She has given talks across the country at places such as TedMed, Johns Hopkins (grand rounds), the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, the Philadelphia and Boston Women’s Conferences, as well as at literary festivals about memoir writing.īennett is also a sought-after speaker on women’s leadership, especially since her views on the state of women in the workplace today were published in a Washington Post opinion piece that went viral.

Her discoveries about how people face death and illness and the vital issues about the intricacies of America’s healthcare system have made her a sought after keynote speaker on the lecture circuit about healthcare, end-of-life issues, cancer survivorship, and finding hope in the face of adversity. After his death, Bennett used her skills as a veteran investigative reporter to determine the cost of their mission of hope. The book chronicles the extraordinary measures Bennett and Foley took to preserve not only his life but also the life of their family. Even boomers who never played video games will enjoy its social commentary.Amanda Bennett is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, editor, and author of several books including “ The Cost of Hope: The Story of a Marriage, a Family and a Quest for Life “ (2012), her memoir of the battle she and Foley, her late husband, fought against his kidney cancer. This debut science-fiction novel by a native of Ashland, Ohio, is a page turner for young and old. The designer challenges gamers to find the secrets he has hidden in OASIS, and the first to do so will inherit his fortune.

Ready Player One (Broadway Paperbacks, $24) by Ernest Cline: “The real world is an ugly place in 2044, but many escape into a virtual utopia, OASIS, created by a 1980s video-game designer.

The Cost of Hope: The Story of a Marriage, a Family and the Quest for Life (Random House, $26) by Amanda Bennett: “The memoir is a well-written inquisition by a former Pulitzer Prize winner into the complicated and varied practices of the American health-care system, intertwined with a moving and lovingly written biography of Bennett’s husband and their marriage.

Recommendations from central Ohio librarians, booksellers, college professors and others:

The cost of hope by amanda bennett