Mom's Marijuana: Life, Love, and Beating the Odds

Rating:
Summary: Must Read!
Review: A must read if you've ever known anyone diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease.

Helped me understand what my own son was enduring.

Rating:
Summary: Inspirational, but in a good way
Review: Dan feels like a long lost brother. I, too, had Hodgkin's Disease, but went through little trauma compared to him. His story of how he kept himself sane, and how his family and friends rallied to him are a must-read for anyone approaching critical illness. He kept his sense of humor and wonder even at the worst of times. He didn't let the disease become his life. And now, through this book and his work at the University of Arizona, he teaches by example how to integrate this kind of experience into your life. I was frankly crying through several parts of the book, and then would just as quickly belly laugh. It's a rollercoaster, made better in that you know that he survived to write this account.

Rating:
Summary: "Death Be Not Proud" on Pot
Review: Dan shares his experience in a straightforward manner with honesty and humor. I couldn't put it down. As someone who has endured cancer treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, I appreciated the honesty and gratitude with which Dan tells his story. It's a weaving of personal memories, not just through cancer but through his life, that touches your heart over and over again. Great book!

Rating:
Summary: Must Read!
Review: I picked this book up in the biography section of my library.
I was about to have my knee operated on and wondered if I could find a good book to read during the days in bed not moving. Well, I was moved by this book.
It is one of the best books I have ever read.
You almost feel like you know Dan through his setbacks and triumphs.
You'll laugh. You'll cry. You will fall in love with this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: Read this book!
Review: If you know someone that is or has suffered through cancer treatment, you owe it to yourself to read this well-written first-hand autobographical portrayal of Dan's personal story. Even if you don't know someone that has gone through the experience, this book is a must read.

At times I laughed out loud at Dan's Woody Allen-like wit, other times I found myself in a dazed stupor wondering how anyone could go through what he went through. His characterizations are heart-warming, his attention to detail is splendid, I am amazed at how vividly he was able to tell his story.

Mom's Marijuana is a fast read with many short chapters (similar to the many Chicken Soup books). However, all of these short chapters weave an intricate trail in chronological order (for the most part) from Dan's breif discussions of his youth through the finer details of cancer treatment.

This book educated and inspired me. It also raised my understanding of a terrible disease to new heights. Do yourself a favor, stop reading this review and just buy the darned book. You will not regret it. You da money man, Dan.

Rating:
Summary: One of my very favorite books ever
Review: This book is based on a rather controversial issue and deals with the use of marijauna for theraputic reasons. Diagnosed with cancer at the age of 20, and returning to live with his parents, Dan Shapiro learns that marijauna may elliviate some of his pain and anguish from the disease. His mother, an anti-drug person, is first appalled at his mere suggestion of using the drug; however, she eventually plants the seeds in her garden, carefully hidden behind the sunflowers. This is Dan's story of living with cancer and his will to survive. Undergoing biopsies and radiation treatment only Dan or other cancer survivors sould possibly understand the pain and torment that this disease inflicts, both physically and emotionally. There are pieces of the book that are sometimes, vague, and others that would have best been presented in more detail, but it is still a book worth reading

Whether you believe in the use of marijuana for this purpose or not, you will admire the sincerity, wit and compassion contained in this book. There is that old saying that goes, "Do not judge others until you have walked in their shoes." Unless you have walked in Dan's shoes or the shoes of other cancer survivors, and lived with their pain, how can anyone even begin to judge what is right for that person or what is not." Only the afflicted individual truly knows, feels and understands the extent of the pain. In "Mom's Marijuana," Dan's mother planted not only the seeds of the marijuana plant, she planted the seeds of ultimate love and compassion for her suffering son.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book; esp recommended for those in health care
Review: This is a great book, describing the experience of having cancer, and of being a patient, in a very honest and straightforward way. It is full of humor and warmth. We plan to use this in a humanistic medicine course at our school to help students and faculty better understand what it is like to be on the "other side of the stethoscope". Even more so in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, this book raises some important practical and ethical issues about medicinal use of marijuana. This is one of the best books I have read in some time, I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A life-changing experience.
Review: You might think that the title of my review refers to this man's life changing experience, but in fact I'm speaking of the life changing experience that has been reading this book. Dan Shapiro truly is a brilliant man and he wrote a complex, insightful book. I think the title is misleading, but the story more than makes up for it. It's almost as if the book is interactive; it makes you think back about many things, and can be very humorous at times. When he said he knew his daughter wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for his mother's talking to a stranger, it took me a while to realize he was talking about the woman in that first waiting room telling his mother to save sperm. I like that, that way that Daniel Shapiro has about writing this book. It was one of my favorite books, if not my favorite book, that I have ever read, and I would absolutely love to see a sequel of some sort. (This is the kind of book that once you're finished reading you feel like you've known the author all your life and you wish to meet him.)