Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong

★★★★

This book is a "must read" not in a page-turning-I-couldn't-put-it-down kind of way, but rather, because everyone should be exposed to the ideas in these essays.

As someone just beginning to learn about disability justice, I picked up the book after hearing about the editor, but all the writers were new to me. Pro Tip: There's an "About the Contributors" section towards the end of the book with a paragraph-long blurb on each author. I also found myself researching some of the writers online, to learn even more about who they are and what they do.

Some essays include "content notes" at the start of the piece, essentially a "content/trigger warning", so the reader is prepared to confront topics like sexual assault or suicide.

Was it uncomfortable reading personal stories about people's disabilities? Yep. But it was the kind of uncomfortable that everyone needs to sit with. These are people! These are their lives! There's the incarcerated deaf man who is punished as recalcitrant when he's handcuffed and unable to sign or write, and is denied an interpreter when his deafness is even acknowledged. The amputee with a prosthetic leg who needs to make sure she walks an "average" (p. 74) number of steps a day, recorded by the leg's technology, in case her insurance company tries to deny her the leg on the grounds she doesn't use it enough. All people deserve dignity and to be included in our definitions of humanity and society. People with disabilities deserve more than survival; they deserve to have access to all the opportunities and spaces abled people have, with whatever assistance they need, without feeling like a burden to others.

What's most striking about this collection is how intersectional the essays are. This book is not just about disabilities in themselves, but about being a disabled black woman, or making a significant contribution to science as a blind astronomer. Authors offer their perspectives on disability and parenting, or disability and sexuality. There's an essay about having to reconcile being disabled and Muslim during Ramadan, when those with medical conditions are exempt from fasting; a fashion manifesto about disabled queer clothing; a piece about navigating disability as an Asian American in an immigrant family with a culture that stigmatized disabilities. Some of the authors are born with disabilities, some are disabled by new onset medical conditions or injuries. Some accept their disabilities as part of their identity while others may hope for a cure or recovery. The essays drive home the point that "the presence or absence of a disability doesn't predict quality of life." (p. 9) 

Since learning about disability activism, I've been increasingly frustrated at how DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) leaders and organizations routinely ignore disability. They rightly fight for so many marginalized groups but somehow stop short of recognizing that "disability rights are civil rights" (p. xvii). According to an essay by the Harriet Tubman Collective, "60 to 80 percent of the people murdered by police are... Disabled and/or Deaf people." (p. 237) When the Movement for Black Lives completely omitted any mention of disability from their 6-point platform released in 2016, the Harriet Tubman Collective said, "It is disingenuous, at best, and violently irresponsible at worst, to claim to want justice for those who have died at the hands of police, and neither name disability nor advance disability justice." (p. 240) It looks like the Movement got the message, because their website does now mention disability and ableism. This awareness still needs work at the local level, where I have yet to see any DEI initiatives address disability. (Notably, in these covid times, widespread masking would allow people at higher risk for severe illness to more safely enter public spaces, yet masking as a disability accessibility issue is widely disregarded.) 

On a personal note, I don't consider myself disabled, but having had cancer, and having gone through related surgeries and chemo and other treatments - some that have left me with permanent, uncomfortable-but-not-disabling side effects - I understand plainly that anyone can become disabled at any time, and I feel I've existed, perhaps sometimes still exist, temporarily, within the disability world. Some aspects of disability resonate with me and, in particular, an essay by Ellen Samuels struck me like an epiphany. (One of the many things I learned in this book is that the disabled community is reclaiming the word "crip", slang for "cripple"; I would not use the term myself, but I am including it below as part of the original quote.)

"Crip time is time travel. Disability and illness have the power to extract us from linear, progressive time with its normative life stages and cast us into a wormhole... Some of us contend with the impairments of old age while still young... we rage silently--or not so silently--at the calm straightforwardness of those who live in the sheltered space of normative time... Crip time is grief time... What I have found much harder to let go is the memory of my healthier self. With each new symptom... I grieve again for the lost time, the lost years that are now not yet to come... crip time is broken time. It requires us to break in our bodies and minds to new rhythms... It forces us to take breaks, even when we don't want to... It insists that we listen to our bodyminds so closely, so attentively, in a culture that tells us to... push the body away from us while also pushing it beyond its limit... crip time is vampire time... we live out of time, watching others' lives continue like clockwork while we lurk in the shadows." (p. 190-192, 195-196)

Rememberings by Sinéad O'Connor

★★★★

I regret that it was Sinéad O'Connor's death that finally spurred me to read her book. I was a fan of her music in high school and college, but I admit I didn't much follow her personal life.

This is the second memoir in a row that I've read by someone who died shortly after the book was written, which adds a certain amount of gravitas to the book. It was heartbreaking to read her plans for her future: "So this is only my first memoir. My intention is to live a long life and keep diaries this time so I won't forget." (p. xii) Towards the end, she described her next album, which was never released.

I think Sinéad O'Connor is a good storyteller. Her prose was sometimes lyrical, sometimes cheeky. She wrote as if she were speaking, so the text is dotted with "ain't" and "dunno" and "gonna". Each chapter is a short vignette, most just a few pages long. Black-and-white photos are interspersed. The book is mostly in chronological order, but sometimes it jumps around in order to follow the full thread of a theme or person. I read the book with a certain amount of apprehension, knowing unpleasant things would be revealed.

She is honest and vulnerable, child-like and God-loving, especially in the first two parts that describe her childhood and early adulthood, yearning for love and being drawn to gentleness. The whole book is a reminder to have grace for others, and to treat others kindly, because you really don't know what they may be going through.

In the last part of the book, she wrote of her adulthood and later albums. Fans will appreciate that she explained the story behind many of her songs. She mostly provided only a glimpse of her personal life at that point, and in the chapter called "The Wizard of Oz," she explained that after she had finished writing up to and including the Saturday Night Live Pope photo-ripping incident, she "had an open-surgery radical hysterectomy... followed by a total breakdown... and by the time I'd recovered, I was unable to remember anything much that took place before it." (p. 267)

(An aside: As someone who has also gone through surgical menopause due to ovary removal, though my experience was not nearly as extreme as hers, I welcome any opportunity to raise awareness of women's health and GYN procedures. If you have a uterus and ovaries, please make sure you have a GYN doctor you trust, and if something unexpected should arise, be open with other women in your life; very likely someone knows something about what you're going through and can offer information, insight, or support.)

What is abundantly clear throughout the book is that through all her life's ups and downs, she had music. She genuinely conveys her deep, abiding, life-long love for music and singing.

Her rock-n-roll lifestyle may be shocking to some readers, but despite the way music executives tried to market her, she was always "a punk, not a pop star." (p. 149) She lived her life true to her lyrics in "The Emperor's New Clothes" - Whatever it may bring / I will live by my own policies / I will sleep with a clear conscience / I will sleep in peace. I was really struck by how principled she was: "To the great consternation of many, I refused all the awards I was personally offered for my second album. Because I knew... that I wasn't getting awards because of anything I stood for. Rather, I was getting awards because I'd... sold a lot of records. Commercial success outranked artistic merit. I made a lot of money for a lot of men who couldn't actually have cared less what the songs were about. And in fact would prefer I told no one." (p. 149) Those rich men did a good job enforcing their preference, because even when she tore up the Pope's picture on Saturday Night Live, I clearly remember how it was a big scandal and everyone was all up in arms about it, but as a young teen at the time, I had no idea she did it to protest child abuse within the Catholic church. I feel a bit guilty now for having been a part of the commercialization of her music, one of those people who enjoyed her songs without understanding how intensely personal they were, without really seeing her.

I was also profoundly moved by her account of how she was booed at a Bob Dylan celebration concert a couple weeks later. I searched up the video of this performance on YouTube, and it's incredible: As she walks onto the stage, you can see in her face how happy she is to be a part of an event in honor of one of her personal heroes. She's supposed to sing a beautiful rendition of Bob Dylan's "I Believe In You" (one of my favorite songs to listen to around Christmas), but then, you see the realization dawn on her face as she processes the booing. You can see the wheels turning in her head, she makes an on-the-spot decision to change her song, and she belts out "War" by Bob Marley - the same song she sang on SNL just before tearing up the photo - and you can see she is all anger and defiance and hurt. She was truly an extraordinary woman, standing up for abused children when no one else would even acknowledge the problem.

Quite remarkably (since there is so little reference to the covid-19 pandemic in contemporary culture), the epilogue was written in the spring of 2020; she described the state of the pandemic, and America, at the time, and was hopeful. Again, she had plans.

Reading her book, it felt like she was alive again. When I finally put the book down upon finishing it, the reality of her death was such a weight of sadness.

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

★★★★★

A nostalgic, heartfelt tribute to a bygone era, made all the more poignant knowing that the author apparently mailed the final manuscript to his publisher the day before he and his wife died by suicide.

I think it's remarkable how much this book illustrated Mark Twain's quote: "History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes." In the Foreword, Zweig wrote that his generation, which lived through two world wars, carried "a heavier burden of fate than almost any other in the course of history." (p. xi) I certainly don't mean to take anything away from the Lost Generation, but I can't help but wonder if maybe Generation Z might have a similarly heavy burden, as young people today are facing the climate crisis, backsliding democracy, a resurgence of white nationalism, gun violence, loss of bodily autonomy for women, etc. The author seems to tap right into the fears and worries of Gen Z when he writes, "Only those who could look forward with confidence to the future enjoyed the present with an easy mind." (p. 24) I wouldn't be surprised if Gen Z-ers find this book surprisingly relatable.

It's heartbreaking that Zweig didn't live to see his beloved Europe, and especially Austria, rise from their war-torn ashes and thrive again. Still, the book gave me hope; as desperate and impossible as things may be, humanity has faced down potential ruin and survived before, so maybe it can do so again.

For the rest of this "review", I'm just going to highlight my favorite parts and quotes that I found especially meaningful, insightful, or just plain fascinating.

Early in the book, Zweig thanked his father for instilling in him his "one secure possession: [his] sense of inner freedom." (p. 31) It wasn't until the end of the book, however, after I learned of all that the author had lost through two world wars, that I understood the full weight of that statement.

The way the author compared pre-WWI Austria to WWII times felt very much like something Americans might say today: "Hatred between... the occupants of one table and those of another, did not yet leap to the eye daily from the newspaper, it did not divide human beings from other human beings... The herd instinct of the mob was not yet as offensively powerful in public life as it is today; freedom in what you did or did not do in private life was something taken for granted - which is hardly imaginable now." (p. 46)

It was really interesting how something published in 1942 about a politician from around 1900 (Dr. Karl Lueger) could just as easily apply to modern populist politics (Trumpism) and the scapegoating of immigrants and people of color as a distraction from wealth inequity: "A clever and popular leader... exploited this discontent and anxiety and... united the discontented lower middle class, whose envy of those more prosperous than themselves was considerably lesser than their fear of sinking from bourgeois status into the proletariat... [He used] anti-Semitic slogans, thus showing the disgruntled lower middle classes a visible enemy and at the same time imperceptibly diverting their hatred from the great landowners and feudal wealth." (p. 83) 

Seeing the similarities between students then and now was entertaining, though the object of students' interests have changed quite a bit. In Stefan Zweig's day, disinterested students surreptitiously read off-curriculum poetry in class and competed to be the most knowledgeable about theater and literature. "Discovering and being right up to date with the very latest, most recent, most extravagant and unusual subject... was our passion." (p. 62) It's almost refreshing to know that youth today are the same as they have always been, except pop culture now centers around YouTube, memes, and video games instead of newspapers, journals, and books.

Stefan Zweig was a true intellectual, and he lived in a time when being an intellectual was not only a thing, but an admired thing. He "couldn't swim, dance or play tennis... and in [his] general knowledge of sport any ten-year-old puts [him] to shame" (p. 79), yet he never regretted his "passion for the things of the mind" because he believed "the mind can be trained only in those crucial years of development to rise to its full powers of comprehension, and only someone who has learnt to spread his intellectual wings early will be able to form an idea of the world as a whole later." (p. 80) In his later years, he felt that "even in the darkest days [of WWII] a conversation with an intellectual man of the highest moral standards can bring immeasurable comfort and strength to the mind." (p. 445)

I was intrigued by the author's account of his peers in Paris with "discreet sinecures for poets and writers who did not earn large sums from their work... What these writers wanted from their modest posts, sought without professional ambition, was only a modicum of security in everyday life that would guarantee them independence in their true work." (p. 157-158) I had to look up the definition of "sinecures", and I was struck by how attitudes have changed so that it's more common today to see people trying to monetize their "true work", making it their actual work with all sorts of professional ambitions.

Just a few pages later, times again seemed not so different after all when he wrote of "our new way of life, which chases people out of their own peace of mind like animals running from a forest fire... ours, of all times, is one that allows no quiet moments even to the purest and most private minds, none of the stillness to help them wait, mature, meditate and collect their thoughts." (p. 162-163)

Without giving away any spoilers, I'll say I was floored at the bizarre series of events related on pages 190-199, about Zweig's first foray into dramatic playwrighting. As it turned out, Stefan Zweig would have a surprising role in, or at least a connection to, a number of publicly significant events. There was a great deal of name-dropping - of writers and politicians and various public figures - and I will sheepishly admit that I am not much of a student of European history or literature, so even with the helpful footnotes, oftentimes it wasn't until after I researched someone that I realized how impressive the dropped name was.

In fact, it wasn't just names, but whole swaths of European history that I didn't know much about. I kept putting the book down to do online research to better understand the bigger context of the book's narrative. I definitely learned a lot.

I appreciated the author's candor - which I read with a touch of humor - describing his predicament when World War I broke out: "All the committees examining men for military service had declared me unfit for it... My own nature, as I am not ashamed to confess frankly, is unheroic. My natural reaction to all dangerous situations has been to keep well out of their way... it was unthinkable for a relatively young man to wait until he was unearthed from his hiding place and sent to some place unsuited to him. So I looked around for something I could do without being involved in any violent activity." (p. 251)

At one point, when Zweig described being the only anti-war person even among his friends, his words felt oddly relevant to being a lone covid-aware person in a covid-minimizing world. He wrote that his isolation "made me doubt whether I myself was mad among all these clever heads, or perhaps was the only person to be shockingly sober amidst their intoxication". (p. 275) He goes on to meet a fellow believer in peace through reconciliation, whom he quotes: "We have suffered over a million dead. We have done and sacrificed enough! Not one more human life, not a single one, should be thrown away in the cause of German world-domination!" (p. 284) Again, to me, by replacing "German world-domination" with "saving the economy" or "returning to perceived normalcy", the words could just as well apply to the ongoing covid pandemic. In perhaps a related "history rhyming" vein, it's noteworthy that the book did not mention in any way whatsoever the 1918–1920 flu pandemic.

There's a lot more I could mention but I've gone on long enough!

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

★★★★★

I'm a big fan of Ed Yong (for his reporting on COVID-19, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting), and I picked up this book just to read more of his work.

The topic is fascinating. I have heard of probiotics and the gut bacteria that may be linked to everything from food allergies to Parkinson's Disease. I feel like every person who pushes probiotics should have to read this book. It presents a sweeping history of microbes and discusses both the bacteria that live in and on other animals as well as human microbiomes and the vast universe of microbes that live symbiotically all over and inside our bodies.

In accordance with the book's subtitle, I certainly did gain a much grander view of life. For me, the rest of the title seemed like a bit of a misdirection because I was expecting to read mostly about the bacteria inside of humans, but actually, a lot of the book covers all kinds of bacteria out in the world and in other animals. The way the information was presented made sense - Yong described the history of microbial discoveries and explained all the very many characteristics of bacteria as seen in other animals, and then applied that knowledge to better understand the research on bacteria that affect humans - but I have to admit, the book had a bit of a slow start for me; it was mostly when the subject turned to human microbiomes that I became hooked.

The footnotes were inconveniently located at the back of the book, instead of on the bottom of the page on which they are referenced, which made for a lot of flipping back and forth. While some footnotes simply listed a source, others provided additional context, or a "behind the scenes" anecdote, or just a fascinating or entertaining tidbit; I think it's worth the minor trouble of using a second bookmark to keep your place in the Notes section. (Incidentally, the footnotes in Chapter 3 in my edition were messed up, which made for a bit of confusion.)

I enjoyed the photos included towards the end of the book, but they were not printed in the order of reference in the book's text, which made for a less than ideal experience trying to match up photos with their corresponding section in the text.

Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me by Ralph Macchio

★★★★★

Like many others who grew up in the 1980s, I consider The Karate Kid to be representative of my generation. Any time I happen to see the movie playing on TV, I have to stop and watch a few minutes; it doesn't even matter which minutes, it evokes warm feelings of nostalgia every time. Add to that, I am a huge fan of Cobra Kai on Netflix. I LOVE THAT SHOW! It's just so much FUN!! I love seeing all the old characters again, it's like getting together with old friends.

So, I guess you could say I was predisposed to like this book. I was practically giddy when I finally picked it up, and I swear I read the introduction with a smile on my face. The whole book feels like a love letter to the best of the 1980s. It gets 5 stars simply because it was a joy to read.

The writing itself is very conversational, like Ralph Macchio is just talking to you. It's an easy, breezy, enjoyable read filled with fun behind-the-scenes stories from both the original movie franchise and the Cobra Kai series. Ralph Macchio talks about his role as a timestamp in other people's lives and how he came to fully embrace being synonymous with Daniel LaRusso. He is intensely protective of both his own character and the legacy of Mr. Miyagi, and it's clear how gracious he has been in sharing this part of him with the world.

I included the "Asian" tag to highlight the iconic Asian American character of Mr. Miyagi, played by the equally iconic Pat Morita.

Pro Tip: Have the internet close by when reading this book. Ralph Macchio frequently references specific scenes from the movies and Cobra Kai, plus other projects and clips of auditions or cut scenes, many of which are available on YouTube. It was super fun looking up these videos as soon as they were mentioned in the book.

Hormone Repair Manual: Every Woman's Guide to Healthy Hormones After 40 by Lara Briden

★★½

This book was written by a naturopathic doctor. I am a strong believer in science and evidence and data, which means I do not generally subscribe to naturopathy or other forms of alternative medicine. I do, however, acknowledge that the human body is complex, and there is still so much we don't know, which means there may be some aspects of alternative medicine that really do work, and we just haven't done the studies yet. 

I appreciate that the author did not try to replace conventional medicine. In the introduction, she explicitly asked the reader to "speak with your doctor or pharmacist about possible interactions with your medical conditions or medications" (p. viii) when trying her recommendations. I also liked that she included "How to speak with your doctor" sections in which she provided helpful language and wording that can be used to bring up topics with medical doctors.  

I think the average, healthy woman turning 40 will find valuable information in this book, and I want to emphasize that my rating is a reflection of my personal experience reading it. Here's why I picked it up: While in my early 40s, my treatment for hormone-positive breast cancer involved eliminating estrogen from my body, which meant taking medication that put me into medically-induced menopause, and then later getting my ovaries removed, which put me into surgically-induced menopause. I have experienced all the usual symptoms of menopause, but the most common suggestion for managing symptoms is to get hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is not an option for me because it would completely undermine my breast cancer treatment. So, I am looking for natural remedies to manage symptoms of menopause. 

As it turns out, surgically-induced menopause is quite a bit different from natural menopause, and I was discouraged when the book stated early on that "surgically and medically induced menopause...can produce stronger symptoms than natural menopause and almost always requires estrogen plus progesterone therapy" (p. 9), which I already know is contraindicated for me because of my hormone-positive breast cancer. Just a few pages later, I was encouraged to read, "If you don't want to take hormone therapy, that's perfectly okay because there are other options for many symptoms." (p. 17) I did manage to come away with some helpful suggestions, mostly from Chapter 5 "General maintenance for perimenopause and beyond," Chapter 7 "Rewiring the brain: help for hot flashes, sleep, migraines, memory, and mood," and Chapter 10 "What comes after."  

The writing was straightforward, and the content was conveniently broken into easily digestible chunks. Still, I think the information could have been organized better; the author frequently restated the same information and constantly redirected the reader to other chapters, making the text feel disjointed and repetitive. I read the book cover-to-cover because I wanted to know everything, but perhaps this book would best be used more as a reference, where you skip around and read only the sections that are immediately relevant to you. Incidentally, the author referenced Professor Jerilynn C. Prior so often that I wondered if maybe I should go straight to the source and read her works instead!

I was put off when I read that "the only time estrogen plus progesterone therapy is truly needed is for the prevention of long-term health risks associated with early or medically induced menopause." (p. 128) The word "needed" irked me; given my medical condition as described earlier, even if I "need" hormone therapy for long-term health, I am absolutely not a candidate. The author only mildly dialed back her statement about 10 pages later when she acknowledged, "If you have a personal or family history of breast cancer, you will probably be counseled to avoid estrogen therapy." (p. 139) I guess people with a history or high risk of breast cancer who experience early/medical/surgical menopause are just considered an exception case, and I felt like the message to me was: Hmm. You don't fit into any of the standard boxes. Looks like you are now doomed to poor health with "an increased risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, dementia, and premature death." (p. 140) (For the record, I was aware of these long-term risks associated with surgical menopause before I had my ovaries removed, but they were outweighed by the more pressing risk of breast cancer recurrence.)

Also, I wasn't comfortable with the way the author made assumptions about what my doctor may or may not know, e.g., when she wrote, "Your doctor thinks progesterone's only job is to protect the uterus, but it has many other benefits." (p. 138) Moreover, for almost the entire book, every time she mentioned talking to "your doctor", I imagined a patient talking to their primary care physician or a gynecologist, but it wasn't until late in the book that one of her "How to speak with your doctor" suggestions included, "Should I have a referral to a gynecologist to discuss this possibility?" (p. 227) The realization that gynecologists were not already implicitly included in all previous references to "your doctor" shocked me! I guess it does not go without saying that if you have concerns about menopause or menstrual health, a gynecologist would be a great place to direct questions; if insurance is a hindrance, look for a Planned Parenthood near you.

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

★★★★★

Even before reading this book, I was an Ed Yong fan. He's my go-to journalist for pandemic-related articles, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. I appreciated his writing so much that I picked up this book simply because I wanted to read more of his work.

I am not particularly fond of animals (I have no pets and have never found zoos especially interesting), and yet, Ed Yong not only motivated me to read a book about animals, but he totally blew me away with every fascinating detail. This book is filled with astonishing, awe-inspiring revelations about animals and their senses. Yong has a unique gift for science writing; he distills complex ideas into approachable reading while also conveying beauty and wonder. It was truly humbling to realize that the world as we experience it - as humans with our limited 5 senses - is exclusive to us, and that other animals experience the world in their own particular, and sometimes very special, ways. 

Ed Yong's writing flows naturally - he is a master of segues - and he keeps the tone light. Reading this book, and learning all it had to impart, was an effortless delight. I also really enjoyed his footnotes, which sometimes shed an entertaining light on his research in a behind-the-scenes kind of way.

The final chapter poignantly discusses man-made lights and noises and their deleterious effects on animals and insects. Yong refers to quiet and darkness as "endangered sensory environments" and calls on all of us to "save the quiet, and preserve the dark." (p. 338) He encouragingly lists a number of ways humans could reduce light and noise pollution - if only we were sufficiently moved to do so.

Radical Remission: The Nine Key Factors That Can Make a Real Difference: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds by Kelly A. Turner

★★

This book was mentioned by a friend who was diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer. Facing a bleak prognosis, she refused to resign herself to fate and has committed herself to defying the odds. This is not the type of book I usually read, however, when faced with the possibility of imminent death, I can understand the desire to grasp at all possible sources of hope, and I was intrigued.

The premise is fascinating: there are real people whose medically diagnosed cancer disappeared with no known medical reason, so let's study them and try to figure out what happened. Where the book falls short, for me, is how the investigation does not actually look for scientifically supported reasons for recovery, but instead relies almost entirely on each person's opinion on what they think caused their cancer to go away.

First, if you are the kind of person who absolutely never believes in ghosts, don't even try to read this book. There are no ghosts here, but for this book to even be readable, you have to be open to the idea that something might possibly, could be real, even if it defies all reason and there's no scientific explanation. You don't have to buy into alternative medicine, or believe in the paranormal, to get something positive out of this book, but you do need to take everything with a grain of salt.

Now, I am 100% a believer in conventional medicine and science, so I read most of this book with an attitude of, "Wow, that's interesting, not sure I believe all the details, but how amazing that that person is still alive!" The author does not exactly advocate for alternative medicine, in fact, she stated unambiguously that "most people will need conventional medicine to outrun cancer." (p. 9) But right off the bat, in the book's introduction, it's clear that she believes in alternative medicine, since her husband is a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and studied "an esoteric form of energy healing." (p. 5) When telling the stories of survivors, she gave validity to "[t]he notion that a cancerous tumor is simply a buildup of stuck energy," (p. 94) and she reported matter-of-factly on the various alternative therapies people used, like Reiki or other forms of "energy healing", without any commentary regarding the controversy surrounding those methods.

In fact, it's that lack of transparency that led me to rate this book 2 stars. One of the featured survivors is someone who credits Brazilian John of God for curing his brain tumor. It was a very compelling account, so of course I immediately Googled John of God. Turns out, he's a convicted sex offender! The allegations first surfaced in 2018, and this book was published in 2014, so the author is off the hook for that particular oversight, however, James Randi, known skeptic of paranormal claims, discredited John of God in 2005. I think the complete omission of any reference to documented efforts to expose him as a fraud is downright negligent and detracts from this book's credibility. The author only hinted that John of God may not be legitimate when she wrote that the power of John of God's healing center "could simply be the placebo effect; in other words, our sheer belief that something powerful happens at John of God's center could have caused us to have a deeper meditation experience." (p. 250)

Another thing I wasn't fond of was the author's decision to soften the outlandishness of John of God's healing methods by using carefully chosen words. Though many online articles refer to him succinctly as a "psychic surgeon", the author described John of God as having "the ability to leave his body and go into a trance, thereby allowing the spirit of a higher being to enter his body and perform energetic healing work." (p. 237)

Not all the stories were as off-beat as the one involving John of God, but many of them had alternative medicine elements. Ultimately, I felt conflicted by the personal stories included in each chapter. On the one hand, they were very inspiring and would certainly give hope to a cancer patient with a poor prognosis; on the other hand, all the alternative medicine therapies were beyond belief, if you ask me.

Despite all that, if you can disregard the parts that you find unbelievable, there are valuable insights in this book that would benefit any cancer patient, regardless of prognosis. The nine "key factors" that radical remission patients share all sound very reasonable:

1. Radically Changing Your Diet
2. Taking Control of Your Health
3. Following Your Intuition
4. Using Herbs and Supplements
5. Releasing Suppressed Emotions
6. Increasing Positive Emotions
7. Embracing Social Support
8. Deepening Your Spiritual Connection
9. Having Strong Reasons for Living

Only two items are physically related to your body: changing your diet and taking supplements. While some diets and supplements may be more well-founded than others, at least the author periodically reminded readers to consult their doctors, e.g., "Remember, always speak to your doctor first in case your fast needs to be medically supervised." (p. 28)

If you're like me, you may be surprised that exercise is not on that list. Most health guides lead with diet and exercise, and throughout the book, I kept wondering why exercise was not singled out, especially since it was certainly mentioned in passing, e.g., "Thanks to a combination of yoga, hiking, and walking, [John] now feels like he's in the best shape of his life" (p. 39) and "[Jenny] also continued with the same daily exercise regimen she had created for herself years earlier." (p. 127) It wasn't until the very end of the book (p. 282) that the author revealed that exercise was not included as the 10th key factor because many patients were too weak to exercise when they first turned to alternative therapies, presumably either because of the cancer itself or due to side effects of having tried conventional treatment like chemotherapy. This explanation is fair, but I just wish she had said it up front at the beginning, so I didn't have to spend the entire book wondering why exercise was being glossed over.

The remaining items all fall under mental and emotional health, and even at face value it's easily conceivable that they each would have a positive effect on healing.

Every chapter concluded with actionable items that a person can do to put into practice the concepts outlined in that chapter. These suggestions were generally sensible and doable and essentially just useful advice for maintaining good mental health. In the end, it's these "Actions Steps" that made the book worth the read, in my opinion.