A book as uplifting as the disease it discusses is tragic, Uplift is an inspiring collection of voices of breast cancer survivors. Barbara Delinsky, author of The Woman Next Door and other novels, and herself a survivor of breast cancer, presents inspirational snippets from more than 300 women sharing breast cancer tips and experiences. Reading this book is like listening to the friendly hubbub of a crowd of women all offering advice and comments. They share practical tips about comfortable clothing after mastectomy, treatments for radiation burns, nausea remedies, wigs, advice for friends, and more. They share stories of supportive husbands, boyfriends, and family members who continue to love them. "I will love you till the day I die, whether you have one breast or none," says one husband. "Breasts don't laugh, smile, share brilliance, or give kindness," says another man. Every experience is positive and supportive, but not gushy. The humor chapter will make you laugh aloud.

Delinsky envisioned this book as "the support group that I had never joined but could have used, the one that offered all the practical little secrets of survival that have nothing to do with doctors, machines, or drugs and everything to do with women helping women." She succeeds. (Delinsky is donating all her earnings on this book to breast cancer research.) --Joan Price


From Publishers Weekly
Delinsky (A Woman's Place), a prolific popular novelist, lost her mother to breast cancer and is herself a survivor of the disease. This practical guide is a worthy addition to recent literature about how individual women deal with this illness, like Jennie Nash's The Victoria's Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming (reviewed above). Delinsky has collected a compendium of survival secrets "that have nothing to do with doctors, machines or drugs and everything to do with women helping women" that she wished had been available to her when she was diagnosed in 1994. She offers short personal anecdotes contributed by breast cancer survivors of every age and background. They recount the strategies that helped them through all aspects of cancer, including diagnosis, treatment, support groups and how to best conduct relationships with family, friends and in the workplace. Upbeat in tone, the women share such tips as the types of deodorants that may be used during radiation, how to handle hair loss ("I called my hair dresser and had the remainder of my hair buzzed off.... My buzzed head represented strength and control"), what foods will lessen nausea and, in general, how to take charge of one's life and remain positive. Almost everyone will find something in this varied advice that applies to her particular situation. Several women, for example, thought that hiring a professional to clean for them was extremely beneficial during draining treatments, while another found the mindless "therapy" involved in weeding the garden helpful. Delinsky also contributes several reminiscences, e.g., of her determination to remain physically strong and emotionally healthy after her diagnosis. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Best-selling novelist Delinsky is also a breast cancer survivor, though for years only an intimate few knew of her 1994 diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Now she feels it is time to open up to other women and offer the kind of help that she rejected during her recovery. A sort of support group between covers, the book comprises contributed bits by women on various subjects ("Losing a Breast," "Chemo and Hair," etc.), with Delinsky adding chapter introductions where she reveals her own experience, information her fans will no doubt relish. It is her name that will bring readers to this book, but the tips (including brand-name products), suggestions, and support offered by the "sisterhood" will be invaluable to cancer patients. Highly recommended. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Michael Korda Author of Man to Man: Surviving Prostate Cancer For every woman who has feared breast cancer, or has been diagnosed with it, and for the men in their lives, this book is must reading.

Library Journal Invaluable....A sort of support group between covers.


Review
Library JournalInvaluable....A sort of support group between covers.


Review
Library Journal Invaluable....A sort of support group between covers.


Book Description
Bestselling author Barbara Delinsky, whose life has been shaped by her mother's breast cancer as well as her own, creates with this book exactly the resource she wished she had for herself during her treatment: one that is filled with the helpful tips -- both practical and inspiring -- that only the women who have already been there can tell us about. Here, readers can find answers to such questions as: Are there certain foods that really satisfy on treatment days? How do I address my surgery with my coworkers? Will I still feel feminine? And what about a sex life? Warm and reassuring, Uplift arms readers with the various means by which countless women diagnosed with breast cancer have faced their fears, survived their illness, and bravely gotten on with life and love, career and family. All of the author's proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to breast cancer research.


Download Description
Bestselling novelist and cancer survivor Delinsky issues practical advice she wishes she had previous access to. Delinsky covers questions of diet, social commentary and sexual identity she encountered in her own ordeal.


About the Author
Barbara Delinsky's bestselling novels include Flirting with Pete, An Accidental Woman, and Coast Road, which featured a heroine who was a breast cancer survivor. She serves on the Massachusetts General Hospital Women's Cancer Visiting Committee. Readers can write to her c/o P.O. Box 812894, Wellesley, MA, 02482-0026, or via the Internet at www.barbaradelinsky.com.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Courageous, inspirational, and relentlessly optimistic, Uplift is a wellspring of information about getting through breast cancer and going on with your life, straight from women who have not only survived the disease but have thrived. Barbara Delinsky, the hugely popular author of novels such as Coast Road and The Vineyard, conceived of this project as a way of showing women that there is life after breast cancer, and it can be as full of activity, laughter, and intimacy as you choose it to be. In addition to collecting and organizing the submissions of women throughout the nation, Delinsky also reveals her own personal experience with breast cancer. Filled with humor and warmth -- and scores of tips for making it through diagnosis, chemo, hair loss, sickness, tattooing, recovery, and more -- this book is a must for any woman determined to join the "sisterhood of breast cancer survivors" (with emphasis on the word survivors), and the friends and family who love them.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Bestselling author Barbara Delinsky, whose life has been shaped by her mother's breast cancer as well as her own, creates with this book exactly the resource she wished she had for herself during her treatment: one that is filled with the helpful tips -- both practical and inspiring -- that only the women who have already been there can tell us about. Here, readers can find answers to such questions as: Are there certain foods that really satisfy on treatment days? How do I address my surgery with my coworkers? Will I still feel feminine? And what about a sex life? Warm and reassuring, Uplift arms readers with the various means by which countless women diagnosed with breast cancer have faced their fears, survived their illness, and bravely gotten on with life and love, career and family.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Delinsky (A Woman's Place), a prolific popular novelist, lost her mother to breast cancer and is herself a survivor of the disease. This practical guide is a worthy addition to recent literature about how individual women deal with this illness, like Jennie Nash's The Victoria's Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming (reviewed above). Delinsky has collected a compendium of survival secrets "that have nothing to do with doctors, machines or drugs and everything to do with women helping women" that she wished had been available to her when she was diagnosed in 1994. She offers short personal anecdotes contributed by breast cancer survivors of every age and background. They recount the strategies that helped them through all aspects of cancer, including diagnosis, treatment, support groups and how to best conduct relationships with family, friends and in the workplace. Upbeat in tone, the women share such tips as the types of deodorants that may be used during radiation, how to handle hair loss ("I called my hair dresser and had the remainder of my hair buzzed off.... My buzzed head represented strength and control"), what foods will lessen nausea and, in general, how to take charge of one's life and remain positive. Almost everyone will find something in this varied advice that applies to her particular situation. Several women, for example, thought that hiring a professional to clean for them was extremely beneficial during draining treatments, while another found the mindless "therapy" involved in weeding the garden helpful. Delinsky also contributes several reminiscences, e.g., of her determination to remain physically strong and emotionally healthy after her diagnosis. (Oct.) Copyright 2001Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal