Everything Changes: The Insider's Guide to Cancer in Your 20's and 30's | Date: 28 April 2011, 06:46
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Everything Changes: The Insider's Guide to Cancer in Your 20's and 30's
By Kairol Rosenthal
* Publisher: Wiley
* Number Of Pages: 256
* Publication Date: 2009-02-12
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0470294027
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780470294024
Product Description:
"By page three of the introduction to Everything Changes, I wanted not only to devour the rest of the book, but I wanted to call Kairol up, get to know her, and (if we weren't both already married) see if I could sleep with her. Then the book got really good. It is, without doubt, the most forthright, emotionally sophisticated, and plain-old valuable book of its kind I've seen. The book defines and exemplifies what the verb 'fight' really means: to arm, prepare, and engage in sustained effort to gain a desired end. If that's your mission, this is your instruction manual."
—Evan Handler, actor and author of Time On Fire and It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive (and a guy who got well from acute myeloid leukemia in 1985)
On a shoestring budget and with tape recorder in hand, Kairol Rosenthal emerged from treatment and hit the road in search of other twenty- and thirtysomething cancer survivors. From the Big Apple to the Bible Belt, she dusted the sugarcoating off of the young adult cancer experience, exposing the gritty and compelling stories of twenty-five complete strangers. The men and women in Everything Changes confess their most vulnerable moments, revealing cancer experiences they never told anyone else—everything from what they thought about at night before going to bed to what they wish they could tell their lovers but were too afraid to.
With irreverent flare and practical wisdom, Everything Changes includes stories, how-to resources, and expert advice on issues that are important for young adult cancer patients, including:
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Dating and sex
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Medical insurance and the healthcare system
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Faith and spirituality
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Employment and career
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Fertility and adoption
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Friends and family
Summary: I saw Kairol Rosenthal at a book reading in Chicago . . .
Rating: 5
. . . she came across just like she does in her book -- a little bit wry and sarcastic, always empathetic, very passionate, and unflinchingly honest.
The author sought out interviews of a very diverse group of young people with cancer, and was able to extract very wide range of very compelling experiences. The book is a great mix of the gritty and terrible experience of having cancer, as well as the the absurdities and banalities of life with cancer -- of life dealing with the health care system -- and life in general -- thrown in.
The author is also a strong advocate for expanding health care. She participated in a very interesting interview in September 2009 on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross where she addressed some of her personal experiences trying to navigate the often-treacherous waters of the uninsured/underinsured in America. That interview is well worth the listen -- seek it out.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in compelling personal stories, even if you don't have cancer. It is even more interesting if you have cancer or if you know someone with cancer, especially a person who is under 40, and for anyone with an interest in the ongoing public health-care debate.
In the interest of full disclosure - I know Kairol, but I assure you I wouldn't post this review if I didn't believe everything I just wrote.
Summary: Interesting read. Title is misleading
Rating: 3
I myself am a cancer survivor, having battled lymphoma for several years. I came across this book late in my experience, a few years after I reached a long term remission. The book is filled with interviews of young adults who tell their private stories in their battles with cancer. I found their experiences to be interesting, and very close to my heart since I too, had experienced many of their struggles such as with work, dating and living with my parents.
There were a couple of thoughts that settled in my mind after I finished reading this. First off, this book is referenced as "the insider's guide to cancer in your 20s and 30s." It is clearly not a guide. A guide is a handbook, a tool to help you navigate the unexpected or unfamiliar. My question is how many newly diagnosed cancer patients in their 20s and 30s buy a book like this once they hear of their shocking diagnosis. I certainly didn't. The first thought was "what the ^%$$^*(#" and not, "i guess I'll look up a book on how to navigate the waters of cancer in my 20s." There is so much more than that when you're diagnosed. Which brings me to my next point.
By the time a patient ends up reading this book, he or she have most likely gone thru so much to know what has worked for them and what hasn't. The book, although a good read from the interviews stand point, fails to deliver what new patients needs at a timely manner, not because of the book's fault but because patient's instincts especially young ones are not to resort to a book when they're immediately diagnosed. Sometimes the treatment happens so quickly after diagnosis that you don't have time to read anything. You're relying many times on the hospital and staff to help you thru. A guide remains relevant if the info is delivered to the patient at the right time. The info here is not delivered in the right medium. It is better suited for the web or a podcast. When I read it, I skipped through all the pages that were the "guide" part because I didn't find it relevant or helpful. There was nothing in there that I didn't know already 4-8 months into my cancer experience.
Secondly, I was hoping the author would be the one telling patients and families what to do and how to do it thru her personal experiences (it's her guide right?) yet she simply details a dry laundry list of names and contacts of other places to connect with if you need more help. So, I bought a guide to then connect and seek more guidance? Isn't this a bit like buying a restuarant guide to tell me which web sites or organizations to contact to figure out the best French or Chinese restaurant in town? I was hoping the author would use in a creative way how she dealt with the issues by contacting place A or place B, but be it part of the narrative, not some plain list. She writes well yet the guide part was a bit disconnected and not as interesting of a read. I could have received similar contacts and names by calling local cancer organizations, charities or my social worker at the hospital.
As far as this book helping to guide those in a supporting role like friends and family, it could serve them well to know what 20s and 30s with cancer go thru. I think most people don't have a clue what the author and the interviewees really went thru with cancer so it's great to have a book about it.
I liked the quotes sprinkled around the pages, and the stories around the interviews such as how the author set them up and got to meet the patients. I really hoped though for more thorough descriptions of the author's experiences. She went through a lot and I was hoping to hear more of her issues with work, dating, sex, treatments, etc. If this book is by a cancer patient, then the author immediately brings credibility, yet there wasn't all that much about her. It would have been cool if she chose one patient to interview her.
Summary: Not just for cancer
Rating: 5
I am in limbo about my condition but I've had lots of illnesses in the past and this is the only the book I have ever found that lets out the frustrations I that I have, especially the ones toward doctors. I thought I was alone and that no one else was ever told that they were "too young" or that the pain was in my head.
This book is amazing. It is for patients, survivors, friends, family members, and anyone that
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