Book - Pretty is What Changes

Pretty is What Changes: Impossible Choices, the Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny by Jessica Queller is a timely, affecting memoir from the front lines of medical science: When genetics can predict how we may die, how then do we decide how to live? Eleven months after her mother succumbs to cancer, the author has herself tested for the "breast cancer" gene mutation. After receiving positive results that indicate an elevated risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer, she opts, at age thirty-four, for a prophylactic double mastectomy that would effectively restore life to her, even as it would challenge her most closely held beliefs about body image, identity, and sexuality.

Pretty is What Changes is an absorbing account of how she reaches her courageous decision and its physical, emotional, and philosophical consequences. It is also an incredibly moving story told with surprising wit and style. 247 pages, hardcover, published in 2008. See all of our inspiring breast cancer related books and bookmarks!