Between Me and the River
Carrie Host

My Review:
I received this book last Fall, thanks to Lisa Roe of Online Publicist. Thank you, Lisa. I immediately set out to read it. It is a most compelling book about one woman’s journey to one of the worst things anybody can get. In fact, this book is so compelling, I started paying attention to the growing lump inside my C-section incision. I have three lumps growing there just like The Three Little Bears. I did not pay attention to them before, until I started reading Between Me and the River. This book took me on a most emotional and uplifting armchair journey.  It also took me to a mini-panic attack when my doctors can’t figure out what my Three Little Bears (a nickname that one of my kids came up) were.

I usually do not like to read autobiography, but I am very, very glad to have read this one. If you’re like me and a die-hard romantic fiction reader, then you must make an exception for this book. Reading this book will take you to a myriad of emotions, but the bottom line is, you’ll be very glad to have read this one.

About the book:
Carrie Host knows that the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness takes a split second to change your life, as well as the lives of your partner, parents, children and all who love you. Packed with inspiration, advice, comfort and hope, Between Me and the River is Host’s candid and uplifting memoir of how she found the strength and fortitude to triumph over a rare form of cancer, and craft a new and meaningful life.
When told at forty, with her youngest child just ten months old, that she had carcinoid tumor, Host felt as if she’d been hurled into a raging river, stripped of all forms of potential rescue. The voyage of this strong-minded, openhearted woman out of that river and onto safe shores is told with uncompromising honesty and respect for the miracles that medicine and love can work.

While dealing with practical issues such as how to find the best medical team and what to tell the children, Host also recounts the many spiritual and eye-opening lessons that made her journey so bearable: how to see what is available rather than what is absent, how to free up energy to heal by letting go of anger and fear, and how to believe in the future.

Host’s unquenchable sense of humor in the midst of suffering creates poignant moments of laughter through tears. Bracing, lyrical and deeply moving, Between Me and the River is a tribute to one life, and all lives, rerouted by illness. This remarkably honest book provides a deep sense of insight and understanding for survivors, caregivers, family members and friends.