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    Life and Other Near-Death Experiences
    Life and Other Near-Death Experiences
    Life and Other Near-Death Experiences
    Audiobook7 hours

    Life and Other Near-Death Experiences

    Written by Camille Pagán

    Narrated by Amy McFadden

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Libby Miller has always been an unwavering optimist—but when her husband drops a bomb on their marriage the same day a doctor delivers devastating news, she realizes her rose-colored glasses have actually been blinding her.

    With nothing left to lose, she abandons her life in Chicago for the clear waters and bright beaches of the Caribbean for what might be her last hurrah. Despite her new sunny locale, her plans go awry when she finds that she can’t quite outrun the past or bring herself to face an unknowable future. Every day of tropical bliss may be an invitation to disaster, but with her twin brother on her trail and a new relationship on the horizon, Libby is determined to forget about fate. Will she risk it all to live—and love—a little longer?

    From critically acclaimed author Camille Pagán comes a hilarious and hopeful story about a woman choosing between a “perfect” life and actually living.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 1, 2015
    ISBN9781501267093
    Life and Other Near-Death Experiences
    Author

    Camille Pagán

    Camille Pagán is the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of six novels, including I’m Fine and Neither Are You, Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties, and Life and Other Near-Death Experiences, which has been optioned for film. Pagán’s books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She has written for the New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Parade; Real Simple; Time; and many other publications. Pagán lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her family. Learn more about her novels at www.camillepagan.com.

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    Reviews for Life and Other Near-Death Experiences

    4/5

    187 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I’m not sure if it’s the author or the reader of this audiobook that I love more but either way it was a heartwarming story.
    • 5/5
      Very well written, keeps you at the edge of your seat!
    • 4/5
      I fell in love with the main character almost immediately. I love a tenacious female lead. In the end I found myself in love with every single character introduced in the book for one reason or another, including the one I think I'm supposed to hate. This is definitely a book that will result in character withdrawals.
    • 4/5
      Predictable but still cute. It was an easy, fun, and entertaining read.
    • 5/5
      Great summer book type read complete with a random life changing beach trip, lots of romantic drama and a health crisis. I liked the narration too.
    • 5/5
      Real, raw, sweet and challenging — this book makes you think about what’s important and perhaps to not be so selfish — that other people in you life count, too.
    • 3/5
      Better than I expected.

      At first this seemed like a light, frothy chic-let kind of book. It did get better, the characters developed, and in the end, it was even memorable.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars. Easy breezy read about a tough topic. Laughing at a cancer novel seems weird, but Pagán made me do it!
    • 5/5
      I didn’t want to gush, but come on, it’s another great book by author Camille Pagán so I have to. It is the rare book that can make you find the humor and hope in the serious, sad side of life, but the amazing Pagán pulls it off flawlessly.I was reading a “very serious book” about very serious topics but it was dry, dry, dry, and not very believable and I struggling to maintain interest. An author I follow wrote a tiny little blip that Life and Other Near-Death Experiences was on sale or something and that was all it took. Camille Pagán is an author I know, love and trust so I immediately tossed aside the other book, never to be opened again, and I am very glad that I did. I had to sleep a little bit but I read Life and Other Near-Death Experiences nearly straight through.Libby Miller gets devastating news from her doctor: inoperable cancer, only a few months to live, a death sentence. When she gets home her husband is devastated, too. But it’s not about her. He is gay and this is when he decides to tell her that and that their marriage is over. This is serious stuff. But Pagán’s genius is in making everything that Libby says and does from this point on not only somber and sad, but funny and romantic and normal. Libby decides to toss the optimism she has always worked hard to maintain and from now until the end just do whatever she wants – escape, be frivolous, just not care. She quits her job, gets divorced, sells their apartment before her (soon-to-be-ex) husband can blink, refuses to consider any medical treatment, and flies off to the Caribbean. With nothing to lose what does it matter? But her twin brother and her ex-husband track her down, she has some very interesting conversations with the woman who owns the cottage Libby is renting, and she meets . . . a man. And Libby just maybe starts to think, “What if??”This story is tragically sad and serious and scary but also happy and funny and hopeful and makes you cry and has you laughing out loud. The characters are so well developed, so full of complications that you can’t put the book down, and you will be in love with Libby from page one. I highly recommend this book and this author. Read everything she writes and then go back and read it again.
    • 4/5
      I fell in love with the main character almost immediately. I love a tenacious female lead. In the end I found myself in love with every single character introduced in the book for one reason or another, including the one I think I'm supposed to hate. This is definitely a book that will result in character withdrawals.
    • 5/5
      THIS WAS AN AUDIOBOOK. Libby Miller has just received the worst news of her life, or so she thought. On the same day that she receives devastating news from her doctor, her husband drops a bombshell that nearly pushes her over the edge. Laden with anger, fear and hurt, Libby defies her doctor's recommendations and her husband's pleas to work on their marriage and flees to Puerto Rico, a place where her mother loved to go when she was alive (she died when Libby was 10) according to her father.  She's hoping to learn more about her mother by exploring the place that she was fond of, and to live out the rest of her existence in relative peace before revealing her shocking news to beloved twin brother, Paul, and her dad. But when she's acquainted with a wise old woman, Milagros, and a handsome attentive man, Shiloh, both of whom have advice for her that threatens to derail her carefully contrived plan, Libby is forced to choose between giving in to the hand she's been dealt or fighting for a brighter future.  A sobering topic, I was afraid it would be a somber and depressing read. Wrong. This book was full of wry and self-deprecating humor from the start and kept me mostly laughing throughout. Not something that I would expect from a book that begins with a young woman learning that she has a terminal illness, and whose husband drops another life-altering bombshell on her the same day. There were tender, more melancholy moments for sure, but given the subject matter overall this book was excellently written and entertaining. I truly loved it and highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      A poignant story about Elizabeth - Libby who has just received news that she has cancer with all the questions, reasonings etc., going around her head.
      Also she sadly thinks of the death of her mother in similar circumstances.
      To cap it all her selfish attention seeking husband drops a bombshell.
      This is also a surprisingly upbeat and feelgood story of someone facing an uncertain future with determination and courage.
      I was given a digital copy of this novel by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      Meet Libby Miller...her life is over. Her doctor has just given her the news that she has a rare and rapidly spreading form of cancer. Before she can tell her husband, he reveals that he is gay. Life as Libby knew it has gone out the window and she's not playing anymore! Forgoing treatment, Libby throws out the husband, sells the house and goes to Puerto Rico to soak up some liquor and sun. She takes us along for the ride. The book refers to "Eat, Pray, Love" in the first sentence. This book has a much less spiritual and more comical feel to it. Definitely chick lit!
    • 4/5
      Considering the main subject of this book is bleak and depressing, I was amazed how much I enjoyed it. On the same day Libby receives the shattering diagnosis of cancer, her husband reveals a secret that leads to Libby filing for divorce and setting off for a tropical holiday in Puerto Rico.The first few chapters of this book were comic overload, but as you progress the humor becomes more subtle, and the protagonist Libby turns into a well developed character. Still haunted by her mother's death of cancer when Libby and her twin brother were children, Libby makes some abrupt choices that some may find hard to relate to and that make Libby appear stubborn and selfish at times, but considering her history I felt quite connected to her. While the plot is a bit predictable, I really liked the author's style of writing and it kept my attention so that I finished this book in a day. It had a bit of everything. There were funny moments, there were sad moments, there was some romance and there were sections that really made you think about life, time, second chances and how your perceived childhood experience affects your adult life. Thoroughly enjoyed this one! Thank you to the author and to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary copy via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
    • 5/5
      I have to say, I loved this novel! Enjoyable characters, an interesting fast-paced plot and relatability made this a great, fun read. Cancer is a serious topic, but the author has utilized it in such a way that sadness doesn't overwhelm the plot. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from this author.
    • 4/5
      Libby Miller just received the most devastating news from her doctor. It’s cancer and it’s aggressive. While he’s talking of chemo and radiation, her mind is elsewhere. She doesn’t want treatment. She storms out of his office and rushes home where she can pour her heart out to Tom, her husband of eight years. She comes up to him crying. He thinks someone has told her his news and so he blurts it out – “I think I might be … gay.” They argue. She finally says, “I. Am. Dying!” to which he replies, “Libby, please don’t be so dramatic …” She kicks him out.Now, no one knows her burden except her and her doctor. She begins to sell everything and decides to really live; she makes extensive travel plans. She calls her twin brother, Paul. After her travels, she’ll stop by and see him and their dad.This pulled me in from the beginning. Of course, cancer is not humorous, but the character of Libby is strong and had always been used to looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. So her humor still shines through. I liked the character of Libby. I even understood her not wanting chemo nor radiation and I understood her desire to get away, even if she had to handle her bad news all by herself. I liked that it was a ‘clean’ read. Libby would turn words around so they were not technically swearing like what she thought of Tom, “Was he nucking futs?” Libby is an inspiration to all of us who like to use humor to diffuse situations. Rating: 4 out of 5.
    • 4/5
      You know the conventional wisdom that bad things come in threes? Sometimes you don't need all three because the magnitude of the first two things make a third thing simply extraneous. This is true for the main character in Camille Pagan's charming new novel, Life and Other Near-Death Experiences.Even perpetually sunny, positive thinking Libby Miller can't find anything good about hearing the word malignant, especially combined with the words rare and aggressive. Her mother died of cancer when she was young and there is no way she's going to put her beloved husband, brother, and father through the hell of watching her deteriorate under the duel attack of the disease and chemo. But that's for the future. In the short term, all she wants to do is go home and have her husband, who she has loved for half her life, comfort her. When she gets home, though, she cannot collapse in Tom's arms because he has a bombshell of his own to drop: he's gay. So not only does she have a rare, aggressive form of cancer, but her marriage is over. That's quite a one two punch.Wanting to escape the life she's been living, Libby decides to sell their furniture and their condo. She quits her job as the assistant to a truly impossible boss and she decides to run off to Mexico. Except that Mexico requires a passport and hers is expired. Having only shared the disintegration of her marriage and not her diagnosis with her dad, he suggests she go to Puerto Rico instead, to a place that he and her mother had gone to once and truly loved. Divested of all her things and any real ties to Chicago, she hops on a plane and heads off, still keeping the secret of her cancer and her decision to forgo treatment. When the small propeller plane taking her to the island of Vieques makes an emergency crash landing after hitting a bird, she discovers, to her surprise, that she doesn't want to die. But she still isn't ready to face her scary and uncertain future. She's retreating once again into what her twin brother, Paul, has dubbed LibbyLand, a place of denial and cheer, and what better place to inhabit it than in the beautiful and magical Vieques with the alternately frustrating and appealing sexy pilot, Shiloh, who got her there mostly safely?This is very much about the unpredictability of life and the idea that the last page of our stories isn't written until it's written and not a one of us can know when that will be. Our only control comes in the pages before the end so we should reach out and grab all the happiness we can. Libby's character is trying to cram in as much goodness as she can before the end but it seems she's already written her end and left out the most important part of the pages before it: the people who love you. As a character, she's obstinate and endearing both. Her decisions are based on what she thinks she knows but are really about herself and her own fear of what she's facing. And having been given a virtual death sentence, she's afraid to live and to love in whatever time she's got left. Her brother Paul, whose wry and forthright presence comes into the novel at exactly the right moments when Libby is too content to allow herself to become isolated, helps provide another much needed perspective on Libby's diagnosis. Sexy pilot Shiloh grows from a cardboard character to someone with real insight and caring. It doesn't hurt that he helps Libby heal from the betrayal of her marriage too. The tone of the novel is actually quite light given the fact that the main character is dying, but as Shiloh tells her, life itself is a near-death experience. Pagan handles the delicate issue of how cancer impacts not only the person herself but also those around her very well. She offers balanced reasoning for choosing or not choosing to pursue treatment. The novel is lovely and funny and dire and hopeful and the uncertain ending, with Libby's own last page still unwritten, is just right for everything that has gone before. A fast read, it will make you think about what you should be doing every day in your own life and relationships, knowing that we all have a last page out there to be written one day.