Rating: 
Summary: Writing for a Living
Review: A wonderful book by a great writer whose life was too short.
Rating:
Summary: please read this book
Review: I am a 26 year old woman with cystic fibrosis. In reading Laura's memoirs I found a very real and honest view of what we (cf patients) go thru everyday. Laura had an amazing strength and courage to endure all her trials and I found reading her personal story helped me understand some of my own feelings.
I think this book is a wonderful read for all persons...if you face an illness, know someone who does or just want to be touched by a lovely young womans story.
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Summary: Heroes Amongst Us
Review: I first heard Laura Rothenbeg's story on NPR- as a student at Brown she recorded her daily life with Cystic Fibrosis- waking up each day trying to breathe- multiple treatments each day to rid her lungs of the thick mucus that clogged her airways. A typical story of this chronic terminal disease, but told in private, personal terms. Laura was a model for other studnets her age- she so wanted to live and to love. She went through a bilateral lung transplant but suffered from chronic then acute rejection. She was able to find romantic love with Brian and friendship with her many friends. Whomever Laura knew she touched their lives, and many of these people remember her in their stories in this book. Tragically Laura died at age 22- she was ready to die when the time came, and she helped prepare her loved ones for this loss. People with Cystic Fibrosis are my heroes- they live each day trying to breathe-every day of their lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Hate Me, But...
Review: I have a lot of respect for Laura Rothenberg, for having lived her whole (entirely too short) life struggling with health issues that most of us can't imagine, and for trying to give others a glimpse into the world of the chronically ill. That said, I would be lying if I claimed to find her memoir as compelling as so many others have. I think my biggest problem was that I didn't feel I got to know much about Laura as a person. Most of the book seemed to consist of detailed descriptions of the procedures performed on her, using medical jargon that I am not familiar with, so while I definitely got a sense of the hell she went through on a daily basis, and the frustration it caused her, I didn't garner any real knowledge of her disease. That would have been okay if the book was balanced out with more about her life away from the hospital - her family, friends, and school, and how she balanced these with her illness. So many friends and relatives were mentioned in passing, but we never got to know them. The emails she wrote to the people she cared about are presented anonomously, so we don't know who she's writing to. I didn't even know that she had a boyfriend until the epilogue, when she mentioned moving in with him. I just didn't feel that I got to know much about this young woman at all, and I really would have liked to.
Rating: 
Summary: Read after hearing story on NPR
Review: It's a quick read which surprised me given the poignancy of the subject matter. I wanted to read the book after I had heard her tapes on NPR last year. The book is a very personal account of living with (and ultimately dying of) cystic fibrosis and assumes a similar close knowledge of the disease. It does not contain much if any medical background to balance out the memoir.
Rating:
Summary: God...
Review: Take a deep breath before you read this slim little volume - and then try to imagine you can't do it, can't draw in enough air to feel like you've accomplished anything. That's life for Laura Rothenberg, who, we readers know at the outset, died at age 22 of cystic fibrosis before seeing her memoir published. Strung together from a series of essays, diary notes, and emails she kept during her adolescence and very brief young adulthood, Breathing for a Living is a devastating portrayal of what life is like for a very young and very terminally ill person. It's raw, beautiful, bittersweet, honest - and as the most joyful section (a lung transplant becomes available) quickly becomes the saddest as complications and tissue rejection set it, the writing becomes more illuminating and lustrous.
Superb. Would that Laura had lived on to write again.
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Summary: Buy a second copy for a friend
Review: The value of this book is that it isn't just about a brilliant young child, who becomes a brilliant woman, and ageless soul, with cystic fibrosis, but that its a book about making the most of each new day we are given. It is also a must read for anyone who is or has a loved one with a chronic or terminal illness, because the young woman offers up such priceless information of how to deal with friends, family and those in the medical profession. This is really important, and one reason we have bought copies of the book for the local Hospice, local public library and the local juvenile diabetes, and local cancer support groups we belong to. I encourage you to buy an extra copy, and donate it to your local library, hospice, health care support group, or personal physician. Read it even if you do not have a family member or friend who is dealing with a medical challenge, because I guarantee the insight the young author offers will become valuable to you at sometime in your life. She teaches great lessons in how to listen better. How to have empathy. How to not give up. And how to milk every drop of life from each new day. And how to avoid pity parties. In essence she teaches the reader how to live.
Rating:
Summary: Breathing For A Living: A Memoir
Review: This is an incredible read through the life of Laura battling the constant issues of cystic fybrosis and the procedure of a dual lung transplant. If you need a reason to reprioritize lifes normal trials and tribulations, this memoir, will provide you the guidance you are seeking.
Rating:
Summary: How Heartbreaking
Review: Very touching. The medical ordeals this endearing, pretty
young woman had to endure. It is inspiring in helping
me to deal with (what seem in comparison) my petty troubles
in life. This book made me cry.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Hate Me, But...
Review: What a sad thing to know that this wonderful person has died...through the book you feel hopeful and optimistic that she might make it, and knowing she didn't made it heartbreaking. All the things she fears before her transplant eventually come true, and I am in awe of her amazing strength. She is an inspiration to all and I think everyone should read this book in order to appreciate life.
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