Impossible Things Before Breakfast by David Chronister

After my 8 hour job hunting day and two interviews today I decided to rework on a novel I wrote ten years ago. Called 12 Rules

12 RULEZ Book:

I originally wrote the first draft of this book in 2015.
I had spent several years piecing this novel together. When I had finally completed it, I was graduating college and I made the spur of the moment decision to move to Ft.Lauderdale.

Like overnight. Made Sure I was graduating, got my last paycheck and hopped an airplane.

I left my whole apartment, furniture and all, here in Tulsa.
I packed up a duffle bag, personal sentiments, my design portfolio, and hopped on the next plane. I left the original first draft there in that apartment.
(Something which still haunts me from time to time.)

To explain, around 9 years prior a roommate had burned down my apartment and all of my childhood memories and journals and photographs were destroyed. In perspective that apartment was just superficial things. I wasn’t losing anything.

Now at age 38, 10 years later, I find myself attempting to remember the novel and rewrite it.
( & in some ways write it for the first time.)

At the conception of the book, I was in the thick of my alcohol addiction and it was supposed to be an allegory for the twelves steps in AA.

Someone in AA said recently, “We addicts are the perfect mix of self-awareness and self delusion.”

No truer words spoken. I was literally writing the festering sore in my life without treating it.
12 rules also included a man whose lover dies, and he literally has a descent into madness.
Then his friend Tansy is murdered.

10 years later, my friend Michelle dies, split my head open, 2 stints in rehab AND an overdose and the coup de gras; my boyfriend's death.

I not only feel deeply connected to this novel that lies in the ether of my brain;
I almost feel a duty to write it.

A famous pop star was releasing singles after a tumultuous divorce and was asked in an interview how she had at her disposal the perfect songs that fit all of her struggles:

“I don’t know how my subconscious knew I was going to go through these hurdles when I wrote those songs, it’s strange how life syncs up like that.”

I feel the original novel will pale in comparison. In my newfound sobriety and loneliness, after losing everyone and everything, what else do I have?

MAGIC LESSONS
By Alice Hoffman

"The Beauty of that meadow reminded Hannah of the reasons to live in this world, and the reasons to mistrust those who saw wickedness in others, but never in themselves."

Hannah Owens adopts a baby she finds in her meadow, a baby girl with black hair and silvery grey eyes, accompanied by a crow.

Stitched into her blanket is a name: Maria

Not only does Hannah raise and love Maria as her own, she teaches her the unnamed art.

" This is how you begin in the world , These are the lessons to be learned. Drink Chamomile tea for the spirit. Feed a cold and starve a fever. Read as many books as you can. Always choose courage. Never watch another woman burn.
Know that love is the only answer."

Hannah teaches Maria her first lesson:

"Remember one thing." Hannah told Maria. " Always love someone who will love you back."

One should never hide who one was. That was the first step towards courage.

Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic books are among my favorite works of hers.

I love her other novels, Here on earth, A marriage of Opposites, Dove Keepers.

The ongoing novels of the Owens line , Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic, Invite us into a world of magic and old knowledge, earth spirituality.

Magic Lessons; is Maria Owens story of love and loss, from England all the way to Salem.

Giving us a glimpse into Maria's origin story and how she comes to utter the spell that will curse the family line all the way to 400 years later in which Practical Magic begins.

"That was the mystery Abraham had come to understand. ALWAYS & everywhere Love was the answer ."
---
Magic Lessons, By Alice Hoffman

Tonight I'm thinking of the impossible dreams of Antonia Susan Byatt,
British author, wordsmith.

Her well crafted novels and anthologies shaped a big part of my puberty, back when I was hopeful romantic.

Now I'm just a tragic romantic.

Missing Raymond tonight and cannot help but feel consumed by our love.

Anyway, her works were always gorgeously written, her cadence and syntax , carefully mired.

Part of me believes poems are stored in the blood stream.

I'm so jealous a friend at work got to see The Killlers :

Brandon Flowers will always be my fashion muse

"Shemah Yisroel Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ehud"

"Hear O Israel the Lord Our God, The Lord is One"

"While she was still conscious I asked her if she wanted to say the Shemah with me."

StarHawk was speaking about her dying mother.

StarHawk the priestess and devout student of the Divine was raised under Judaic theory, and what she calls (Post Freudian theory) rather than mosaic law.

"My parents were from the generation of jews that rebelled against orthodoxy."

StarHawk , though began this book when her mother was dead.

"As we recited the words together I felt a profound sense of grief."

"Here was this Jewish prayer I used to say as child at bedtime,
a prayer that had been on the lips of martyrs and Holocaust victims alike...
in speaking it I felt connected to all of them."

StarHawk is a truly sacred person. Her book , 12 Wild Swans , opened my eyes to the true nature of spirit and the soul.

"The actual God-Word is not masculine, JHWH, it means "the name"

Listen , She/He whose name cannot be spoken whom some call Goddess or God is one and Many.

As a younger person I poured through the reclaiming collectives books as I dealt with my own traumas and setbacks.

Even in rehab I revisted The 12 wild Swans and The Fifth Sacred thing.

StarHawk began this book in 1995 and M. Mach Nightmare filled in the interim with essays.

One of my favorite things I learned in Rehab was saying The Lord's Prayer in Hebrew.

(Which I can still recite by heart)

Like StarHawk, even though I grew up to be extremely new age-y , I honestly pray everyday.

(Somedays it's just the Lord prayer in Hebrew)

The honest translation of Pagan comes from Pagganus, country dweller.

My indigenous ancestors were pagans, my parents flower children.

I believe we can heal as long as we are authentic in our healing.

When your doing bad, don't hide it . Don't fake being ok.

I honestly believe in digging down deep and doing the soul work.

I'm not going to be OK every day. So I'll take my wins as they come.

Honestly I never lose, either win or I learn.

I've only begun the work, I'll
Post more as work my way through the book.

Happy Reading 📚

"Let's face it, alot of the time love doesn't work out. Yet even when it fails it connects you to others and, in the end that is all you have is connections."

"Each time I forget you, your eyes haunt and my heart falls still. And so farewell until the next time you come. Until at last I do not see you."

"If anyone would understand loneliness, the moon would."

Where the crawdads sing
By Delia Owen's

This book is beautiful prose about love and loss.

Set in the deep marsh lands of North Carolina.

The tale follows two timelines, Kya a young girl growing up isolated,

And the Murder of Chase Andrews.

After her mother leaves her abusive alcoholic father, and her 4 older siblings one by one, Missy, Murphy, Mandy & Jodie leave their humble life in search of happiness.

Kya is left to struggle alone, as she navigates life by herself.

Outkast, and called 'Marsh girl' by the towns people, Kya eventually learns how to live off the land and survive on her own.

The theme in this book is love and trust, as Kya is betrayed by her first love, and in many ways feels betrayed by her kinfolk.

The characters are rich and well written.

Kya begins painting like her mother used to, as she cannot read or write, having been kept from school.

Art is the healing process she uses, as she suffers each loss.

I almost screamed last night when I saw the trailer for the movie.

The novel shows the endurance of the human spirit.

Happy Reading!!!

Elementals, Stories Of Fire & Ice

By Antonia Susan Byatt

"Ice Burns, and it is hard to the warm skinned to distinguish one sensation, fire from the other, frost."

"The Cook as much as the painter, looks into the essence of creation."

"Like life , said the painter, We eat and are eaten and we are lucky if we reach our 3 score and ten, which is less than a flash in the pan in the eyes of an angel."

Antonia Susan Byatt is a blessed woman who writes unabashedly in her tales, and this collection is no exception.

6 Stories are told, in the vein of beautiful prose from the British author.

Her Novel Possession is work of art all on its own, or her anthology, The Matisse Stories, all stories inspired by the French Impressionist painter Henri Matisse.

I recently finished her Novel Ragnorak, set against the backdrop of WW2 , about a young girl's struggle to understand religion and the ambiguous apocalypse.

Elementals is my favorite collection of A.S. Byatt works.

The Stories here are woven amongst mundane struggles of humanity, passion and loneliness, aesthetic versus spirituality.

An Ice princess falls in love with a desert prince(Cold), A cook and painter contemplate the universe*(Christ in the House of Martha and Mary), a woman searches for meaning while shopping, and man falls in love with a Lamia, the snake woman creature from Roman mythology,(Taken from The Keats poem: Lamia).

After her collection of fairytales, The DJINN in the nightingale's eye, A.S. Byatt slowly in this book, Elementals, word by word, creates dazzling worlds.

Colors and smells, words are treated with passion and Her command of the English language is unparalleled.

A true lover of words, of the craft of a divine wordsmith will fall in love with her works.

Modern literature has been very blessed by her mind.

Happy Reading !

"When all is said & done, The weather and Love are the two elements about which one can never be sure."

"It's in your coffee cup, your bathwater, your tears. Unfinished business always comes back to haunt you."

"The sky is already purple; the first few stars have appeared. As if someone threw a handful of silver across the edge of the world."

Here on Earth
By Alice Hoffman

Inspired by Wuthering Heights; 'Here on Earth' follows the visit of March Murray and Her daughter Gwen, as they attend the funeral of Judith Dale, March's childhood house keeper and surrogate mother.

As she returns to her childhood home, her past returns as well.

Hollis was a street kid who is taken in by March's father, becoming March's first love.

March hasn't forgotten her love, when she encounters Hollis, as an adult.

March hasn't seen Hollis since he ran away.

The eventuality of the book isn't fulfilling, like life.

Alice Hoffman is a true author, she rarely writes a happy ending, she writes for the evolution of the characters & if the message of the work warrants it, they get their final bow.

This novel mostly deals with love, love in the highest sense, to love unconditionally, to love outside yourself.

March's love for Judith Dale her housekeeper, March's father's love for Hollis, the majority of the novel shows how authentic love, doesn't need to by blood.

Blood is kin, blood is genetics, but Family is chosen.

In her own way, Alice Hoffman's magic is to see humanity for all of its beauty. For it's imperfections and lessons.

Happy Reading...

"I listened to the bray of my heart; I am, I am ,I am."

"I rise with my red hair and eat men like air."

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.

I turn back to the Divine Sylvia Plath alone.

The book itself centers on a young girl, Esther, who moves to New York to work on her Novel while she works at magazine.

Philemon, her benefactor pays for her scholarship program and mentors her.

As Esther struggles with depression and navigating her life, we see her slowly lose everything.

She describes her depression as , as though there's a giant bell jar , sitting atop her chest.

Eventually, after a few failed attempts at su***de and her lamenting her ever growing anxiety and lack of emotions , Esther Eventually leaves her programs to go into psychological treatment where they attempt electro shock therapy and the flood of penicillin, (they believed if you loaded the body up with penicillin it was cause it to react.)

What we now know is clinical depression is brain chemistry.

Bi polar disorder is misfiring synapses.

The closest thing I can relate it with is when Buffy ,on Buffy the vampire slayer, was brought back from heaven.

Slowly we see her mental health affect her every day life, where she's staring into the running water, or you see her lack of genuine empathy for her interpersonal relationships.

Too much oxytocin, and dopamine, during a manic cycle makes you feel anxious, going 90 miles a minute and then you hit a depression it's like you are hit by a car.

Reading Sylvia Plath really helps through these depressive times, when all I want to do is sleep for days and read.

Happy Reading 📚

From Socrates to Sartre by T.Z. Lavine

This book was a ragged copy I carried for a few years, that's right a few YEARS.

After a couple of friends died, my best friend turned on me. My family relationships were strained and I was fighting my own personal addictions, I went through the biggest existential crisis of my life.

In rehab at the time, I spent a lot of time meditating, and questioning existence.

Telma Z. Lavine had given a series of lectures that was published as treatise on Western philosophers.

From Plato , Aristotle and Socrates, to Aristophanes and the Greek's, to Rene Descartes, David Hume, Frederick Hegel, Karl Marx, & Jean Paul Sartre---this book really questions existence.

Or as Sartre mused one time, everyone questions life, nobody's figured out how to live it.

I thought admid the chaos of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the struggling economy, and the aftermath of the pandemic; this book is great lightening rod in the storm's.

Telma Z Lavine herself died in 2011, and was born in 1915, she founded SOPHIA, the Society of Philosophers In America.

True knowledge seeks the questions rather than settling for the answers.

It is the true intellect that admits that they understand very little.

Ego says I know everything, but it is through the greatest questions we may find peace.

I know that in our current affairs that may seem stupid.

This book, in the middle of my darkest hours was solace.

I included a little philosophy in the pics.

Happy Reading!!

Rarely do I delve into new fantasy books.

After the Twilight/Potter era of Fantasy and Horror, alot of books are weakly written, with uninspired characters.

However, Jonathan Stroud has managed to bring an interesting take on the wizard world, set mostly in London, the world of Magic relies on the DJINN, from middle eastern mythology.

Controlling and summoning these spirits, is up to the strength and power of the magician.

Bartimaeus is summoned by Nathaniel, a new magician, to steal an amulet.

I enjoyed how the DJINN can travel between all. 7 astral planes.

A girl I work with lent me this book.

I got sucked in right away.

Years ago I worked with a lady who grew up in Jerusalem, she was a hard-working mother who's Americanized daughter baffled her.

'David,what is vampire? My daughter says she wish she was vampire..'

I laughed because the Twihard era had reared its ugly head.

I politely explained vampire, goth culture and Twilight.

She paused and said oh,"They're like the DJINN..."

Later DJINN became Genie in brittish fairy tales, like Arabian Nights, and the Tales of Scherezade.

Disney's Aladdin is a modern retelling.

Johnathan Stroud's
DJINN are far darker and more evolved.

Bartimaeus is funny too.

The novel flips between the two voice's of Nathaniel and Bartimaeus.

As urban fantasy goes I'm enjoying the first novel.

Happy Reading!!!

My morning inspired quotes...

"And he said, ' Your full of yourself ain't chu?'

So she replied, ' Show me someone who is not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person."

Nikki Giovanni
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day

Her poem choices changed my life.

"If I can't do what I want to do
Then I cannot do what I don't want to do.
It's not the same but it's the best I can do."

Born June 7 1948

Hailed as a Harlem Renaissance poet, she was actually born in Tennessee.

She was a powerful voice in the black rights movement in the 1960s, and an advocate for women's rights and artist integrity.

"If you ask me if my place is with the establishment or the thugs, I'm with the thugs."

Nikki Giovanni even briefly hosted a television show in the 70s where she interviewed Muhammad Ali and Other black celebrities. Called SOUL.

Commiserating, powerful and sharply crafted poems , her books were endlessly empowering for the outsider.

She has spoken out for Gay Rights as well.

I turn to her time and time again for an empowering word and for comfort food for thought.

"We write because we believe the human spirit should not be tamed."

I have found myself needing her more and more as I approach my 36th birthday.

Happy Reading !!!!

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind's is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown" H.P. Lovecraft

Born Howard Phillips People Lovecraft, August 20, 1890- Died March 15, 1937.

Even if you have never read H.P. Lovecraft, you have been influenced by H.P. Lovecraft.

I first became aware of him , when I was researching Joss Whedon's influences.

In Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 5 , Buffy meets Glory, a Hell Goddess, banished to earth , who's ultimate goal is to open the gates of hell that will return her home.

After mentioning H.P. Lovecraft's, extreme influence upon the cosmology of the Buffy universe, Joss hid Easter eggs in the Buffy episodes that lay tribute to H.P. Lovecraft's writings.

So who was H.P. Lovecraft?

Lovecraft was the eccentric son of a wealthy , Rhode island born, New Englander.

His Grandfather and his father, both went mad, having to be institutionalized.

Madness is a recurring theme in his horror stories.

Lovecraft Posits to his reader's, the idea that humanity is insignificant, and the oldest of gods, were the fearsome, multi dimensional entities, that could drive mortals insane.

In the Necronomicon, H.P. Lovecraft, created a whole entire account for his universe and released it as an uncovered Grimoire , that people to this day; still believe is real.

In the movie HellBoy, the N***s and Rasputin, plan to unleash the old one from his prison, which oddly enough looks Lovecraftian.

In Stephen King's The Mist, novel & movie, A group of unknowing civilians are slowly attacked by other worldly creatures. Tentacled and massive.

I still believe Stranger Things owes Stephen king a royalty check.

Stranger Things, the children are attacked by an entity from another dimension.

Cloverfield was an urban spin on The Mist's rehash of Lovecraftian otherworldly monsters.

I have to say my favorite cameo of Lovecraft, was an episode of Billy and Mandy on Cartoon network, where Cthulhu makes an appearance. It probably went straight over a lot of people's heads.

However you come by his Horror stories, H.P. Lovecraft's mark on science fiction and horror is long lasting.

( I strongly suggest Penguins Big Book of Lovecraft Horror stories, and several modern anthologies of current. Fiction writers inspired by his works.)

Happy Reading!

Possible Side Effects
Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Burroughs did not attend an Ivy league school.

Not Harvard, Yale, Syracuse, or NYC.

In his short story Team Player, he confesses his habit of picking up a T-shirt or sweatshirt from the local college, so he will appear more educated to people.

GWF Seeks The Same, is a short story of how Augusten convinces his best friend Christy, the powerful , fabulously dressed, business New York woman, to place a personal ad.

Christy complaining about the stigma of being a lipstick le***an, laments to Augusten her modern day plight. All she wants is a good woman to love and shop with.

This short story obviously takes place before apps, social media and the age of swipe left or swipe right.

Personal ad's were a way LGBTQIA people met each other, outside of bars and clubs, or the daunting phone line.

This book of short stories is a fun little read into the interesting life of Augusten Burroughs.

In the spirit of his mega success, Running With Scissors, the memoir that introduced us to the child raised by the artist/poet mother , who gave Augusten up to her therapist; this book of memoirs introduces us to the Adult author.

Augusten Burroughs writes with a fearlessness and an rawness that is commiserating and charming.

Augusten writes about his strange dating history, that is until he met his Husband Dennis. He writes about his strange drinking habits, his odd family, his shallow and commercial work at an Advertising Agency. Not to mention the odd jobs along the way.

From San Francisco to New York, from a childhood that was eccentric at best, and his brief noteriety Augusten Burroughs is a fascinating maverick and accomplished writer.

I literally just finished this volume.
Between work/life stuff, short stories allow me a daily dose of literature.

Happy Reading.

God is Dead , meet the kids.

Anansi in West African mythology was the spider God.

The trickster God, the wild God.

In the beginning of the world, creation was sung into being, and with it, the fleas and ticks, the sun and moon, and all of the Big Gods and Little Gods, and mortals.

Big Fat Charlie Nancy lives in New Orleans and as long as he can remember his father was a card, such a card in fact, that when he dies, he dies on stage, singing the blues and falls into a woman's breast.

As he prepares for the funeral, Mrs. Higgler , his father's old friend, tells him , Big Fat Charlie Nancy's father wasn't just an old game player, he was really Anansi the spider God.

Not only that, but Charlie Nancy has a brother, and his brother is the one who inherited all of those God powers.

Mrs. Higgler also tells Charlie Nancy that his brother will come to him if he just whispers to any spider.

So the story begins, because spider isn't just a man who looks awfully similar to Nancy, he begins to ruin Charlie Nancy's life.

By getting him fired, threatening his boss, who is embezzling money from the advertising company, and getting his fiancee, to break off their engagement.

Not to mention , now the murderous boss Grahame Coats , frames Charlie Nancy for the missing money.

Spider and Charlie Nancy have made a mess, that is until Charlie goes to the Bird woman , asks for assistance in ridding his life of spider...

I won't spoil too much, but all of the old animal Gods make an entrance, including Tiger, monkey, and hyena.

Maybe it's the indigenous blood, but I love the old tales from ancient times. Especially African, Native, Russian, Japanese.

Neil Gaiman weaves a world where everyday challenges exist along side the old magicks.

I've noticed that the animal spirits are front and center of the parables of the cultures that were tuned to the rythms of nature.

Tuned to the rythms of Mother Earth.

I especially liked this novel because it explores family drama, getting in touch with your self, love and hope.

Not to mention the theme of morality and good and evil.

Happy Reading!

RIVINGTON WAS OURS: LADY GAGA , THE LOWER EAST SIDE & THE PRIME OF OUR LIVES By Brendan J. Sullivan

" The thing about the city is , that it's CONSTANT & you don't watch places disappear as much as you watch them become something else, It's the same with people in your life."

Before The Fame , Before she burst out of an egg designed by Hussein Chilean, or wore a meat dress to protest for LGBTQIA rights, or bled to death on domestic television, Gaga was a go-go dancer for some of NYC's hottest night clubs.

Enter Brendan J. Sullivan. Dj, and now writer for esteemed magazine's such as Esquire, Brendan J. Sullivan has worked with some of the best musicians now part of the cannon of pop culture.

My friend Jessica bought me this book in college for Christmas.

I loved the anecdotal tone of Brenda's experience, it brought me back to my own wayward youth when all I did was club and injest massive amounts of Liquor and Ecstasy pills.

Back to a time when there were no consequences, no deaths, no prison, no overdoses. When the future was far away and anything was possible

Gaga is a shadow in the book, because the majority of this is from Brendan's own experience.

Like DJ ing for the Killers concert, referenced in the song
Boy's Boy's Boy's.

I especially liked the part where he mentioned Lady Gaga's work ethic, the hilarious anecdote that after an all nighter he sees her pushing her piano up a New york street, heels in hand.

If you watch the Just Dance video, Brendan is the DJ.

He later would inspire groups like the Ting Tings to release their first single.

If you enjoy books about NYC'S art/club/drug scene this book didn't disappoint.

Happy Reading!

Anne Rice died from complications due to a stroke.

I first read Anne Rice, at 19 years old.
At the time, I was lost, I was at job corps, and I was depressed.

I truly didn't know what to do.

Her books were an escape from my chaotic life, they got me over my first boyfriend, coming out of the closet, my apartment fire.

They got me through the death of my friends, my first years in college.

Even my overdose.

Anne Rice's death is devastating.

I haven't felt a loss like this since Maya Angelou. Elie Weisel.

Anne Rice for ever changed literature. Forever changed pop culture.

Anne Rice famously said, "Don't write what you know. What would I know about being a frenchman from the 1400s? Or any of the myriad of characters I've created? Write what you want to read.."

The vampire genre exists solely because of her.

Not to mention her LGBTQIA friendly views.

Anne wrote for the reader, for the outkast, for the everyman.

I mourn her....

"The Family we choose for ourselves is more important than the one we are born into; that people have to earn our respect and trust, not simply have it handed to them because of genetics."

'Magic isn't always what we want, but it's always exactly what we need."

"Weird is good , it means your paying attention, it means your not locked into the here and now, your seeing further than most people see."

Moonlight and Vines by Charles Delint

This book is on my personal top ten books that changed my life.

Published in 1999, this particular collection of Charles Delint's urban fantasy is a literary treasure.

I was reading the reviews of it, and I am saddened by the general publics inability to get lost in the magic of his writing.

The fictional town of Newford, a mix of homeless people, artists, and young people, trying to make sense of the irony of life is universal.

Drawing from native american tribal mythology, and Irish folklore, Charles Delint explores childhood trauma, disillusionment, and the magical healing power of art.

The Crow Girl's, mystical girls who are both animal and nature spirits, they often cause mischief, and manage to Wake people up to the spirit world.

Jilly Coppercorn, a child abuse survivor who later becomes an art teacher, is my favorite character, and she uses her art skills to literally save herself from a life on the streets.

Christy Riddell, another Newford resident is writer, who has countless magical adventures. With a galant manner, and chilvarous demeanor, he adds something to the stories.

Edited by Giants in fiction, Terri Windling, Neil Hainan, Poppy Z Brite, just to name a few from the golden age of Your publishing.

Lately I have been working and have had low energy, so my posts have been scarce.

My own depression aside, Charles Delint takes the trauma of every day life and with his own magic seems to always lift my spirits.

Newford is like Stars Hollow and Sunny Dale mixed together, Charles Delint also adds something else, music. His work often including lyrics and chords. Both He and his wife are musicians.

In this holiday time, this weird rush and hustle and bustle, this book is good company. Read a story here or there, read the opening poem.

Charles Delint is like dreaming while awake.

If you open yourself to the magic. If you open yourself to the moonlight and vines.

Happy Reading!

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
By Siddhartha Mukherjee

I was in rehab at the time and I was volunteering in the homeless shelter, and a frequently irate homeless man named David, same as mine had been homeless for twenty years.

David would often discuss books with me, I'd see him around at the central library.

One day he gave me a book.

I was hooked immediately.

Siddhartha didn't set out to write the New York times bestseller, or to win the pulitzer prize in 2011.

He did however, intend to write a book for a patient who was going through cancer treatment, and ask him for the origin of the disease.

"I can fight it , if I know what I'm dealing with." Admitted the patient.

Siddhartha Mukherjee began research the next day, approaching the history as a biography.

From the earliest tombs found in egypt, the disease has been with humanitiy.

Archaeological discoveries of women with amputated breasts, give evidence of early medicine and medical procedures.

Siddhartha Mukherjee himself is an oncologist, working Michigan, his work often including the heartbreaking treatment of incurable cancer.

Ken Burns, infamous director, released a series for PBS on the book.

Cancer in 2011 was known as the second leader in causes of death among Americans.

We've all known people who suffer from the disease, my own friend Jo Ann , died from the chemotherapy treatment than the actual disease, after catching pneumonia.

Ironically Jo Ann was a radiologist, she helped many people discover the disease early enough to save lives.

I've known at least three friends to beat breast cancer, but their journey was harrowing to say the least.

My mom's Dad died from cancer. On Thanksgiving.

If you love history, this book takes you from ancient times to the latest discoveries.

Siddhartha Mukherjee's original intent was inspired by the curiosity of his patient, but as he uncovered the long and painful struggle in history, he realized what he beheld.

If you can get through the melancholy, and tragic affliction this book is a fount of beautiful information.

Happy Reading