Breathing for a Living: A Memoir
Author: Laura Rothenberg
Now in paperback comes the moving account by an extraordinary young woman who mounted a daily struggle with cystic fibrosis in an effort to lead an ordinary life.
Twenty-one-year-old Laura Rothenberg had always tried to live a normal life -- even with lungs that betrayed her and a constant awareness that she might not live to see her next birthday. Like most people born with cystic fibrosis, the chronic disease that affects primarily the lungs, Laura struggled to come to grips with a life that had already been compromised in many ways. Sometimes healthy and able to attend school, other times hospitalized for weeks, Laura found solace in keeping a diary. In her writing, she could be open, honest, and irreverent, like the young person she was. Yet behind this voice is a penetrating maturity about her mortality, revealing a will and temperament that is fierce and insightful.
Laura Rothenberg was a student at Brown University until her death at age 22.
Booklist
Completely original … a crash course in the history of twentieth century culture . . . leaving us shaking with laughter.
The New York Times
"I'm a typical college student, if there is such a thing," she writes. "Except that I won't be able to look back on my life from an old age." An awareness of that immutable fact colors everything about Ms. Rothenberg's story, and yet her book is much more scrappy, tenacious and vibrant than it is sad. She succeeded resoundingly in turning those proverbial lemons into lemonade. — Janet Maslin
The Washington Post
Breathing for a Living tells the story of Rothenberg's fears and hopes as she waits for new lungs, and her discouragement, suffering and flashes of joy once she has received them. Woven among the descriptions of medical procedures and the inspiring, imperfect love of friends and family, an immense courage is on display here, a marvelous and rare courage. — Laura Rothenberg
Entertainment Weekly
Remarkably clear-eyed.
San Francisco Chronicle
It provokes a rush of feeling . . .
Boston Globe
Through the patient and painstaking detail of her plight, Rothenberg manages to convey a sense of who she was.
San Diego Tribune
The Laura Rothenberg that lingers in the mind is a . . . witty and precocious New Yorker.
Publishers Weekly
"I'm a typical college student, if there is such a thing," writes Rothenberg in this far from typical work. "Except that I won't be able to look back on my life from an old age." Rothenberg, who died in March at the age of 22, originally wrote these calm, devastating lines in an essay as a freshman at Brown University. During her sophomore year, after Rothenberg became so ill from cystic fibrosis that she had to leave school, she decided to weave this essay into a much longer account. Starting early in 2001, as she waited in Boston for a double lung transplant, and continuing until her death, Rothenberg collected her personal diary entries, poems and copies of the e-mails she wrote to her many friends-dispatches from the battlefield of her own body. Shining through every report, every raw or bittersweet detail, is a fierce dedication to honesty and an immense desire to connect to friends and to life. "We have lungs," one of her doctors calls to tell her early one morning. Rothenberg describes repeating the phrase into the phone to her still-sleeping parents; they were on their feet and packing by the time she repeated the joyous phrase to other friends, who repeated it like a mantra into mobile phones until the waiting room at Boston's Children's Hospital was overflowing with people who loved her-"Team Laura." Too soon, however, the joy of the transplant and her return to Brown gives way to descriptions of one setback after another, culminating in rejection of the lungs. Refusing to indulge in even a wisp of false hope or consolation, Rothenberg reminds us that there is a power in us that is greater than even the greatest suffering. This slim book will help anyone whose life has been touched by cystic fibrosis, and countless others as well. It is an unforgettably real testament of the strength of one human spirit, and of our common human wish to know and say and be the truth. First serial to Glamour magazine. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
"It provokes a rush of feeling . . . " (San Francisco Chronicle)
Kirkus Reviews
A posthumously published account of the 21-year-old cystic fibrosis sufferer's decision to undergo a lung transplant offers a memorable testament to her resilient spirit. This finely wrought chronicle about choosing to live to the full in the face of death admirably balances the author's fears and hopes. NPR Radio Diaries contributor Rothenberg is neither mawkishly self-pitying nor unrealistically optimistic as she reviews her life and the choices she faces. After she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and underwent surgery when she was three days old, she experienced countless operations, hospital stays, and ER visits. She saw fellow sufferers die young, and had no illusions about the disease; statistically, her midlife expectancy was 28. But at 19, the year the memoir begins, she is contemplating a lung transplant. A student at Brown, she swims, loves writing, and has numerous friends, but, as she notes, "here I am at college, and I can't write about the future." Her pancreas doesn't function, she must take insulin, her lungs are congested, and she can't have children. She'd be happy to have vacations that didn't involve hospitalizations. As she mulls over whether she should undergo the 12-hour operation that will deter the disease's progression, she admits fearing that it won't work. Once decided on surgery, she writes in diary entries and e-mails about her feelings, activities, friends, and family as she waits for a suitable tissue match. The operation in July 2001 is brutal, and so is her recovery; she suffers bowel obstructions, pneumonia, and lymphoma as her body rejects the lungs. But despite the hospital stays, Rothenberg sees friends, goes back briefly to Brown, and isdetermined not to let "my health rule my life." An epilogue written shortly before her death in March 2003 acknowledges that she's experiencing acute rejection, and doesn't know whether it is easier to live or die. Moving for all the right reasons.
Table of Contents:
| 1 | The Decision | 1 |
| 2 | Waiting for the Transplant | 31 |
| 3 | In Between: The Beginning | 79 |
| 4 | Post-Transplant | 83 |
| 5 | What Others Wrote About My Transplant | 171 |
| 6 | Epilogue | 235 |
Lose That Baby Fat!: Bouncing Back the First Year After Having a Baby--A Mom Friendly Fitness Program
Author: LaReine Chabut
In this easy-to-follow program that blends into a mom's new (and busy) lifestyle, LaReine, a fitness expert, model, and exercise guru, emphasizes realistic weight loss, positive self-image, and renewed overall fitness, helping new mothers feel great and energetic. Detailed photos walk the reader through the step-by-step process of weight loss, featuring exercises that jumpstart fitness while targeting specific problems like losing tummy fat and toning upper arms. Stressing minimum effort and maximum results, moms gain strength, flexibility, and endurance from quick ten minute sessions that can be accomplished in their homes without expensive equipment or a babysitter.
Library Journal
Here are two books that aim to help mothers get into shape. Fitness instructor, personal trainer, and mother Chabut presents an encouraging and supportive 12-month fitness guide including chapters like "Three Months After Birth: Phenomenal Abdominals" that feature clearly explained and illustrated exercises. Varied workouts using an exercise ball, jump rope, resistance bands, and hand weights are included, along with useful month-by-month advice on topics such as "How You May Be Feeling" and "How Your Body May Look." Nutrition coach Keller offers a 30-day guide also customized for new mothers hoping to lose postpartum pounds. Combining gentle exercises with detailed daily meal plans, her easy-to-understand guide provides valuable explanations of nutrition topics. Included are 100-plus healthy recipes, alternative meal plans for vegetarians, shopping lists, and suggested exercises for mom and baby to do together. Lose is well suited to first-time mothers seeking guidance and reassurance about their changing bodies and who want a clear time line for resuming physical activity of increasing intensity. Though the eating plan in Body is sensible and balanced, some readers may object to Keller's frequent mentions of her celebrity clientele, the possibly unrealistic subtitle, and the requirement of making several recipes each day. Still, both books are recommended for larger public libraries.-Ingrid Levin, Florida Atlantic Univ. Libs., Jupiter Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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