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176 of 180 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I can see good intentions, but misses the mark for me, April 29, 2008
This review is from: Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips (Paperback)
As a cancer survivor, I wanted to like this book. I love the idea of a "hip" survival/inspirational guide for women. I am so glad that Kris Carr has dealt so well with a devastating diagnosis. This points to a true strength of spirit. I think the author's heart is in the right place, but something went wrong here. I didn't find this book hip, or funny. It struck a bad chord for me. When I had cancer I too was 31. I didn't go through a decision-making process about whether to tell my esthetician about my illness. I wasn't worried about getting my bikini area waxed. I didn't go on a "cancervation" with my "posse", because I was working to pay my bills and keep my health insurance. I didn't attend retreats and trainings and buy hundreds of dollars of goods from Whole Foods on shopping trips and make a documentary about myself. People deal with trauma and heal in different ways, and spending freely seems to have been beneficial to Kriss Carr's personal journey. Each woman featured in this book talks about her height and weight, and Kris Carr makes numerous references to her own weight and desire to weigh less. It seems the opposite of "empowering", and perhaps a bit disingenuous, for a woman who looks (at least in her photos) radiantly healthy, beautiful, stylish, and very thin to keep making references to desire for weighing less. I'd find it inspirational to hear things along the lines of "I used to worry about my weight before cancer, but since I've changed my diet and lifestyle, my body has changed and I'm very happy with it, I feel very comfortable in my own skin now" (or something like that). When I had cancer, I was more concerned with getting well than stepping on the scale. I'm well and healthy, now, my looks are something I pay attention to but emphasizing it in a book focused on cancer seems wrong. I can't pretend to know what it's like to have the disease that Kris Carr is living with. She seems to be doing something right - a lot of somethings. I respect this tremendously. I'd love to hear more about diet and exercise, more on inner process, less about numbers on the scale and appearance and the things that money can buy. Maybe focusing on this is meant to distract the mind, and I've missed the point!
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122 of 138 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ambivalent., November 9, 2007
This review is from: Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips (Paperback)
I was diagnosed with cancer two years ago at the age of 32 and at the time I certainly yearned for cancer guidebooks and first-person narratives that reflected my experience as a "young" person with cancer. But I'm not sure if this book would have helped me. Page after glossy page, it makes cancer seem like more fun than it really is. Crazy sexy beautiful cancer babes? I'm all for empowerment, but cancer treatment makes you feel like utter garbage. I can imagine coming home from a chemo-vomit-fest at the hospital to open up a book filled with beautiful, thin, made-up, well-coiffed women (who, of course, have dashing, heroic boyfriends and husbands who always make them feel better) -- only to feel that I don't measure up. What, now I have to feel sassy and sexy when I'm being poisoned by intravenous drugs? How about a book for the rest of us, with our imperfect bodies and hairdos and our romantic partnerships with fallible human beings who don't always save the day? I appreciate the spirit of the project, but the book would have been improved with some glossy photos of these beautiful women looking and feeling like death warmed over. It's great to have your spirits lifted, and to be reminded that you're still "crazy and sexy" even though you have cancer -- it's great to refuse to be defined entirely by the disease. But let's not pretend that cancer isn't terrifying and devastating and painful and isolating, and that sometimes you just WON'T feel good. Cancer is a grim, ugly thing. Let's not paper over that with fancy makeup and pink ribbons. A truly empowering book would embrace the ugly AND the beautiful sides of the experience. I think the author had the right spirit; I think the publishing company's marketing department just got the best of her.
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FANTASTIC !, August 17, 2007
This review is from: Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips (Paperback)
When I first came across this book, I was intrigued by the title: "What on earth is sexy about cancer?" I wondered. I only had to read a couple of pages to get the answer to my question: the thousands of wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous, loving, caring, brilliant, crazy, sexy women who are diagnosed with cancer every year. Question answered! With this book Ms. Carr is lifting the veil on cancer; and it's high time. So many of us tip toe around the subject of cancer. The irony is that everyone is in some way affected by the disease or will be at some point in their lives. In this book, Ms. Carr, in a delightfully crazy, sexy way shares her own incredible journey while at the same time providing "cancer babes" as she calls them, tips on how to tackle their own diagnosis. The book leaves no stone unturned--there are tips for recovering from the shock of an initial diagnosis, on getting the very best medical care possible, dealing with friends, family, dating and fertility. There's even an informative and interesting chapter on nutrition and exercise. Throughout the book, Ms. Carr tells her story and shares her wisdom and experiences with honesty and laugh-out-loud humor. There's an entire chapter on retail therapy! You've got to read this book for yourselves! No review can do it justice. Read it, and I promise it will leave a smile on your face and create a lightness in your soul that will be impossible to shake. And this book is NOT just for folks dealing with a cancer diagnosis; not by any means. It didn't take me long to realize that it's about so much more than dealing with a cancer diagnosis, it's about facing and overcoming any adversity that life throws at us. But, by all means, if you do know someone who has been diagnosed with cancer, don't hem and haw and be at a loss for words, give them this book!
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