5 Books That Shine a Light on Cancer 

Turning to literature may not seem like the most delicate way to approach the topic of illness. However, in a world where (breast) cancer generates as many experiences as there are diagnoses, reading about it can be profoundly liberating. Here are 5 books about living with a disease, to answer old questions and to help new ones form:

     1. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi

A classic on cancer, although not breast cancer. This book dives into the world of living with an ambiguous death sentence. Paul has spent his entire life overachieving and has finally succeeded in becoming a renowned neurosurgeon. After doing everything  “right”, an aggressive lung cancer diagnosis feels like ironic injustice. This is a memoir on how cancer “saved his marriage”, how he coped, and what he attached meaning to in the end.

     2. Cancer Was Not a Gift & It Didn't Make Me a Better Person: A memoir about cancer as I know it, Nancy Stordahl

Stordahl’s book explores her account of breast cancer. It is not lighthearted and chooses a comparatively grim approach, focusing on the ugly side of cancer which often goes unspoken about. She focuses on a raw examination of the range of emotions that one goes through in the face of a diagnosis, without glorifying the existential journey having cancer is “supposed to” take us on. 

     3.The Undying, Anne Boyer

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2020 - non-fiction 

In 2014, at the age of 41, poet and essayist Anne Boyer was diagnosed with cancer. Not just that, but a particularly aggressive form of necrotic breast cancer with uncertain odds of survival. She is also a single mother, living in the States, without any savings. She has no partner or family nearby to help care for her, and each chemotherapy infusion session costs more than her annual salary. Deeply personal to womanhood, this is her story. 

     4.Strength Renewed: Meditations for Your Journey Through Breast Cancer

In Strength Renewed, breast cancer survivor and registered nurse Shirley Corder combines personal stories with encouraging passages and prayers from the Bible. These devotions can be read in order, but each also stands on its own. This book about survivorship rests on the power that faith can have in difficult times. 

     5.The Right To The Truth: For families and friends of patients with cancer

This book offers a contemplative take on who has the right to truth and in what way, as a cancer patient. In Greece, for instance, cancer diagnoses are often concealed from the patients out of fear of upsetting them. Dr. Papachristos shines a light on why this pattern is destructive, and how living in the light of a sometimes painful truth is ultimately a foundational right of any patient.