In his first book, Melanoma: It Started with a Freckle, Jewish author David L. Stanley tells the story of his battle with melanoma. His humor comes through – yet he never minimizes the seriousness of this frightening disease. Stanley, a science teacher, is the son of a physician and the husband of a nurse, and he writes about the intricacies of human anatomy and biology in an understandable, engaging way. His descriptions of the interplay of skin muscles, capillaries, arteries and nerves are as engrossing as his description of his emotional state upon learning of the dreaded diagnosis of what he calls the “rat bastard” cancer.