Breasts: The Owner’s Manual

Breast cancer surgeon Funk offers a comprehensive and empowering approach to breast care and breast cancer in this well-written manual. Although Funk (who performed actress Angelina Jolie’s widely publicized double prophylactic mastectomy) spends a good portion of the book on breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, she also provides a wealth of tips on how women can decrease their risk of developing the disease. The extensive research she shares can be overwhelming, but she lightens things up with jocular comments and blunt asides (quit smoking now, she advises, or you will look “ugly at your own funeral”). While her subject is weighty, Funk’s voice is empowering and inspirational: she urges women to make lifestyle choices that will improve their odds for not getting breast cancer, including cutting out or limiting meat in favor of a plant-based diet. Though she produces numbers showing breast cancer on the rise worldwide, Funk asserts her goal is not to “scare” but to “incentivize” readers. This information-packed manual will be of value to women of all ages and all stages of life, and certainly to those who have been touched by breast cancer. (May)