Fatal to fearless 12 steps to beating cancer in a broken medical system

Giusti's combined memoir and how-to guide weaves together her personal experience as a cancer survivor with what-to-do tips. Giusti responds to her diagnoses, first with myeloma (tumors in the bone marrow) and later with breast cancer, with the gusto of a Harvard Business School graduate. Indeed, that's where she and her husband met. She is the type of person who goes through eight rounds of in vitro fertilization to get pregnant while simultaneously dealing with cancer. She includes excerpts from inspiring interviews, including one from cognitive scientist Maya Shankar's podcast, A Slight Change of Plans. Throughout her account of her own experience, she shares questions that can help anyone get a life back on track. For example, a counselor asks her and her husband to come in ready to say where they see themselves in six months, one year, and two years. Giusti admits to being too driven at times, but action-plan fans will love her and her advice to: "go SMART" (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) with their goals. She also reminds readers to say "thank you" and "I love you."

In this competent debut guide, Giusti, a former pharmaceutical executive and founder of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, recounts her experience with cancer to dispense advice about navigating the U.S. healthcare system. In the late 1990s, doctors told 37-year-old Giusti she had multiple myeloma and only three years to live. The disease went into remission after years of grueling treatments, but in 2022, Giusti was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. Woven into Giusti's recovery story is a 12-step program for how cancer patients can take control of their medical care. For instance, she expounds on how to build the right medical team, telling how she fired a doctor for showing up to her appointment unprepared and recommending that readers find a "lead" doctor at a research institution to direct treatment while an "execution" doctor oversees its administration. Giusti's personal reflections are frequently heartwarming (after she told her four-year-old son she had cancer, he replied, "Mom, you got this! Can I have an ice cream sandwich?"), and the advice is solid if occasionally surface-level (the recommendation to "establish what you will need" before starting treatment includes suggestions to create a budget and identify financial assistance programs without detailing how to do so). Still, it's a worthwhile resource for readers looking for guidance after a cancer diagnosis. Agent: David Black, David Black Literary. (Feb.)