The CancerLand Bookshelf: How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick

Posted April 3rd, 2013

After fifteen years in CancerLand, I know this much is true. After patients hear their doctor say, “I’m sorry, it’s cancer,” they do one of two things.

CancerLand Bookshelf with Annette Bennington McElhiney

Posted March 19th, 2013

I use a digital camera and hunt for colorful spring flowers to tune into the artist in me, while ovarian cancer survivor Annette Bennington McElhiney paints an alter ego she has named Althea.

CancerLand Bookshelf: Sound Travels on Water

Posted February 26th, 2013

Book Review: Serendipity: that’s the word that immediately comes to mind when I think about how I happened to connect with Kyle Potvin’s delightful chapbook, Sound Travels on Water.

CancerLand Bookshelf: Looking at Light: 100 Poems in 100 Days after cancer

Posted February 6th, 2013

Somewhere in the middle of reading Looking at Light, a vivid moment from a cancer support group meeting plays back in my head, almost like a scene from a movie.

CancerLand Bookshelf: L is for Lion: an Italian Bronx Butch Freedom Memoir

Posted January 11th, 2013

L is for Lion is one big, beautifully written book, filled with colorful stories about many different things: Italian families, life in the Bronx, lesbianism and treatment for cancer.

CancerLand Bookshelf: The End of Your Life Book Club

Posted November 16th, 2012

Will Schwalbe’s memoir initially hooked me – a relationship with an aging parent focused on books they read and discuss together. That’s my story too! But this book is so much more.

The CancerLand Bookshelf: The Red Devil Revisited

Posted July 3rd, 2012

Kathy Rich’s book The Red Devil “spoke” to me when it first came out, and there are lots of good reasons why.

The CancerLand Bookshelf: A Letter to John Green

Posted March 19th, 2012

I’m a reader who loves fiction, but when it comes to OncoLink and the blogging I do, fiction is not typically what I review. I guess I should also mention that I’m a 14 year breast cancer survivor and cancer books are my specialty. But for The Fault in Our Stars, I felt compelled to make an exception.

The CancerLand Bookshelf: Going Graphic

Posted February 28th, 2012

Author: Alesia Shute Publisher: Writers of the Roundtable Press, 2011 Information: $14.95 US ISBN: 1610660145 OncoLink Rating: I stumbled upon Everything’s Okay the way I usually do; browsing through the memoir shelves at Barnes & Noble. The cover of the book immediately caught my eye – a young girl rubbing noses with her dog. Then […]

Greetings from CancerLand: Splendidly Imperfect 50/50

Posted January 30th, 2012

Last time I checked, cancer is not a comedy. No way. No how. Not even close. Maybe that’s why I was so disturbed by the movie trailer for 50/50 when it first appeared on TV last year. For some unknown reason, they seemed to be marketing this cancer movie as a comedy. Seriously. Even though […]