When I first viewed the trailer recently posted for this book (at www.susanconley.com), I wondered: Is it a book about China or a book about breast cancer? I needed to box it in before reading. It took only a couple pages before I realized that you can't confine this author …more to a single category. It simply does not do her or the memoir justice.

The voice, the detail, and the sheer depth of these characters and these chapters remind me that talent always finds its place in the world. The broad, pre-conceived labels like “China,” and “Cancer” peel away and you as reader are riding shotgun with the author, questioning yourself about the choices you would make if dropped into a foreign land and burdened with a life-threatening disease.

This book is a reminder of how our lives are made up of small moments. It slows a life down into these moments - some hilarious and bizarre; others painfully sad - and allows the reader to become an innocent bystander, a student. This book is so relevant on so many levels. I hope you find value in its messages, as I have. (less)