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A woman on the edge of time: a son investigates his trailblazing mother’s young suicide by Jeremy Gavron. Forty years after Jeremy Gavron’s mother commits suicide, he sets out to uncover the truth about the parent he never knew. Gavron methodically and patiently pieces together his mother’s life through interviews with old friends and lovers, letters, and diary entries. We follow him as he discovers a brilliant and rebellious young woman swept up in the progressive politics of the era with a bright future in academics, a successful husband, and two young children. As Gavron struggles to reconcile this new picture of his mother with the woman who committed suicide when he was four years old, the story becomes less about her death and more about her life.

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Cesar Chavez (2104) Dir. Diego Luna. Colorado was more than a decade ahead of the federal government when it recognized Cesar Chavez by designating a holiday in March. The social activist was well-known in the 60s for his nonviolent methods such as a 3-week fast, marches, and boycotts to fight for the people who had been ignored. He founded the United Farm Workers to improve working conditions that, at the time, included a lack of bathrooms and low wages. Giving a voice to the farm workers made such an impact that Time Magazine featured him on the cover in the summer of 1969.

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Death, dying, and the afterlife: lessons from world cultures by Professor Mark Berkson. This Great Courses audiobook offers a comparative study of death, and examines both the religious and secular rituals that we observe around dying. The content is divided into twelve lectures, all narrated by the knowledgeable Dr. Mark Berkson, Professor of Religion at Hamline University. Topics include understanding grief, major religions and the afterlife, and the value of death. Berkson also gives a thoughtful and compassionate look at the taboo subjects of suicide and euthanasia and offers insight into why a person might choose to end their own life, or not. We will all die one day, and whether you meet your death with regret, dignity, or anger, this audiobook and help you to make the most of your end.

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Turner House by Angela Flournoy. The house on Yarrow St. in Detroit’s Eastside has been home to the Turner family for fifty years. When the matriarch Viola’s health takes a turn for the worse she brings the family together to decide what to do with the house. A house that has nurtured generations of the Turner family and is filled with its secrets, pains, love and conflicts.