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A comic actress, Sperber is best known for her role as "Amy", a foil for Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari in the 1980s sitcom Bosom Buddies. "Besides being one of the funniest women who ever lived, she had a way of lighting up the screen," said Telma Hopkins, who played the manager of an all-women hotel, where Hanks and Scolari lived, dressed as women, in the series. Sperber also appeared in Back to the Future (Parts I and III) as well as several other TV series. In 1997, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She used her fame to start the weSPARK Cancer Support Center in Southern California, which provides cancer victims and their families with free support, information on their disease, and social activities. But "cancer did not define her life," Hopkins said. "Instead, she used the adversity of having cancer to grow more, to help more people, to be more." But her cancer overcame her, and she died November 29 at home. She was 47. From This is True for 27 November 2005 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Kelly, Corrigan List Price: $17.95 Amazon Price: $6.40 Editorial Review: "The thing you need to know about me is that I am George Corrigan's daughter, his only daughter." So begins this beautifully written memoir, in which Kelly Corrigan intertwines her own story with that of her larger-than-life, Irish-American-born salesman father's, and illustrates both an unbelievably powerful and healing father/daughter relationship and the unbreakable bonds of family. Writing with candor and a surprising amount of graceful humor, Kelly alternates the tale of growing up Corrigan with her life and her father's today, as they each--successfully, for now--battle cancer. Throughout, she explores the framework of illness and what it means when the one person who has been your source of strength is in need of some himself. Uplifting without shying away from the realities of life with cancer, this highly personal story ultimately examines the universal theme of family, both those we create and those that created us. The Middle Place is about the bittersweet moment between childhood and adulthood--when you're a devoted wife and mother, but you'll always be daddy's girl. In fresh, insightful prose, Kelly explores and ultimately embraces that "middle place," bringing to light the wonderful opportunity of coming to know who you are and where you truly belong.  By: Robert Schwartz List Price: $16.95 Amazon Price: $11.53 Editorial Review: Courageous Souls explores the premise that we are all eternal souls who plan our lives, including our greatest challenges, before we re born for purposes of spiritual growth. The book contains ten true stories of people who planned physical illness, having handicapped children, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, losing a loved one, and severe accidents. Because very different life challenges are often planned for similar reasons, readers who have not faced these specific challenges will nevertheless see themselves - and their motivations as a soul - in these stories. As readers come to realize that they themselves planned their lives, suffering that once seemed purposeless becomes imbued with deep meaning. Wisdom may be acquired in a more conscious manner; feelings of anger, guilt, blame, and victimization are healed and replaced by acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, and peace.  By: John R. LeeVirginia Hopkins List Price: $6.99 Amazon Price: $6.99 Editorial Review: The classic bestseller that has helped nearly a million women discover the answer to menopause is now revised and updated. Hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, low sex drive, hair loss, fibroids, and osteoporosis-most women will experience these or other hormone- related problems at some point as they age. In clear, easy-to-understand language, an internationally recognized expert explains the benefits of using progesterone and other natural hormones to reduce or eliminate menopausal symptoms safely and effectively-without the harmful side effects created by commonly used synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Dr. Lee explains why conventional HRT drugs can be harmful and offers an easy-to-follow non-prescription 'Hormone Balance' program that tells readers how to stay energized, strong, and sexually vigorous during the menopausal years and beyond.  By: Susan Love List Price: $22.00 Amazon Price: $14.96 Editorial Review: Now in a completely updated new edition-the most trusted, most authoritative guide to breast cancer diagnosis and treatment Recent research is rapidly changing the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of breast cancer. Just as women afflicted with or worried about breast cancer have turned to the earlier editions of Dr. Susan Love's guide for the soundest, most supportive advice, once again they will find all the help they need in this new edition. From guidance on screening techniques and benign disease to comprehensive and heartening advice on living with breast cancer, Dr. Love's book will be a priceless help to recovery on every level, medical, practical, and psychological. Once again readers will lean with gratitude on the extraordinary empathy and expertise in the book that Newsweek called "One of the most complete and trustworthy books ever published on breast cancer."Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book has been considered the bible of breast-care books since it appeared in 1990. In 1995, Love completely updated the book in a 600-page second edition, including new biopsy and screening methods, implants, the pros and cons of hormone therapy, new discoveries in breast-cancer treatment, and many other topics. Every chapter has been rewritten, with the exception of the anatomy chapter ("The breast, I'm glad to report, is still located on the chest!"). Love presents copious medical information in a simple, welcoming style, and plentiful illustrations make the information even clearer. About two-thirds of the book deals with breast cancer: risk factors, prevention, screening, diagnosis, staging, emotions, treatment options, surgery, alternative treatments, clinical trials, and more. But the book isn't just about breast cancer. It's also about breast development, physiology, bras, nursing, sexuality--if it has to do with breasts, Love discusses it. Love also debunks breast myths: underwire bras do not cause cancer, neither do bruises or injuries; "fibrocystic disease" isn't really a disease. The book includes a wealth of resources: books, treatment centers, and organizations (but no Web sites--perhaps in the third edition?). --Joan Price  By: Terry Tempest Williams List Price: $13.95 Amazon Price: $11.16 Editorial Review: In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic. The only constants in nature are change and death. Terry Tempest Williams, a naturalist and writer from northern Utah, has seen her share of both. The pages of Refuge resound with the deaths of her mother and grandmother and other women from cancer, the result of the American government's ongoing nuclear-weapons tests in the nearby Nevada desert. You won't find the episode in the standard history textbooks; the Feds wouldn't admit to conducting the tests until women and men in Utah, Nevada, and northwestern Arizona took the matter to court in the mid-1980s, and by then thousands of Americans had fallen victim to official technology. Parallel to her account of this devastation, Williams describes changes in bird life at the sanctuaries dotting the shores of the Great Salt Lake as water levels rose during the unusually wet early 1980s and threatened the nesting grounds of dozens of species. In this world of shattered eggs and drowned shorebirds, Williams reckons with the meaning of life, alternating despair and joy. |
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