In 2011 writer and mother of two, Bronwyn Hope is diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Encouraged by a friend, she begins an online blog in which she faithfully diarises the days that follow, graphically chronicling the details of even her darkest days as they happen. Her reflections are controlled yet raw and immediate, comprising a mix of honesty and humor that will have you by turns laughing out loud, or crying. Over an 18-month period, Bronwyn propels her readers on a journey that will deliver to her some of life’s greatest blows and most uplifting moments. Along the way she shares intimate accounts of her life, her family and friends, and the challenges, both common and uncommon, of a breast cancer survivor. The Breast is History is that rare book that will delight and move readers at the same time as demystifying the experience of millions of women with breast cancer.
In 2011 writer and mother of two, Bronwyn Hope is diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Encouraged by a friend, she begins an online blog in which she faithfully diarises the days that follow, graphically chronicling the details of even her darkest days as they happen. Her reflections are controlled yet raw and immediate, comprising a mix of honesty and humor that will have you by turns laughing out loud, or crying. Over an 18-month period, Bronwyn propels her readers on a journey that will deliver to her some of life's greatest blows and most uplifting moments. Along the way she shares intimate accounts of her life, her family and friends, and the challenges, both common and uncommon, of a breast cancer survivor. 'The Breast is History' is that rare book that will delight and move readers at the same time as demystifying the experience of millions of women with breast cancer.
In this brave and deeply personal memoir, one of America’s most beloved journalists, mother, and New York Times bestselling author speaks candidly about her battle against breast cancer, her quest to learn about it and teach others, and the transformative effect it’s had on her life. When former Good Morning America host Joan Lunden was diagnosed with breast cancer, she set out to learn everything about it to help her survive. With seven children counting on her, giving up was not an option. After announcing her diagnosis on Good Morning America, people all over the country rallied around Joan as she went into Warrior mode. Within a few months, after losing her hair, Joan appeared on the cover of People magazine bald, showing the world she could, and would, beat the disease. Determined to remain upbeat—to look in the mirror with a brave face—her resolve empowered women everywhere. The Today show quickly recruited Joan as a special correspondent and continues to follow her progress. A deeply personal and powerful story of pain, persistence, and perseverance, Had I Known is a chronicle of Joan’s experience and the plan she formulated and followed to battle with her disease and treatment. As Joan reveals, while her journey was not easy, it profoundly changed her in unexpected ways. Her odyssey helped Joan redefine herself, her values, and most of all, her health. Following a new clean way of eating, Joan lost thirty pounds, became more aware of the food she was eating, and avoided many of the debilitating side effects of chemotherapy. Dealing with the cancer also changed her perception of true beauty. Being attractive isn’t about the hair on your head—it’s about the strength and character you bring to everything you do. Positive yet down-to-earth, told with piercing honesty leavened with warmth and humor, Had I Known offers unforgettable, inspirational lessons for us all.
A breast cancer survivor shares her own family history with breast cancer, providing a feminist assessment of the causes, politics, and economics of breast cancer. Explored are such factors as carcinogens and the environment, racial components, domination of the medical field by corporate interests, the issue of breast reconstruction, and other topics. c. Book News Inc.
WINNER OF THE 2020 PULITZER PRIZE IN GENERAL NONFICTION "The Undying is a startling, urgent intervention in our discourses about sickness and health, art and science, language and literature, and mortality and death. In dissecting what she terms 'the ideological regime of cancer,' Anne Boyer has produced a profound and unforgettable document on the experience of life itself." —Sally Rooney, author of Normal People "Anne Boyer’s radically unsentimental account of cancer and the 'carcinogenosphere' obliterates cliche. By demonstrating how her utterly specific experience is also irreducibly social, she opens up new spaces for thinking and feeling together. The Undying is an outraged, beautiful, and brilliant work of embodied critique." —Ben Lerner, author of The Topeka School A week after her forty-first birthday, the acclaimed poet Anne Boyer was diagnosed with highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. For a single mother living paycheck to paycheck who had always been the caregiver rather than the one needing care, the catastrophic illness was both a crisis and an initiation into new ideas about mortality and the gendered politics of illness. A twenty-first-century Illness as Metaphor, as well as a harrowing memoir of survival, The Undying explores the experience of illness as mediated by digital screens, weaving in ancient Roman dream diarists, cancer hoaxers and fetishists, cancer vloggers, corporate lies, John Donne, pro-pain ”dolorists,” the ecological costs of chemotherapy, and the many little murders of capitalism. It excoriates the pharmaceutical industry and the bland hypocrisies of ”pink ribbon culture” while also diving into the long literary line of women writing about their own illnesses and ongoing deaths: Audre Lorde, Kathy Acker, Susan Sontag, and others. A genre-bending memoir in the tradition of The Argonauts, The Undying will break your heart, make you angry enough to spit, and show you contemporary America as a thing both desperately ill and occasionally, perversely glorious. Includes black-and-white illustrations
On April 13, 1992, New York magazine published Joyce Wadler's cover story, "My Breast". During the next 48 hours, an entire city responded to Wadler's courage in confronting her fear of breast cancer. This book is the expanded, full-length version of Joyce Wadler's story. (Addison Wesley)
Dr. Kimberly Allison diagnoses breast cancer for a living. But as a 33-year-old healthy new mother, she never expected to find herself looking at her own malignant cells under the microscope. Like many others diagnosed with cancer, Dr. Allison was starving for stories of other survivors. She wanted to hear someone’s tale, to feel their experiences and look for hidden clues to what her own future might hold. Ultimately, the story that Dr. Allison was looking for was found in her own life. Red Sunshine is a memoir about Dr. Allison’s sudden journey from physician to patient and her attempt to make the most of this terrifying and unexpected ordeal. Her experience reflects the incredible power of the bonds of friendship and family. It is about paying attention to the magic that is waiting to be uncovered in everyday life. Red Sunshine is an uplifting story of survival in which Dr. Allison shares all the intimate details of her emotional journey with both humor and honesty.
Kate Pickert worked as a health-care journalist and knew medical treatment well, but it all changed when she was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer at age 35. Pickert used her journalistic skills to identify the cultural, scientific, and historical forces shaping the lives of breast-cancer patients in the modern age.
A Boob’s Life explores the surprising truth about women’s most popular body part with vulnerable, witty frankness and true nuggets of American culture that will resonate with everyone who has breasts—or loves them. Author Leslie Lehr wants to talk about boobs. She’s gone from size AA to DDD and everything between, from puberty to motherhood, enhancement to cancer, and beyond. And she’s not alone—these are classic life stages for women today. At turns funny and heartbreaking, A Boob’s Life explores both the joys and hazards inherent to living in a woman’s body. Lehr deftly blends her personal narrative with national history, starting in the 1960s with the women’s liberation movement and moving to the current feminist dialogue and what it means to be a woman. Her insightful and clever writing analyzes how America’s obsession with the female form has affected her own life’s journey and the psyche of all women today. From her prize-winning fiction to her viral New York Times Modern Love essay, exploring the challenges facing contemporary women has been Lehr’s life-long passion. A Boob’s Life, her first project since breast cancer treatment, continues this mission, taking readers on a wildly informative, deeply personal, and utterly relatable journey. No matter your gender, you’ll never view this sexy and sacred body part the same way again.
Knaul documents the personal and professional sides of her experience with breast cancer. She contrasts her own journey with that of women throughout the world who face stigma, discrimination, and lack of access to health care and also shares striking epidemiological data about breast cancer, a leading killer of young women in developing countries.
