What readers, caregivers, and faith
community members are saying
Reverend Cheryl Rieder offers a masterclass in wounded healing. In a profession where we are often expected to have all the answers, Rieder’s vulnerability about her own system overload and her raw questioning of God offers a fresh new perspective.
Dr. Elaine Mercer
Trauma Therapist
Reverend Cheryl Rieder’s story validates the nonlinear nature of recovery, acknowledging that ‘better’ doesn’t always mean a return to the old self, but rather finding a new way to thrive despite the titanium coils and the chronic pain of what she calls an iron suit.
James Holloway
Rehabilitation Counselor
This memoir highlights the miracles of minutes that occur in the hands of observant healthcare workers and devoted family members. Rieder shows that survival is a team effort, and this book stands as a moving tribute to the nurse-guardians in our lives, both human and animal, and a practical guide for those navigating the confusing labyrinth of post-hospital care.
Margaret Collins
Family Caregiver Advocate
Better is not a comfortable book, and that is precisely what makes it valuable. Rieder does not tidy up the hard parts of her story. She writes about despair, confusion, and chronic pain with a directness that readers in similar circumstances will immediately recognize as true.
Daniel Reeves
Memoir Reviewer
As a caregiver, I found this book more useful than any clinical guide I was given at discharge. Rieder’s description of navigating thirteen prescriptions, post-hospital appointments, and the emotional weight of recovery gave me language for an experience I had not been able to articulate.
Patricia Sloan
Caregiver and Reader
What Rieder brings to this memoir that most medical narratives lack is a deep theological honesty. She does not resolve her spiritual questions neatly. She sits in them, and in doing so, gives readers who are sitting in their own questions somewhere to be.
Rev. Thomas Avery
Pastoral Counselor
The chapter on brief dementia is unlike anything I have read in this genre. Rieder’s precise description of how memory and time perception were disrupted after her hemorrhage is clinically useful and personally moving. It should be required reading for anyone supporting a brain trauma survivor.
Dr. Nina Patel
Neuropsychology Specialist
Reverend Rieder writes about her congregation with real tenderness. The way she describes the deacons who stepped in to keep the church whole while she recovered reveals a picture of faith community at its best. It is one of the quieter threads in the book, but it stayed with me.
Susan Gallagher
Church Leadership Consultant
I appreciated that this book includes a resources section. It is one thing to share a story of survival. It is another to hand the reader something practical on the way out. That section alone makes Better worth recommending to anyone facing a long recovery.
Helen Brooks
Recovery Support Coordinator
The relationship between Reverend Rieder and her Golden Retriever Chloe is one of the book’s most unexpectedly powerful elements. Chloe’s presence during recovery is described with warmth and specificity, and it brings into focus something most trauma narratives skip over: the quiet, consistent comfort of an animal who simply stays.
Laura Bennett
Animal-Assisted Care Advocate