I should have finished this weeks ago but life got in the way. That said, I extend both my thanks for the review opportunity and my deepest apologies for the delayed response to the author, publisher, and NetGalley.

If you're a fan of memoirs and true love then this a book for you. Focusing primarily on Joyce's late in life marriage to Jim, The Best of Us tells their short but incredibly sweet love story. There were moments where I felt the author got repetitive in her storytelling; however, for the most part I really liked this one. Well, as much as one can like a book with such a devastating theme and end point.

Thankfully I've never had most of the heartbreaking experiences Joyce details with the pages of this book, and prayerfully I never will. I think it is wonderful that she is able to open her heart and bare her soul for others though. To simply get a small peek inside the life that she and Jim shared, albeit briefly, allows readers like me not only a better understanding of what it's like to go through the types of trials they dealt with but also undoubtedly gives hope to many others.

To Jim, may your strength and passion for life always inspire others.

This book is a step out of my normal path of reading. I was intrigued by what this memoir could hold. I was not disappointed. Joyce Maynard’s writing is real and vulnerable. She shares her life and last love in rich and vivid detail. She opens the door to what becomes an agonizing saga of finding love and being forced to let it go. I grew to care very much for Joyce and her second husband who marry later in life. There’s joy, sadness, delight, and heartache.
I’m glad I veered off my path. This book was very well written, held my attention throughout, and inspired me to live each moment fully.

I received a copy from NetGalley. All thoughts were my own. I was not compensated for this review.

This is a beautiful, heartbreaking read. Just when Maynard knows she has found the man she knows is meant for her, he gets cancer. This was the story of Maynard and Jim's journey and how she dealt through all of it. I enjoyed her writing and her descriptions of the places they lived and visited. I ached for her and hugged my husband just that much tighter.

Joyce Maynard writes about her marriage in her late fifties to the love of her life, Jim. She writes this memoir so beautifully and honestly. It is a true love story and my heart broke for Joyce because she did so much to try to save Jim from the horrible pancreatic cancer that eventually took his life after only a few years of marriage. To finally find true love only to have it taken from you so quickly is heartbreaking. Being a caregiver myself to my elderly mother, I have, thankfully, not had to go through what she did in her care of Jim. I was amazed and in awe at her courage and determination to make him better and with the tenderness and loving way that she did it. This is a very moving and emotional read that I do highly recommend.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Joyce Maynard's memoir of her husband's battle with pancreatic cancer hit awfully close to home. My father died of pancreatic cancer almost eight years ago. It's a particularly nasty cancer because it is almost always a death sentence, and it can move brutally fast. I have vivid memories of my father through different stages of his illness, which in his case lasted relatively long -- two years. Thankfully, by now, when I think of my father I don't tend to think about his illness but rather I remember him as a person. But The Best Years of Us brought me back to the last two years of his life. Those were terrible times in many ways, but they are also an important part of my relationship with my father and my own life journey.

I couldn't have read Maynard's book a few years ago, but with some distance I was able to read it and to get a lot from it. Maynard and her husband Jim's journey felt so familiar. Not the specific medical procedures he went through, but the mental and emotional roadmap they traveled. The gut punch of the diagnosis, the hopeless hope that drove them to endlessly quest for a cure, the brutal relentless sickness, the bittersweet mental shift and odd peacefulness that comes with accepting that there will be no miracle cure, the starkness of the last few days and the grief that keeps creeping up unexpectedly. It's such a common but deeply personal experience. It was somehow helpful to read Maynard recount her experience. When Maynard describes her early life, and the road that led her to Jim in her late 50s, I suspect that we wouldn't have had much in common at that time. But if I met her now, I feel that there is so much we would have to share.

This is not a book for everyone. It gets quite detailed at times. But I know that it will speak to many. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

This was a very strong book. It is a love story, love that came later in life. Only to have it snatched away by cancer. The author gives us insight to her life during this time, her thoughts, emotions, etc. It was very sad but a very good read. It gives a glimpse of pancreatic cancer, the toll it can take. The stress, the sadness, etc. Outstanding book to having love and losing it in such a painful manner. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Memorist/novelist Joyce Maynard is willing to show the worst of herself in The Best of Us

Joyce Maynard’s latest memoir tells of a love story cut down in it’s prime: Her husband Jim Barringer is diagnosed with the very deadly pancreatic cancer just after their one-year anniversary and is gone within two years. They were together less than six years total (her first real relationship in two decades). That’s a lot of numbers to describe a fast and hot love in later life that quickly moved to letting go.

Maynard describes years of unsuccessful singlehood, the tragic story of giving up her two adopted Ethiopian daughters, and the unlikely joining together with Barringer in her late fifties with whom she imagined growing old. Always brave enough to tell the often ugly truth of her selfishness and almost singular self-centeredness, Maynard’s gift of self examination shows the difficult task of promising to love and stay with someone “in sickness and in health.”

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Every Joyce Maynard book I ever read, I have loved! She writes as though you are living inside her books. You see the things she describes, you feel the things each of the characters are feeling. She's simply brilliant in my opinion.

This book was even better than I imagined it to be. When the publisher sent it to me, I was shocked! I didn't open it for two weeks because I knew this story was going to be different. I knew I was really going to feel everything she poured into this book and I did. I felt every happy moment, every tear, and everything in between.

She's led a remarkable life and if I am ever asked again if you sit and have dinner with any author who would it be, I would say Joyce Maynard.

I won't even bother describing the details of this book because nothing I can say will add any justice to the writing of Ms. Maynard.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Bloomsbury, and Joyce Maynard for the opportunity to read this book.

Giving 5 stars to a book about someone dying from cancer always seems wrong, but this is an amazing book by such a powerful writer. I've always loved Maynard's books and really loved the honesty and clarity with which this book was written.

Joyce and Jim found each other later in their lives, after accumulating all the baggage that we do when we are in our 50s. There's was a true love story - the finding Prince Charming after all the frogs, the happy ever after. Until cancer.

This is a long book - almost 450 pages - but it is so worth the read. Besides Maynard's wonderful writing, this book, although so incredibly sad, is also uplifting and gives us all yet another reminder how we should cherish each other and every moment we are given. I loved Maynard's honesty - writing about how hard it is to be the caretaker and how hard it is to voice those feelings.

Highly recommended - but keep the Kleenex nearby.

I really enjoyed this lovely bittersweet memoir - Joyce Maynard has such a way of writing about her love that it absolutely floored me at times. It was such a beautiful ode to her husband and their all too brief marriage. I would recommend this to anyone who is dealing with big, heavy grief, and anyone who has ever been in love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for a free digital copy to review – all opinions are my own!

Joyce Maynard takes us on an emotional roller coaster ride in her book, The Best of Us (read synopsis here). The book is painfully honest and the reader really gets a sense of Maynard’s deep love and adoration for her husband. Within eighteen months of their marriage, her husband is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The disease progresses quickly and three weeks shy of their three-year anniversary, her husband passes away.

I enjoyed The Best of Us. As I’ve said here, here, and here, I’m always drawn to books with this subject as the main topic. I feel like reading different caretaker’s perspectives really helps me understand and remember some of my thoughts and feelings as I watched my own mother battle this horrific disease. While I didn’t lose my spouse to cancer, there are still many parallels that seem to continually surface when I read these types of stories that are relative to my own journey through cancer. I appreciate Maynard’s honesty; she truly puts her heart on the page. There were many times I was trying to blink back tears – slightly awkward and uncomfortable when on an airplane surrounded by strangers! But that’s also the sign good writing!

There were times where I felt like the story dragged on a little to long. Maynard is a writer by trade so it’s clearly not hard for her to create very descriptive, heavily detailed paragraphs. Some of it was fine, but it also tended to drag me away emotionally because it was just too dense and didn’t add anything significant to the overall story. At almost 450 pages, I was just ready for the story to wrap up.

Overall, The Best of Us is a very touching tribute to the power of love, connection, and the ultimate promise one can make to another person – in sickness and in health. It’s deep and emotional and will make you appreciate the hope one has when faced with death.

This 448-page love letter highlighting Joyce’s abbreviated love story with soulmate Jim is one chock full of emotion and packed a powerful punch. This beautifully written tribute is simply stunning. I mourn Maynard’s loss and reading this book serves as a reminder to not take my own marriage for granted; it could all change tomorrow.

The book is also a reinforcement of the old saying “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” I will be purchasing the audio so I can hear the words in Joyce’s own voice. I will have handy my box of tissues as this is one of those few books that made me cry.

The review and an interview with the author was published on Sept. 5 in the Palm Beach Post. See link below:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/lifestyles/late-life-love-taught-author-joyce-maynard-what-marriage-really/iamZZeRU6g4gkpQnbFOygM/

I've never read any of Joyce Maynard's writings until this book, but unknowingly appreciated her work several months ago. I happened upon the movie "Labor Day" while it was being offered as a free screening to Amazon Prime members, and thought it was brilliant. When I noticed the book that inspired the movie on sale one day, I instantly snapped it up.

As Maynard states in this book, she is usually writing fictional stories, and those stories need to have some inherent conflict to interest the reader. Well, this is a work of non-fiction, an open and honest recounting of her husband's battle with pancreatic cancer. The major conflict here is that this woman has been searching for real love all her life, she finally finds it, and it is ultimately taken away from her due to her husband's terminal illness.

First of all, Ms. Maynard is a fascinating individual who really loves life. She takes a lot of chances, travels broadly and is a great communicator. She also is an extremely attractive woman. With all her talents and gifts, I was surprised that she felt the need to use a dating website to find available men. But, that's how she met her beloved husband Jim.

There are a couple of things in the book that can potentially turn off the reader. For one, she adopted two girls (who were sisters) from Ethiopia before she ever met Jim. It didn't work out, so she gave them up to another adoptive couple. Another thing, she kept referring to the recent Presidential election and she and her husband's aversion to Republicans in general and Donald Trump in particular. The late great Johnny Carson, while always funny, stayed right in the middle with the butts of his jokes. He equally roasted both political parties, so you did not really know exactly where his own politics stood. In that way, you don't insult or alienate half of your audience. This is an autobiographical piece, and she did make clear her and her husband's political leanings throughout the book, since such an unusual Presidential election was taking place at the time of Jim's battle with cancer.

Ms. Maynard takes you intimately on her and her husband's journey from the cancer diagnosis through Jim's doctor visits, treatments, hospice and death. However, the distinct beauty of this book is the way they live life to the fullest together...right until the end. I think it was a wonderful way for her to memorialize the way she loved her husband, and as a kind of guide/roadmap for people going through the same agonizing experience that they did. This was a very special book that I highly recommend.

"Not until we learned of his illness, and we walked the path of that terrible struggle together, did I understand what it meant to be a couple - to be a true partner and to have one. I only learned the full meaning of marriage as mine was drawing to a close. I discovered what love was as mine departed the world."

The Best of Us by Joyce Maynard is a highly recommended memoir of the author finding true love in her late fifties and then losing her beloved.

In her late fifties and after two decades of being single, Maynard begins this honest memoir stating that she was done with love and marriage. Then she met Jim on Match(dot)com and quickly changed her mind. The first part of her account is a detailed, open examination of her life and failings. She is quite open with her poor life choices and the fall-out from some of those decisions. Jim accepted her as she was and gave her the support she didn't even realize she needed. After they married it seemed that she finally had the love and a true partner for the rest of her life.

Then, just after their first anniversary, Jim was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and their dreams changed. For the next nineteen months they battled his illness together, including frequent hospital visits, surgeries, and medication. Even as the narrative becomes increasingly painful and difficult to read, it also moves closer to acceptance of the inevitable heart-break end. Maynard celebrates her once-in-a-lifetime love and the heart-wrenching experience of losing him.

This is certainly a worth-while, well-written memoir. Maynard is extremely open and honest with her life and the choices and mistakes she has made. Some of these choices were rather impulsive and made without much forethought or consideration of the outcome or wisdom of her actions. The fact that she has openly written about some of these events indicts that she chose to do so despite the fact that they may reflect on how individual readers react to her. (It should be noted that Jim and Joyce were in a much better financial situation than many who face similar trials.)

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bloomsbury USA.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/09/the-best-of-us.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2112584105

The Best of Us by Joyce Maynard is a riveting memoir and beautiful love story. It is a big story, about finding love again later in life when all thoughts of it ever happening had been relegated to the "I Wish" list, and then losing that "this-is-the-one" love far too soon in one of the most painful ways possible.

The story is honestly and well told. The author honors us by showing her humanness, vulnerability and strength by sharing her good, bad, and sometimes ugly sides equally. This intimate view makes it easy for the reader to empathize with her, or at the very least, respect her for what she has been through. Ms. Maynard tells of her decades alone following her divorce; meeting Jim and finding a true partner when she had given up on finding love again; the early days of their joyful exuberant love; their marriage and her struggle to be accountable to another; the diagnosis that Jim had pancreatic cancer; their journey together through the ups and downs of that battle; Jim's impending death; and Joyce trying to move forward again, alone, when she had found she liked being part of a strong, loving couple.

Uplifting, heart-wrenching, and wise throughout, this is one of the best memoirs I've ever read. If only everyone were lucky enough to be part of such a love, no matter how short the time they had together. Their love was truly special, and despite the horrible outcome, I'm sure each of them would consider themselves blessed.

I am so grateful to NetGalley, the author and Bloomsbury Press for allowing me to read and review an e-ARC of this beautiful book!

I was not familiar with the author or her previous works of fiction but this memoir intrigued me. The author meets and marries in her 50s after some well meaning but disastrous relationships. She and Jim are enjoying their newfound happiness, traveling the county and abroad. The book follows their story until a fateful day when he is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I was hoping that he would be a lucky one and a cure would be forthcoming. How they dealt with his diagnosis, treatment and passing away was a true testament to love. Many tears were shed during the reading of this memoir.

Wow. What an experience! This is the saddest true love story I’ve ever heard. This memoir is well-written and infused with emotion. It’s so vivid, I felt like I had a front-row seat. I couldn’t put it down—which is weird, given that the book is about a man dying of cancer. Not the most upbeat subject.

The story is told by the writer Joyce Maynard, who, in her late 50s, found and married the love of her life, Jim, only to lose him to pancreatic cancer eighteen months later. This is a chronicle of their relationship—the wonderful Before diagnosis, and the devastating After.

The tone is earnest, conversational, and full of tenderness, determination, and over-the-top energy. I shared the constant worries, the hopefulness they felt as little things appeared to get better, the devastation they felt as his condition grew worse.

Both had been married and had grown kids. Neither one expected to find what they found. They pictured getting old together. Their story was so uplifting, so rich with love, I wanted it to go on forever. So did they.

The book is large for a memoir, nearly 450 pages. The latter half of the book is about what happened after Jim’s diagnosis. I found myself tearing up when the diagnosis was given. I hardly ever cry when reading, so this just tells you how powerful a writer we have here.

The first half of the memoir covers how they met and how they loved each other. Maynard paints a vivid picture of her loving man, and shows all his complexities. His expensive clothes and car would normally be a turn-off for me (anti-cool), but I learn again that appearances aren’t everything. He was so much more than he appeared to be. And the relationship was the closest to a good fairytale that I’ve ever seen. They lived the high life—great food, great trips, great friends, houses here and there. They had it all. Until.

Maynard has an honest style, never glorifying her life and never ignoring her faults. There’s one choice she made prior to meeting Jim that got a lot of negative press. Here, she was able to explain her decision in the hope, I’m sure, that people would understand why she did what she did and how it affected her. It’s a heartbreaker of a story. This event was secondary, of course, to the story of their marriage and Jim’s illness, but I’m glad she included it. She also included a well-told story about Jim’s pro bono work (where Maynard acted as his assistant) to help an African student who was getting a raw deal, and Jim’s work just endeared him to me even more.

Really, there is a third being in this memoir—and a true villain: Pancreatic cancer. Mean. Devastating. Relentless. Evil. Unstoppable. Taking over, taking more. Stripping people of strength and dignity. And in this case, the villain won, killing its victim. Oh what an ordeal, oh what a struggle they had. Fighting the disease was Maynard’s full-time job. She had notebooks full of doctors’ names, support groups, clinical trials, medicines, treatments, herbs, food. She never let up; she seemed to have endless energy.

Jim seemed to do way more than I would have thought possible. He climbed mountains, he kept driving, he went across the country numerous times, and even went to other countries—sometimes in the midst of chemo. I can’t imagine traveling when he was getting so weak. But both of them held onto hope, and they wanted to life to its fullest as long as he could. Days before he died, they went to a Dylan concert. His bravery and determination to get to the concert, combined with the care that Maynard and the nurse’s station gave him, just turned my heart inside out.

You hear about how terminal cancer patients try everything, and Joyce and Jim did. She talked about the questions that everyone in their shoes have. If we had done this earlier, if we had gone to this doctor first, if he hadn’t had a complicated surgery, if he had maintained a strict diet—could any of these things have saved, or at least prolonged, his life? This book called to mind Being Mortal, a wonderful non-fiction book on illness and death.

Keeping hope alive was super important to them. It was only in the last month or so that they realized they would not win the battle. Their acceptance of his imminent death was gentle and touching. Joyce felt like all they went through together brought out the best in her.

One thing I struggled with was the realization that this couple had the financial means to try every single thing possible. They could fly coast-to-coast to see the best doctors in the field. They could afford super expensive treatments that insurance didn’t cover. A couple of times Maynard did say that their finances weren’t great, but I still saw that they had the privilege of trying everything possible. I couldn’t help but think of those who could not afford to “try everything,” to shop for doctors country-wide, to pay for exorbitant experimental treatments, to pay for places to stay in far-away cities. What it does drive home, though, is that money can’t kill cancer, no matter how much you throw at it.

I read one of Maynard’s novels, called Under the Influence, in 2016. It was a 4-star read. For some reason I decided to visit her Facebook page at that time, and there I found a current chronicle about her days with Jim, who had just died. It was so very powerful, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That’s why I was looking forward to this memoir. I have been meaning to read her earlier memoir about her relationship (when she was a teen) with the author J. D. Salinger. I need to read it sooner now, as Maynard’s life fascinates me. I also plan to read all of her novels.

An amazing memoir, one that I am recommending highly. I think that people in the midst of caring for a terminally ill loved one will especially find it cathartic and informative. The only people I wouldn’t recommend this book to are those who have found (illness-free) love late in life.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Maynard's candor was inspiring and her love and loss palpable. I loved this book for just those reasons!

It is only fairly recently that I have begun reading memoirs or biographies written by author whose book I love to read. I am amazed at the insight this provides when I next read their books, makes ten more meaningful in a way. This book is a wonderful, if heartbreaking, homage to a man she met and married late in her life, a man she had for too short a time.

She allows the reader into the most personal of thoughts, actions, mistakes, regrets and joys in her life. It is searingly honest, if a times uncomfortably sentimental. It is both hard to read and a joy to read. It covers her first marriage and divorce, her children and other everyday things in her life. Her publishing career, the trips she made, her dating experiences, and her hopes and goals in her life.

Her husband's cancer, treatments, how they struggled to make each day meaningful. So at times it is difficult to read as you can imagine, but it ends with love and hope. I can only wish her well, with a great deal of admiration and respect.

ARC from Netgalley
Publishes September 5th by Bloomsbury.