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Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead: A Memoir

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Television writer, producer, and bestselling author of the acclaimed The Broke Diaries and Mixed charts her unexpected role as her terminally ill mother's caretaker in this funny, moving, and unforgettable memoir.

Angela Nissel always wanted her mother’s approval. But two defining events created a barrier between renouncing Christianity and being admitted to a psychiatric ward— events that mirrored failed parenting to her mother. 

Beating her depression, Angela moved to Los Angeles where she quickly achieved success as a television writer but soon after found herself dead broke and enduring a painful divorce. It was at this low point that she received heartbreaking her mother had cancer. Angela moves her mother to Los Angeles where she attempts to hide foreclosure notices and her live-in boyfriend while also trying to save her mother’s life with everything from crystals to celebrity doctors. Still, her mother succumbs to her cancer.

In this poignant and hilarious memoir, Angela chronicles her odyssey as she tries to remain “strong” like her mother in the face of grief. Delightfully self-deprecating, unsparing in its honesty, yet filled with wacky humor and joy, Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead, is an unforgettable portrait of love, yearning, loss, and resilience that reveals the indelible power of introspection to save our lives.

224 pages, Paperback

Published April 21, 2026

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About the author

Angela Nissel

3 books67 followers
Angela Nissel is author of the national best-selling comedic memoirs The Broke Diaries and Mixed. In addition to books, she is a co-executive producer and writer for NBC's medical sitcom Scrubs and executive producer of an in-development television project with Halle Berry and Vincent Cirricionne.

Angela was born a lower-middle class light-brown child in Philadelphia. She even stayed in that fair city for college, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in medical anthropology. That degree led to a stellar career as a temp for the IRS, a "melter" in a metalworking shop, and as a "sleep apnea auditor" working the 12AM to 8AM shift at a local hospital.

She later started a dotcom, OkayPlayer.com, which is still alive and well, but she left it permanently to the care of its co-founder after The Broke Diaries was published. She decided to pursue writing full-time and finally ventured out of Philadelphia to Hollywood.

Upon arriving in Hollywood, she learned that just because someone's vanity plates read "PRDCR", doesn't mean he has the connections to make your book into a screenplay or even help you get a writing job.

Barely paying her rent through freelancing, she put a few possessions on Ebay for extra cash—the winning bidder of one item was a television executive who had read The Broke Diaries. She introduced Nissel to a television literary agent. This agent sent copies of The Broke Diaries to everyone hiring comedy writers and soon, Nissel had numerous job offers. She accepted a position as a staff writer on "Scrubs." She's been there for seven seasons and is currently one of the co-executive producers of the show.

This is the only job she's had where her medical anthropology degree comes in handy.

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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for KC.
139 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
March 6, 2026
Book Review: Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead by Angela Nissel

I picked up this memoir about the author’s experience losing her mother for somewhat selfish reasons. My dad recently died, and like many people in fresh grief I have been quietly looking for books that might explain the experience or at least make it feel less isolating. Sometimes reading about someone else’s loss helps you map your own. Sometimes it just confirms that grief is strange, uneven, and resistant to tidy explanations. Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead falls squarely in that second category, which in this case feels more honest than inspirational.

Some memoirs about losing a parent aim for quiet, luminous reflection. This one shows up with gallows humor and a side of family dysfunction. Nissel, a television writer by trade, approaches grief the way comedy writers approach most disasters, by acknowledging that the situation is objectively awful but also, frustratingly, occasionally ridiculous. When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, Nissel finds herself drafted into the role of caretaker at the exact moment her own life is already wobbling between professional success and personal chaos. Because this is her real life rather than a neatly plotted narrative, what follows is less a graceful meditation on mortality and more an honest account of the logistical, emotional, and sometimes absurd experience of caring for a dying parent while your own life quietly smolders in the background.

Much of the book runs on the complicated gravitational pull between Nissel and her formidable mother. Mom expected stability, faith, and a life that could be summarized neatly at church without anyone needing to whisper afterward. Nissel instead delivered apostasy, a psychiatric hospitalization, a divorce, and a creative career that does not exactly translate into a polite Sunday testimony. The generational tension here does a lot of thematic work. Her mother represents a generation that believed survival required discipline, order, and belief. Nissel represents a more chaotic modern adulthood that includes therapy, sarcasm, and the occasional crystal purchased during a moment of desperate optimism. Their relationship is loving, exasperating, loyal, and complicated in the way most real parent child relationships tend to be.

Ultimately, Nissel does not offer a sweeping philosophical lesson about grief. Instead she lands somewhere quieter and probably truer. Grief is awkward. Family love is rarely simple. And sometimes humor is less a stylistic choice than a survival strategy. For me, the humor occasionally created a little distance from the emotional core, though the honesty of the experience still carries the book. The title functions as both punchline and thesis. Catastrophe rarely arrives at a dignified moment. Sometimes it shows up in the middle of dinner, and someone still has to pass the bread.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Profile Image for Brice Montgomery.
408 reviews39 followers
April 21, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins for the ARC!

Angela Nissel’s Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead is a gentle memoir about how the reality of grief wrestles with the banality of death.

I sat on this review for a while because I wasn’t sure what to make of a book that resists its own form.

While I was reading, I received word that a good friend from my grad school days had unexpectedly passed away. I expected to feel the rose-hued comfort of sadness, but I didn’t. Instead, I was struck by how pointless death feels—a needless interruption that forces a life to become a story instead of a life. And then I understood.

This discomfort is the driving force behind the aimlessness of Good Grief. Angela Nissel isn’t interested in saying anything new about the pain of losing a parent. She has no desire to spin it into inspiration. There are no attempts to elevate the event beyond its tedium.

She just sits with it, and that’s what makes this such a special (and odd) book.

Readers would be forgiven for assuming this is a spiritual successor to Jennette McCurdy’s similarly titled chart-topper, but Good Grief has none of the acerbic wit that makes grief fly to the top of bestseller lists. It doesn’t even seem like Nissel has the capacity or desire to make dramatic turns feel dramatic. A money-hungry ex-husband might normally be the perfect fodder for a book, but Nissel recognizes it only as a deterrent from just being able to feel sad.


So many grief memoirs are about a reluctance to face loss, but Good Grief is unique in that the author is willing and ready, but simply too busy to do so. We can almost feel the author trying to sweep distraction after distraction out of the way so that she can ensure her mother has, in her words, a good death worthy of a good life, but we see only how difficult things become harder in the vacuum of loss. Bills are still due. People are still racist. Relationships are still difficult.

All of these things are true, but death has sapped them of structure. When an expensive medium suggests that Nissel’s deceased mother is communicating in racist platitudes, the author can’t do much except shrug and chuckle. Why bother with reflection?

While I think this approach is what makes the book excellent, it also makes it excruciating. Good Grief is slow-going and drawn-out for such a brief memoir, and Nissel offers very little beyond a companionable invitation to rest with her in her loss.

It’s hard to accept, but there’s something refreshingly honest about a book that finds comfort in knowing there’s no consolation.
Profile Image for Heather.
541 reviews34 followers
April 21, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins | Amistad for this ebook.

📝 Short Summary
This memoir follows Angela Nissel as she steps into the role of caretaker for her terminally ill mother, navigating grief, complicated family dynamics, and her own life unraveling while trying to hold onto humor and strength.

Review
I’ve always had a soft spot for memoirs because they let you step directly into someone else’s real life, and this one absolutely delivered on that emotional experience. Angela Nissel brings you into one of the most raw and vulnerable seasons of her life as she becomes her mother’s caretaker, and she doesn’t hold anything back. You feel the weight of responsibility, the complicated history between them, and that deep need for approval that never really goes away.

What really stood out to me was how this book balances grief with humor. It is not just sad for the sake of being sad. It feels honest. There are moments where you feel the heaviness of watching someone you love slip away, and then there is this sharp, self aware humor that almost catches you off guard in the best way. That mix made the story feel real instead of overly polished.

You can also feel how messy life is during this time for her. Financial stress, relationship struggles, and trying to keep everything together while everything is quietly falling apart all add another layer to the caregiving experience. It is not just about loss, it is about trying to survive everything happening around that loss.

The grief in this book is not loud or dramatic. It is steady, heavy, and very human. You feel it in the small moments, in the attempts to stay strong, and in the quiet realization that some things cannot be fixed no matter how hard you try. That is what made this memoir stick with me. It did not try to be perfect, it just told the truth.

✅ Would I Recommend It?
Yes, especially if you enjoy memoirs that are honest, emotional, and grounded in real life. If you have ever been in a caregiving role or dealt with complicated family relationships, this will hit even deeper.
1,835 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
March 25, 2026
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, for which I thank them.

“Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead” is by Angela Nissel. This book delves into Ms. Niseel’s dealing with becoming caretaker for her mother (who had stage 4 cancer) and then dealing with the aftermath of guilt. It’s always difficult to review a person’s memoir because it really did happen to them - the good, the bad, the ugly, and the funny. There are bits of humor in this book (I admit to really laughing aloud at the episode with the psychic - granted my laugh was more of a laugh and an eye roll but - yes, I got it, Ms. Nissel). Grief is such a messed up thing - as Ms. Nissel writes everything can be going smoothly and then you’re back to square one. This is the second book in a row I’ve read about grief (maybe the universe is telling me something?) and I couldn’t help but make comparisons between the two books. Was this a book I need to re-read - no, definitely not. Was this an enjoyable book - again, not really but that’s due to the subject matter not Ms. Niessel’s writing style or story. Would I recommend this book to others - yes, but making sure that I tell them what it’s about (though it’s kinda obvious from the title!).
Profile Image for Sharon M.
2,957 reviews26 followers
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 18, 2026
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins | Amistad for gifting me this moving memoir by Angela Nissel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

Angela didn't always have the easiest relationship with her mom. Her mom was a devout Christian and Angela felt her mom was embarrassed by the fact that her depression landed her in a psychiatric ward when she was younger. Now living in LA, her fortunes have turned and she finds herself broke and divorced. Then she finds out her mother has cancer.

While dealing with obviously difficult subjects - cancer, mental health, grief, family issues, racism, classism - this book is so on point. It's the perfect amount of life lessons and humor, all the while being the perfect tribute to her mom. Having just lost my mom, I related to so much of this book and instead of making me more sad, made me feel seen. Angela was completely honest in this book, even at the parts that we would normally hide, making this so relatable. Her mom would be so proud.
Profile Image for gigi.
91 reviews
May 1, 2026
This is written in a way that blurs the line between memoir and entertainment so well, you can almost forget you’re reading about real life! (I guess I should expect that from a tv writer though.) This story had LOADS of personality along with some reflection, so it wasn't sad.. but it was touching. Angela has a gift for finding humor in the most unexpected moments and that levity is what I love the most about the way she writes. I found this entertaining even without currently dealing with grief in life. However, if you want an even more light hearted memoir, I recommend one of her earlier books called 'The Broke Diaries'. I read that one when it first came out and still remember lines from it 'til this day! Since she enjoys writing memoirs, hopefully she pens one about how she met her husband, because THAT has to be a fascinating love story. I'm a big fan of his too.
19 reviews1 follower
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 20, 2026
Net Galley Review
Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead
By Angela Nissel

Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead is a memoir about death, loss and emotional survival. Nissel takes on the subject of her mother’s slow death with cancer, the ensuing emotional journey of trying to keep her mother alive and facing the reality of stage 4 cancer. She blends in her close relationship with her brother and how her own response to the loss of her mother nearly broke that bond. Throughout, Nissel adds light humor, with an honest and sometimes comical portrayal of herself.

This book is not for everyone. I imagine many people undergoing cancer treatment and their loved ones would not appreciate this book.
Profile Image for Jennifer Storm.
150 reviews2 followers
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
March 17, 2026
The title is what caught my attention to read this book! It hit home for me since I lost my mom a year ago! Being her caretaker and being with her when she passed was something I could really relate to. Also how some people react to your loss and the things they say are spot on!! I liked the characters and I loved the story even though it was sad at times but it was a story that I needed to read and I recommend reading it especially if you have lost your mom!! It was very inspiring!!
Profile Image for Bookish_.
64 reviews3 followers
April 29, 2026
A memoir packed with grief and laughs, Angela must come to terms with her mother's mortality while learning to accept her past and the woman she is today.

Angela was hospitalized with mental health issues as a child and never embraced religion as her mother would like, so she always felt like more of a disappointment. She ultimately finds success as a writer after moving cross country to L.A. but finding herself broke and alone following a divorce, it is then that she learns her mother is terminally ill.

Navigating grief can be difficult but Angela finds the humor in adapting by bonding with her mom's dogs and reminiscing with her brother. Heartwarming and sentimental, I liked it.
Profile Image for Mary Austin.
22 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 10, 2026
Witty and wise, this memoir combines humor and deep pain. Angela Nissel is open about her own lapses and fears, as she goes to great lengths to make her mom's last chapter of life full of love. I got frustrated with all the lies told in this book, and also appreciate that Nissel didn't try to make herself or her mom look more saintly. (I read an advance copy on NetGalley.)
Profile Image for Ifrah Yousuf.
19 reviews
April 24, 2026
The rawness of the emotions behind the words had me hooked. As someone who has seen the aftermath of a parent passing with how the grief sits with you two decades later, I knew exactly what it felt like. Especially how society is not designed for one to grieve properly. All one can do is take one step at a time.
Profile Image for Kat Jackson.
8 reviews
February 10, 2026
I laughed, I cried, I cried a lot, like a whole lot, and I loved it!

This is a beautifully written memoir that blends Nissel’s signature humor with a really honest true story about her mom’s battle with breast cancer and their close mother daughter relationship.
Profile Image for JXR.
4,670 reviews37 followers
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
April 11, 2026
Incredible, witty, frank, and heartbreaking memoir from author Angela Nissel about her mother, focusing on her time caring for her mother when she was terminally ill. the writing was great. 5 stars. tysm for the E-ARC.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews