Her Last Death or Best Diet on Earth

Her Last Death: A Memoir

Author: Susanna Sonnenberg

Her Last Death begins as the phone rings early one morning in the Montana house where Susanna Sonnenberg lives with her husband and two young sons. Her aunt is calling to tell Susanna her mother is in a coma after a car accident. She might not live. Any daughter would rush the thousands of miles to her mother's bedside. But Susanna cannot bring herself to go. Her courageous memoir explains why.

Glamorous, charismatic and a compulsive liar, Susanna's mother seduced everyone who entered her orbit. With outrageous behavior and judgment tinged by drug use, she taught her child the art of sex and the benefits of lying. Susanna struggled to break out of this compelling world, determined, as many daughters are, not to become her mother.

Sonnenberg mines tender and startling memories as she writes of her fierce resolve to forge her independence, to become a woman capable of trust and to be a good mother to her own children. Her Last Death is riveting, disarming and searingly beautiful.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

"Her Last Death recounts "the true calamity of being daughter to this mother," and the wonder of this memoir is that the author survived her traumatic childhood and found a way of turning her memories into a fiercely observed, fluently written book that captures the chaos and confusions of her youth, the daughter of an unpredictable pill-and-coke addicted mother and a brilliant, self-absorbed father, neither of whom had the faintest idea of how to be a parent."

The New York Times

"Her Last Death recounts 'the true calamity of being daughter to this mother,' and the wonder of this memoir is that the author survived her traumatic childhood and found a way of turning her memories into a fiercely observed, fluently written book...Writing in sharp, crystalline prose, Ms. Sonnenberg... plung(es) readers into a sort of perpetual present tense in which we are made to experience, almost firsthand, the inexplicable and perverse behavior of an impossible woman from the point of view of her aghast, bedazzled -- and immensely gifted -- daughter."

Elizabeth Brinkley - Library Journal

This is one of the best memoirs to come on the scene since Jeanette Walls's The Glass Castle, though the world of Sonnenberg's childhood is as privileged as Walls's was marked by scarcity and want. With her two daughters, Sonnenberg's single mother, Daphne, managed to remain a part of this rarefied environment by the skin of her teeth, thanks to benevolent grandparents and the occasional contributions of a distant father. But while Daphne appeared electrifying and glamorous to the young Susanna, no amount of good fortune could keep her from descending, lie by lie, addiction by addiction, into as disappointing a figure as the father in The Glass Castle. Susanna's progressive disenchantment with her often abusive mother-Daphne introduced her daughter to cocaine and punched her in the stomach repeatedly for seemingly expressing interest in a new boyfriend-is charted with precise, unsparing, and luminous prose. A heartbreaking yet wickedly entertaining portrait of a magically seductive, immensely flawed mother who fails dramatically as a parent and of a daughter who learns to trust and love others despite an orphanlike upbringing marked by disillusion. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ9/1/07.]

Kirkus Reviews

A deeply personal account of the author's thorny relationship with her mother. One morning, while "leading an unremarkable life" with her husband and young sons in Montana, Sonnenberg received a phone call with the news that her mother had been severely, probably fatally injured in a car accident. She set about making arrangements to fly to Barbados, where her mother lived, then changed her mind. They were already estranged, but this decision put a definitive end to the single most important and dependent relationship of the author's life. It also led to a breach with her sister, who was outraged that she wouldn't come to an apparently dying woman's bedside, then was stuck with the caretaking responsibilities when their mother recovered. The author's remembrances are designed to justify her decision not to go. She depicts her mother as a stunning and seductive pathological liar with a long history of cocaine and painkiller abuse, as well as unscrupulous sexual behavior. The author spent many years entangled in her mother's capricious demands, often unable to discern truth from lies. The shocking details Sonnenberg provides about her upbringing certainly show her mother behaving recklessly. The lack of maternal nurturing prompted a hunger in her for fulfillment elsewhere, first in romantic relationships and then as a mother herself. Yet they were close for decades, albeit often in an unhealthy way. Readers may not entirely understand the author's extreme choice to end contact altogether, or entirely credit her assertion that the distance between them now serves as a comfort. The permanent rift with her sister serves as a reminder of the cost of Sonnenberg's choice, with which she grapplesto live. Tragic but arresting-a worthy companion to Simone de Beauvoir's and Vivian Gornick's explorations of the complicated mother-daughter dynamic.

Go to: Escape from Freedom or Angler

Best Diet on Earth

Author: Linda Levy

Get a life, a healthy one, by embracing the Dash Diet (The Best Diet on Earth), a medically sound, simple way to lower blood pressure, prevent disease, lose weight, and yes, eat well. What's the deal? Eat more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy -- and get moving!

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments	7
	Meet the Expert	8
	The First Step	10
	Lay the Groundwork for Successful Weight Loss	14
	Introduction	15
	The All-Purpose Diet	16
	The Best Way to Eat	21
	"Dash" Your Way to Health	22
	Fast Forward: Ten Things You Can Do Right Now to Get Stated	25
1	The Best Foods on Earth: Fruits and Vegetables	27
	Fruit	29
	Vegetables	33
2	Hi-Ho the Dairy-O, Do You Drink Milk?	39
	Leave the Fat Behind	41
	Milk Problems	42
	"Milk"	42
	Milk Imposters	44
	Dairy Every Day	44
3	The Best Foods on Earth, Part II: Grains Grains Grains	47
	The "Whole" Story: Common Whole Grains	49
	You and Your Bread	50
	Fear of Bread	51
	Beyond Wheat	52
	The Breakfast Connection	52
	By the Way ...	53
	Measuring up	53
	Patriotic Duty	54
4	Focus on Fat	55
	Sat Fat--the Killer Fat	56
	Change of Pace	63
	A Posthumous Collaboration	64
5	Add-on Fats	65
	Fats with a Good Reputation	66
	Plants and Science: a Struggling Relationship	67
	Fats and Weight Loss	68
	A Low-Fat Day	69
	Labels: Keeping Track of Fat in Packaged Foods	70
	Low Fat Becomes Second Nature	71
6	Snacking	73
	Eating Meals Instead of Snacking	74
	Snacking: Getting the Best Bang for the Buck	75
	Snacking As We Know It	76
	Suspicious Health Messages	77
	Snax Tax	81
	It's up to You	81
7	Patterns: the Key to Healthy Eating	83
	Down Memory Lane--Discovering Your Own Personal Food Pattern	85
	A Healthy Pattern: Three Meals a Day	86
	Pattern: Night Work	89
	Pattern: Behind the Scenes	92
	Pattern: Equipment	98
	Pattern: "Dash" Dining for Dummies	100
	Pattern: Creating Ambiance	101
	Pattern: Company Coming	102
	Pattern: Restaurants	103
	Pattern: Get a Grip	106
	Pattern: Families	107
	Pattern: Exercise	108
8	Graduate Level	111
	The Dash Diet	112
	Health Markers	115
	Gory Details of Serving Sizes	119
	Starches and Weight Loss	121
	Grapefruit Advice	122
9	Staying on Track	123
10	Frequently Asked Questions ("FAQ's")--Answers, Too	129
	Food Record: What Did I Eat? When Did I Eat It?	138
11	14-Day Meal Plan with Meal Appeal	141
12	Preparing the Best Foods on Earth: Day-by-Day Recipes	157
	On Your Way to Healthier Days	158
	Introduction	159
Day 1161
Day 2163
Day 3166
Day 4169
Day 5171
Day 6173
Day 7177
Day 8181
Day 9183
Day 10185
Day 11187
Day 12191
Day 13194
Day 14196
	Endnotes	206
	Index	219