Breathing for a Living cover

Breathing for a Living

by Laura Rothenberg

A twenty-one-year-old woman with cystic fibrosis shares her decision to accept a lung transplant and muses on the challenges of her disease, the surgery, her recovery period, and the ongoing confrontation with her own mortality.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?