Review of Higher Ground

[Chiwelite O]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Higher Ground" by Sophia Edwards-Bennett MD PhD.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Cancer patients are often greeted with shock when a doctor comes in with their test results to confirm that they have cancer. The Psychological effects are oftentimes devastating. "Understandably so as, after all, facing one’s mortality is one of life’s greatest fears. And even after successful treatment, cancer patients are perpetually plagued with the fear of recurrence."

Higher Ground by Sophia Edwards-Bennett MD PhD is an inspirational book that focuses on helping cancer patients to recover from this straining journey of healing. In this book, Sophia discusses what she has learned as an oncologist and how she has helped most of her patients to get well and be brave enough to embrace life after that.

The book starts with a brief introduction from Sophia. She then tells a story about her mountain climbing experience in Jamaica and how the term "higher ground" came about. This led to the discovery of her 7 pronged "approach" which she called "The Big C Re-Attitudes." Sophia explains that in her experience as an oncologist this approach is "to not only help patients cope with the psychological toxicities; but to overcome them, refine their emotional dexterity, and sharpen their mental fortitude." What is "The Big C Re-Attitudes?" The author has compiled workable strategies that would help cancer patients get to the full recovery stage.

I noticed so many positive aspects of this book. First, I admired the author's sincere and genuine desire to help her patients recover and deal with other issues that come with recovery. Also, in order not to make the book boring, Sophia added storytelling to this book. This helped to drive home important points. For instance, when she narrated her experience in Jamaica where she climbed Blue Mountain. I also enjoyed the "Prose for Ponder" sections. These sections evoke deep thinking in the readers.

However, I found a few negative aspects of this book. This book did not seem arranged. The sentences and paragraphs were poorly structured. Hence, it was very difficult to maintain focus. This book contains a few grammatical errors too which made reading it difficult.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. This is because the author made it easy to relate to this book while reading it. I did not give it a perfect rating because of the negative aspects I highlighted. I recommend this book to cancer patients and to people interested in learning how to help cancer patients. It offers hope and encouragement to fight on and ultimately win the battle against "The Big C."

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Higher Ground
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[Ruchi Raina]

Cancer is the most dreaded term for all of us. This word itself is the reason for a thousand traumas. The author has done a great job by writing about this and sharing how she has helped her patients deal with it. Thanks for the great review.

[Kaushiki Parihar]

This book focuses on helping cancer patients, so it will be really encouraging and motivating. Thanks for the great review.

[Clare Jose]

For both the patient and their family the emotional turmoil that is brought about due to cancer is immense. I really appreciate that the author took the time and effort to make this book possible.
Thank you for a lovely review.

[addicted reader]

This is a wonderful and insightful review: it gives an insight of what the book is all about. Higher Ground by Sophia Edwards sounds like a well-crafted book that helps the cancer patients to recover. Thanks for the review.