An empathetic and appealing handbook on all aspects of breast cancer and its treatment.
A self-help work that offers a comprehensive overview of dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis.
At the start of her book, Karole, a certified health care professional and health administrator based in New York, makes an observation about breast cancer that will be familiar to survivors of all types of cancer: that it’s “a lifelong journey,” and it’s one that she hopes she can ease with this book. The author was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 49, and in these pages, she chronicles her own story to offer advice that readers can broadly apply to their own situations. The well-designed work enlivens its main text with insets that offer concise definitions of basics, such as chemotherapy and radiation, as well as medical devices, such as a Jackson-Pratt drain, and fields such as integrative medicine. There are also mentions of specific people who influenced Karole during her own journey and boxed “Mini-Mentions” that expand on the material at hand. The author’s inclusive approach—encompassing her own story, those of friends and acquaintances, and even occasional celebrities—allows her to touch on a wide spectrum of issues, from psychologically coming to terms with a diagnosis to navigating the complexities of the medical industry. Along the way, she offers generous helpings of low-key but helpful encouragement and advice. For example, she urges readers to ask questions and do research regarding their doctors but also stresses that one should not let this aspect act as a delay to the treatment process: “It's a tough balance,” she writes, “between figuring out in whose hands you will literally be putting your life and your breasts and how long you will take before actually getting treated.” Readers dealing with breast cancer, as well as their loved ones and other helpers, will find this book’s combination of information and good sense to be invaluable.
An empathetic and appealing handbook on all aspects of breast cancer and its treatment.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950892-82-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Clovercroft Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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