Find the Helpers

What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recovery, Purpose, and Hope

Non-Fiction - Grief/Hardship
198 Pages
Reviewed on 02/20/2022
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite

Find the Helpers: What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recovery, Purpose, and Hope by Fred Guttenberg is a memoir penned from the depths of grief to help readers see what we might be able to overcome, even when it feels impossible. In this profoundly honest and raw work, Guttenberg shares his experiences with loss. The first and most poignant is the loss of his daughter Jaime, who was murdered during a school-shooting rampage while a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She was fourteen. Four months prior, Guttenberg lost his 50-year-old brother to pancreatic cancer that came in the aftermath and was a direct result of 9/11 debris particles at Ground Zero. Now an activist, Guttenberg has channeled his anger, his grief, and his loss into a selfless mission, one where he is committed to fighting for the legacy and protection of those who are no longer here to protect themselves, and those who might not be with us in the future—unless there is meaningful, quantifiable change. “...I can’t even imagine the courage it takes to do what you do, but thank you for turning that grief into safety for other people.” - Speaker Pelosi to author Fred Guttenberg

As a British man who had always viewed the United States from the safe distance of a country where only 11 people died by gun violence during the same year that America lost tens of thousands, I did not quite understand the severity of American gun violence until I married an American woman. The first time I visited her family in Seattle, I watched her niece try to balance while standing on a toilet seat. She said it was what she had just been taught to do if there was an active shooter at the school and she was hiding in a bathroom. She was four years old. Fred Guttenberg took me even further and allowed me into the heart of a father and a brother who has suffered unimaginable pain. The writing is flawless and the journey is engrossing in a way that most memoirs are not. Equally moving is Guttenberg's push in seeing laws are written, such as the path to “Jaime's Law”. Then, there are the moments of fury I felt as a reader where Guttenberg describes politicking and intentionally placed roadblocks. The politicians who say things like “I understand” and a one-term POTUS who used a State of the Union speech to advance racism over the true national emergency: gun violence. It is beyond comprehension that this is a conversation that even needs to be had, but I am so grateful for courageous individuals like Guttenberg for continuing to fight the good fight. I am also grateful for Find the Helpers and would give it a whole bucket full of stars if I could.