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Dec 26, 2023 · Whether you’re looking for someone to tell you the cold hard facts, or read a story to lift your spirits, it’s out there. Here 6 remarkable cancer memoirs, each different in tone and story, and each uniquely able to teach, comfort and guide.
- Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto
- When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön
- Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person by Miriam Engelberg
- Picture Your Life After Cancer by Karen Barrow
- Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen
- Everything Changes by Kairol Rosenthal
- Cancer Schmancer by Fran Drescher
- It’S Always Something by Gilda Radner
- The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukerjee
- Bald in The Land of Big Hair by Joni Rodgers
This graphic memoir is funny and emotional. The bright pops of color definitely help, and the author’s story about her battle with breast cancer manages to be both honest and humorous. Click here to buy.
If spirituality is what you crave, there’s no better book than this. It’s a life raft for whatever struggle plagues you: illness, heartbreak, loneliness. Chödrön can be funny, but this is definitely more Zen, less humor. It’s a beautiful book about opening your heart, no matter what happens in life. Click here to buy.
You have to love this title. Like Cancer Vixen, it’s an irreverent, humorous graphic memoirabout one woman’s battle with breast cancer. Click here to buy.
Six years ago, the New York Times asked people who had survived cancer to submit their photos and answer the question, “How is your life different after cancer?” The result is a book of photos and essays that will inspire you, humble you, and lift your spirits. Click here to buy.
A book about healing and illnesswritten by a physician and therapist who battled longtime chronic illness. It’s about finding inner peace and strength during the toughest of times. If you’re OK going a little new age, check it out. Click here to buy.
Rosenthal was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in her late 20s, and when she emerged from treatment she became a patient advocate and traveled the country talking to people in their 20s and 30s who were battling cancer. It’s part guidebook, part memoir, and it includes advice about everythingfrom dating to coping with pain. Click here to buy.
You can imagine Drescher’s signature nasal whine as you read her memoir about her experience with uterine cancer. She talks about her diagnosis and recovery, and she tackles tough topics with humor and humanity. Click here to buy.
Gilda Radner is one of the most beloved comedians to emerge from Saturday Night Live. She helped pave the way for Tina and Amy and Kate. The 20th anniversary edition of her memoir has a resource guide for people living with cancer and a tribute by Radner’s former colleagues at SNL. This one is about healing through humor, and it’ll make you love Ra...
If humor is not your thing, maybe this Pulitzer Prize-winning book will do. It’s kind of like a biography of cancer, and physician and researcher Mukherjeetraces cancer’s origins and looks at modern treatmentsand breakthroughs around the world. Click here to buy.
Another great title. Rodgers’ memoir is funny, poignant, and honest. It’s about overcoming whatever obstacles life throwsat you, with chapter titles like "Cleopatra, Queen of Denial" to keep things light. Click here to buy. So take your pick: There’s humor, spirituality, cartoons, and Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction. Hopefully they help get you t...
- Mortality by Christopher Hitchens.
- Stitches: A Memoir by David Small.
- Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved by Kate Bowler.
- Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics by Miriam Engelberg.
- Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen. by Kendall Scott, Survivor, Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and Annette Ramke, Angel. Kicking Cancer in the Kitchenis the bible for the woman who has been handed the cancer card-and for the one who never wants to get it.
- Too Young For This. by Alice K. Crisci, Survivor, Breast Cancer. Hailed as a must-read for newly diagnosed cancer patients and their loved ones, this authentic memoir details the wit, faith and inspiration a 31-year-old woman used to confront her untimely cancer diagnosis.
- Both Sides of the Bedside: From Oncology Nurse to Patient, an RN's Journey with Cancer. by Christine Magnus Moore, Survivor, Non Hodgkin Lymphoma. Oncological nurse Christine Magnus Moore stood by the bedside of cancer patients for many years, caring for them as they endured major surgeries, chemotherapy and even the aftermath of grueling bone marrow transplants.
- Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know. by Lori Hope, Survivor, Lung Cancer. When we hear that someone close to us has been diagnosed with cancer, we want nothing more than to comfort them with words of hope, support, and love.
- The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care by Anne Boyer. This book…is a powerhouse. I’ve read a lot of cancer memoirs, and I even hesitate to call this a “cancer memoir” because it is so much more than that: it is an indictment of how we see and treat cancer, especially breast cancer.
- The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last by Azra Raza. This book is a must-read. It explores the costs of cancer research and treatment—both financial and human, and how despite millions and millions of dollars spent in research and clinical trials, the majority of cancer drugs in the last few decades only minimally extend life, and in a significant percentage, are actually harmful to people.
- The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. This book is one of my all-time favorites. Mukherjee is a master at writing about complicated things in a way that brings them to life in an interesting way.
- Tough: Women Who Survived Cancer edited by Marquina Iliev-Piselli. This is a collection of stories of women with a variety of different cancers. The tone is decidedly positive—yes, there’s honesty in the essays, but it does skew toward the “cancer changed my life and is a gift” kind of story.
Sep 10, 2019 · Boyer’s extraordinary and furious new book, “The Undying,” is partly a memoir of her illness, diagnosed five years ago; she was 41 years old when she learned that the lump in her breast was ...
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35 books based on 22 votes: The Upside of Cancer: How a Terrifying Illness Can Lead You to a New Life by Christopher Foster, You Can't Drive Your Car to ...
