Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration

Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life

Sandra Beasley · 234 pages

Mortality

Christopher Hitchens

"Courageous, insightful and candid thoughts on malady and mortality from one of our most celebrated writers"--Provided by the publisher.

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

Jenny Lawson

"In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.As Jenny says: "Some people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a

The Cancer Journals

Audre Lorde · 77 pages

First published over forty years ago, The Cancer Journals is a startling, powerful account of Audre Lorde’s experience with breast cancer and mastectomy. Long before narratives explored the silences around illness and women’s pain, Lorde questioned the rules of conformity for women’s body images and supported the need to confront physical loss not hidden by prosthesis. Living as a “black, lesb

Meaty

Samantha Irby · 272 pages

"Samantha Irby explodes onto the printed page with her debut collection of brand-new essays about trying to laugh her way through failed relationships, being black, taco feasts, bouts with Crohn's disease, and more. Every essay is crafted with the same scathing wit and poignant candor thousands of loyal readers have come to expect from visiting her notoriously hilarious blog, bitchesgottaeat.com"-

Still Me

Christopher Reeve · 316 pages

For the first time Christopher Reeve tells the full story of both his paralysis, and his journey to recovery.Through his leading role in the three 'Superman' films, Christopher Reeve became so closely identified with the superhero that he wasn't just seen as the actor who played Superman, he was Superman. Which is why the tragic riding accident which left him paralysed from the neck down shocked t

Every Day I Fight

Stuart Scott, Larry Platt · 298 pages

Shortly before he passed away, on January 4, 2015, Stuart Scott completed work on this memoir. It was both a labor of love and a love letter to life itself. Not only did Stuart relate his personal story -- his childhood in North Carolina, his supportive family, his athletic escapades, his on-the-job training as a fledgling sportscaster, his being hired and eventual triumphs at ESPN -- he shared hi

The Story of My Tits

Jennifer Hayden · 344 pages

"When Jennifer Hayden was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 43, she realized that her tits told a story. Across a lifetime, they'd held so many meanings: hope and fear, pride and embarrassment, life and death. And then they were gone. Now, their story has become a way of understanding her story: a journey from the innocence of youth to the chaos of adulthood, through her mother's mastecto

90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death & Life

Don Piper · 304 pages

Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up

Selma Blair · 320 pages

Shouting Won't Help: Why I--and 50 Million Other Americans--Can't Hear You

Katherine Bouton · 276 pages

A memoir from the New York editor and writer in which she explores the invisible disability of deafness from personal, psychological, and physiological perspectives.

Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home

Jessica Fechtor · 279 pages

" M.F.K. Fisher meets Brain on Fire in this exquisite memoir of a 28-year-old food blogger who cooks her way back to health after a near-fatal aneurysm Jessica Fechtor was on top of the world: a Harvard graduate student, happily married, and thinking about starting a family. Then, while attending an academic conference, she went for a run and an aneurysm burst in her brain. Multiple surgeries left

Regine's Book: A Teen Girl's Last Words

Regine Stokke · 336 pages

True Strength: My Journey from Hercules to Mere Mortal and How Nearly Dying Saved My Life

Kevin Sorbo · 296 pages

Going Off Script: How I Survived a Crazy Childhood, Cancer, and Clooney's 32 On-Screen Rejections

Giuliana Rancic · 269 pages

"A funny, warm, and inspiring memoir from E! News host, Fashion Police panelist, red-carpet correspondent, author, and reality show star Giuliana Rancic.Giuliana Rancic is best known for interviewing A-listers on E! News and the red carpet, skewering their most questionable sartorial decisions on Fashion Police, and giving viewers a front-row seat to her marriage and home life on her reality show,

Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last

Lee Lipsenthal · 195 pages

A Journey Round My Skull

Frigyes Karinthy · 288 pages

The author's account of his own life when he was suffeing from a brain tumor.

Why I Wore Lipstick: To My Mastectomy

Geralyn Lucas · 208 pages

Geralyn Lucas shares her feelings and experiences after being diagnosed at age twenty-eight with breast cancer, discussing some of the choices she made, the people she met, and the courage she gained from wearing bright red lipstick to her surgery.

Better: How I Let Go of Control, Held On to Hope, and Found Joy in My Darkest Hour

Amy Robach · 247 pages

""I have breast cancer." When Good Morning America anchor Amy Robach revealed her shocking diagnosis on live television in November 2013, the seasoned news reporter embarked on the most difficult and illuminating journey of her life. In this intimate memoir, she retraces the twelve months following her brave announcement and speaks candidly, for the first time, about how her illness impacted her f

I Had Brain Surgery, What's Your Excuse?

Suzy Becker · 256 pages

The author describes her battle with seizures, coping with medical procedures and tests, and her brain surgery, in an illustrated memoir that explores the themes of creativity, healing, love, commitment, family, and personality.

Happy

Alex Lemon · 292 pages

His freshman year of college, Alex Lemon was supposed to be the star catcher on the Macalester College baseball team. He was the boy getting every girl, the hard-partying kid who everyone called Happy, often without even knowing his real name. In the spring of 1997, he had his first stroke. For two years Lemon coped with his deteriorating health by sinking deeper into alcohol and drug abuse. His c

Famesick: A Memoir

Lena Dunham

In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain.

Late Fragments: Everything I Want to Tell You

Kate Gross · 246 pages

What are the things we live for? What matters most in life when your time is short? This brave, frank and heartbreaking book shows what it means to die before your time, and how to fill your life with wonder, hope and joy even in the face of tragedy. Ambitious and talented, Kate Gross worked at Number 10 Downing Street for two British Prime Ministers whilst only in her twenties. At thirty, she was

The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me

Bruce Feiler · 240 pages

Bestselling author Bruce Feiler was a young father when he was diagnosed with cancer. He instantly worried what his daughters' lives would be like without him. "Would they wonder who I was? Would they wonder what I thought? Would they yearn for my approval, my love, my voice?"Three days later he came up with a stirring idea of how he might give them that voice. He would reach out to six men from a