Book Review: What We Have, by Amy Boesky

What We Have: One Family's Inspiring Story About Love, Loss, and Survival

Author, Amy Boesky writes a Memoir that is heartbreaking.  What We Have is a story about a family struggling to overcome cancerous genes and a life of fear.

Can you imagine living your life, even as a young child, knowing that your life expectancy is 45-50 years old?  Amy and her two sisters do just that as they marry, and rush to have children before they are 35 years old...the age where they have their ovaries removed to help prevent cancer.  Each of the sisters is quite on track but life becomes hectic and heartbreaking when a child is lost before birth, a sister moves away and a parent becomes extremely ill.

How far can a family go, does fear need to take hold and does one live with fear, or find a way to live beyond the fear and lead an ordinary life?  We need to take "what we have" and cherish it as if there will be no tomorrow regardless of our heritage, our genes or our beliefs.

While reading this book you often see the lighter side of life, there is plenty of laughter, but tears as well.  It is truly amazing to read about this family and what they go through, the decisions they must make, the choices they have.  Some people in this situation may just sit back and decide to never marry, to never have children, not this family.  This memoir is truly inspirational and will force you to look at your own life, how you live it, and how you cherish those around you.

**I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from J. Chun at Penguin Group, my review is my honest opinion and I was not compensated for my thoughts in any other way.