Book picks similar to
Outshine: An Ovarian Cancer Memoir by Karen Ingalls
memoir
cancer
first-reads
medical
Fighting For Our Lives: A memoir: The raw true story of one mother's fight for life for her and her baby
Heather Choate - 2015
She was ten weeks pregnant with her sixth child. Her unborn baby was at risk due to the fast-spreading and highly dangerous cancer in Heather’s body that had already spread to her lymph nodes. Doctors told her she needed to abort her baby to save her life. Heather told them, “I’d rather die than take the life of my baby.” She and her husband set out to find a way to save both her and her child. The journey pushed them to the fringes of their stamina, tested the strength of their familial relationships and found them clinging to their faith like it was the last bit of thread on a lifeline. We all have unexpected adversity in life. It’s those things that we think “will never happen to us” which sneak up on us like shadows turning sunshine into darkness. It could be the loss of a job, the birth of a special needs child, the downturn of the economy or an unexpected health challenge. Most of us would easily crumble under such circumstances, but Heather found that its not about what happens to you, its about what you do with it. You don’t have to almost die, to learn how to live and Heather shows us how. Despite adversity, nearly impossible challenges can be met, families can be strengthened and faith can sustain even the most desperate souls on their journey. She brings her role as cancer-warrior into the real lives of readers, addressing topics that affect them most: • Dealing with doubt and insecurity • Discovering who they really are, and what true beauty is • Renewing their passion • Negotiating family strife • Releasing relentless regrets • Establishing a mother’s role in society • Succeeding against temptation • Weathering their worst fears • Pressing on against fatigue and illness • Uprooting bitterness • Learning to rely upon God’s will and plan Fighting for Our Lives takes readers on a journey of self-examination, appreciation for the beauties of today, and leaves them with a takeaway that could actually change their lives. *10% of this books profits will be donated to Breast Cancer Research. Thank you for helping support those in the fight! Tags: cancer memoirs, cancer memoir, cancer book, cancer books, cancer stories, cancer story, Christian memoirs, Christian memoir, Christian faith, Christian books, Christian books, memoir, memoirs, memoirs and biographies, memoir and biography, cancer memoir and biographies, cancer memoir and biography, biography, autobiography, biographies, autobiographies, faith, faith story, adversity, adversity story, adversity memoir, christian inspirational books, inspirational books, inspirational books for women, christian memoirs, christian books, memoirs, memoirs and biographies
Falling Through Clouds: A Story of Survival, Love, and Liability
Damian Fowler - 2014
Before the trees tore into the cabin, Grace had the strange sensation of falling through clouds. A story of tragedy, survival, and justice, Falling Through Clouds is about a young father's fight for his family in the wake of a plane crash that killed his wife, badly injured his two daughters, and thrust him into a David-vs-Goliath legal confrontation with a multi-billion dollar insurance company. Blindsided when he was sued in federal court by this insurance company, Toby Pearson made it his mission to change aviation insurance law in his home state and nationally, while nursing his daughters to recovery and recreating his own life. Falling Through Clouds charts the dramatic journey of a man who turned a personal tragedy into an important victory for himself, his girls, and many other Americans.
Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing
Anita Moorjani - 2012
As her organs failed, she entered into an extraordinary near-death experience where she realized her inherent worth . . . and the actual cause of her disease. Upon regaining consciousness, Anita found that her condition had improved so rapidly that she was able to be released from the hospital within weeks . . . without a trace of cancer in her body! Within these pages, Anita recounts stories of her childhood in Hong Kong, her challenge to establish her career and find true love, as well as how she eventually ended up in that hospital bed where she defied all medical knowledge. As part of a traditional Hindu family residing in a largely Chinese and British society, she had been pushed and pulled by cultural and religious customs since she had been a little girl. After years of struggling to forge her own path while trying to meet everyone else’s expectations, she had the realization, as a result of her epiphany on the other side, that she had the power to heal herself . . . and that there are miracles in the Universe that she had never even imagined. In Dying to Be Me, Anita freely shares all she has learned about illness, healing, fear, “being love,” and the true magnificence of each and every human being!This is a book that definitely makes the case that we are spiritual beings having a human experience . . . and that we are all One!
Lipsticks, Love And Lies
Katie Price - 2013
The last three years of Katie Price's life have been some of the most dramatic and startling yet. In this dazzling instalment of her life, Katie reveals the many ups and downs from the highly publicised divorce from Alex Reid, the romance and split from Leo Penna and a whirlwind marriage and surprise pregnancy with Kieran Hayler. And that'’s just her love life. Katie has also dealt with increasingly bitter disputes with first husband Peter Andre and her former manager, as well as her public spat with comedian Frankie Boyle who made offensive comments about her disabled son Harvey. Despite her personal life being played out in the public arena, Katie remains true to her heart by always speaking her mind and living life to the full. Lipstick, Love and Lawsuits gives her side of the story, once again expressing her humour, passion and strength to her loyal fans.
Already Here: A Doctor Discovers the Truth about Heaven
Leo Galland - 2018
After his death, he revealed to Leo the real purpose of his life, as a spiritual guide who taught others by confounding their assumptions and expectations. And he began to share with Leo a new perspective on everything from the nature of good and evil to the concept of timelessness to the notion that the universe is, fundamentally, an act of love.Christopher’s wisdom was revealed to Leo over the course of a year, coalescing into three themes, which Leo calls the Gift of the Opposite, the Gift of Presence, and the Gift of Timelessness. Leo quickly came to realize that these gifts were not for him alone: they contain ancient wisdom, held sacred in many traditions, that Chris intended him to share with others. He has written this book, under Chris’s direction, to do just that.Already Here presents a unique dialogue in which an analytical, scientific mind tries to comprehend truths from another plane of existence—one that, nonetheless, is inseparable from our own. Chris describes Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter, as unified opposites that cannot exist without each other and cannot be separated from human consciousness. The book takes its title from Christopher’s final message to Leo, in which he describes Heaven as an “eternal present” where everyone is together, even those of us still living earthly lives. “Lighten up,” Christopher says to his father. “You’re already here, you know.”
Dream New Dreams: Reimagining My Life After Loss
Jai Pausch - 2012
As she faced life without the husband she called her “magic man,” Jai learned to make herself a priority to create a new life of hope and happiness—as she puts it, to “feel a spark of my own magic beginning to flicker.” Dream New Dreams is a powerful story of grief, healing, and newfound independence. With advice artfully woven into an intimate, beautifully written narrative, Jai’s story will inspire not only the legions of readers who made The Last Lecture a bestseller, but also those who are embarking on a journey of loss and renewal themselves.
All That Followed: A story of cancer, kids and the fear of leaving too soon
Emma Campbell - 2018
This is a deeply felt memoir about motherhood, survival and learning to live for whatever life throws at you." CLOVER STROUD, author of The Wild OtherAn extraordinary story of facing life s multiple (!) trials with love, resilience and courage, told in Emma s warm, funny and unflinchingly honest style. AMY McCULLOCH, author of Jinxed and The Potion DiariesWith four children (three of them triplets!) and a relationship break-up to contend with, some things get a little lost in the mix. Like symptoms. Emma Campbell bravely and honestly offers heartfelt thoughts on what happens when cancer becomes an unwelcome guest at an already crowded party. She shares her own terror and pain, mixed with the heartwarming and unexpected. The extraordinary kindness of people and the gritty detail of battling a life-threatening illness, all while being a single mum to four children. She opens up about her angels and demons, losing and then finding love again, a constant fear of death mixed with the joy and relief of living, the anxiety of cancer returning - then facing it when it does. This book has grown from Emma's blog Me And My Four. Eager to share with her followers in more detail, the secrets, the fears, the triumphs and the terrors that she faces each day, in a life as unpredictable as your own...www.meandmyfour.com
Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last
Lee Lipsenthal - 2011
Lipsenthal is a profound explorer of our inner and outer world. Enjoy Every Sandwich will help you heal your fear of death and embrace the true joy of life's extraordinary journey." --Edgar Dean Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut As medical director of the famed Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Lee Lipsenthal helped thousands of patients struggling with disease to overcome their fears of pain and death and to embrace a more joyful way of living. In his own life, happily married and the proud father of two remarkable children, Lee was similarly committed to living his life fully and gratefully each day. The power of those beliefs was tested in July 2009, when Lee was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. As Lee and his wife, Kathy, navigated his diagnosis, illness, and treatment, he discovered that he did not fear death, and that even as he was facing his own mortality, he felt more fully alive than ever before. In the bestselling tradition of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and Tuesdays with Morrie, Enjoy Every Sandwich distills everything Lee learned about how we find meaning, purpose, and peace in our lives. Told with humor and heart, this deeply inspiring book will help readers embrace their humanity, accept uncertainty, and live a life of gratitude—whether they are facing the end now or not.
Bryson City Secrets: Even More Tales of a Small-Town Doctor in the Smoky Mountains
Walt Larimore - 2005
Don't, for instance, pass the Fryemont Inn when the windows are open--not unless you plan to come inside and enjoy fresh-baked rolls, gourmet cooking, and an owner who is as warm and inviting as the food. She's just one of the friendly faces you'll meet in Bryson City Secrets.Told with winsome humor and deep affection, Bryson City Secrets is a story-lover's delight, continuing Dr. Walt Larimore's reminiscences of his early years of country medical practice. Pull up a chair and feast on this rich fare of Smoky Mountain personalities, highland wisdom, and all the tears, laughter, tenderness, faith, courage, and misadventures of small-town life.
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
Jill Bolte Taylor - 2006
Through the eyes of a curious scientist, she watched her mind deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of the brain, her respect for the cells in her body, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered. In My Stroke of Insight, she shares her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the two halves of her brain. When she lost the skills of her left brain, her consciousness shifted away from normal reality where she felt "at one with the universe." Taylor helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel and how we react to life's circumstances.
He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him
Mimi Baird - 2015
Perry Baird was a rising medical star in the late 1920s and 1930s. Early in his career, ahead of his time, he grew fascinated with identifying the biochemical root of manic depression, just as he began to suffer from it himself. By the time the results of his groundbreaking experiments were published, Dr. Baird had been institutionalized multiple times, his medical license revoked, and his wife and daughters estranged. He later received a lobotomy and died from a consequent seizure, his research incomplete, his achievements unrecognized.Mimi Baird grew up never fully knowing this story, as her family went silent about the father who had been absent for most of her childhood. Decades later, a string of extraordinary coincidences led to the recovery of a manuscript which Dr. Baird had worked on throughout his brutal institutionalization, confinement, and escape. This remarkable document, reflecting periods of both manic exhilaration and clear-headed health, presents a startling portrait of a man who was a uniquely astute observer of his own condition, struggling with a disease for which there was no cure, racing against time to unlock the key to treatment before his illness became impossible to manage.Fifty years after being told her father would forever be “ill” and “away,” Mimi Baird set off on a quest to piece together the memoir and the man. In time her fingers became stained with the lead of the pencil he had used to write his manuscript, as she devoted herself to understanding who he was, why he disappeared, and what legacy she had inherited. The result of his extraordinary record and her journey to bring his name to light is He Wanted the Moon, an unforgettable testament to the reaches of the mind and the redeeming power of a determined heart.Soon to be a major motion picture, from Brad Pitt and Tony Kushner
The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me
Bruce Feiler - 2010
He instantly worried what his daughters' lives would be like without him. "Would they wonder who I was? Would they wonder what I thought? Would they yearn for my approval, my love, my voice?" Three days later he came up with a stirring idea of how he might give them that voice. He would reach out to six men from all the passages in his life, and ask them to be present in the passages in his daughters' lives. And he would call this group "The Council of Dads." "I believe my daughters will have plenty of opportunities in their lives," he wrote to these men. "They'll have loving families. They'll have each other. But they may not have me. They may not have their dad. Will you help be their dad?" The Council of Dads is the inspiring story of what happened next. Feiler introduces the men in his Council and captures the life lesson he wants each to convey to his daughters--how to see, how to travel, how to question, how to dream. He mixes these with an intimate, highly personal chronicle of his experience battling cancer while raising young children, along with vivid portraits of his father, his two grandfathers, and various father figures in his life that explore the changing role of fathers in America. This is the work of a master storyteller confronting the most difficult experience of his life and emerging with wisdom and hope. The Council of Dads is a touching, funny, and ultimately deeply moving book on how to live life, how the human spirit can respond to adversity, and how to deepen and cherish the friendships that enrich our lives.
How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers
Toni Bernhard - 2010
And it can also be the perfect gift of guidance, encouragement, and uplifting inspiration to family, friends, and loved ones struggling with the many terrifying or disheartening life changes that come so close on the heels of a diagnosis of a chronic condition or even a life-threatening illness.The author, who became ill while a university law professor in the prime of her career, tells the reader how she got sick and, to her and her partner's bewilderment, stayed that way. Toni had been a longtime meditator, going on long meditation retreats and spending many hours rigorously practicing, but soon discovered that she simply could no longer engage in those difficult and taxing forms. She had to learn ways to make "being sick" the heart of her spiritual practice and, through truly learning how to be sick, she learned how, even with many physical and energetic limitations, to live a life of equanimity, compassion, and joy. Whether we ourselves are sick now or not, we can learn these vital arts of living well from How to Be Sick.
Never Settle: Sports, Family, and the American Soul
Marty Smith - 2019
The guy who visits Nick Saban's lake house and somehow gets Coach to jump in the lake. The guy who sits down with Dale Jr. at Daytona to talk through tears about his miraculous return to racing. The guy who interviews Tiger Woods, Tim Tebow, Peyton Manning and Jimmie Johnson -- the guy who gets paid to live the fantasy of every sports fan in America.Never Settle is the funny but oh, it's true story of how Marty got here, and a revealing look at his journey. Never Settle includes all the best stories and behind-the-scenes moments from Marty's wild life, covering topics including: college football, racing, fathers and sons, how sports can bring us together, and how it all goes back to growing up on a farm and playing high school ball in Pearisburg, Virginia.
Patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness
Ben Watt - 1996
He didn’t leave for two and a half months. Watt had developed a rare life-threatening disease that initially baffled doctors. By the time he was allowed home, his ravaged body was forty-six pounds lighter and he was missing most of his small intestine. Watt injects pathos and humor into his medical nightmare, writing about his childhood, reflecting on his family and on his shared life with band member and partner Tracey Thorn. The result is a provocative and affecting memoir about life, illness, and survival.