A Breast Cancer Alphabet

March 3, 2014
NPR executive editor Sikka bares all details of her personal experience with breast cancer in this honest, frank, and contemplative summary, arranged alphabetically by topic. Starting from A for "Anxiety" with a range of topics including "Guilt," "Mastectomy" to "Reconstruction," "Sex," through to "Zzzzzs," Sikka writes so candidly about her experiences it's as if you're reading her journal. She shares surprisesâfinding that the chemotherapy unit was standing room only, epiphaniesâ"hat you want most is your pre-cancer life...and you would do anything to go back to it," and unexpected adviceâshave hair before it falls out with chemotherapy. Whether discussing turbans and other headwear, omnipresent anxiety, or the relief that pillows can provide from post-surgery pain, Sikka's voice is calm and earnest, poetic and descriptive, and occasionally even uplifting. Those who find cancer in their lives, whether first-hand or through a friend or family member, will appreciate the raw but supportive voice that emerges here.

January 15, 2014
A compilation of thoughts by a woman with breast cancer. When she received her diagnosis ("the most devastating news I had ever had in my life"), NPR News executive Sikka had just finished an interview with President Barack Obama, and his statements swirled with the myriad of thoughts suddenly rushing through the author's mind. "What my doctor was saying competed with words from the president's interview in this cloud in my head," she writes. Fortunately, she had numerous friends and family to help her through the monthslong process of mastectomy, chemotherapy and recovery. Sikka has gathered together her reflections and discoveries of being in "Cancerland" in an A-to-Z guidebook to the entire process of cancer diagnosis, treatment and life afterward. The author examines the process of coping with the waves of feelings one will experience (anxiety, guilt, indignity and others), the need for pampering and the odds of a diagnosis--one in eight women in the United States will get breast cancer. Sikka frankly explores the nature of breasts and how these intimate parts of the body suddenly become everyone's business, from doctors and nurses to brothers and male co-workers. She discusses the lack of sexual desire caused by the chemotherapy and pain and the need to use any and all available drugs. "Drugs are your friends," she writes. "Let me repeat, drugs, pharmaceuticals of all kinds for all things, are your friends. Pill-popping, vein-coursing drugs are your friends." Whether you want to Quit, need Kindness from a friend, or long for a Vacation, Sikka gives counsel. Sometimes humorous, always honest and straightforward, this little book offers the perfect combination of practical advice and personal musings to help any woman, her family and her friends handle the complicated road through Cancerland. Insightful, helpful comments on living with breast cancer.

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Starred review from September 1, 2013

Executive producer of NPR's Morning Edition, Sikka found colleagues and friends most helpful in guiding her through her cancer experience, from those who had had the disease to science writers who led her to the latest resources. She writes this book "for anyone who has been diagnosed...and needs a companion.... [to] let you know that you have every right to feel the way you do.... It sucks to get cancer." Her charming alphabetic compilation ("A" Is for Anxiety; "C" Is for Cancerland; "K" Is for Kindness; "X" Is for eXhaustion) is a warm and fuzzy friend to keep close during the cancer journey. "B" is for buying multiple copies.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2014
Breast-cancer patients will fall in love with Sikka, executive producer of NPR's Morning Edition and a funny, chatty, and honest storyteller. She opens with her own diagnosis in December 2010, on the very day she interviews President Obama in the Oval Office and during the week Elizabeth Edwards dies of the disease. Sikka organizes the rest of her book about Cancerland alphabetically. A is for Anxiety; G is for Guilty; S is for Sex. She succeeds in writing the kind of book she wanted: A little pick-me-up that I could turn tonothing too long or scientific or self-indulgent. . . . A short book that wouldn't tax my chemo-addled brain. She bluntly calls a mastectomy an amputation of the breast; calls her plastic surgeon her very own Michelangelo; reveals that her fingernails turned a blackish purple during treatment; and humorously notes the silver lining to losing hair during chemo ( Leg hair? Well, no waxing for the duration of my treatment so not so bad. The same for underarm hair ). She comes across as a loving mom (to two daughters), wife (to a Georgetown history professor, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2000), and friend. Just what the doctor ordered.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)