A personal, conversational, and positive perspective on handling the ups and downs of cancer treatment and survival.
In this debut guide to thriving through a cancer diagnosis and the healing process, the author gives intimate, friendly, and firm advice about handling family, medical providers, fear, and decision-making.
Cancer can shock and rattle even the strongest of families, and McDonough is no stranger to the changes that take place immediately after the diagnosis is delivered. In her guide, the author reaches out to readers grappling with their own struggles and offers focus points in the form of myths and truths. Her advice is holistic, presenting strategies of faith and perspective to reconcile what really happens emotionally to the person coping with the diagnosis and what is expected, externally, from friends, family, and medical providers. For example, in one section, McDonough describes firing an oncologist to choose a different doctor she felt was a better fit. The “myth,” she asserts, that a cancer sufferer should be a “good patient” who cooperates and pleases all of the nurses and doctors is simply not the first priority of the individual undergoing treatment, regardless of what society seems to expect. As she puts it, “Perfect patient? No way, nor did I aspire to be that. Perfect doctors? Just as unrealistic and, I might add, unfair.” While McDonough stresses that no one is perfect in this process, she describes one doctor who came in on a weekend day off to sit with her and explain her diagnosis more fully to ease anxieties. Another point of emphasis is patient autonomy. The author cites the importance of patients involving and informing family members yet making clear their intentions to control decisions about their own health. This, she explains, is one of the most important things for the patient to preserve. One aspect that likely sets this book apart from other similar guides in the genre is McDonough’s experience of catching cancer early. This title may carry the advantage of reaching those readers who were fortunate enough to receive an early diagnosis but still endured the fears and unknowns of procedures like lumpectomies and radiation. But the author presents all cancer patients with an important message: you are a warrior and survivor, regardless of how early you were diagnosed or the duration and complexity of your treatment.
A personal, conversational, and positive perspective on handling the ups and downs of cancer treatment and survival.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9966977-0-5
Page Count: 102
Publisher: Sapphire River Publishing Services
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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