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Title: Here If You Need Me
Author: Kate Braestrup
Narrator: Kate Braestrup
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-31-07
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 146 votes
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs
Publisher's Summary:
Whether she is with parents whose six-year-old daughter has wandered into the woods, or wardens as they search for a snowmobile rider gone under the ice, or a man whose sister left an infant seat and a suicide note in her car by the side of the road, Braestrup provides solace, comfort, and spiritual guidance when it's needed most. And she comes to discover that giving comfort is both a high calling and a precious gift.
In this account of her life and the events of her unusual job - sometimes joyful, sometimes heartbreaking - Braestrup is warm, unsentimental ("No one is immune to the Plucky Widow story!" she acknowledges), and generous. Here If You Need Me is a funny, frank, and deeply moving story of faith and hope.
Editorial Reviews:
Here If You Need Me, written and read by Kate Braestrup, no doubt delights fans of the Unitarian Universalist minister who also serves as chaplain of Maines Game Warden Service. But this is a book that deserves a wider audience than those already familiar with Rev. Braestrups work. Here If You Need Me has meaning for anyone who has known the grief of losing a loved one or anyone who has witnessed the resilience of the human spirit. It is a soul-comforting book to listen to and one to keep in mind as a gift.
Braestrups reading of her memoir about the loss of her husband and how profoundly her life changed is reminiscent of a radio play. The authors talent for mimicry gives voice to Game Warden Service radio dispatchers, Game Warden colleagues, her four children as they begin to live their lives without their beloved father, a vapid girlfriend of a missing drug dealer, a bereaved wife, a not-so-bereaved brother, and more characters along the way. Listener warning: it helps to have tissues handy as it is possible hear Braestrups voice clench and almost break during certain detailed and personal descriptions of her first husbands unexpected death.
Here If You Need Me also deals with Braestrups confrontation with death and with love and miracles as part of her out-of-the-ordinary job. It focuses on the humanity of the individuals in the Maine Game Warden Service who devote their lives to taking care of the outdoors; work that often includes rescues and, sadly, recoveries. The result is thoroughly engaging storytelling with even a few laughs.
More than just a memoir, Here If You Need Me serves up a palatable portion of theology, encouraging listeners to give thought to the notion of miracles and where exactly God might be in the midst of tragedy. More than anything else, though, the book is a message of hope: of doors and windows being opened, new chapters beginning, and of love continuing, as always, to grow.
Critic Reviews:
"Braestrup's insightful essays are extraordinarily well written, mingling elements of police procedural and touching love story with trenchant observations about life and death....always with compassion and a concern for the big questions inescapably provoked by tragic events." (Publishers Weekly)
