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Rating: 
Summary: Not so practical guide to greif
Review: After the sudden lost of my mother, I felt strangely empty and confused. I had lost my father 2 years prior, and felt I dealt with his death in a very strong and mature way. After my mothers death I was feeling what I thought was an exaggrated sense of loss and bewilderment. I looked for books on the subject and found this book highly reccomended. I did not find what I was looking for.The author recounts her own experience with loss and encourages the reader to take their own "out of body" sharmanisit experiences to deal with grief. I found this not helpful and almost annoying. I did however stumble upon a different book with a simular title: Losing a Parent by Fiona Marshall. This book was excellent and helped so much more.
Rating:
Summary: A Trojan Horse for New Age Ideas
Review: Grieving from the recent loss of my mother, I picked up this book after reading the jacket and flipping through some of the pages. It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Imagine my surprise when part way into the book, the author began devoting half of the remaining pages to discussion of shamanistic rituals and her own cosmic field trips. This would be fine if the book was packaged as a New Age book about grieving. It was not, and this reader feels taken advantage of. The 2 stars are for the half of the book that gave what it promised: good practical advice about dealing with loss.
Rating:
Summary: A Trojan Horse for New Age Ideas
Review: Grieving from the recent loss of my mother, I picked up this book after reading the jacket and flipping through some of the pages. It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Imagine my surprise when part way into the book, the author began devoting half of the remaining pages to discussion of shamanistic rituals and her own cosmic field trips. This would be fine if the book was packaged as a New Age book about grieving. It was not, and this reader feels taken advantage of. The 2 stars are for the half of the book that gave what it promised: good practical advice about dealing with loss.
Rating: 
Summary: Losing a Parent
Review: I found Ms. Kennedy's book extraordinarily helpful. Although both of my parents are alive, I had a stepmother whom I loved dearly who died when I was 20 and away at college. I had been told that she died of a broken heart. ( She was mentally ill and depressed and had ten shock treatments.) Twenty years later, my father informed me that Leila, whom I had loved like a second mother, had killed herself. I had lived with a lie for twenty years. The grief I felt was almost overwhelming: to think that she had died in such a terrible lonely way. Ms. Kennedy's book helped me find ways to clarify my relationshiop with Leila, with her death, and to work through all those years of unresolved loss, confronting the truth from a different perspective. Although my parents are alive, her book has also prepared me for the fact that although I will never really be ready for their death, being clear and direct in the relationships I have now will help when it is time for them to pass, and that I will have tools with which to cope when it is their time to leave this Earth. I am glad to have this book in my library. I gave it to all four of my cousins when their wonderful father dropped dead of a heart attack at 63.( The circumstances, in which he chose not to go to the hospital, made it almost like a suicide, creating unresolved feelings).They found it remarkably helpful. Death seems so final when we think of the object as being unable to receive our communication or to transform. Ms. Kennedy's book points out in a very meaningful way, that "the object", the loved one, in this case is anything but an object, but a living spirit with which we can continue to interact... " the object" is no more outside ourselves than we are outside ourselves: it is a matter of defining who they are and how they live within us that creates the healing. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed in the premise
Review: I lost my Dad in September, days after the holocost in New York. He was a New Yorker and as such the days before the tragedy, was, himself, very agitated. Had I not read Alexandra's book I would have dismissed his need to get to an airport, get to New York, get to his old office on Hudson St. as the rantings of a man in his death throws. Not! It was true, he was reacting to the universal energies that were out there long before the plane crashes and it was a profound moment for me and my brothers and sisters that he shared it with us. He was courageous in dying, sharing every moment with us, but more important, we were able to share every moment with him because of the blue print Ms. Kennedy provided us with. This book needs to be read by anyone who's involved in the culmination of life as we know it and what's more important, by anyone that still has doubts about the dignity death. I shall be forever grateful for the bridge that Alexandra has created for those of us that survive.
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Summary: A NEW WAY OF SEEING LIFE AND DEATH
Review: LOSING A PARENT IS A BOOK WITH A UNIQUE WAY TO WORK THROUGH GRIEF. EVEN IF A PARENT DIED YEARS EARLIER, THE BOOK PROVIDES NEW, INSIGHTFUL WAYS TO DEAL WITH ISSUES AS THEY COME UP IN LIFE. ALEXANDRA IS BRAVE AND GENEROUS TO SHARE HER OWN EXPERIENCES WITH US. JUST KNOWING OTHERS EXPERIENCE THOSE MOMENTS IS EMPOWERING.
Rating:
Summary: Caring Compass in the Sea of Grief
Review: The sudden death of my dear father left me bewildered and confused - I certainly have not been here before. Alexandra's wonderful book has been a beacon of a light, a lifeline and an anchor in the stormy sea of grief. Ms. Kennedy's touching account of her own journey and transformation at her father's death provides a map of possibility. Not only did she give countless practical suggestions on how to grieve, but also opens the doorway to our inner world of spirit. Through her own vivid examples, using visualization and shamanic journeys,
Alexandra demonstrates how we can find internal sources of strength. Thank you, Alexandra, for being willing to share your story, wisdom and heart with us!
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Summary: Losing A Parent
Review: This book allowed me to understand the incredibly deep emotions and affect my father's death had on me. Though his death was expected, and I was 45 years old, had no idea the impact his passing would have. Alexandra Kennedy's book was like a lifeline for me, revealing that my reactions were at the same time personal and shared by others. Her ability to weave the experiences of others and her own helped to show me that losing a parent is indeed a benchmark in our lives. I utilized many of the tools given in the text to help work through my grieving, thus personalizing my experience. There is no doubt that by acting upon the suggestions in this book I grew through the grieving process. I recommend this book to anyone, regardless of age, who has experienced the death of a parent.
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