Dream New Dreams

Author: Jai Pausch
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2012
Pages: 240
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: "Jai is such a giver that she often forgets to take care of herself," Randy Pausch wrote about his wife. "Jai knows that she’ll have to give herself permission to make herself a priority."

     In Dream New Dreams, Jai Pausch shares her own story for the first time: her emotional journey from wife and mother to full-time caregiver, shuttling between her three young children and Randy’s bedside as he sought treatment far from home; and then to widow and single parent, fighting to preserve a sense of stability for her family, while coping with her own grief and the challenges of running a household without a partner.

 Jai paints a vivid, honest portrait of a vital, challenging relationship between two strong people who faced a grim prognosis and the self-sacrificing decisions it often required. As she faced life without the husband she called her “magic man,” Jai learned to make herself a priority to create a new life of hope and happiness—as she puts it, to “feel a spark of my own magic beginning to flicker.”

     Dream New Dreams is a powerful story of grief, healing, and newfound independence. With advice artfully woven into an intimate, beautifully written narrative, Jai’s story will inspire not only the legions of readers who made The Last Lecture a bestseller, but also those who are embarking on a journey of loss and renewal themselves.

Review: I loved Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, so I was looking forward to reading this one as well. Written by his wife this is the story of his diagnosis and death from her perspective as wife, mother, and caregiver.

Jai Pausch comes across as a likeable, intelligent woman who, even before meeting Randy, went through a divorce and some tough times. Certainly she is no slouch. Because of Randy though she has financial means that most of us in her situation would not. She does not have to work full-time, although she is very busy with speaking engagements and is on the board for a pancreatic cancer institution. At times I felt myself getting frustrated with her complaints about how stretched she was when in fact, she had more resources than I would ever have in the same situation.

That said, this is an excellent read and plenty of good insight.