Neither sugarcoated nor overly raw, a cathartic, spiritually uplifting book to help cancer survivors overcome the lasting...
A heartfelt, well-crafted handbook about the effects of cancer treatments.
Numerous books address the subject of living with cancer, and some discuss the side effects of cancer treatments. Few, however, tackle the challenge of living with the long-term effects of cancer treatments. Wheeler, a philosophy teacher who survived both breast and ovarian cancers, has undergone surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. She was led to believe that the symptoms she sustained years after her treatment were possibly age-related, but her research suggested otherwise. Wheeler’s book is the result of her personal quest to learn about life after cancer treatment; it demonstrates both her determination to discover the truth and her desire to help other cancer survivors. Describing her writing effort as “this ‘Alphabet Soup’ of my own experience,” Wheeler wants readers to take that line literally: She organizes the bulk of the book into 26 chapters, each related to a letter of the alphabet and each covering a specific area she wants to discuss. For example, in “A is for Anxiety,” Wheeler writes that “[a]nxiety may well be the most overwhelming problem post treatment cancer patients endure.” In “K is for Kin,” she observes that “many of us may never be the same as we were before cancer….We are left to find our own way, each of us, as best we can.” Wheeler pinpoints a particular challenge, symptom or issue in each short chapter and writes about it with insight and compassion. Her revealing perspective as someone who has lived through many cancer treatments combines with her research-based advice and her philosophical bent to create a personal, moving and instructive book. On occasion, the author uses storytelling, references to mythological characters and excerpts from poems to add a literary flavor to her writing, lifting this manual above the ordinary. Readers who have gone through cancer treatments are sure to find solace in Wheeler’s words.
Neither sugarcoated nor overly raw, a cathartic, spiritually uplifting book to help cancer survivors overcome the lasting effects of treatment and get on with their lives.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484907702
Page Count: 152
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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