About this Event
Zibby's Bookshop is thrilled to host Jessica Fein as she celebrates the launch of her new book, BREATH TAKING: A Memoir of Family, Dreams, and Broken Genes. Jessica will be joined in conversation by Linda Sivertsen!
About the book:
"A master class in how to be a person." --Joanna Rakoff, bestselling author of My Salinger Year
"Astonishing...one of the most moving memoirs I've read." --Caroline Leavitt, best-selling author of With or Without You and the forthcoming Days of Wonder.
At the age of five Jessica Fein's daughter Dalia was diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease that would claim her life at 17. Before that moment came, and inspired by Dalia's own insuppressible zest for life, Fein and her family would discover how to live in the present when the future can't be fixed. In this heartfelt yet clear-eyed memoir, Fein maps both her journey to becoming an adoptive mom and the roller coaster ride of loving and caring for a terminally ill child, persevering when the simple act of taking a breath can become an act of courage. Through it all, she discovers the need to be both relentless advocate and calm presence, to show vulnerability as well as strength, and to allow joy to be louder than sorrow.
"More than an honest and humorous memoir, Breath Taking can be the guide star so many seek when life hands them more than they ever imagined they could endure." --Daniel DeFabio, rare disease filmmaker and Co-founder of The Disorder Channel
"A story of relentless heartbreak met with wit, strength, and resilience." -Jennifer Weisel Bailey, ELLE Magazine
About the speakers:
Jessica Fein is the author of Breath Taking: A Memoir of Family, Dreams, and Broken Genes, and host of the "I Don't Know How You Do It” podcast, which features people whose lives seem unimaginable from the outside. She writes the "Grace in Grief" blog for Psychology Today, and her writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Scary Mommy, Zibby Mag, Kveller, and more. Jessica is a working mother and a relentless warrior in the memory of her dynamic daughter whom she lost to rare disease in 2022. Her work encompasses hope and humor, grit and grace -- the tools that make up her personal survival kit.
She’s the mother of three, whom she and her husband adopted from Guatemala. They live outside of Boston with their quasi-service dog, who trained himself. To learn more visit www.jessicafeinstories.com.
Linda Sivertsen, “Book Mama,” is in LOVE with books—reading, writing, and selling them. Her titles have won many awards and hit all the lists as an author, co-author, and former magazine editor and ghostwriter. But her driving force has been to publish sustainably. Naïve and optimistic enough to believe in magic, she’s on a mission to save forests via her role as a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Ambassador. When she’s not fostering literary love matches on her (a favorite stop for writers on tour), writing, and promoting , or midwifing books at her Carmel or virtual writing retreats, Linda can be found on the back of a horse or running with her dogs. She and her husband live on their ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
1113 Montana Ave, 1113 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, United States
USD 0.00