Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Love You Hard
Love You Hard: A Memoir of Marriage, Brain Injury, and Reinventing Love | Abby Maslin
16 posts | 5 read | 11 to read
Abby Maslin's worst fears were confirmed when she learned that her husband had been beaten by three men and left for dead mere blocks from home. The days and months that followed tested this young couple's faith, marriage, and love. As TC was learning to walk and speak again, Abby faced the challenge of falling back in love with a husband who was very different than the man she married. Love You Hard is the story, told from Abby's point of view, of what it means to love someone suffering from an injury that changes someone to his very core.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
blurb
CuriousG
post image

30 book recommendations in 30 days...

Day 7: I hold this one close to my heart. 14 years ago my husband fell off a roof and sustained a brain injury. This book was written by a woman who has been a caregiver to a spouse with an ABI, and it made me sob uncontrollably, but also feel understood/validated. I have recommended it to so many others to help understand my experiences, or to understand their own experiences as a spouse. #30recsin30days

blurb
CuriousG
post image

Struggling to make sense of the sudden death of a friend, someone with children and so much good left to do in this world. A memory popped up from a book I read several years ago, and can't help but be drawn in to the struggle described in it as the "intolerable grief of being alive", and how true that must feel for my friend's family right now. The price of love is inevitably a broken heart, and yet it is worth the pain to love...

CuriousG "The years have been quick; the days have been long and messy. Dawn till dusk trying to find our way back to ordinary, wondering every day why our existence must be so much more effort than it was before. Our tragedy will not be our crutch. We will not let it keep us from having a fully lived life. And yet we are so damn tired... 13mo
CuriousG ...In the end, all we can do is live. And in the process, let the life we've been given seep into our souls as we lean into the heartache, the suffering, and the almost intolerable grief of being alive...To survive, we must simply live. To love, we must love hard." 13mo
TrishB Sorry to hear about your friend 💔 12mo
PurpleyPumpkin Very sorry to hear this. Thanks for sharing these very moving words. 💜 12mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I‘m so sorry for your loss 🫶🏻🙏🏻 11mo
23 likes5 comments
blurb
BookNAround
post image

Probably going to gut me but I‘m going in anyway.

56 likes1 stack add
blurb
FeministBookClub
post image

We‘re giving away three signed copies of this gorgeous book! Enter to win at bit.ly/FBCgiveaway32

jamicuns Excited for this giveaway. Thanks! 5y
59 likes2 stack adds1 comment
review
Lauren.Archer
post image
Pickpick

If you love memoirs don't pass this one over. Maslin put a lot of time and love into this book just like she does with her family and it absolutely shows throughout this memoir.

For my full review visit: https://obsessedbookaholic.com/2019/06/29/love-you-hard-a-memoir-of-marriage-bra...

65 likes1 stack add
blurb
Lauren.Archer
post image

Ok, I‘m going in and I have tissues handy.

blurb
FeministBookClub
post image

This one‘s hitting me right in the feels.

50 likes2 stack adds
review
Sapphire
post image
Pickpick

This one line sums up a lot about this book. Very well written and tear jerker at moments. This woman was the teacher of one of my friend's son. It was odd to hear of the life that so mirrors my friend in places and community but with this senseless act of violence.

SheilaChew This looks good! Is it a memoir! 5y
12 likes2 stack adds1 comment
blurb
BarbaraTheBibliophage
post image

Abby Maslin, author of the tagged book, is in the middle. She‘s in conversation with Adele Levine, who wrote Run, Don‘t Walk about her experience as a physical therapist at Walter Reed. And on the right is Michael Scadron who self-published Two Mountains: Kilimanjaro to Quadriplegic and Back. They have three perspectives on traumatic injury—caregiver, patient, and medical professional. All very inspiring! #gburgbookfest

100 likes2 comments
review
CuriousG
post image
Pickpick

I can't begin to explain how hard hitting this was. Highly recommended! Can't sum it up, so here's a quotation to help

"The years have been quick; the days have been long and messy. Dawn till dusk trying to find our way back to ordinary, wondering every day why our existence must be so much more effort than it was before. Our tragedy will not be our crutch. We will not let it keep us from having a fully lived life. And yet we are so damn tired."

CuriousG "In the end, all we can do is live. And in the process, let the life we've been given seep into our souls as we lean into the heartache, the suffering, and the almost intolerable grief of being alive...To survive, we must simply live. To love, we must love hard." 5y
19 likes1 comment
blurb
CuriousG
post image

Had a wonderful, and busy, day chasing the god-children around. Finally home & have a chance to ice my injured knee (well...frozen mango it. Lol) and dive back into this memoir. If only I was eating the magos instead, it would be the perfect day 😊

quote
CuriousG
post image

"It's all a mind-fuck - a roller coaster barreling from peaks of gratitude to valleys of seething anger and resentment...Eventually though, I must learn to quiet the anger that...leaves me screaming inside...If I don't...I know I will harden - losing my balance and everything else I'm trying to protect."

#abi #tbi #caregiver

blurb
CuriousG
post image

Spending my morning crying as I continue this book. So many things were different in terms of the medical/situational details, yet those same feelings were all there. Even the quotations she includes almost tear my heart out, knowing how much I experienced them on a gut level after my husbands injury #gutpunch

11 likes1 stack add
blurb
CuriousG
post image

There are few things I love more than lighting a new beeswax candle, and sitting down to a good book. Happy reading tonight everyone!

Louise The natural scent of a beeswax candle is so soothing! 5y
CuriousG @Louise I couldn't agree more 5y
16 likes2 comments
blurb
CuriousG
post image

Just cried my way through the first 35 pages of this gem. Not sure that everyone would find it quite so emotional, but it took me back to my hours spent waiting for my husband to have a craniotomy done due to a head/brain injury. This is going to be a *tough* read, but I love everything she writes on her blog, so it will be totally worth it! #abi #tbi #hardlove #loveeverysecond

8little_paws Wow this book sounds intense! 5y
CuriousG It certainly will be for me. I think anyone will find it interesting and emotional, but I know it will trigger me to a much greater extent. Not sure exactly how the book will go (in terms of writing style,) however I think it would be an amazing thing for people to read. The ways brain injuries change families are definitely intense. 5y
See All 6 Comments
8little_paws I read another memoir about TBI in a marriage. This may interest you as well. 5y
CuriousG I've actually never heard of that one @8little_paws - thanks for telling me about it! 5y
8little_paws You're welcome! 5y
12 likes1 stack add6 comments
blurb
CuriousG
post image

Need to wait until March 15th for it to arrive, but I absolutely could not be more excited for this memoir! For several years I have been following Abby Maslin's blog/articles for brainine.org - I cry every time. If you are interested in caregiving perspective, acquired (traumatic) brain injury, or just plain how does love survive ongoing trauma/challenge, this will be something to read. Is it March yet?! #abi #tbi #caregiver #love #reinvention