Amazing Lesson in How to Value Life and a Beautiful Love Story...."Between Me and The River" by Carrie Host (a carcinoid cancer survivor).

I am an oncology nurse and this is simply the best book about surviving, coping and recovering from cancer that I have ever read.

This book is so beautifully written and so amazingly accurate and insightful. I wept throughout the whole thing. It covers so many of the emotions that my patients have expressed to me over the years, and it is exactly how I know I would feel if I were in the author's shoes. It is outstanding.

I have read so many cancer books with the hope of finding the perfect book to give to my patients, but always find them lacking something. This book is perfect. I loved the "summary" of the lesson learned at the end of most of the chapters. I have read excerpts from this book to two of my support groups this week to promote discussion and it has already touched the cancer survivors in those groups.

I can only imagine the impact that this book will not only have on cancer survivors and their families, but also on oncology nurses and doctors who read it. This is a must read for any oncology nurse who truly wants to empathize with his/her patients, and all medical students need to be forced to read it to remind them of the emotional toll the cancer journey takes on someone, and to remind them that they are dealing with human beings and not just a cancer "diagnosis".

This book truly touched me. The part where she describes looking in on her children while they slept before she heads to The Mayo Clinic, not knowing if she would see them again, made me sob. The way she wrote about her baby, her amazing husband, sisters...unbelievably beautiful and loving. The part about her mother wishing she could take her daughter's cancer from her and the whole mother daughter bond....heart wrenching. So perfectly accurate the way she describes the friends who stay and the friends who don't. I can't tell you how many times I have heard this and have seen this when working with cancer patients/survivors. A perfect description of the overwhelming fatigue that cancer survivors feel.

I have no doubt that this book will be hugely successful and if Oprah doesn't pick it for her book club she is insane. But the most important legacy that it will have is with the thousands of cancer survivors who will totally be able to identify with it and will feel less alone after reading it.

This is a beautiful book and an amazing lesson in how to value life. Cancer survivors know what is truly important in life and are so much wiser and more powerful than we mere mortals without cancer. This book captures that perfectly.

For those without cancer in their lives, I also suggest this book, as there is a truly beautiful love story woven into the pages between the author and her husband. Not a romance novel love story, but a story of a true and strong love that is tested through the worst of times and not only survives but is victorious.

When I reached the last page of Between Me and the River by Carrie Host I immediately turned back to page one and began to read the book again, cover to cover, recognizing I had found the jewel of all cancer books. Carrie's telling of her own story helped give me words to the feelings, physical and emotional, that I have experienced in my journey with late stage ovarian cancer.

Between Me and the River is very well written. Carrie's addition, at the end of many chapters of a paragraph which starts out with "that's what cancer does or is.." frequently made me want to say out loud, "yes!, that is so true!" You might weep while reading this book but they will be tears of remembering and joy.

Thank you, Carrie Host for giving words to my head and heart!

AT

My husband read the book and immediately recommended it to the caregiver program he is part of and is giving our hospital library copies to pass onto other patients and their families.

The book says it all-The fears, the anxiety, the wanting to protect those around us, and the new outlook on life that cancer provides is so well portrayed. It is one of the best best books I have read and believe it is as helpful to the family members/caregivers as the patient. Being diagnosed a year ago I am still in the midst of many of the hopes and fears so elegantly related. The fears and emotions that many of us feel but can't or are afraid to put into words are said for us.

Thank you Carrie for such a well written book. Between Me and the River should be a must read for providers as well as patients and their families.

I read this book from the "safety net of 3 years without disease" and it brought back all the emotions of when I received my diagnosis of stage 3c overian cancer, but the author truly put into words what I was feeling at that time. The ironic part was that she and I went through this the same year, so as she was describing Christmas, birthdays, etc, I was remembering my own holidays that year.

I was "fortunate?" that my children were older but within 3 weeks of my diagnosis, my daughter delivered her first baby, our first granddaughter and we celebrated our son's wedding, all without any of them knowing what specialists we were seeing, etc. As Carrie was using the analogy of being swept away by a river, it was so perfect because that is exactly what I felt like.

As she goes through the many ups and particularily downs of her battle, I saw myself and so many of my new support group friends' stories woven within the pages. We got a chuckle when she describes saving all the cards and letters that she received in a big bag in the closet. We all had done the same. It was like it was important to us to validate why other people felt we were important and gave us the strength to keep fighting.

Between Me and the River is wonderful, heartwarming story that truly gives hope to those who are going through this battle, as it puts into words how we are feeling and what the world looks like from our eyes.

I am not a cancer patient, nor a survivor, but my life, like so many others has been touched by cancer more times than I want to count. I work with cancer patients and this book was recommended to me by a wonderful oncology nurse whom I work with. From the moment I started reading I felt connected to the author. As a mother I felt her deep anguish at the very thought of leaving her children and as a wife I knew the deep love she shares with her husband. She describes her turbulent ride with great insight and courage. She helped me become a better caregiver, both to my patients and my husband, who is a survivor. It has been many years since I have read such a wonderful, powerful and inspiring story. I am thankful for her strength and generosity in sharing her most intimate moments and darkest days with us and thankful for the hope she gives to those who need it. "Between Me and a River" is a book every cancer patient, health provider, family memeber, and friend should explore in the hope of a better understanding of the journey we are all on and to know that calmer waters do exsit.

This book is beautiful. I finished it in a few sittings and often found myself in tears on my train ride to and from work. The author has a natural creativity that at first appears challenged by her carcinoid diagnosis as she lays hopeless on her couch in the first chapter, but soon her ability to write grows into a truly powerful form of expression. This book is an inspiration to those facing life-threatening obstacles, and anyone who wants to gain insight into what their friends or family members may be experiencing.

Thank you all for recommending what sounds like an amazing book. I had just posted on the "Chemo Brain" thread, and then came to this one. I then went to Amazon to order the book and, lo and behold, of course I had forgotten the name of the book. Chemo brain? It has also been called cancer-and/or cancer-therapy-associated cognitive change" and, whatever it's correct title, I have it! I am 3 1/2 months out of chemo, 2 months out of surgery, and still undergoing radiation, but the brain-fog is here!

Now I Understand My Friend Even Better, November 7, 2009
By Dr. Cathy "drgreene@ripleygreene.com" (Massachsetts) - See all my reviews

WOW - a dear friend of mine Judy passed three years ago from Breast cancer. I was with her every step of the way all the way to her last breath. It was a painful, beautiful, difficult, amazing journey. There was nothing we did not discuss.....but Judy was also strong and modest and proud and even though she explained her feelings and fears and hopes, she did not complain. All of the beautiful people who took care of her really did not understand the true nature of her journey through fear, pain, sorrow, exhaustion and loneliness. I understood as best I could...then I read Between Me and the River.....Now I Understand Judy even better. I cried while reading most of this book...tears of sorrow for losing my friend and what she went through, tears of pride for Carrie Host, tears of hope for any and all who are battling cancer. This book is a must read for anyone with cancer hoping for life....for anyone working in the profesional field of oncology and for anyone who is caring for a friend or family member with cancer. It is the best book I have read on the subject! I would love to see this book made mandatory reaing for all medical and nursing school students. Blessings on you Carrie Host. You have opened a window of deep understanding and healing for me and I thank you.

Hello all. I read with interest eveyrone's comments about Carrie Host's book and wanted to let you know that it will be reviewed in CURE in the Spring issue. I am also a breast cancer survivor and, as the book reviewer for CURE, I get a lot of books across my desk. I try to give each one some time to determine if it's new or has a new message. As I began to scan Carrie's book I found myself drawn in and ended up reading the whole thing and jotting notes. She got it right and offers lots of hope in a very real way.

Kathy LaTour
Editor-at-Large
CURE magazine

Ms. LaTour,
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! This beautiful book will help so many cancer survivors!!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts about it with your readers!!