène Némirovsky, Thomas Mann, Colm Toibin, Harold Pinter, Maurice Sendak... A travers leurs lectures communes, mère et fils dépassent pudeur et chagrin et échangent sur la famille, l''amour, la mort, la vie, et la magie de ces livres qui nourrissent notre regard sur le monde et nous font goûter, le temps de quelques pages, à une forme d''immortalité.

Traditional Chinese edition of The End of Your Life Book Club. Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2012.