Recommended Books and Video

Click on the image of each item if you are interested in purchasing. All short descriptions are quoted directly or paraphased from Amazon.com reviews.

Click here for recommended films on VHS and DVD.

Books

The Breast Book by Dr. Susan Love is a must-have for any woman who is faced with the possibility of having breast cancer. Visit amazon.com to buy the book or check it out from your local library!

At the End of Words by Miriam Stone
Through alternating narration and poetry, she shares her anger, sorrow, confusion, and healing after her mother's death from breast cancer.

Herb-Drug Interactions in Oncology by Barrie Cassileth, Ph.D
Text focuses on herb interactions with prescription drugs and assesses each herbal remedy's medicinal value. For physicians and pharmacists.

The Alternative Medicine Handbook by Barrie Cassileth, Ph.D
Describes 53 of the most popular alternative therapies arranged according to the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine classification.

Love and Survival by Dean Ornish
Through anecdotes and dozens of scientific studies, Ornish demonstrates that personal intimacy and other aspects of emotional well-being are as important to our physical condition as to our mental health.

How to Know God by Deepak Chopra
"Our brains are hardwired to find God." This hardwiring is deftly explored as Chopra lists the seven ways humans know God and how they correspond to the anatomy of our human brains. He devotes a chapter to each of the seven visions of God: "Protector," "Almighty," "God of Peace," "Redeemer," "Creator," "God of Miracles," and "Pure Being--I am."

Perfect Health--Revised by Deepak Chopra
Account of alternative healing from a seasoned, well-educated Western medical doctor that inspires us to discover the inner voices within ourselves to heal, transform and create a balanced state of all physical and psychological levels.

Other books by Deepak Chopra

Comprehensive Cancer Care: Integrating Alternative, Complementary, and Conventional Therapies by James Gordon, M.D. and Sharon Curtin
An authoritative, eloquent guide to more experimental methodologies that have demonstrated improvements in quality of life and life expectancy, or have reversed cancer's destructive trajectory, for patients with all stages of cancer.

Manifesto for a New Medicine by James S. Gordon
Advocating a compassionate partnership between the orthodox biomedical community and alternative practitioners, a case is built for collaboration through client studies and persuasive personal testimonies of healthcare victories

 

Video

Wit, starring Emma Thompson
Deservedly hailed as one of the best films of 2001, "Wit" makes it clear why top-ranking talents seek refuge in the quality programming of HBO. Unhindered by box-office pressures, director Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson turn the physical and psychological ravages of cancer into an exquisite contemplation of life, learning, and tenacious, richly expressed humanity.

Read a review of this film from Spirituality & Health [Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat]

 

(DVD available 02/24)

The Doctor, starring William Hurt
William Hurt is perfectly cast as an arrogant surgeon who treats patients like interchangeable cogs in the machinery of his medical practice. Then, he is diagnosed with throat cancer and, as the title of the memoir on which it is based tells us, he gets a taste of his own medicine.

Read a review of this film by Roger Ebert [Chicago Sun-Times]

 

Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep
Sydney Pollack's 1985 multiple-Oscar winner is a sumptuous and emotionally satisfying film about the life of Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), better known as Isak Dinesen, who travels to Kenya to be with her German husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) but falls for an English adventurer (Robert Redford). The film is slow in developing the relationship, but it is rich in beautiful images of Africa and in the romantic tone surrounding Blixen's gradual discovery of her life and voice.

Read a review of this film by Roger Ebert [Chicago Sun-Times]

 

Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis
This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a (blank), and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with them."

Read a review of this film by Roger Ebert [Chicago Sun-Times]