Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy » (First Edition)

Geralyn Lucas graduated with honors from the Columbia University School of Journalism. She was an editorial producer at ABC News 20/20 for seven years before becoming the director of corporate communications and public affairs at Lifetime Television. She is also a proud member of Lifetime's Stop Breast Cancer for Life initiative. Geralyn lives in New York City with her husband, Tyler, and daughter, Skye. She never leaves the house without lipstick.

This book is for any woman who has ever lost anything big.

"Isn't attitude everything?" -Good Housekeeping

"A bold memoir." -People

"Surprisingly optimistic and immensely empowering." -Publishers Weekly

"Geralyn Lucas makes you laugh and cry in the very same moment….. Buy this book for yourself, a friend, or any loved one who is enduring the experience of breast cancer. It's like nothing else ever written on the subject." -Lucy Danziger, editor in chief of Self magazine (the founder of Pink Ribbon)

"Outrageous and often hilarious…This is a totally frank, inspiring and defiant account of undaunted courage." -Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Publishers Weekly

Lucas was 27, happily working as a 20/20 producer, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly, her world became a blur of appointments with surgeons and emotional breakdowns. Her book's catchy title belies its substantial content: this is an honest, perceptive memoir from a feisty survivor who's willing to discuss every detail, like getting sick in cabs during chemo treatments, baldness and sex. In fact, the book opens with Lucas, who's now 36, recounting her visit to a New York topless bar as she agonizes over losing a breast and contemplates reconstructive surgery. Lucas doesn't dismiss her fears; she talks about wanting to have a child and how her husband withdraws when so many other people step in to provide her with emotional support. What makes her memoir so moving is the author's breezy style and her focus on the daily details of her illness ("I am in the shower, and when I start lathering my comb-over, most of it stays in my hands. The big patches of hair just come out. No warning"). The story of Lucas's recovery, and of the birth of her daughter, make her book surprisingly optimistic and immensely empowering. Agent, Joelle Delbourgo. (Oct. 14) Forecast: Sales will get a boost from fashion designer Betsey Johnson's T-shirt celebrating Lucas's book, Stila's "Geralyn" lipstick, and promotions with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Young Survival Coalition. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.