Recommended Books about Breast Cancer and Healing

Advanced Breast Cancer: A Guide to Living With Metastatic Disease (previously published as Holding Tight, Letting Go) by Musa Mayer (O'Reilly and Associates, 1998) includes treatment information and resources, and is an excellent resource for patients and health professionals. It provides comprehensive information and resources covering many topics, including coping with the shock of recurrence, seeking information and making treatment decisions, communicating effectively with medical personnel, resolving family concerns, finding emotional and practical support, and handling disease progression and end-of-life issues.

A Helping Hand - The Resource Guide for People With Cancer (Cancer Care Inc., 1996). This handbook provides practical information about the kinds of help available to people with cancer and how to access these resources directly. Available free of charge by calling Cancer Care, Inc., (212) 221-3300.

A Woman's Decision: Breast Care, Treatment and Reconstruction by Karen Burger and John Bostwick (St. Martin's Press, 1998) offers readers information on breast cancer, treatment, and reconstruction. It covers every aspect of breast cancer from selecting a physician, to treatment, to how breast cancer affects relationships, to finding support groups and information on the Internet.

Be a Survivor: Your Guide to Breast Cancer Treatment by Vladimir Lange (Lange Productions, 1999) is informative, empowering, concise, and user-friendly. It is designed to help the patient and the family participate in the treatment and recovery. Developed in consultation with medical experts, it provides information about standard treatments, complementary therapies, and clinical trials.

Breast Cancer: The Complete Guide by Yashar Hirshaut and Peter Pressman (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 2000) is a thorough and accessible book on breast cancer with all the facts a patient needs to know.

Cancer as Initiation: Surviving the Fire by Barbara Stone (Open Court, 1994) describes the author's battle with cancer from a deep psychological and medical perspective. It includes dream analysis, the use of holistic healing methods, and Kirlian photography to track the cancer.

Cancer Survivor's Club: A Nurse's Experience (previously published as Joining the Club) by Lillie Shockney (Windsor House, 1997) describes the author's experience with breast cancer. It includes advice from a nurse's perspective on how to talk to your doctor and your family and provides intimate details about a woman's femininity following mastectomy.

Cancer Talk by Selma Schimmel and Barry Fox (Broadway Books, 1999) is a collection of the voices of cancer survivors, nurses, doctors, social workers, family, and friends of cancer patients. It comes from "The Group Room," a call-in radio show that grew to be the world's largest cancer support group.

Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book by Susan M. Love, M.D. (Addison Wesley, 1995) is the bible of books on breast physiology, including cancer and potential treatments. It is written by a physician about her observations of patient experiences and includes extensive medical information.

I'm Alive and the Doctor's Dead by Sue Buchanan (Zondervan Publishing, 1998) is a high-spirited story for any woman facing a medical verdict she does not want to hear. It assures women that there is life during and after cancer.

It's Always Something by Gilda Radner (Avon, 1995) is an autobiographical account of the famous comedienne and actress which ends with her three-year battle against ovarian cancer.

Living Beyond Breast Cancer by Marissa Weiss, M.D. and Ellen Weiss (Times Books, 1998) prepares the breast cancer patient for any eventuality as treatment ends and the rest of life begins.

Love, Medicine and Miracles by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D. (Harper Perennial, 1990) describes how love heals. Miracles happen to exceptional patients every day, patients who have the courage to work with their doctors to participate in and influence their own recovery.

My Breast by Joyce Wadler (Pocket Books, 1997) describes the author's experience with breast cancer as a single, career woman. She describes taking control of her choices for treatment and the relationships with family, friends, and lovers during this time.

My Mother's Breast: Daughters Face Their Mothers' Cancer by Laurie Tarkan (Taylor Publishers, 1999) offers support for the loved ones of breast cancer patients. It contains touching stories of sixteen daughters of all ages who must deal with the pain and devastation of their mothers' illness. It brings to light the unique emotional issues daughters face, including the fears for their own health.

Not Now--I'm Having a No Hair Day by Christine Clifford (Pfeiffer Hamilton, 1996) is a humorous book filled with cartoons that describes the author's treatment for breast cancer and the use of humor for healing.

Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra (Bantam Books, 1990) is a book filled with the mystery, wonder and hope of people who have experienced seemingly miraculous recoveries from cancer and other serious illnesses.

Spontaneous Healing by Andrew Weil, M.D. (Fawcett Columbine, 1995) presents medical knowledge from around the world to explain the human healing system.

The First Year of the Rest of Your Life: Reflections for Survivors of Breast Cancer by Nancy Brinker and Charla Hudson Honea (Pilgrim Press, 1997) is a collection of stories and reflections of women who have had breast cancer and their desires to save others from the same disease.

The Healing Journey: Overcoming the Crisis of Cancer by Alastair J. Cunningham (Key Porter Books, 1992) is written by a scientist to help cancer patients and their families in making rational decisions between the conservatism of Western medicine and the radicalism of New Age healing.

The Race is Run One Step at a Time by Nancy Brinker and Catherine McEvilly Harris (Summit Publishing, 1995) tells about the author's sister, Susan G. Komen, and the author's experiences with cancer which led to the founding of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. It provides a guide to medical care, which is becoming somewhat outdated.

The Red Devil by Katherine Russell Rich (Three Rivers Press, 2000) tells the intimate story of a young career woman diagnosed with breast cancer who suffers a debilitating recurrence and survives through far-reaching treatment.

Woman to Woman: A Handbook for Women Newly Diagnosed With Breast Cancer by Hester H. Schnipper and Joan Feinberg Berns (Wholecare, 1999) is a book in which survivors of breast cancer offer warm, practical advice, essential information, and reassurance to newly diagnosed women.

Where the Buffaloes Roam: Building a Team for Life's Challenges by Bob Stone and Jenny Stone Humphries (Addison Wesley, 1993) describes Bob Stone's battle with cancer and the support he received by putting together a team of family and friends to help him through the hard times of treatment and recovery.