I just finished reading Cancer Vixen.
(photo from Amazon.com)
Paul got it for me from the library, and I didn’t think I’d like it. The cover art doesn’t appeal to me at all, nor does the title, nor did the premise: shoe-brand-discussing, name-dropping, “oh no I gained an entire pound” fashionista-who-uses-the-word-fashionista gets cancer, but pulls through it with style and expensive lip gloss.
As you have no doubt cleverly surmised, instead I loved it. LOVED it. It was not only highly entertaining (romance! family! humor!), but also highly informative: here’s what happens when you get cancer; here’s what the various treatments are like; here are some things I hadn’t expected. If I get cancer myself, I will buy a copy of the book and work my way through it the way I used to work my way through week-by-week pregnancy books.
Boy, I haven’t made that sound real appealing, have I? And I understand if it doesn’t sound like something you’d like: I LOVE graphic autobiographies by female author-artists, and yet this sat on my book pile for two weeks because I didn’t want to read about cancer treatments (or shoe brands). I thought it would be boring, depressing, scary, and annoying. Instead I finished it, walked directly to my computer, ordered a copy to be sent to our local library (Paul had had to request it from another branch), ordered a copy of the author’s other book (Just Who the Hell is SHE, Anyway?) to be sent to me, and then wrote this post.
“Fashionista-who-uses-the-word-fashionista” = perfect derisive description.
It sounds INTERESTING, but I fear it would set off a wave of Cancer Worries. How did it manage to avoid doing that with you?
Life of a Doctor’s Wife- Well, it’s early days! I might still find it Too Much! But to me what it did was describe what something was like—which I generally find reduces my worries.
That looks… hideous. Even after your description, which usually sways me to add a book to my list, I don’t think I can get past the ugly cover. Is it somehow less ugly in person?
And can I tell you how much I love that you ordered a copy for your library? And can I be totally lame and asked how, exactly, you did that? Do you just click click on Amazon and use their address for delivery? Or is there some kind of magical library-books-ordering-website or something? I am in the Los Angeles County library system and I’m often surprised at how far some of my book requests have to come and wonder how they could only have one copy. I would LOVE to be able to order some of my favorites for them so that they might have them for someone else to stumble upon. You are a genius.
Katie- Yes, I had Amazon ship it directly. I have a theory which may or may not hold: my theory is that if I buy a book and bring it in, it gets tossed on a donations cart with all the used books, and the library might keep it or might put it in their perpetual booksale for $1; but if I ship it to them, obviously purchased just for for them, they are more likely to feel obligated to keep it.
I’ve also emailed them before, to say I’d like to donate a certain book if they want it. But they ALWAYS say yes, so this time I just sent it without asking first.
The cover is just as ugly in person (I FLINCHED every time I saw it), but the inside is non-ugly.