A magnificently written "biography" of cancer--from its origins to the epic battle to cure, control, and conquer it.

Seventh-grader Ben, always an outsider, is led into a deep friendship with Halley, who is being treated for cancer, by the special dog he and his adoptive mother take inches

"Ross Maloy just wants to be a normal seventh grader. He doesn't want to lose his hair, or wear a weird hat, or deal with the disappearing friends who don't know what to say to 'the cancer kid.' But with his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, blending in is off the table. Based on the author's real life experience" --

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time—and an informal book club of two was born. Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne—and we, their fellow readers—are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating,...

Blossom Street begins with a new knitting class at the shop Lydia Goetz owns in downtown Seattle. Lydia's business is doing well, and in attendance are Susannah, who runs the flower shop next door; Colette, a young widow who lives upstairs; and Alix Townsend, a baker and former hoodlum engaged to a future minister. Lydia always tries to encourage friendship among her pupils, but this group is none too warm. Colette's reticence is attributed to grief,...

Ann and Ruth have been great friends all their adult lives, when Ruth is diagnosed with cancer their friendship becomes even more profound.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro...

Retired heart surgeon Ben Givens, diagnosed with terminal colon cancer, decides to take one last hunting trip in the Columbia Basin of central Washington where he plans to end his life, but the people he meets and the situations he faces along the way cause him to change his mind.

A memoir in which award winning poet Lucy Grealy recalls her experiences with a potentially terminal cancer that required she have a third of her jaw removed when she was nine years old, and discusses the suffering she endured as she was growing up from classmates, strangers, and other people because of her looks.