Library Journal Review: Most people find it difficult to face their own mortality and that of their loved ones. This book compassionately and skillfully addresses this difficult, emotional issue. Kiernan, a journalist with the Burlington Free Press (VT), discusses the disconnect between how people want to spend their last days and how they actually end up doing so. While most desire to feel no pain, functioning mentally and physically and surrounded by family, the reality is that the majority of us will actually die in hospitals, where extreme medical interventions are undertaken at immense costs and with little regard to pain, human comfort, or the stated wishes of the dying and their families. Kiernan argues that most physicians and other healthcare professionals do not know how to deal with death because textbooks and medical schools fail to address the issue adequately. His final chapters present a broad agenda to improve end-of-life care at both the societal and the individual levels. This well-written and thoughtful book, filled with surveys, interviews, and personal portraits, is highly recommended for all public libraries and consumer health collections.?Ross Mullner, Sch. of Public Health, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.