This is a remarkable and useful anthology of stories of illness and healing. Going well beyond the usual focus on breast cancer, reproductive issues, and eating disorders, the book is a rich examination of a full array of health matters confronting women over their lifespans, including arthritis, incest, abortion, multiple sclerosis, food allergies, and manic depression; it even contains a wonderful meditation on the placenta. Also included are narratives of women who care for others, usually husbands, children, or aging parents.

While there are many memorable selections, some stand out, particularly Amy Haddad's poems "Stereotactic Biopsy" and "What if They Said," both from the section on Diagnosis and Treatment; Elissa Meites's "Choose," a revealing portrait of reproductive "choice" that illuminates the complex and ambivalent dimensions of the decision-making process; Kate Scannell's "Leave of Absence," which portrays the quiet shock of receiving a cancer diagnosis an hour and forty minutes before she is to leave for Paris and crosses the boundary of "before" and "after"; Kathy Boudin's narrative of AIDS activism when she was an inmate at a maximum security prison; all of Cortney Davis's work. A useful teaching tool, this volume is valuable for "scholars and students of narrative, illness, and women's experience, as well as men and women interested in, affected by, and working with illness."