Book review: I’ll Leave You With This by Kylie Ladd

Tuesday, January 24, 2023 Permalink

I’ll Leave You With This by Kylie Ladd is the second book I’ve read by the Melbourne-based author and I very much enjoyed 2017’s The Way Back. Ladd brings her experience and expertise as a psychologist in the health system to the table when writing. Here she’s talking about organ donation and legacies of the very tangible kind as well as those less-so.

I sometimes struggle reading books about organ donation as it’s something my family has first-hand experience with, as my father was the recipient of a heart transplant… aged 61 in 2000. I certainly know how someone else’s* generosity benefitted my family – giving my father 11 more years. But am also aware of some of the burden it brings. The guilt, gratitude and fear that can accompany it. And of course I can only imagine the bittersweet impact it has on donors’ families. Seeing ‘part’ of their loved ones’ live on in others.

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four-stars

Book review: The Way Back by Kylie Ladd

Saturday, July 29, 2017 Permalink

I read some quotes about Kylie Ladd’s other work before embarking on this book and they all centred around how well she portrayed families and their relationships. This is the first book I’ve read by Ladd and I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I very much enjoyed the complex yet relatable characters she’s developed and the way she brings a family to crisis… and back out again.

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four-stars