Book #3 - Cancer Vixen and Beer #6 - Goose Island 312

Cancer Vixen (CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR A GREAT CARTOON SHORT INTRODUCING THE BOOK) by Marisa Acocella Marchetto is a funny yet also sobering graphic novel about a high powered NY based cartoonist whose fast paced, socialite, fahionista lifestyle is turned upside down by a diagnosis of breast cancer. She's on top of the world one minute, publishing cartoons in The New Yorker and preparing to marry one of the most eligible bachelors in Manhattan, when suddenly she learns that the lump that she's discovered is indeed cancerous. Despite the dissimiliarities in our life circumstances, a lot of what she had to say resonated with my experience thus far with breast cancer and the ins and outs of the medical establishment.

Her account made me really happy that I don't have to get chemo, as it sounded entirely dreadful, but then she says, without further explanation, that she found radiation psychologically more difficult than chemo! Yikes! For now at least, I'm going to chalk it up to the cumulative effect -- perhaps she was so worn down after 6 months of chemo every three weeks that she just couldn't take much of anything else, let alone daily treatments for six more weeks.

Great book, but its subject matter (or maybe the looming surgery date) led me to experiment with a new beer, another in the Goose Island line, 312 Urban Wheat Ale. 312 is the area code of the center of the city where the Goose Island breweries are located here in Chicago, just a few blocks away from where the infamous Cabrini Green housing projects used to be located before the city tore them down a few years ago when the neighborhood was starting to gentrify. 312 is a tasty beer, very light with a touch of a wheaty / yeasty flavor. Even if you're not a huge fan of wheat beer, you might like this one, as the wheat aspect adds an interesting flavor without dominating or being too filling. I liked it.