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
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit.
The longtime Hollywood actor looks back.
“What does it mean to be a ham?” asks the author, rhetorically. “Was I a ham? I was naturally and inordinately theatrical. I liked to carry on. I liked attention. I liked extravagant speech. I liked to emote. I liked to talk.” All of these qualities are abundantly evident in Kilmer’s memoir, which is as much a spiritual journey as it is a chronicle of his life and career. The author recounts the depth of his Christian Science faith, his formative years in a family of privilege in Los Angeles, his teenage romance with fellow actor Mare Winningham (“my first real girlfriend”), his training and rebellion at Juilliard, and his decision to leave Broadway for Hollywood. There, he writes, “I was not yet a burgeoning talent but ‘Cher’s lover,’ ” when she was in her mid-30s and he in his early-20s. After scoring big with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Kilmer turned down Blue Velvet and Dirty Dancing: “Neither part spoke to me.” He played Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, which he considers “one of the proudest moments of my career.” Marlon Brando and Sam Shepard went from being idols that Kilmer worshipped to becoming friends. He was slated to star as Batman in three films but jumped ship after Batman Forever, which he considers “so bad, it’s almost good.” He married and divorced British actor Joanne Whalley and wooed Daryl Hannah (“kind of the female me, only better”), and he wrote and starred in a one-man show as Mark Twain. When he was hospitalized for surgery due to his throat cancer, he prayed, he read Twain and Christian Science’s Mary Baker Eddy, and he “didn’t wrestle with my angels. I sang and danced with them.” Kilmer was never a shrinking violet, and he still refuses to wilt.
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit. (photos)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-4489-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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