Live Full Throttle: Life Lessons From Friends Who Faced Cancer

by Tamela Rich

Author and cross-country motorcyclist Tamela Rich wrote "Live Full Throttle: Life Lessons From Friends Who Faced Cancer" based on two years of riding her motorcycle across the US and Canada with other women committed to the breast cancer cause.

She learned how a brush with cancer helped survivors re-examine both their priorities and their assumptions about how to live their best lives. "Live Full Throttle" shares eight of the lessons she learned:

The Healing Power of Joy
Gratitude Eases Pain
Laughter Lightens Tragedy
You’re Terminal Too, Embrace It
When to Fight, When to Flow
Art Restores
Relationships Are Fluid
Channel Sorrow Into Service

Each chapter includes thought-provoking questions and exercises designed to help the reader apply the lessons to their own lives.

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Author, editor, and motorcyclist whose first two books were based on her travels.

The Arts & Science Council has generously supported my literary career with three grants to write a historical novel set in the late 1960s, a travel essay collection, and a nonfiction book on the Ohio River region’s racial legacy.

Motto: Memento mori, memento vivere (remember you must die, so remember you must live).

Reviews

[Karen Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tamela Rich authored an exceptional, wonderful, thoughtful book about how to live despite challenges. Tamela interviewed many women, and their collective wisdom was gathered and shared. The work is so intelligently done, "Live Full Throttle-Life Lessons From Friends Who Faced Cancer" is a fit for any adult. The photography is exquisite, thanks to Christina Shook and others. It was hard to put down. In fact, I didn't! Uplifting and encouraging, it does more than it sets out to accomplish. I would not hesitate to give as a gift

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish to thank Tamela for choosing me to be the only Canadian goodreads winner.

I wanted to read this book because I know many people who Cancer has touched (Lost both my grandmothers, my mother and many of my close friends have lost loved ones also), it was interesting to read stories from suffers of Cancer on how they handled being diagnosed and living with the terrible disease.

I liked that the life lessons discussed throughout the book can be applied to every aspect of a persons life, not just for someone who is suffering with Cancer.

[Melisa Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book, I drove to work the next morning thinking it would be a great day to hit the open road with some great music blaring and a come-what-may attitude. This book is about cancer survivors but also about finding grounding and purpose in your life. And the exercises included at the end of each chapter are thought-provoking. I've finished reading the book, but it might take me a while to give the exercises the attention they deserve.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tamela very kindly gave me an advance copy of this gem. It's deceptively slim, structured as eight life lessons from cancer survivors, with reader's guide exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises are something you could go back to over and over again for clarity on any number of personal issues, something that really makes this book shine.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If these stories of cancer patients/survivors or the gorgeous photo portraits don't bring a tear to your eye you don't have a heart.

Interesting format for a chronicle of a cross-country trip: there are worksheets for each chapter to encourage the reader to think of ways she can live "full throttle."

[Marci · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an inspirational book!!! It was great to look through it with my son and have him get excited about seeing his mom and friends he knows in the book! I will be sharing a copy with a lady I recently met who is battling cancer!!! This book means so much to so many!!!!!!

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book that has real heart and unique perspective. The character and the lessons connect with the landscape and ethos of the community oriented yet ultimately self reliant values. I love how she turns personal tales into universal life lessons. If anyone you've loved or you yourself has cancer the wisdom in this book will resonate.
Great artwork and design. Too nice to actually write in!

[Craig a.k.a Meatstack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of this book from the Author.

I'm struggling to write this review.

Earlier today, I finished a different "inspirational book" and panned it because it was all inspiration, and very little practical. But here I am reading another..or am I?

The genre is the only real thing that compares the two. This book journals just a handful of stories the author collected during a motorcycle ride for Breast Cancer. These stories are as real as it gets. Some are stories of triumph over the disease. Others are of the lives it has taken. Some are about the lives that survived, but with emotional and relationship scarring. All are magnetic, with the art in the book drawing the reader into the story deeper.

A quick read with each chapter is closing out with a series of thought exercises to help you digest what you just read, this is a book that you could easily revisit several times without it getting stale.

And that's what sets this book apart from others in the genre. Real lessons, real stories, from real people. Learn from the wins as well as the losses. All presented in a style and artistic set that makes it pop.