The Magic of Normal by Dr. Maky Zanganeh is a powerful memoir that blends personal triumph with professional accomplishment. As a biotech CEO diagnosed with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zanganeh transforms a period of hardship into a journey of self-reflection, resilience, and growth. Through her experiences and the inspiring stories of fellow patients, she illustrates the profound intersection of medical innovation, hope, and human strength. With a focus on her groundbreaking work in cancer treatment and her personal battle, this book offers both inspiration and insight into the power of perseverance in the face of adversity.

Real Rating: 3.5* of five

Super-high achieving privileged lady gets smacked in the teeth by a scary medical crisis amid the recent global pandemic.

Damn...even her crisis is an overachiever.

This has the bones of an excellent, dramatically exciting story. What we get is a competent retelling of the events of a very interesting, laudably goal-driven life. There are no action items as one might reasonably expect from the title and publisher. Forbes Books is not the place I turn to for blood-stirring action stories.

Writing a memoir can often succumb to this "...then this happened, and I did that, but the other thing was still weighing me down..." rhythm that leaches the important events of their impact. We do not, in fact, need to know everything but need you to think deeply and with vulnerability about why things happened, how it made you feel, and what the results of that were. Otherwise it's a Wikipedia article with fewer citations.

I am morally certain that Dr. Maky would be a hit on a coffee date. I suspect she's a solidly skilled listener. As the one listening, I wish she had used some of that success-building listening, thinking about how others need you to deliver your message, writing this book.

It's A LOT harder than it looks to make reality interesting on a page. The events are worthy of a four, the telling of a two, so three and a half gets the nod.

Before THE MAGIC OF NORMAL by Mary Zanganeh, I knew little of the biotech industry and nothing of this indomitable and articulate businesswoman. However, now that I've read her memoir, I am impressed with the courage it took to pursue her convictions, to make the pivots and take the leaps to rise to CEO of a successful enterprise. For myself, I don't read many memoirs, so I found parts fascinating and other parts read dry and as if lifted from a quick scan of random thoughts. I did appreciate a view into a very different person living a very different life from the one she expected when a diagnosis changed her entire reality. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

The author has led a very interesting life and it's a memoir worth exploring however, it is not well written and was hard to read. This badly needed an editor to take control... to tighten it up in places, to challenge the author to share more of herself in difficult spots and correct the grammar. I understand the author's first language isn't English and that is fine but that is why an editor can assist. It's written similar to what a sophomore-junior in High School would write. No real narrative flow just short choppy factual paragraphs one after the next. The author breezes through incredibly painful moments and seems to want admiration for pressing through but for me that can only happen when I understand the struggle endured and some of the emotion.

#TheMagicofNormal #NetGalley.

There's no denying that Dr. Maky Zanganeh is an admirable and accomplished woman, a biotech CEO whose leadership in the healthcare industry has helped facility remarkable discoveries and advancements in healthcare and for the betterment of humanity.

Unfortunately, she's not a writer and that's what really matters in "The Magic of Normal: Hope, Love, and Beyond," a journey through her early childhood in Iran, high school education in Germany, and then on to her advanced education in France. While her siblings would eventually study medicine, Dr. Zanganeh would go the route of pediatric dentistry where she would spend several years working with severely challenged children. As time went on, however, she began to realize the needs of the medical industry were great and she longed to have a greater impact. After receiving an MBA from Schiller University, Dr. Zanganeh was on her way.

"The Magic of Normal" finds its focus in Dr. Zanganeh's forced slowdown that resulted from a combination of being diagnosed with breast cancer herself and experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Being someone who has tremendously impacted cancer care, her own diagnosis was shocking and yet deepened her appreciation for "normal."

I wanted to love "The Magic of Normal," however, I must acknowledge I found it a mostly frustrating and far from inspiring read. Again, there's no question that Dr. Zanganeh is an inspiring figure whose accomplishments have led to such recognition as her being a United Nations Presenter, named Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year," and one of Industry Era's Top 10 Influential COO's of 2021.

While "The Magic of Normal" is memoirish, there's little doubt that Dr. Zanganeh is an intellectual who is more at home writing about biotech achievements and corporate mergers than she is family history and the emotional journey of breast cancer. Dr. Zanganeh's breast cancer is reported vividly in the book's description, yet it actually is a relatively minor aspect of the book captured primarily in a single chapter and with almost zero emotional resonance.

"The Magic of Normal" struggles tonally. At times, it reads like a book on business leadership. Yet, then we get a chapter on breast cancer and shortly after that a chapter on Iranian history.

WTF?

The biggest problem, at least for me, is that "The Magic of Normal" captures surprisingly little normal. With a title such as this, I think it's fair to expect some sort of personal and/or professional revelation following the pandemic and following cancer that unfolds a newfound devotion to "normal." Instead, after we learn about Iranian history we go back into the corporate world.

Having known some of Dr. Zanganeh's background prior to reading "The Magic of Normal," I'm saddened that "The Magic of Normal" is either the result of a lack of literary focus or editing run amok. I can't decide which one.

Regardless, "The Magic of Normal" may capture the facts of one woman's remarkable journey, however, it mostly falls short in capturing the spirit of that journey.

I struggled a bit with this book. The Magic of Normal has a good premise, and reading out business, the biotech world and the author was interesting, but I wished for more personal information/stories from the author. It came across as somewhat "clinical" at times, but that is likely Ms. Zanganeh's business background.

I skipped some portions in the middle of the book, but I finished it. If you prefer a more business like approach to a story/book, this would be for you.

Thank you to Forbes Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The story is interesting, but could not get past the overly "business-like" language and writing style. Could not connect with the content, unfortunately.

I've only just started the book and I already feel a connection to this author. I couldn't imagine some of the things this author goes through and yet in many other ways I can. Growth, friendships, family, connection, survival, This author touches on all of these aspects of life even just in the first few chapters. This is also a new genre for me but I look forward to reading more. The history of this book is really interesting!

"A new page had been turned. There are times when we are ready to pay anything to have something we really want. Pay anything to have the moon. At the end of the day we try to find the easiest solution to get the things we want, only to find out everything cannot be bought, nor is everything for sale."

The talk about medicine, business and software is really interesting! It is written quite well and I understand the general aim of this book however given my background I struggled a little bit to maintain interest. I liked the letters this author included, very thoughtful.

Upon finishing this book, I wish the author spent more time on her backstory. All the technical medicine towards the end of the book did not interest me. I felt it was too difficult to understand that part of the book. It started out interesting but the more and more we got of it, the more it lacked meaning and understanding.