October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and what better way to connect, relate, and educate than through some heartwarming real-life tales of survival and commitment. Below is a mere sampling of some collections and memoirs from writers you know and love who have shared their stories. Direct links have been provided to the books available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon, but you may also find your selections at your favorite Indie Bound shop.
Promise Me: How a Sister’s Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer
by Nancy G. Brinker with Joni Rodgers
From Kirkus Reviews: “A powerful memoir… Raised in Illinois by hardworking, charity-minded parents, the Goodman sisters, Suzy and Nancy, remained extremely close until Suzy died of breast cancer in 1980. Before she died, Suzy made her sister Nancy promise that she help change the national dialogue about breast cancer, at that time a disease still commonly referred to as “women’s cancer.” In 1982, Brinker began Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which has raised more than a billion dollars for breast-cancer research and spawned a worldwide pink-ribbon phenomenon. Here the author tells the story of how and why this foundation came about….”
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Uplift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors
by Barbara Delinsky
From Barnes & Noble: “Courageous, inspirational, and relentlessly optimistic, Uplift is a wellspring of information about getting through breast cancer and going on with your life, straight from women who have not only survived the disease but have thrived. Barbara Delinsky, the hugely popular author of novels such as Coast Road and The Vineyard, conceived of this project as a way of showing women that there is life after breast cancer, and it can be as full of activity, laughter, and intimacy as you choose it to be. In addition to collecting and organizing the submissions of women throughout the nation, Delinsky also reveals her own personal experience with breast cancer. Filled with humor and warmth — and scores of tips for making it through diagnosis, chemo, hair loss, sickness, tattooing, recovery, and more — this book is a must for any woman determined to join the “sisterhood of breast cancer survivors” (with emphasis on the word survivors), and the friends and family who love them.”
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Cancer is a Bitch: Or, I’d Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis
by Gail Konop Baker
From Barnes & Noble: “Approaching midlife, Gail Konop Baker hadn’t really imagined that she would be confronted by anything more irksome than menopause, aches and pains, and, eventually, the quiet of an empty nest. Instead, this runner, mother of three, and physician wife got hit by breast cancer. Despite that blow, Gail’s spirit (and ambitions) remained buoyant. As she wrote on her blog, “I want to be brave. I want to be big. I want to be gracious and cool. I want to be the Audrey Hepburn of cancer.” And in this endearing, ebullient memoir, she succeeds.”
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Stand by Her: A Breast Cancer Guide for Men
by John W. Anderson
From Foreword magazine: “Such candor as one finds here, along with page after page of sound practical advice and empathic counsel for every stage of this fearsome disease, make Anderson’s book an undisputable choice for a place on the shortlist of guides for caregivers.”
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The Victoria’s Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming: And Other Lessons I Learned from Breast Cancer
by Jennie Nash
From Library Journal: “She doesn’t miss a beat or minimize a moment in describing her biopsy, mastectomy, reconstruction, and complications from the reconstruction. Women who fear the “unknown” of breast cancer will find solace here: cancer might be as awful as they suspect, but they will get through it, too. This wonderful book is highly recommended.”
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Find your selections at your local shop through Indie Bound.
Tags: memoirs, nonfiction
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