By Laura Carney

IN BOOKSTORES NOW

MY FATHER’S LIST

How Living My Dad’s Dreams Set Me Free

On the cusp of middle age, a newlywed journalist discovers and finishes the bucket list of her late free-spirited father.

Fifty-four adventures in six years. That’s what thirty-eight-year-old journalist Laura Carney embarked on when she discovered her late father Mick’s bucket list.

Killed in a car crash when Laura was twenty-five, Mick seemed lost forever. My Father’s List is the story of how one woman—with the help of family, friends, and even strangers—found the courage to go after her own dreams after realizing those of a beloved yet mysterious man. This is a story about secrets—and the freedom we feel when we learn to trust again: in life, in love, and in a father’s lessons on how to fully live.

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Praise for My Father’s List

“In this call-to-action memoir, Carney pays homage to her deceased father, and in so doing, keeps him very much alive. It made me wonder what dreams felt complete to my own father at the time of his passing. And reinforced what Carney’s father told her: ‘You’re the best thing I’ve ever done.’ We are lucky to have a champion in a father, and I was moved to dream along with my own because of this book.”

Laura Munson

author of the New York Times best-selling memoir This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness and the USA Today best-selling novel Willa’s Grove: Four Women. One Week. One Question. and founder of the acclaimed Haven Writing Retreats in Montana

“Living out her father’s bucket list was the vehicle through which Laura Carney would find herself and her freedom. My Father’s List is a delightful book that reminds us of all the possibility that lies within each of us to do things we never dreamed possible. This book inspires and will touch you deeply.”

siri lindley

two-time triathlon world champion, world champion and Olympic coach, author of Finding a Way: Taking the Impossible and Making It Possible, speaker, survivor, and thriver

“In My Father's List, writer and activist Laura Carney weaves the past and present together in exquisite detail and heartfelt prose. Her story of checking off items on her late father’s bucket list is also a story of self-discovery, of that universal journey toward self-acceptance we’re all on. Laura’s powerful words show us that what we hold most dear—family and a father’s love—transcends time, space and even death.”

Melissa Blake

author of the soon-to-be released Beautiful People: My 12 Truths About Disability

“A beautiful reminder of the urgency to LIVE. In a tribute to her father, and even more so herself, Laura shows us what courage looks like in action. A moving, honest, and vulnerable account of finding out our truths and transforming the pain into something positive. Laura not only transforms her own but becomes an incredible inspiration for all of us to do the same. I read this in less than two days and I have already begun my own bucket list. A MUST READ, A MUST DO!”

Mary Latham

founder of More Good Today

An expansive, illuminating memoir about Laura Carney's extraordinary undertaking of the seemingly impossible–a jolting, serendipitous journey sparked by pain and completed with enormous heart, intuition, wisdom, and spirituality. This luminous book is a thin place.

Ethel Rohan

author of In the Event of Contact

“With all the memoirs that have been written in recent years, you might think there was nothing new left to do with the form. Laura Carney’s My Father’s List would prove you wrong. This is an original, brave, and inspiring book that will make readers think about their own life goals—and maybe even their lives—in a whole new way.”

ben yagoda

author of Memoir: A History and About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made

“I had a chance encounter with Laura in Plains, Georgia, as she crossed off another item (meeting a president) on her father’s list. The story of her and her journey inspired me inside and out, and I’ve followed her from afar ever since. Her remarkable story is now complete (or is it?) and My Father’s List is her and her dad’s gift to us all.”

Arthur Milnes

public historian, former memoirs assistant to the Right Honorable Brian Mulroney, former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and author of 98 Reasons to Thank Jimmy Carter and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: A Canadian Tribute

“Real, honest, and hopeful, My Father’s List is a story about what it really means to be brave and love without limits. It’s about building a life after devastating loss and how the people we’re sure we can’t live without continue to shape and grow us after they’re gone. It’s a no platitudes story about how loss can transform, nudging us to become who we were meant to be all along. A wonderful, memorable read.”

janine urbaniak reid

author of The Opposite of Certainty: Fear, Faith, and Life In Between

“Honest, passionate, and brave define Laura Carney, who has not only honored her beautiful dad by completing his list, but also faced all of her fears in becoming her authentic self. This emotional journey will transform and challenge you to face all of your fears, believe in the goodness of people, and accept your path in life. Like a bottle of 1974 Mondavi, My Father’s List is the finest memoir you will read. ‘Well, history’s about to change….’”

Shaun Zetlin

author of Emotional Fitness: Empower Yourself Emotionally Through Exercise and The Push-up Progression Series: A 24 Push-up Journey to Stabilization, Strength, and Power

“An intertwined tale of loss and conquest, My Father's List is a meditation eager minds will devour.”

Jim Freed

author of The Illiterate: A Novel

“Fulfilling her late father’s bucket list required persistence and courage, as Laura Carney parachuted out of a plane, swam a river, rode a fast horse, and more. But the tougher challenge lay deeper, as she reckoned with her family’s sometimes painful history and the hidden corners of her own heart. This is a profound story of faith, determination, and above all, love.”

DAwn raffel

author of Boundless As the Sky and The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies

"Brave, big-hearted, compulsively readable, My Father’s List is a joyful affirmation of embracing life to its fullest after a terrible loss. Carney’s energy to fulfill her father’s dreams is infectious, and her refreshing vulnerability had me rooting for her on every page."

Katie Arnold

author of Running Home

“From beginning to end, My Father’s List is a master class in storytelling. Carney beautifully and vulnerably shares the story of finishing her late father’s bucket list while weaving in tales of life, loss, and learning to live authentically. Her poignant memoir reminds us that we are capable of more than we know and death is not the end.”

kiersten parsons hathcock

author of Little Voices: How Kids in Spirit Helped a Reluctant Medium Escape and Heal from Abuse and cofounder of the National Institute for Law and Justice

“This beautifully written memoir is an honest, deeply moving look at love, determination, and self-reflection. Anyone who has experienced the sudden loss of a loved one and worked to reconcile the past with the present will connect with Laura’s incredible journey.”

karen bischer

author of The Secret Recipe for Moving On

“I lost count of how many times I wiped away tears while reading My Father’s List. What a gorgeous, exhilarating story of perseverance and the beauty we can make from grief.”