The book begins with Jackie Waldman's story. The fast track life she'd built for herself was devastated by a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. As part of her own emotional healing she began to research stories of other people who'd made something wonderful and useful of themselves despite life's adversities. The beauty of this book shines forth in the plain-spoken honesty and diversity of those she interviewed each of whom, I repeat, is allowed his or her own unique voice.

Teresa Campbell is professor emeritus at San Francisco State University where she taught nursing. Her medical knowledge is apparent in this autobiographic book. Also apparent is her adventurous spirit and her curiosity about the world and its people.

Ms. Campbell's book is very well organized and, as she's lived with MS for well over thirty years, covers almost all aspects of life with the relapsing/remitting form of MS from its beginning symptoms through the more serious disabilities of the secondary/progressive stage.

So many of us with multiple sclerosis have written autobiographic pieces. Some have written books. Others have worked with poetry or essay-length formats. A great number of these works fall short of the universality necessary to capture and hold my attention. They are, in the main, lists of symptoms, emotional responses to those symptoms and attempts to triumph over, or learn to live with, those symptoms. Often the author is so self-involved that this reader is really left out rather than invited in to the author’s world.

This neat little book calls itself a "step-by-step guide to living well with chronic illness," and that's exactly what it is. Ms. Feste, a diabetic herself, offers chapter after chapter of thought-provoking, useful and engaging exercises. They are aimed at stimulating one to become aware of and then, hopefully, make whatever changes might be necessary on the way to feeling more empowered and less oppressed by chronic illness. I began this book with a jaundiced eye. I'm not very affirmation-oriented.

A chance meeting on a Cape Cod beach led to unexpected changes in Joan Anderson's life. As the author retreats from her marriage for one year in hopes of enriching her soul enough to enrich her life and marriage, she meets another Joan - Joan Erikson.

Author, Nick Irons had a dream to swim the 1,550 miles of the muddy Mississippi River to raise money and awareness for MS research. Like so many dreams or inspirations, it came to Irons unexpectedly. He repeatedly flew over the river on his travels and as the idea formulated in his mind, he found he could no ignore his thoughts.

His father, a physician in Maryland, has MS and Nick was motivated to do something to help find a cure.