patients

Born in 1954, Cleve Jones was among the last generation of gay Americans who grew up wondering if there were others out there like himself. There were. Like thousands of other young people, Jones, nearly penniless, was drawn in the early 1970s to San Francisco, a city electrified by progressive politics and sexual freedom. Jones found community--in the hotel rooms and ramshackle apartments shared by other young adventurers, in the city's bathhouses and gay bars like The Stud, and in the burgeoning gay district, the Castro, where a New York transplant named Harvey Milk set up a camera shop, began shouting through his bullhorn, and soon became the nation's most outspoken gay elected official. With Milk's encouragement, Jones dove into politics and found his calling in "the movement." When Milk was killed by an assassin's bullet in 1978, Jones took up his mentor's progressive mantle--only to see the arrival of AIDS transform his life once again.

"Written by Deborah Ziegler, the mother of Brittany Maynard--a twenty-nine-year-old woman with a terminal brain tumor--this touching and beautiful memoir captures and celebrates her daughter's spirit and the mostly untold story of Brittany's last year of life as she chose her right to die with dignity, a journey that inspired millions. On October 6, 2014, a video of my daughter, Brittany Maynard, was posted on YouTube. Brittany asked me to do the video with her, to support her. The first words my daughter uttered on the film were, "The thoughts that go through your mind when you find out you have so little time is everything you need to say to everyone that you love." Wearing a simple black sweater, her face already rounded and puffy from taking prescribed steroids, her once waist-length hair now grazing her shoulders after a craniotomy, Brittany described why she was choosing to end her life by her own hand rather than waiting for her brain tumor to rob her of everything that defined who she was. In this poignant, powerful book, Deborah Ziegler makes good on the promise she made to her only child: that she would honor her daughter and carry forward her legacy by sharing their story and offering hope, empowerment, and inspiration to the growing tens of millions of people who are struggling with end-of-life issues. Wild and Precious Life is not a book about death, however. Instead, it is a book about a life well-lived. What emerges in this compassionate and lyrical text is an unforgettable story of how, while we can't control the hand fate delivers, we can decide how we play it. It is also a thoughtful exploration of America's ongoing struggle with end-of-life issues and most importantly, a touching tribute to the enduring power of a mother and daughter's love"--.

At the age of twenty-five, Josh Sundquist, who had Ewing's sarcoma as a child and is now a paralympic ski racer, looks back to try to understand why he has never had a steady girlfriend.

Thirteen-year-old Anna, conceived specifically to provide blood and bone marrow for her sister Kate who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, decides to sue her parents for control of her body when her mother wants her to donate a kidney to Kate.

Although Ally Hilfiger contracted Lyme Disease at the age of seven, it was not diagnosed until she was eighteen and a patient in a psych ward. Her physical symptoms had been unexplainable for years: joint pain, night sweats, memory loss, nausea, and brain fog. Although she lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, many doctors had failed to find the connection between her symptoms and her environment. The forward to her book is written by her father, Tommy Hilfiger.

Michael Schofield describes his fight to save his daughter, January, from an extremely severe case of mental illness in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called to Acadia when the body of a young girl is found, and as she investigates the case, Temperance uncovers a startling link between the victim and her childhood friend, Evangeline, who disappeared more than twenty years earlier.

"Tyler and I inch toward the Green Room, in line with blow-dried TV anchors and stuffy columnists. He's practicing his handshake and hello: "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. President. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. President. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. President." When the couple in front of us steps forward for their picture, my teenager with sky-blue eyes and a soft heart looks up at me and says, "I hope I don't let you down, Dad." What kind of father raises a son to worry about embarrassing his dad? I want to tell Tyler not to worry, that he'd never let me down. That there's nothing wrong with being different. That I actually am proud of what makes him special. But we are next in line to meet the president of the United States in a room filled with fellow strivers, and all I can think about is the real possibility that Tyler might embarrass himself. Or, God forbid, me. LOVE THAT BOY is a uniquely personal story about the causes and costs of outsized parental expectations. What we want for our children--popularity, normalcy, achievement, genius--and what they truly need--grit, empathy, character--are explored by National Journal's Ron Fournier, who weaves his extraordinary journey to acceptance around the latest research on childhood development and stories of other loving-but-struggling parents"--.

Fifty-five-year-old Julius Harris, diagnosed with terminal cancer, vows to use the time he has left to reconcile with the three sons he walked out on twenty years before, but his children, now grown men, are not quite sure they are ready to forgive and forget.