Book Club: I’m Just A Person, Chapter 4

young adult cancer book club

Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 4: Saying Good-Bye of the book, I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro! Catch up on Chapter 1: Over My Mother’s Dead Body, Chapter 2: Are You My Mother, and Chapter 3: The Downfall.

Let’s get started!  Chapter 4!

Mallory:

More and more heartbreak.  I suppose with a chapter name like, “Saying Good-Bye,” I should have expected as much.  I remember the day of my own mother’s death.  I remember being surrounded by some of my mother’s closest friends during the weeks before, and the day of.  While my mother did not suffer from dementia before her own death, the tumor growing in her brain took several months to finally end her life and the first major changes were in her short term memory.  We would have similar conversations about daily events several times over.

I absolutely love Tig’s writing style.  The fact that in this “Saying Good-Bye” chapter she also included details of a fight she had “a decade earlier” with her mother where she had felt “rejected and abandoned.”  A mother’s death also brings about those feelings and Tig made it as easy and possible for the reader to connect with those intense sentiments, even if they haven’t experienced this before.  Tig’s acceptance of her mother and her mother’s dementia helps lead us into her process of finding closure with her mother’s death.  Expert storytelling.

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Thanks for joining us for Chapter 4: Saying Good-Bye of I’m Just A Person!  Join in next Monday for Chapter 5: Letting Go.

If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  Join in, in the comments every week!  At the end, we’ll have a book club discussion via video chat!  Also, there will probably be spoilers.  Read along with us!

How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?

Book Club: I’m Just A Person, Chapter 3

young adult cancer book club

Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 3: The Downfall of the book, I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro! Catch up on Chapter 1: Over My Mother’s Dead Body and Chapter 2: Are You My Mother.

Let’s get started!  Chapter 3!

Mallory:

The chapter carried a wallop of emotions.  Learning about Tig’s experience with C-Diff, watching her hazed hospital experience, and then learning of her mother’s tragic fall led me down a rabbit hole of her hurt.  You can feel the weight of so much happening at once, disrupting the life that she had carefully built for herself.

I find it curious, intriguing really, how this chapter was first spent explaining her discovery of stand-up, her path to success, and showing us even shaky moments in her life surrounded by moments of success.  I felt rooted in the idea that Tig understood herself and had things “put together” in her career and her personal life.  Then…disaster hits.  First in her own personal health and then with her mother’s.  I can completely relate to having LARGE life devastations happen one after the other.  My heart went out to Tig while I finished up the chapter.

 

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Thanks for joining us for Chapter 3: The Downfall of I’m Just A Person!  Join in next Monday for Chapter 4: Saying Good-Bye.

If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  Join in, in the comments every week!  At the end, we’ll have a book club discussion via video chat!  Also, there will probably be spoilers.  Read along with us!

How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?

Book Club: I’m Just A Person, Chapter 2

young adult cancer book club

Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 2: Are You My Mother of the book, I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro! Catch up on Chapter 1: Over My Mother’s Dead Body.

Let’s get started!  Chapter 2!

Mallory:

So far, this book is very cancer unrelated.  Anyone having trouble with that?  Personally, I’m loving the writing style that Tig offers.  Her unabashed honesty and sense of self is so refreshing in a world of polished selfies and rewritten personal histories.  I find myself always wanting to read the next chapter.  This chapter brought us through her childhood and into adolescence and early adulthood.  Tig defined her own success and worked hard to support herself early on.

While I grew up in a very different sort of household than Tig describes, I can most definitely relate to expecting different behaviors or qualities from someone than those they are willing or able to offer.  It can be a complicated grieving process and one that happens throughout our lives with different sets of people.  Reading Tig’s expectations of her mother made me feel less isolated in the expectations that I’ve held for my own parents, or for my friends while I was going through treatments and felt so alone and unsupported.

I’m eager to see how Tig develops through the rest of the book.  What piece of Tig’s story has spoken to you so far?

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Thanks for joining us for Chapter 2: Are You My Mother of I’m Just A Person!  Join in next Monday for Chapter 3: The Downfall.

If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  Join in, in the comments every week!  At the end, we’ll have a book club discussion via video chat!  Also, there will probably be spoilers.  Read along with us!

How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?

Book Club: I’m Just A Person, Chapter 1

young adult cancer book club

Welcome to the comments and discussion of Chapter 1: Over My Mother’s Dead Body of the book, I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro!  Lacuna Loft was fortunate to be able to give away 24 copies of this book!

Let’s get started!  Chapter 1!

Mallory:

This first chapter was quite the opener.  It was heartbreaking, raw, and so wonderfully honest.  You can feel her hurt and the complicated relationship she has with her family.  I wanted to reach through the pages of the book and give Tig a hug.  At the same time, I wanted her to come find me, sitting at home alone contemplating the way my own life has become infinitely more complicated since my mother’s death, and for her to sit next to me.  We could have some tea, watch the dogs mosey around the apartment, and compare their simple existence to that of Bunny’s.

Tig’s writing is honest and direct while not alienating the audience.  High praise from someone who feels easily alienated.

How are you liking the young adult cancer book club read so far?

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Thanks for joining us for Chapter 1: Over My Mother’s Dead Body of, I’m Just A Person!  Join in next Monday for Chapter 2: Are You My Mother.

If you’re just joining us, here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  Then, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  Join in, in the comments every week!  At the end, we’ll have a book club discussion via video chat!  Also, there will probably be spoilers.  Read along with us!

How are you enjoying our young adult cancer book club?

Want A Free Book To Our Next Book Club?

tig notaro book club

Round 4 of Lacuna Loft’s Young Adult Cancer Book Club is starting Monday, March 6!  The book, as chosen by you, is I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro!

Lacuna Loft is offering a free book to 24 young adult cancer survivors or caregivers.  To get your free book, email info@lacunaloft.org with your name, mailing address, and a little bit about yourself.  If you’d like to share comments on each chapter of the book, let us know when you email in!

There are several ways for you to be involved in the book club.

  1.  Read the book along with us and check out the Young Adult Voices blog each Monday for the next book chapter’s installment!
  2. If you get behind, check out this page for all of the posts for Round 4 of the book club.
  3. If you’d like to contribute your comments about a chapter, email info@lacunaloft.org at least a few days ahead of the Monday when that chapter will be discussed, with your comments and a short bio of yourself.

If you’d prefer to order yourself a book, you can find it listed on Amazon here…(remember to order using Amazon Smile and choose to support Lacuna Loft!)

Here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  If Monday happens to be a holiday, then the post will publish on Tuesday.  Once we finish the book, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  We’ll also have a video chat book club discussion at the end!  Join in, in the comments every week!  Also, there will probably be spoilers so read along with us!

Excited about the young adult cancer book club?  Have any suggestions for future reads?  Let us know!

Grab A Free Book For Our Next YA Cancer Book Club!

young adult cancer book club

The next round of Lacuna Loft’s Young Adult Cancer Book Club is starting soon!  I’m hoping for a mid-March start date but I’ll keep you all updated!  The book, as chosen by you, is….drumroll please…I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro!  It was the VERY close second place during our Round 3 of the book club (by ONE vote of many) so it just made sense that we’d pick it for Round 4!

Lacuna Loft is offering a free book to 24 young adult cancer survivors or caregivers.  To get your free book, email info@lacunaloft.org with your name, mailing address, and a little bit about yourself.  If you’d like to share comments on each chapter of the book, let us know when you email in!

(And don’t forget that you can still join in on the Round 3 young adult cancer book club’s discussion on Feb. 11 of the book, Rising Strong!)

I am super excited for the book club to be starting its 4th round.  Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3 were a huge success and I expect nothing less from Round 4!  Each week, young adult cancer survivors and caregivers will share comments on the book, as well as personal thoughts and stories.  After we’ve completed the book, we’ll have a video chat where people can talk with one another about the book and life in general.

There are several ways for you to be involved in the book club.

  1.  Read the book along with us and check out the Young Adult Voices blog each Monday for the next book chapter’s installment!
  2. If you get behind, check out this page for all of the posts for Round 3 of the book club.
  3. If you’d like to contribute your comments about a chapter, email info@lacunaloft.org at least a few days ahead of the Monday when that chapter will be discussed, with your comments and a short bio of yourself.

Lacuna Loft is offering a free book to 24 young adult cancer survivors or caregivers.  To get your free book, email info@lacunaloft.org with your name, mailing address, and a little bit about yourself.

If you’d prefer to order yourself a book, you can find it listed on Amazon here…(remember to order using Amazon Smile and choose to support Lacuna Loft!)

Here are some logistics:

We will talk about a chapter each Monday until the book is done.  If Monday happens to be a holiday, then the post will publish on Tuesday.  Once we finish the book, we’ll use one more Monday to talk about general feelings from the book and anything else you’d like to discuss.  We’ll also have a video chat book club discussion at the end!  Join in, in the comments every week!  Also, there will probably be spoilers so read along with us!

Excited about the young adult cancer book club?  Have any suggestions for future reads?  Let us know!

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