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MY BREAST

Name: MY BREAST
Author: Joyce Wadler
ISBN: 0-201-63283-7

ONE WOMAN'S CANCER STORY

by Joyce Wadler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1992

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A talented journalist's completely engrossing and unexpectedly humorous account of her victory over breast cancer. Wadler was about to take a leave of absence from her job as a senior writer at People in order to finish writing a book on a French espionage case when she discovered the lump in her breast that threatened her life and changed it forever. The lump was removed and found to be malignant, and, after further surgery to biopsy her lymph glands, Wadler underwent radiation therapy and, nearly a year later, chemotherapy. In now telling her story, she bares not just her breast but her heart and her soul. Wadler is single, 44, sees a shrink regularly, and longs for marriage, but she's not to be pigeonholed easily as another unhappy New York career woman. She is funny, bright, and self-aware. Her portraits here of her Jewish mother and her Italian lover could have been caricatures but are not, and her descriptions of her best friend, a warm and witty fellow-journalist who's there when she needs him, are a delight. Throughout, though, there's a sense of aloneness that makes Wadler's story especially poignant. Tough decisions must be made, and she does her best to make them intelligently, using her journalistic skills to find resources and to gather information. Her medical descriptions are a model of clarity and a treasure for other women facing treatment for breast cancer. An afterword by Susan Love (Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, 1990) offers straight talk about our ignorance of the causes of breast cancer and about the urgent need for more research in prevention, detection, and treatment. When a version of Wadler's story appeared last April in New York magazine, readers had to wait a week between installments; readers of this book are unlikely to put it down for a minute. A marvel of self-reporting: warm, wise, and witty.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-201-63283-7

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.