Here are just a few books that have come highly recommended by patients & loved ones who have relied on reading as a source of inspiration to help them walk through some of life's toughest challenges that come with a cancer diagnosis.
Most of these books were able to be ordered on Amazon.
PATIENT STORIES
Pursuing a more Purposeful Life? Assimilate stories from 39 patients with incurable Lung Cancer as they share their experiences, hopes, and strengths to find meaning in your life.
Life is an unfinished project, and similarly, finding meaning is an uncompleted task. But how exactly do we find meaning? How do people find strength? The diagnosis of cancer or other terminal cases create significant adversity. So how do people develop resilience? How do they keep going? These questions had been tackled for centuries by philosophy and religion. So what is there to add?
While there is no such thing as a School of Life Professor, you now have a viable alternative. Morhaf Al Achkar obtained his Ph.D in education and is currently a practicing family physician at the University of Washington. He was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Since then, his research has focused on the experiences of patients living with cancer. This book is based on interviews he did with 39 patients who live, like him, with advanced illness. He explored how these patients find meaning, cope, and build resilience. Using his own experiences and deep knowledge of philosophical concepts, Morhaf shares his understanding of a meaningful life from the perspective of someone aware of his own finitude.
Inside Roads to Meaning and Resilience with Cancer™, you will:
- Confront questions about life, meaning, and your legacy before it is too late
- Gain a new perspective on the meaning of living that transcends culture and social status
- Learn countless coping strategies across various disciplines to build your individual Resilience
- Acquire a positive and realistic perspective on your life that promotes hope and healing for your body, mind and spirit.
- And much, much more!
This is a compelling book by an author who is wearing multiple hats -- as a doctor, an academic, a lung cancer advocate, and ultimately, a patient himself. Dr. Alachkar’s knowledge-based, yet deeply personal and relateable book will give you a variety of viewpoints on questions like the meaning of life, finding hope in a terminal diagnosis, building resilience, finding or losing one's faith in a higher power, and much more! From its heartfelt personal accounts of how these strong individuals cope with cancer, to the thought-provoking search for meaning that underlies it all, this book is sure to run you through your complete gamut of emotions. If you seek a greater capacity for empathy or find relief in shared experiences, acceptance of altering realities and changed identities, then you can’t afford to miss this book.
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
"Don't you ever get tired of being so positive?" my niece blurted out one day.
The question shocked me, five years into my fight with lung cancer. Was my enthusiasm about remaining treatment options so disheartening that even someone normally upbeat struggled to see the hope in my situation? Was the way I was thinking that foreign to how other people think?
Over the next year, I came to understand that having cancer had changed more than my body. It had changed how I think. I had grown. Not in spite of cancer, but because of it. Now I treasure every new part of this adventure, as I have learned to not only survive with lung cancer, but to thrive with it."
Not too long ago, stage 4 lung cancer was considered a death sentence. Today, thanks to advances in lung cancer treatment, lung cancer can be considered a chronic disease. Survival Symphony is one man's amazing story of living in the solution.
A lifelong athlete, at age fifty-nine, Louis V. Cesarini maintained a healthy lifestyle, including training and competing in 5k races. When he was diagnosed with stage 4, non-small cell lung cancer, Louis said: "This is not how I'm going to die." That was two years ago, more than twice the life span prognosis for lung cancer patients, and Louis is still here to share his inspiring story of hope, courage, and survival.
As a career pharmaceutical marketer specializing in oncology, Louis is in a small category of highly informed patients, now finding himself battling the illness he spent years studying. Survival Symphony is a daily chronicle of his lung cancer journey, including his proactive approach to his own survival. Louis shares guidance for how lung cancer and other patients can and should be informed, advocate for themselves, and exercise the deep reserve of power they have in their care and treatment.
Louis's journey rightfully depicts lung cancer as a chronic illness that can be managed alongside living life to the fullest. One of his techniques for doing just that is by playing his French horn, which for Louis is both a measure of his lung health and a reminder of the joyful expression of music.
Survival Symphony offers a multidimensional experience for the reader with each of the four parts: Discovery, Treatment, Courage and Believe, drawing inspiration from the four movements of Ludwig van Beethoven's triumphal 9th Symphony. Readers can use the QR codes or footnotes to access online recordings of the music, including performances by Louis on his French horn.
"Stage 4 lung cancer is no longer a death sentence," Louis writes in his letter to cancer. "I will spread the word and share how I got rid of you." With an author undaunted by lung cancer, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Survival Symphony gives voice to courage and pure joy for life.
As an inspirational speaker, Louis continues to share his journey as an advocate for lung cancer patients and their caregivers. He is committed to sharing hope, empowerment and courage so that everyone can believe there is life after lung cancer.
Not too long ago, stage 4 lung cancer was considered a death sentence. Today, thanks to advances in lung cancer treatment, lung cancer can be considered a chronic disease. Survival Symphony is one man's amazing story of living in the solution.
A lifelong athlete, at age fifty-nine, Louis V. Cesarini maintained a healthy lifestyle, including training and competing in 5k races. When he was diagnosed with stage 4, non-small cell lung cancer, Louis said: "This is not how I'm going to die." That was two years ago, more than twice the life span prognosis for lung cancer patients, and Louis is still here to share his inspiring story of hope, courage, and survival.
As a career pharmaceutical marketer specializing in oncology, Louis is in a small category of highly informed patients, now finding himself battling the illness he spent years studying. Survival Symphony is a daily chronicle of his lung cancer journey, including his proactive approach to his own survival. Louis shares guidance for how lung cancer and other patients can and should be informed, advocate for themselves, and exercise the deep reserve of power they have in their care and treatment.
Louis's journey rightfully depicts lung cancer as a chronic illness that can be managed alongside living life to the fullest. One of his techniques for doing just that is by playing his French horn, which for Louis is both a measure of his lung health and a reminder of the joyful expression of music.
Survival Symphony offers a multidimensional experience for the reader with each of the four parts: Discovery, Treatment, Courage and Believe, drawing inspiration from the four movements of Ludwig van Beethoven's triumphal 9th Symphony. Readers can use the QR codes or footnotes to access online recordings of the music, including performances by Louis on his French horn.
"Stage 4 lung cancer is no longer a death sentence," Louis writes in his letter to cancer. "I will spread the word and share how I got rid of you." With an author undaunted by lung cancer, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Survival Symphony gives voice to courage and pure joy for life.
As an inspirational speaker, Louis continues to share his journey as an advocate for lung cancer patients and their caregivers. He is committed to sharing hope, empowerment and courage so that everyone can believe there is life after lung cancer.
A treasure trove of hope for people affected by cancer.
Stories of Cancer and Hope is a collection of honest stories from people directly affected by cancer, from the devastating impact of the initial diagnosis to the profound impact of the disease and its treatments on emotional and physical wellbeing, as well the effects on loved ones. Among the tears and low points are laughter and high points.But most of all there is hope in these pages, which is so important. These stories are ultimately uplifting and inspirational because of the many silver linings and glimmers of hope they offer, in the words of people who know what it's like to live with the uncertainty of cancer.
If you, or one of your family members or friends, have been newly diagnosed with cancer or you know someone affected by cancer, you will soon find that the trauma can be overcome by reading about others who have been through a similar experience.
Proceeds from all sales will go to Maggie's cancer charity.
EDUCATIONAL
A treasure trove of hope for people affected by cancer.
Stories of Cancer and Hope is a collection of honest stories from people directly affected by cancer, from the devastating impact of the initial diagnosis to the profound impact of the disease and its treatments on emotional and physical wellbeing, as well the effects on loved ones. Among the tears and low points are laughter and high points.But most of all there is hope in these pages, which is so important. These stories are ultimately uplifting and inspirational because of the many silver linings and glimmers of hope they offer, in the words of people who know what it's like to live with the uncertainty of cancer.
If you, or one of your family members or friends, have been newly diagnosed with cancer or you know someone affected by cancer, you will soon find that the trauma can be overcome by reading about others who have been through a similar experience.
Proceeds from all sales will go to Maggie's cancer charity.
