Two tales of cancer and courage

Newsday readers might recognize the names on the covers of two new books:

In "Life, With Cancer: The Lauren Terrazzano Story" (Health Communications Inc., $16.95), Frank Terrazzano pays tribute to his daughter, a Newsday reporter who died of lung cancer at the age of 39 in 2007. The book reprints some of Lauren's moving columns and also gives voice to colleagues and friends who describe Lauren's tenacious personality.

Fern Kupfer's columns appeared in Newsday from 1993 to 2005. In "Leaving Long Island . . . and Other Departures" (Culicidae Press, $16.95), Kupfer revisits her youth in Plainview, the loss of a child and a recent discovery that she has a genetic marker for cancer -- and her potentially lifesaving decision to deal with it.