Between Me and the River [Hardcover]

Carrie Host (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009

Carrie Host knows that the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness takes a split second to change your life. When told at forty, with her youngest child just nine months old, that she had a rare form of cancer known as carcinoid tumor, Host felt as if she'd been hurled into a raging river, stripped of all forms of potential rescue. Between Me and the River is Host's candid and uplifting memoir of how she found the strength and fortitude to triumph over this disease, and craft a new and meaningful life. The voyage of this strong-minded, openhearted woman is told with uncompromising honesty and respect for the miracles that medicine and love can work.

Host's unquenchable sense of humor in the midst of suffering creates poignant moments of laughter through tears. Bracing, lyrical and deeply moving, Between Me and the River is a tribute to one life, and all lives, rerouted by illness.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On Halloween in 2003, Host was given terrifying news: she had carcinoid tumor, a rare and deadly form of cancer . The wife and mother of three children (then ages 10 months, 11 and 13), who is now in remission, was given a prognosis of 18 to 36 months. In this heartfelt narrative, Host attempts to simultaneously fight the disease and find peace with the possibility of death while remaining strong and hopeful. The author describes the moments of comfort and joy she receives from those around her, but she doesn't flinch from the realities of life-threatening illness. Regarding one particularly harrowing hospital stay, she recalls, I thought I had already earned my doctorate in pain, but it turns out I was wrong. She finds humor among the indignities cancer patients must endure, writing, for example, I should have known that, as a mother of three, the only possible way to get 12 uninterrupted hours of sleep would be surgery. Host's honest depiction of her personal experiences also captures the universal aspects of cancer. In one of the book's entries, dated nearly two years after her initial diagnosis, Host recounts a conversation with a stranger, a fellow train passenger: We have that instant connection that you make with someone who has suffered the loss that cancer can bring. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

Lover of language and keen observer of life, 40-year-old Host hears the oncologist reading from her file and thinks, “You have stepped onto the platform and are heading toward the train you are about to board. You hear the ticking of your watch, even though it’s digital.” Instead of going on an eagerly anticipated family vacation, she has entered a nightmare. Her surgeon says hers is “the most extreme case of carcinoid tumor” he’s ever seen, and she dreads telling her teen children. Yet she finds that her widely metastasized cancer’s detection marks “the beginning of all kinds of angels showing up.” Two years after multiple tests, surgeries, and traditional and alternative treatments, she is declared “clear,” thanks to loving support, spirituality, and modern medicine, only to learn a year later that she has ovarian tumors. Determined that she’ll see her youngest’s fourth birthday, she does—and more, now perceiving her life as “a generous allowance from nature” in this comforting, informative, and seamlessly woven tale of hope. --Whitney Scott

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin; 1 edition (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373892144
• ISBN-13: 978-0373892143
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Lesson in How to Value Life and a Beautiful Love Story, July 22, 2009

By 

Ramona Fez (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Me and the River (Hardcover)

I am an oncology nurse and this is simply the best book about surviving, coping and recovering from cancer that I have ever read.

This book is so beautifully written and so amazingly accurate and insightful. I wept throughout the whole thing. It covers so many of the emotions that my patients have expressed to me over the years, and it is exactly how I know I would feel if I were in the author's shoes. It is outstanding.

I have read so many cancer books with the hope of finding the perfect book to give to my patients, but always find them lacking something. This book is perfect. I loved the "summary" of the lesson learned at the end of most of the chapters. I have read excerpts from this book to two of my support groups this week to promote discussion and it has already touched the cancer survivors in those groups.

I can only imagine the impact that this book will not only have on cancer survivors and their families, but also on oncology nurses and doctors who read it. This is a must read for any oncology nurse who truly wants to empathize with his/her patients, and all medical students need to be forced to read it to remind them of the emotional toll the cancer journey takes on someone, and to remind them that they are dealing with human beings and not just a cancer "diagnosis".

This book truly touched me. The part where she describes looking in on her children while they slept before she heads to The Mayo Clinic, not knowing if she would see them again, made me sob. The way she wrote about her baby, her amazing husband, sisters...unbelievably beautiful and loving. The part about her mother wishing she could take her daughter's cancer from her and the whole mother daughter bond....heart wrenching. So perfectly accurate the way she describes the friends who stay and the friends who don't. I can't tell you how many times I have heard this and have seen this when working with cancer patients/survivors. A perfect description of the overwhelming fatigue that cancer survivors feel.

I have no doubt that this book will be hugely successful and if Oprah doesn't pick it for her book club she is insane. But the most important legacy that it will have is with the thousands of cancer survivors who will totally be able to identify with it and will feel less alone after reading it.

This is a beautiful book and an amazing lesson in how to value life. Cancer survivors know what is truly important in life and are so much wiser and more powerful than we mere mortals without cancer. This book captures that perfectly.

For those without cancer in their lives, I also suggest this book, as there is a truly beautiful love story woven into the pages between the author and her husband. Not a romance novel love story, but a story of a true and strong love that is tested through the worst of times and not only survives but is victorious.

I would like to thank the author for sharing this stunning book with us and wish her many years of "NED" ("no evidence of disease"), good health and happiness.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely Book, March 25, 2010

By 

Marisa Nitsch (Prospect, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Me and the River (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

You will find that her thoughts and expressions throughout her battle with cancer will take you back to your loved ones that have gone to battle against this disease. I found myself thinking and asking myself "my loved ones who died from cancer never expressed how they truely felt throughout there illness with cancer". She expresses herself in such a way that she has you crying and truely feeling what she feels. It makes you totally understand what a cancer patient goes through, not just chemo or radiation and it outwards effects on one that we all can see. She expresses her iner feelings and speaks of them outwardly which embraces the reader. Especially, when she speaks of her children. She wants to raise them, not watch someone else take care of them and give them love, the love that she wants to give and can't. As she reaches what looks like the end of this journey, she still corageously fights back. Her ongoing battle and the fight within her to live is amazing. The quanities of sea plankton that she consumed I believe saved her. This book should be read by all; especially nurses, caregivers, etc. I was really touched by her feelings and the way she espressed how she felt throughtout her battle with cancer that I can honestly say, I now know the inner feelings of one trying to stay alive. As you read this book you tend to say My God, "that's how my personal loved ones lived and kept there inner feelings a secret. Their emotions and thoughts in a trapped body, until the end, for some. I am happy to say this story has a happy ending. This book I will read more than once. The connection that she makes with the reader will stay with you far after you read this book. It will remain in your heart, forever.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite what I expected, April 23, 2010

By 

J. Hauer "me" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Me and the River (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

This book took me a long time to build up the fortitude to open this book and dive in. As a mother of two young children, the thought of not being able to watch them grow into adulthood is one of my worst fears. That's exactly what this book is about so I had to be in the right frame of mind to even attempt this read. Once I did start the book, I felt disappointed as I expected more from the author than she gives the reader about her external fears and love for her family. Instead, as it must be for those who are survivors, the focus was quite internal about where she was at any given time and quite honest in her self-focus. In retrospect, I think the book was marketed more about a "mother" than as a "survivor" and had it been marketed differently, I wouldn't have felt something was missing.