What We Have
A Memoir

Cancer. It's an ugly word, and an even uglier reality. Nobody likes to think about it, but for some people, like Amy Boesky, it is never far from their thoughts. Amy, her two sisters, her mother, her aunt, her grandmother--all of the female members of her family lived in fear of cancer, and with good......more

From my book review blog,Rundpinne. (4.5 stars) "Beautifully written with a mix of heartbreak and joy, What We Have by Amy Boesky is a deeply moving memoir of family dynamics. Amy Boesky tells her story as a daughter, a wife, a sister, a mother and of course as herself, a type “A minus” personality......more

In deep conversations with female friends over the years, I have found that one of our number one fears (especially after becoming mothers ourselves) is dying of cancer. Every lump we have...every twinge we feel could certainly be the beginnings of cancer. We tend to live our lives waiting for our t......more

One woman's story of her family's inherited cancer gene. I thought the first half of the book was very slow as she talks about meeting her husband and getting her first job and moving to a new city. The second half deals with her mother's sickness and death and was more moving. However it wasn't unt......more

I read this book for Cancer Genetics class for grad school. I didn't think the conclusions that Boesky arrived upon were unique or particularly deep. She included lots of mundane details of her life. Learning about her education in the history of timepieces was interesting at first, but I quickly be......more