How to Be a Friend to a Friend Whos S..., Letty Cottin Pogrebin
How to Be a Friend to a Friend Whos S..., Letty Cottin Pogrebin
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

How to Be a Friend to a Friend Whos Sick

Author: Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Narrator: Pam Ward

Unabridged: 9 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/09/2013


Synopsis

Everyone knows someone who's sick or suffering. Yet when a friend or relative is under duress many of us feel uncertain about how to cope. Throughout her recent bout with breast cancer, Letty Cottin Pogrebin became fascinated by her friends' and family's diverse reactions to her and her illness: how awkwardly some of them behaved, how some misspoke or misinterpreted her needs, and how wonderful it was when people read her right. She began talking to her fellow patients and dozens of other veterans of serious illness, seeking to discover what sick people wished their friends knew about how best to comfort, help, and even simply talk to them. Now Pogrebin has distilled their collective stories and opinions into this wide-ranging compendium of pragmatic guidance and usable wisdom. Her advice is always infused with sensitivity, warmth, and humor. It is embedded in candid stories from her own and others' journeys and their sometimes imperfect interactions with well-meaning friends. How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick is an invaluable guidebook for anyone hoping to rise to the challenges of this most important and demanding passage of friendship. "I wish Letty's wonderful book had been available thirteen years ago when I had cancer. I would have given it to all of my friends and begged them to read it."-Gene Wilder, actor and author

About Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Letty Cottin Pogrebin is a writer, activist, and national lecturer.

A founding editor and writer for Ms. magazine, Pogrebin is also the author of numerous books, including the novel, Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate, the memoirs Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America and Getting Over Getting Older, the novel Three Daughters, and the groundbreaking How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick. She is also the editor of the anthology Stories for Free Children and consulting editor on Marlo Thomas's Free to Be . . . You and Me.

Pogrebin's articles, op-eds, and columns have been published in a wide variety of print and online publications, including the New York Times, Time, The Nation, Ms., Huffington Post, Harpers Bazaar, Travel & Leisure, Moment, and the Forward.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Phoenix on April 07, 2022

How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick by Letty Cottin Pogrebin is warm with friendship advice from personal experience as a cancer survivor. How to act? This question might help find an option for your individual experience and your friend's needs. Also, the most important thing to know and some......more

Goodreads review by Deena on September 11, 2013

My best friend has an auto-immune disease that has changed her life. I was really hoping for some good, sound, and creative ways to help her, as well as how to deal with the effects of her disease on our friendship. Instead, the author offers self-explanatory ideas like "Ask what they need" or "talk......more

Goodreads review by Rachelle on April 21, 2014

At age 70, Letty Cottin Pogrebin was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, four years later, she is a cancer survivor and author of How to be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick. The book is a collection of interviews, observations, and philosophical ruminations on the perils and unexpected perks of treatm......more

Goodreads review by Dawn on August 02, 2018

I read this after my aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and I knew I'd be with her/helping her at the end of her life. Some things were useful, like asking the ill person if they have the energy for a visit, or letting them know it's ok to cut a visit short if they are tired. Also, how non-helpf......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on August 17, 2014

One of the most helpful guides for both patient, caregivers, family, and friends. Offers an insightful list of how to help and also ask for help - something that patients often don't know how to do. As a counselor to cancer survivors, I suggest this title to the patient and family who are encounteri......more