Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Between Two Kingdoms: What almost dying taught me about living

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Between Two Kingdoms: What almost dying taught me about living by Suleika Jaouad

111 reviews

karennaim's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

4.5

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bendercath's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

After seeing the author’s husband Jon Batiste in concert, a friend recommended this book. I had high expectations and dove right into it.

The title is about “two kingdoms” and it is basically two parts itself. I was very drawn into the story of Suleika’s cancer experience. It helped knowing how the story ended … but I had no idea how difficult and brutal this could be! (Thankfully!!!) In fact, I do not know if I could personally face such difficult physical and psychological challenges. Brutal really is an understatement!

This section of the book had incredible insights and self-awareness. I mean, the whole book is filled with insights and self-awareness but this section was particularly thought-provoking.

The second part of the book was a travelougue which was also interesting but a little less impactful for me. It still held my attention with descriptions of the people she visited after they had contacted her during her illness.

One thing I couldn’t get over was how she broke up with Will. His dedication to her was quite impressive and uncommon. One scene in the book that broke my heart was when she threw the glass globe filled with colored sand that had been a gift from Will’s parents. Wow. That hurt. Of course, Jon Batiste seems like a great partner and I am very happy that she is happy. But I really liked that Will guy.

I listened to this as an audiobook which has Suleika as the narrator and was excellent.

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lalvarez9's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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kierstratton's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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smiley_ari's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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lisasilv's review against another edition

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This is a really well-written story that just hit too close to home for me. I wanted to keep listening but I didn’t want to keep crying. I lost my mom to AML a few years after her transplant and I’ll always be grieving that loss. I may be able to try this again in a few years, but since I lost my mom just over a year ago, now isn’t the time in my life for me to read this book.

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samgelbert's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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vanesst's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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joanna_banana's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

This was an incredibly well written and moving memoir. Took me back to my own cancer experience and challenges finding yourself back in the kingdom of the well. Anyone who has struggled with loss or grief, depression or anxiety, illness, and heartbreak, could get something out of listening to this book. Beautiful <3

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lhogan's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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