When Nick Gonzalez was a medical student, he stood beside his father’s deathbed and vowed that he would find a cure for cancer. Nick imagined his future as a researcher toiling away in a lab in Memorial Sloan Kettering, working on conventional approaches to the disease. Yet Gonzalez’s life was anything but conventional. At the urging of Linus Pauling, he had already left an accomplished journalism career and entered Cornell Medical School.

Gonzalez’s path took another turn when he met the controversial Dr. William Kelley, a dentist who, through an alternative nutritional approach, had arrested his own pancreatic cancer. Kelley had become infamous when he’d tried to help others.

The Maverick M.D. is the story of how Dr. Nick Gonzalez perfected the scientific theory behind Kelley’s work and put the protocol into practice in New York City. Gonzalez drew courage from his Christian faith, from his Mexican-Italian-American family, and from key loved ones, colleagues and mentors. He spent years treating patients with the most serious conditions–from cancer to diabetes to lupus. But he wasn’t satisfied as an outlier in the medical community. He wanted his work put to the test with a clinical trial.  This book portrays a man who fought for the acceptance of a nutritional cancer treatment in the halls of some of the most established U.S. medical institutions. Against intense opposition, Nick Gonzalez’s determination held up until the end–a scientist who developed a therapy that saves lives and promotes the healing of the human mind, body and spirit.

Adeste Fideles in Chinese

Mary Swander’s new book Adeste Fideles in Chinese is the third in a series of handmade books published by Timothy Fay of Route 3 Press in Anamosa, Iowa, depicting the author’s interactions with her Amish neighbors. This new book captures a Christmas story of multicultural exchange.

Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, hosted by Mary Swander, explores life among the Amish and the arts and agriculture in the wider rural community. These podcasts are produced and recorded by Rick Brewer of Brewhaha Audio Production.

Mary Swander is an award-winning writer of drama, poetry and nonfiction with a national and international reputation. She has published books with major New York publishing houses as well as university presses. She has won grants and awards from such places as The National Endowment for the Arts, the Whiting Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

This event is cosponsored by the American Association of University Women.