I love this book for many reasons. The title of the first chapter is "Intimacy with Fear." That's one reason. Other chapter names: "Hopelessness and Death," "Six Kinds of Loneliness," and "Secret Oral Instructions" (which-although probably disappointing to you, is a how-to improve your relationship with yourself, not others). The book kept my attention with its constant flow of stories-easy to remember and apply. To illustrate- (ironic that this is from the "Oral" chapter) "The truth, said an ancient Chinese master, is neither like this nor like that. It is like a dog yearning over a bowl of burning oil. He can't leave it because it is too desirable, and he cant lick it because it is too hot."

I'm not gonna lie, the fact that the cover was a bright Carolina blue caught my eye first and got me to pull the book off the shelf. What REALLY got me though was the tagline-"The insider's Guide to Cancer in Your 20's and 30's." I knew I had to buy it. To see a book like this is, unfortunately, such an anomaly. Comprised of stories and interviews the author conducted with AYAs dealing with cancer, the book is refreshingly free of "self-help" diatribes and "all-natural" promises and lifestyle suggestions. It takes an honest look at issues this age group deals with- like sex and sexuality, insurance and financial issues, relationships, career issues, and life questions. Rosenthal does not profess to have all the answers, but instead provides lots of helpful websites and organizations at the end of each chapter. If you want a book without all the sugarcoating and one that retains a sense of humor, sarcasm, and hope, then this is the book. Her blog is great too! http://everythingchangesbook.com/

Pretty Is What Changes is a timely, affecting memoir from the front lines of medical science: When genetics can predict how we may die, how then do we decide how to live? Eleven months after her mother succumbs to cancer, Jessica Queller has herself tested for the BRCA "breast cancer" gene mutation. The results come back positive, putting her at a terrifyingly elevated risk of developing breast cancer before the age of fifty and ovarian cancer in her lifetime. Thirty-four, unattached, and yearning for marriage and a family of her own, Queller faces an agonizing choice: a lifetime of vigilant screenings and a commitment to fight the disease when caught, or its radical alternative-a prophylactic double mastectomy that would effectively restore life to her, even as it would challenge her most closely held beliefs about body image, identity, and sexuality. Superbly informed and armed with surprising wit and style, Queller takes us on an odyssey from the frontiers of science to the private interiors of a woman's life. Pretty Is What Changes is an absorbing account of how she reaches her courageous decision and its physical, emotional, and philosophical consequences. It is also an incredibly moving story of what we inherit from our parents and how we fashion it into the stuff of our own lives, of mothers and daughters and sisters, and of the sisterhood that forms when women are united in battle against a common enemy. Without flinching, Jessica Queller answers a question we may one day face for ourselves: If genes can map our fates and their dark knowledge is offered to us, will we willingly trade innocence for the information that could save our lives?

Despite its very blue humor peppered throughout, this isn't a har-de-har cancer memoir, but a touching, heart-wrenching story of survival...and hair loss in private places. But that's the charm of Schimmel's book about his battle with non Hodgkin's lymphoma. His humor is his coping mechanism, and it works -- both for him, those around him and for anyone who reads this book. Co-author Alan Eisenstock does a great job of tempering Schimmel's potty humor (or is it penis humor?) without quashing his charm or getting in the way of his riveting cancer story. I found myself laughing and crying throughout, and recommending it to Everyone I know who has been touched by cancer, especially lymphoma. Be prepared to laugh, cry and spit out your coffee, because Schimmel is a funny guy who's not afraid to share the truth about chemo. Also, his privates. (SIDE NOTE: Terri Gross's interview with Robert Schimmel on her show,"Fresh Air" is a must-hear. Click "Click Here To Order" link below to listen.)

Truth and Beauty and Autobiography of a Face are two perspectives of the life of Lucy Grealy. Grealy is the autobiographical poet, and Ann Patchett is her best friend's biographer. Grealy's childhood treatment for Ewings Sarcoma took part of her jaw and that disfigurement shaped her life. She was a poet and writer with undeniable talent who chose her own story as the subject for her first and only novel. It made her famous. In Autobiography of a Face, Grealy is a veteran telling a war story. The story is not about cancer. It is about her attempt to control the physical and emotional destruction her cancer caused. It is so well written, anyone, cancer or not, can identify with her experience. / Lucy died of a drug overdose, not literally of cancer, further evidence that the book is not really about cancer. Its refreshing to find a book about the human condition, that most people would mistakenly consider about cancer. / Truth and Beauty is Ann Patchett's take on her best friend. She is constantly trying to prove that she has loved despite, and not because of Lucy's constant suffering. Their two perspectives contrast mostly because Grealy minimized their relationship, while Patchett wrote a book about it. Still, it is amazing to see Lucy from two angles. Even if the stories don't converge literally, taken together, they paint a revealing portrait. About a book reading that her and Lucy gave together, Patchett writes, "There was a lot of cancer in the room that night, cancer in the process of being defeated and cancer in the process of defeating people. There were ravages that cancer, long gone, had left in its wake, including the damage it had done to Lucy." / To the audience's shock, Lucy's dismissed her illness and insisted that her contribution was not her story but the crafting of it. "She was not there as a role model for overcoming obstacles," Patchett writes, "she was a serious writer, and she wanted her book to be judged for its literary merit and not its heartbreaking content." / "You were so incredibly brave," a woman began."if it were me, I wouldn't have been able to survive it." "Meaning what, you would have died?" Lucy said. "It doesn't work that way unless you kill yourself." / In her book, Lucy skips this and writes about the afterparty. / The two books, side by side are two photographs of a woman shot from different angles. Both have literary merit and are the type of book a good reader will burn through in two or three sittings.

Breast cancer survivor and mother of two Kelly Corrigan offers up a poignant, funny and touching look into life with cancer -- both as a patient and as a caregiver. She was still undergoing cancer treatment when she learned that her dear dad, who'd already survived prostate cancer, now had bladder cancer. In her memoir, she weaves stories of growing up as George Corrigan's daughter in with wrenching stories of cancer's double blow to her family. Not just a story about cancer, "The Middle Place" is also about finding that place between being someone's child and someone else's parent.