When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

What a brave and heroic way to live and die. I was inspired by Paul Kalanithi's approach to life and his continuous quest to learn and experience what it means to live a life of quality and meaning. Just when many of us would give up the fight and settle in and let illness guide our lives, Kalanithi decided to strive to accomplish his goals and live his passions - what gave his life meaning (gaining wisdom, family, friends, helping others).

This memoir is very tragic and sad but I loved how Kalanithi embraced and accepted death at the end as a natural part of the life cycle. His courage, dignity and integrity in the face of such an awful illness reminded me that although death is not something we strive for it is something we will all experience at some time. Yes, the unknown is always scary but death, too, is a part of life and must be embraced. I truly hope that when my time comes that I will be ready to accept death with grace, dignity and no regrets. I also hope that those that have been part of my life will have felt that I loved them fully and deeply and that I leave them having given all that I could.

My Thoughts: Truly inspirational. Highly recommended. Read-a-likes Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.

Positive by Paige Rawl

Positive by Paige Rawl is an inspiring memoir of an ordinary middle-school girl whose life changes forever just because she shares some personal information about her health with her best friend.  Within hours, the bullies begin to attack with hateful words and comments. People she once viewed as her friends begin to alienate and mistreat her. School administrators dismiss her complaints as just school "drama" and repeatedly fail to protect her from bullying. Why? Because Paige was born with HIV, an incurable disease that could only be transmitted through the exchange of certain bodily fluids.

My Thoughts:
This was an amazing memoir of family, love, strength and bravery. I was moved by Paige's mom and her devotion to her daughter as well as, Paige, herself.  As I read about all the terrible bullying that took place, I kept wondering how, in this day and age, knowing what we now know about HIV and AIDS, could people still behave in such shameful, hateful and hurtful ways?  It was like reading The Ryan White Story once again.  As an educator, I, unfortunately expect but do not tolerate, teasing and bullying to take place among Tweens and Teens but for adults to not do anything about such behavior is completely abhorrent and un-humane.

I'm truly impressed by the young woman that Paige Rawl has become and the work she is doing to stop bullying and educate the world about HIV and AIDS. I truly hope that her work will have a deep impact on humankind.

Year of No Sugar by Eve O. Schaub

The Year of No Sugar was an informative book about a family who gives up "sugar" for a year. However, the title is deceiving because the family does not completely give up sugar but mostly fructose, some artificial sweeteners, and isolated fruit sugar. Schaub spends most of the year obsessing about sugar (when to eat? how to eat it?) and finding technical ways to consume sugar and all its many alternative forms. For instance, she sets up certain cheat rules or accepted wild cards for her and her family which I could understand when it comes to children. However, the cheating exceptions/rules kept sugar in the family's diet which, I believe, made the whole sugar craving a constant annoyance.

Additionally, the family incorporated a monthly cheat day where they selected and shared a sugary treat. I like the idea of people, especially families, coming together to share a meal. This is a very bonding and social experience and I believe was key to helping the family maintain the project. 

However, where Schaub's experiment fell apart for me was in her relentless quest to locate chemical sugar sweeteners such as dextrose to support her and the family's sugar addiction. Call me crazy, but with a title like The Year of No Sugar, I expected to read about people struggling to eliminate ALL sugar both regular and artificial.  If the goal was to eliminate sugar, and especially fructose, because of its toxic and damaging effects on the body and our health, why replace it with something unnatural that is also dangerous and toxic? Because it is the lesser of two evils? That’s like giving up crack cocaine for cigarettes. Okay, I am exaggerating but you get my point.

My Thoughts: 
Don't get me wrong, I respect any attempt to give up toxic foods from the human diet. Heck, I am a life-long pursuer of clean and healthy eating. I give Schaub tons of kudos for the fact that she dared to include her children in the experiment, brave undertaking. However, I just did not like the exchange of one poison for another. I would have liked it if Schaub found healthy alternatives, like using whole natural ripened sweet fruit and vegetables in her cooking and baking instead of chemical sugar alternatives. Natural foods would have helped the family re-train their taste buds and possibly teach the importance of eating real food.