Re: SHARE: great summer reads

[Nancy Thackaberry <NThackaber@AOL.COM>]

Bald in the land of big hair - Joni Rodgers

The true story of how a young mother copes with her family and writing caree=
r=20
during her chemotherapy treatments for cancer. I have three coworkers who ar=
e=20
cancer survivors and this book helped me understand what they had gone=20
through.  It is also FUNNY!

Retail Price: $24.00
Our Price: $19.20=20
You Save: $4.80 (20%)=20
Readers' Advantage Price: $18.24 Join=A0Now=20
=A0=20

Format: Hardcover,=A0272pp.
ISBN: 0060195886
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, Incorporated
Pub. Date: February=A0 2001
Edition Desc: 1 ED=A0    =20

The Barnes & Noble Review
When Joni Rodgers gazed at her post-chemo face, she noticed a change. "That=20
wasn't me.... It was...Emil Lonnquist! My paternal grandfather, fresh off th=
e=20
boat from Sweden." With horror and humor, Joni greets her post-diagnosis=20
reflection -- and with the same witty dismay, she shares her story in Bald i=
n=20
the Land of Big Hair. It's a story about surviving cancer's many traumas: no=
t=20
only its shock and sorrow but its irritations and embarrassments, too.
Joni's treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma led her from surgery through an=20
aggressive course of chemotherapy drugs. At first, Joni rejected the=20
nightmare of chemo: "I tried to listen, but didn't feel like I was absorbing=
=20
much as [Dr. Ro] laid out the gruesome possibilities in clinical=20
nomenclature, couching blunt realities like 'barfing' and 'agony' in=20
palatable terms like 'nausea' and 'discomfort.' " Ultimately, however, Joni'=
s=20
warm, goofy husband, Gary, encouraged her to accept her doctor's suggestion.=
=20
With this decision came life -- and the death of a thousand small vanities.
The first of these, of course, was Joni's hair. And in Joni's home state of=20
Texas, small hair is no small matter. "It's not much fun being a bald girl i=
n=20
the Big Hair Capital of America," Joni notes dryly. "A true Texan woman=20
cruises down the aisle at Mervyn's like the Snoopy balloon in the Macy's=20
Thanksgiving Day parade; that bouffant would lift her right off the ground i=
f=20
her six children didn't have her tethered by the hand." Joni admits to the=20
distress and shame that accompany hair loss, but with her straight-up humor=20
she puts it in perspective. "I used to hate my hair because it was so=20
ordinary, and I hadn't yet learned the value of ordinary things. I was so=20
busy striving to be exceptional, I missed the dance of the everyday, the=20
red-brown grace of the gloriously mundane."=20
Joni allows us to share in her experience of the full chemotherapy course:=20
She describes how her favorite sex acts were affected by drugs, how her=20
children coped with her paralyzing and often inexplicable disease, how her=20
faith wavered and reasserted itself. "I'd always given away my time and=20
efforts as easily as an old lady offers knickknacks at a yard sale, asking=20
little and accepting even less.... Now, for the first time in my life, my li=
fe
 was at the top of my agenda." Joni's story offers readers an honest look at=
=20
surviving cancer, and a new perspective on life's small matters. (Jesse Gale=
)


From the Publisher
Texas is big. Dang big. Big meat, big hats, and big, big, hair. Texas women=20
have hair so big it gives Texas honeybees beehive envy. What's a girl to do=20
when, thanks to chemotherapy, she has to battle cancer without even her=20
god-given right of Big Hair? If you're Joni Rodgers, you use humor, candor,=20
anger, and finally, grace and dignity (sprinkled with healthy doses of sex=20
and Jell-o=AE). Funny, moving, and inspiring, Bald in the Land of Big Hair i=
s a=20
tribute to the triumph of the human spirit, the importance of community, an=20
the imperative of living each day with joy and grace. And a darn good wig.

About the Author:
Joni Rodgers is the author of two novels and many articles, and has appeared=
=20
as a keynote speaker for the Lymphoma Research Foundation, the National=20
Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, CanCare, and other conference and benefit=
=20
audiences nationwide. She lives with her family near Houston, TX.


Nancy Thackaberry
nthackaber@aol.com
catskill Middle School
Catskill  NY

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