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I Am Not My Breast Cancer
Women Talk Openly About Love & Sex, Hair Loss & Weight Gain, Mothers & Daughters, and Being a Woman with Breast Cancer

by Ruth Peltason



      As our loved ones navigate through the physical and emotional minefields of breast cancer, sometimes we just don’t know what to say, or when to say it, or even whether to say anything at all. And we wonder what they are thinking, too. It is often the same for those of us who receive the dreaded diagnosis: Should I tell my elderly parents? When should I tell the children? Do I want my coworkers to know? How will my husband react? What have others in my situation done? Do they have any advice for me?

It’s an awkward and terrifying time. What a welcome book is Ruth Peltason’s I Am Not My Breast Cancer: Women Talk Openly About Love & Sex, Hair Loss & Weight Gain, Mothers & Daughters, and Being a Woman with Breast Cancer.

I Am Not My Breast Cancer is structured somewhat chronologically in three parts: "Diagnosis," "Living with Breast Cancer," and "The Big Picture," and covers topics as diverse as self-image, sexual intimacy, and facing mortality. Peltason’s book is an edited compilation of the expressions of 800 women battling breast cancer. These women from various nations, races, ages, occupations, and stages of cancer participated in an online Web project called First Person Plural, designed by Peltason and friend Marc Weiss. Encouraged to reveal their feelings on all sorts of topics related to the breast cancer experience - even taboo topics - their comments are heart wrenching, inspiring, and comforting in their candor and honesty.

Author Ruth Peltason, a book editor and producer, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 35, and has undergone cancer treatment twice. I Am Not My Breast Cancer is first of all for breast cancer warriors, but it helps the rest of us as well.

The Book

William Morrow / An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York
January 29, 2008
Hardcover
0-06-117410-6 / 978-0-06-117410-0
Health / Mind & Body
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Deb Kincaid
Reviewed 2008
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© 2008 MyShelf.com