A valuable, highly informative, and lucid compendium composed purposefully for fellow travelers.
Douglas provides a comprehensive guide for navigating the difficult path from the diagnosis of breast cancer to recovery in this memoir.
In July 2019, the author received a call from her doctor reporting an abnormality in her recent mammogram; more imaging tests were needed. “I discovered that there isn’t always a straight line from imaging through biopsy and diagnosis to treatment. In my case, it was almost three months from my abnormal mammogram to surgery,” she writes. The first surgeon Douglas consulted for a biopsy left her feeling uncomfortable, and she delayed action until she found a specialized breast surgeon. Reflecting on this, she offers one of her first pieces of advice: Get a second opinion. Ultimately, Douglas was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ. She explains, “This type of breast cancer isn’t invasive and hadn’t spread to the surrounding tissues.” It was declared stage 0, but there were still complicated decisions ahead. What type of surgery should she select—mastectomy or lumpectomy plus radiation? Douglas reviewed the macro and micro consequences of each procedure with her oncology/surgical team and took the time to do her own research as well. Given the early stage of her cancer, she chose the less invasive path. There was difficulty in dealing with the confusing and cumbersome medical terminology, the scheduling and rescheduling, learning to manage and respect the emotional roller coaster of the journey, and, always, the waiting. Her articulate memoir is meticulously organized, with precise descriptions of each medical visit, explanations of procedure options, and recommendations for piloting through the health care system and insurance issues. With an unflinching honesty, Douglas discusses everything from psychological challenges to sexual difficulties. She networked with other breast cancer survivors and shares pieces of their individual choices and experiences, always emphasizing that this story is about her personal path: “Breast cancer is not one single disease with one correct treatment option.” From abnormal mammogram through surgery and radiation treatment to recovery, Douglas packs her narrative with helpful tips and advice, including recommended resources and services.
A valuable, highly informative, and lucid compendium composed purposefully for fellow travelers.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781954805408
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Bold Story Press
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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