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Tuesdays with Ted 

Reviews

"With uncomplicated eloquence, a view into a passage in life. You know these people by the end of the story, and you see life thru their eyes. Genuine and rich."

              Mike Cleland

              AMAZON BOOK REVIEW

"I cried. I laughed. I thought long and hard about life events that impact us, then laughed and cried again. Thank you, Russ Woody."

               Sally Gruber

               AMAZON BOOK REVIEWER

"This is a loving, funny, engaging story about a son and his father who has ALS. I felt that I really got to know the people in this book. And I like them a whole heck of a lot."

               Annie Wood

               AUTHOR OF  Just a Theory: A Quantum Love Adventure

An amazing memoir of a certain time period shared by a father and son. Russ Woody has the writers touch, the ability to reach into his own heart and place those feelings inside YOUR soul. TUESDAYS WITH TED is the 2nd book of his that i've read and i can relate to both...being the same age just added to the understanding.

His dad Woody was diagnosed with ALS, a prognosis of continued mental health trapped inside a dying physical body. His mother died with days of his dads diagnosis and it was then, that he was finally able to envelop his dad with the love of HIS own family.

Woody's life was opened up and brightened by his grandsons, Russ and his wife, his sister Oleta, amazing close friends and the cast and crew of Becker, in particular Ted Danson.

Once again the author has tapped into a wide range of emotions and i ended the book with tears pouring down my cheeks as if I'D just lost a friend. And yet it is an uplifting story of love and life.

             Yankeelin

             AMAZON BOOK REVIEWER

"First, this is a true story & a good read. (Trust me, you'll be in good authorial hands.) While it's about mortality and impending loss, it's also warm and life-affirming. Russ Woody is a good writer and his book TUESDAYS WITH TED moved me deeply. It also made me smile, and laugh at times. Written with wit, honesty and poignancy, it's a tale of the deepening love between an elderly father and adult son who become remarkably closer as they face the elder's diagnosis of ALS and inevitable death. How the son helps his Dad make the most of the limited time he has left is an emotional ride that is at times heartbreaking but at other times unexpectedly joyful and laugh-out-loud funny. (It's also about two young boys getting to know and love their Grandpa.) By the end, you will love and appreciate the old fellow too. And grieve a little. BUT IT'S NOT A BUMMER. NOT AT ALL. Russ Woody is a successful television comedy writer and this story's quite funny at times, and some of it happens in the world of show business. (By the way, if you like Ted Danson already, you will LOVE him after you read this.) Saying this book is a touching tribute to love & the human spirit is way too corny, I know. So let me just say, Russ Woody honestly shared a really real human experience with me and I'm glad to have had it."

            Chip Keyes

            WRITER

"Before reaching the Table of Contents, readers of TUESDAYS WITH TED—a story about fathers and sonsknow that they are in the hands of a skilled, sensitive, and incredibly imaginative writer that has a significant and highly moving story to tell. Nothing that follows does anything but fulfill this promise.

 

Russ Woody’s memoir, though centered on the deterioration and eventual death of his father, is much more gloriously about life and the joys, challenges, and despairs that inhabit it.

 

The author’s harrowing account of his father’s fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease, succinctly described as the flip side of Alzheimer’s, catalyzes an outpouring of remembrances, observations, and emotional responses that are presented with a miraculous blend of sadness, regret, anger, irony, and, yes, humor, all of which give the book a badge of literary quality making it genuinely thrilling to read.

 

As I read the book, I started to make a note of a particularly exciting simile, metaphor, alliteration, or lyrical turn of phrase. The text is so extravagantly endowed with these literary delights that I eventually gave up. Suffice it to say that the author’s linguistic imagination is spread luxuriously throughout the pages of the book.

One of the book’s major assets is the author’s ability to recount a rather mundane event and, through the exquisite use of language, make it indelible and significant.

 

Although love is at the center of this remarkable memoir by a genuinely wonderful son and father, the author is not above delivering a barb or two to deserving targets, e.g., Cybill Shepherd, Shirley MacLaine, some medical professionals, and, more seriously, his mother and sister-in-law. These add admirable balance, spice, and texture to the story.

 

And speaking of spice, the reader is endlessly fascinated by “Woody,” the very salty dying father whose robust vocabulary peppers the tale, even when mechanically delivered by means of a speaking machine.

 

Aficionados of backstage insights into the making of television comedies will be well rewarded by the author’s droll recounting of how Woody brought out the very best in a population not universally acknowledged for its selfless humanity.

 

It’s interesting to note that one of the book’s chapters bears the same title as Charles Krauthammer’s New York Times #1 best seller. This is probably not a source of joy for the author, whose liberal orientation is manifest in various places throughout the book. Also, I wondered a bit about the cover picture of a father with a solitary son, considering that both the author and his father had two.

 

Reader warning: there are passages in this fabulous memoir that will produce tears from even the most jaded and hardened heart.

 

As I approach an age when many contemporaries are facing the challenges described in this book, I look upon Heroic Heart as a comforting and inspirational resource to be shared and treasured."

               Gordon Osmond

               Bookpleasures.com

"I was blessed by reading this book about Woody, his relationship with his family and new found friends but also his fight with ALS. It was written with humor but without avoiding the difficult questions about life and disease. When I finished the book, I felt as if I knew Woody well and that is how a well written book bringing words to life."

                  Barbara B. Pierce

                  AMAZON BOOK REVIEWER

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