It's Okay to Laugh: (Crying Is Cool Too)

It's a weird thing to look forward to picking up a book about a woman who lost two of the most important men in her life within weeks. (Especially when you're the type of person that avoids all books and movies that might make you think too hard about reality). It's even stranger to laugh at the author's retelling of a scene at her father’s deathbed. It's weird to say a book about navigating the loss of loved ones is delightful and a breath of fresh air but it is. It's honest. Nora's book tells a kind of real story that makes you say "Ok life, we may not always get along but let's do this!". This book: - Is funny (Gosh darn it! It's funny!) - Life affirming (not joking here, makes me grateful to be alive and to have my far-from-perfect family and friends) - Hopeful - Reads like short stories so you can move through it in short bursts (I'd binge read it but I want to savor it and I'd cry too much at one time) I'm enjoying it as much as I enjoyed Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith and I hope to learn as much from Nora’s book as I did from Anne’s.

The book matched my expectations and was easy to read. I’ve purchased from this seller before and once again everything went smoothly. The item was well packaged and arrived on time. I would definitely recommend this seller.

This book was great. Nora McInerny wrote so well I found myself going from on the verge to crying, to completely laughing, sometimes experiencing both on the same page. She is one of the most relatable writers. I also appreciated how Nora acknowledged her privilege as a wealthy, white female. While she was transparent and authentic, she was able to realize that most of her life experiences were due to her privilege. Yet at the same time, she acknowledged that cancer and miscarriage do not discriminate, and she has had her fair share of trials. Great read for some wonderful perspective. Would recommend as self-help, beach read, or just a pick me up.

I just read two back-to-back memoirs written by two women who experienced profound loss but managed to write about their experiences with humor and such thoughtfulness at the same time. How do they do it. I cannot even imagine. Clearly, Nora McInerny Purmort, the author of IT’S OK TO LAUGH: (CRYING IS COOL TOO) is one smart (and funny) lady as she not only shares the intimate details of her husband’s death due to brain cancer, just months after her father passed away, and as if that weren’t enough, she has just suffered a miscarriage. She is young, her marriage was young, she has a loving, supportive family and a baby as well. She copes on some days and not so much on others. She talks about the raw truth about how she winces when friends betray her because they simply can’t deal with illness and others who rally to help. I learned so much from Purmort. About what it means to do what you need to do. How to treat others in their time of need, as while I have been there, clearly not in her same situation, and now looking back, I am not proud of how I might have handled other’s grief before I truly understood it or experienced it myself. Maybe I was one of those friends who turned away for fear of hospitals or how to handle the dark times. There are things that we hear others say that are so inappropriate and just not comforting. She writes about the things people say in these dark times and when you read them, it is laughable, but if you were on the receiving end, not so much. Chapter 37 is everything. This is not a book about death. It is a book filled with love and great humor, keen observations, an openness that is refreshing. To Nora, I say I am sorry for that you no longer have your kind father who loved you in the sweetest of ways. I know it hurts big time, that the love of your life was taken from you, there are no words. I am also sorry for the baby that you lost who never got to meet the incredible parents that he/she would have had.

This book is awesome to say the least. I followed Nora on Tumblr, one because I'm an xray tech and her photo was the MRI of Aaron's tumor and so it caught my eye and two, because her writing was so down to earth/real life and it was interesting to follow along. Nora is one of those people that you can totally relate to when you were growing up and all of the awkward, ridiculous things we did/do as girls! Now Nora is one of those people that I would love to hang out with as an adult :) While I'm pretty sure that won't be happening anytime soon, reading her book was a tear jerker at times and then others I was laughing out loud, but it made you feel like she was sitting across a table sharing a coffee with you. I just noticed that she is now going to have a podcast called "Terrible, Thanks for Asking" which if you read her book you totally understand why that is the name. I hurried up and subscribed to it before even listening to the 4 minute promo and I'm glad I did. Can November hurry up and get here already??? Bottom line: read this book and subscribe to the podcast! You won't be disappointed......

Nora's voice is raw, real, and imbued with compassion, kindness, and a wicked sense of humor. The result is a crazy-honest book that is an up-close, unflinching look at love and grief and what remains after surviving an incredible amount of loss. You will fall in love with Aaron with her. You will grieve with her. You will laugh with her. You will cringe with her. Prepare to sob and snort-laugh simultaneously, and to set aside whatever tasks you have at hand (like, in my case, parenting) so that you can read it straight through. This book is essential reading.

I’m struggling with adjectives here because it feels uncomfortable to say a book about such personal loss is “incredible” or a “must read”, but it is so beautifully and honestly written from such a fresh and modern perspective that it needs a fiercely complimentary adjective. The author writes openly about love, life and loss, and does it all with a sense of humour and balance which makes this book poignant to some yet accessible to everyone, mixing in anecdotes from her life to give context and meaning. It is very much about the tragedy the author has lived through and she tells their story in such a way that you feel as though you experienced it all too, yet she carefully avoids going into much medical detail or telling too many stories of cancer and hospitals. She also talks freely about the way tragedy changes not just your life but also your relationships with others, with a reflective and insightful awareness of her own interactions with friends and family. She does all of this with warmth and wit, and by the end feels like a close friend who you’ve shared a bottle of wine with whilst talking about your lives. I bought this book as I have something very tragic in common with the author as I recently lost my husband to brain cancer, and I finished it in two days. I laughed, I cried, I sobbed, and somehow this book helped me with my own feelings by saying all the things I was trying to. What I like best about this book is that it is a love story. If we put cancer to one side, so much of what the author is writing about is meeting someone wonderful where love suddenly becomes easy, who loves you for who you are and yet makes you a better person, and who shows you that life can be happy and full no matter what happens if you are open to it and work at it. It’s also about losing that person, and being equal parts a crumbling mess and a picture of strength because you loved so hard and so deeply that you can’t be anything else.

Böse Zungen würden das Buch als Lebensberatung abtun. Es ist jedoch eine Autobiographie. Eine Zusammenfassung, ein Einblick in ein anderes Leben, und die Dinge die diese Person darin für wichtig und wertvoll hielt. Ich hatte nie den Eindruck, dass Frau McInery Purmort schreibt, um andere zu belehren, sondern einfach weil es ihr hilft, die Gedanken auf Papier zu bringen und klar auszuformulieren. Weil es ihr hilft, das Wesentliche und die Muster darin zu erkennen, und auf den Punkt zu bringen. Und vieles war ein Déjà Vu, eine Erkenntnis, eine Weisheit. Geschrieben aus Trauer, aus Schmerz und Verzweiflung. Und in der Erkenntnis dass das Leben uns immer wieder Aspekte zeigt, die uns Hoffnung, Freude und Kraft schenken. Die uns inspirieren, unser Bestes zu geben und uns anderen Menschen zu widmen, ihnen in Freundschaft und Liebe verbunden zu sein.

When i started reading this book i though it was like a script of a movie. - She falls in love, then he gest cancer and dies but she keeps their baby. What a cliché. But NO. I cried, and I laughed and I wanted to be that happy. I wanted to bring back yo life Aaron. I wanted to fall in love. I wanted a family. This book taught me how wonderful life is, even in the our darkest. Because that is life, that is the meaning of living the fullest: feeling. I want to write a memoir now. And I want it to be this funny, this sad, this incredible. I loved this book. It made me feel.

Nora has a way of meeting you In your grief, exactly where you’re at, and walking alongside you through it by sharing her journey with delightful sarcasm and wit along the way. Having lost our daughter over a year ago, I found myself grieving hard at the young age of 25. This isn’t where I expected myself to be. But to read a book like Noras just felt like a breath of fresh air sitting down talking with a friend and hearing a story of someone who just gets it. Such a great read. Buy it! Nora you have made something beautiful to share the legacy of Aaron, your dad, and that sweet babe you lost. Thankyou for letting us in and sharing with us, it was a privilege to read your pages.

I love the way Nora writes, I feel as if she’s talking to me instead of at me. I purchased this book because I lost my boyfriend from an overdose in November and unfortunately found him. This has helped me with understanding grief so much. It’s relatable and so well written. I highly suggest this