I can hardly believe that after all this time, the April 9th pub date for In the Kingdom of the Sick is practically here! There are all kinds of great posts, interviews, and other events in store next week—I really can’t wait to share them.

I am just as pleased to share this week’s virtual book tour events. This book is incredibly research-intensive (I joked to my father that the Bibliography was my prize achievement), but the patient stories are what draw the research out and advance it. To that end, I was so lucky to be able to interview some incredibly wise, insightful patients, physicians, and advocates. Their perspectives added so much to be book, and I was particularly interested to see their thoughts on the final product.

One such person is intrepid health blogger Duncan Cross, who reviewed In the Kingdom of the Sick this week. He writes, “You need this book because it is the best or only book that captures the full social picture of being sick in America.”

His review is comprehensive, and towards the end, he writes, “Now I want to say what it [the book] could be: the catalyst for a new community of people with chronic illness in America. Laurie feels (as do I) that for too long patients have been segregated by their diagnosis, when so much of what we endure and aspire is shared, is universal to the experience of illness. Too many of our dialogues and discussions begin with our diagnosis — as if Crohn’s and lupus and cancer can’t talk to each other. That keeps us from getting anywhere, from social progress — there’s a reason healthcare reform was a bust. But if we instead start from this book, from what is shared and universal, there’s so much we can do together.”

And that takeaway means so much.

Speaking of research and interview voices, a review up at How To Cope with Pain had this to say:

“As I finished the book, I had the image of Laurie as a master orchestra conductor. Laurie was able to lead all of us in creating a beautiful whole. A few notes of piano are nice, as are a violin melody. But taken together, a symphony can be moving and inspiring. “

And so more than ever, I am grateful for the people who gave me their time and insights as I wrote this book, and to all the writers and researchers before me whose work was so helpful.