5 comments about My Other Body: A Memoir of Love, Fat, Life, and Death.

1. This book grabbed my soul as it chronicles a real life tragedy unfolding in slow motion from both first person and third person point of view. Beautifully written, insightful, engrossing, and personal. Sometimes as I read it I almost felt like I was in the movie "Being John Malkovich" as I really saw life through Joyce's eyes. I can't decide if I should describe the emotions felt while reading this as being "brutally honest", or "beautifully honest".
   
   My Other Body would be a great book club selection, and also will resonate with anyone who knows someone with (or has) eating or obesity issues.



2. I completely enjoyed this book, not because of the subject matter, but because someone finally put into words what I was feeling. Part of the illness of compulsive eating is the aloneness. Suddenly, I don't feel so alone. Ann Pia was able to love her sister unconditionally and that is what everyone is looking for in this life. She has helped me find my own voice, by giving me words for the emotions. I would recommend this book for anyone that struggles with complusive eating or anyone that loves someone that eats compulsively.



3. Our book club here in KC just read "My Other Body: A Memoir of Love, Fat, Life, and Death" by Ann Pai. The author, who is local, came to our meeting. It is self-published so has limited availability. It is beautifully written (especially for a first book - the quality of writing ranks up there with the best) memoir to her obese sister who in the end dies of her weight problem. The three interwoven stories each evoke strong but distinctly different feelings and hold your interest through the end. In the first story - the one of their childhood, it seems that this is a story that she has had bottled up inside of her long before her sister's death and couldn't wait to get it out. The accurate and colorful metaphors of childhood and the intimacy and issues between sisters are better than one can remember them in their own childhood. In the italicized story, she succeeds at detailing what it feels like to struggle with a weight problem and compulsive eating disorder. While reminiscent of my own binge eating problem during college, the feelings are universal to any addiction or compulsive disorder. The third story was more clinical and sad but a good representation of many who are put in the position of caretaker between generations.
   
   An overall theme in the book, she succeeds at seeing the person separate from the "problem" and exposing how society has a hard time doing that. The whole book club here loved it.



4. I had the honor to be nominated for a special award, known as the Needle Award, along with Ann Pai. There were five books total, who were nominated, and Ann's did not win. Before I found out the results, I bought her book, in part to check out my competition, and it part because I believed this would be the one to win, based on reviews and the part I read from Amazon.
   
   Of course it was difficult to find out on the fateful morning that I had not won, but I never really expected it. I ordered the book that acutally won, but it had yet to arrive. Meanwhile, I had been reading Ann's, and was spellbound. Ann's words were beautiful, her thoughts jewels. I felt like I was listening to a friend. I, too, had lost a sister.
   
   A few days after the award was announced, I found myself throwing a book against the wall and breaking down into tears. I was reading the book that won, and I threw it against the wall, irrevocably creasing it's catchy cover, ruining it's pages. (I'm not mentioning titles here, they are unimportant)
   
   Why was I crying? The judges who decided this award had this to say about the winning novel: "Deasy has penned a fantastic debut novel. [New York Publishers] need more books like this and less of everything else. This is [the kind of book] that comes to mind when someone says American Literature."
   
   Perhaps I am prudish, but knowing this was what they thought of the book, and seeing for myself the senseless sex, the drug use, binge drinking, the ridiculously recurrent use of the F word, the "by the way" type of voice it had, I couldn't help but throw it against the wall. If this is what American Literature should be, God help us.
   
   Ann's memoir, My Other Body, IS WHAT AMERICAN LITERATURE SHOULD BE!
   
   I have yet to read a book that touched me so much, that took an uncomfortable topic and told the beautiful truth. Notice I did not say brutal truth. Ann's book could have been brutal, it could have shocked me, it could even have sickened me, as morbid obesity sickens me, but it didn't. Because of the tender way she shared her sister with us, painted her as a person who was a "prisoner" to her body, I loved Joyce along with her, and cried at her death, at her pain and her struggle. I lost my sister to schizophrenia, another disease, which like morbid obesity, snatches those we love from us, changes them irrevocably, twists our hearts, yanking them this way and that between revulsion and seemingly hopeless love.
   
   I cannot accept the other book as the winner. I cannot change the result, but I am a writer, and can say my piece. Ann Pai's book did what I tried to do with mine. So, here's to the first ever Fay Freimuth Award. Congratulations, Ann



5. This book weaves three incredible stories into one. All women and especially sisters can relate to Ann and her sister's story.
   
   But what is most compelling is how Ann Pai uses metaphor to create vivid pictures and experiences for her readers. You will want more from this author, for no one else can describe the world to you like Ann. She is in turn funny and ever heartfelt. The connections in Ann's world will open your mind to a new way of thinking that you will enjoy.
   
   Looking forward to her future works.

5 comments about Running on Empty.

1. I came to this book knowing little of eating disorders, and in that I seem to differ from all the previous reviewers. This book is one intellectual's look at the eating disorder that nearly took her life away. Have no doubt of the books intellectualism, Arnold ability to objectively analyze the situation she finds herself in pervades the book. She does not seek pity for her suffering or a parade for her recovery, but simply understanding. Understanding for both herself, and for people such as myself that really have no idea what eating disorders can do.
   
   This book is very approachable. Fortunately, Arnold has written her analysis in a simple, straightforward way making it very approachable. The book is of moderate length, making it an easily digestible book. The only troubles I had with the book were the horrors that I'm learning are the truth of an eating disorder. But those only serve to strengthen the tale.
   
   To say it simply, if you too would like to begin to understand, this book is a great place to start.



2. The author takes an intellectual approach but never provides the reader with any suggestion that she has real insight into the underlying issues that undoubtedly drove her to an eating disorder in the first place. In fact, very little real emotion is expressed throughout this rather straightforward, almost dry read. The book is filled with descriptions of symptomatic behavior and weight numbers (although she doesn't give her height, she might as well, as it's easy to figure out in context). She is far more interested in describing her concerns and behaviors with food, calories and weight than she is in delving into the issues which might have brought her to the point of near-fatal illness. Compounding her eating disorder is OCD, adding to an undoubted biochemical influence. Because of the OCD it is likely that the anorexia nervosa is secondary and is actually more of a food phobia directly associated with OCD than it is anorexia nervosa per se. The behaviors and the consequences of those behaviors are, of course, the same.
   
   Regardless of the disorder's actual diagnosis, phobias don't exist without a stimulus. Something initiates them. Even to the casual reader of this book, issues pop out: enmeshment with parents, perfectionism, leaving home, fear of taking on adult responsibilities, etc., etc., and yet Carrie Arnold only briefly glosses over these if even directly mentioning them at all. I hope she has actually addressed her issues in therapy.
   
   I suspect that far from the optimism she radiates at the end of the book, when she is proclaiming recovery, that in actuality this young woman is far from finished with dealing with her issues or her phobias....



3. SO GOOD. couldn't put it down. eloquently and passionately written. SO accurate.



4. This book captivated me for one reason: I could relate. I have read so many ED books that find the underlying problem of eating disorders to be either sexual abuse or some other triggering trauma. What about us that really don't have a reason. That have loving families and friends. This girl seemed to one of those. Like me. So it was refreshing to find out that I am not just nuts, but that there are others like me out there.



5. I'll be the first to admit that I do not read very often. Rarely does a book captivate me in a way where I feel I cannot put the book down. I've read the book three times already. I could relate to her in many ways and maybe that is why I found her sarcasim in the book very humorous. Although she doesn't offer any answers, that was never her intention. She didn't know what the answers were. All she knew is that in the end you've got to make a choice to live or die. She chose to live and get help. Anorexia didn't start because she came from a bad home or something tragic happened to trigger it. Carrie simply fell into the addiction of losing weight, counting calories, and greuling exercise routine. What for? Hell if she knows. I absolutely loved it and wish she would write more books. I love her style of writing.

2 comments about Schweitzer: A Biography.

1. A brilliant bravo to a task well done. G. Marshall & D. Poling have captured succinctly the life of the last of the 'Enlightenment' minds. Albert Schweitzer was true to the principles of reason, naturalism and thought. He took these principles and undauntedly applied them to his religion and his culture. Albert Schweitzer was a critic of Christianity and modern civilization and this book captures Albert Schweitzer, "the critic".

   In the world and church around him he saw conformity and the lack of individual reflection. This is a book about a nonconformism, a brilliant theologian/philosopher and a humanitarian genius.

   Unlike other biographies of Schweitzer I have read, these authors write with a fluid, engaging style, pulling you closer to the man that they knew and profiled. Albert Schweitzer lived 90 years and the length of his life is a challenge that biographers must face. They must capture the individualistic spirit of Albert Schweitzer youth, the brilliance of his middle years and the tenacity of his old age.

   Albert Schweitzer's Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 spoke of his sacrificial work in Africa, his vital practical philosophy of life, his call to clear comprehension of the historic Jesus that Christianity needs to embrace, his musical brilliance, his compassion for the animal kingdom and his love of healing. Yet, to brush stroke with ink a portrait of this unbelievable figure is a demanding undertaking and Marshall and Poling have done it right, and they did right to one of the greatest personalities of the twentieth century. Strongly recommended. 4.5 Stars.




2. This is a fine biography of one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century. During his lifetime, (ninety years) Schweitzer the great man transformed into Schweitzer the great myth; the great white hope, saving the bodies and souls of the primitive black man of Africa. In our post colonial age, with its post modern, abstract cultural theories of the `other', Schweitzer became an easy target for cultural critics, using the man and his work as representative of everything evil about the self-perceived superiority of Western man over `primitive cultures'. It is without question, that, for the most part, European imperialism justified their greedy exploitation of developing countries as efforts to `civilize' them. Our culture, knowledge and religion were superior to these `savages', and while we stole their natural resources, we gave them enlightenment. Further to this, however, as we stole and enlightened, we also gave them our diseases, which, in some cases, virtually wiped out entire peoples. From the very beginning, Albert Schweitzer was aware of the European's injustices to these people, and deeply felt some kind of atonement or restitution had to be made. Schweitzer's intention was to essentially help; his inspiring example paved the way for present humanitarian organizations to make a difference or at least become more effective in their aid. This biography successfully dismantles the `great white hope' myth, and presents the man as an insightful critic of Western values and traditional theology, a man who lived his philosophy - or as Schweitzer said, "Live his argument". One can never truly understand or judge someone based on what they say or what they write; only through the results of a person's actions can we really know them. Marshall and Poling's biography of Schweitzer includes his writing and many quotes from conversations and interviews, but argue his greatness from the stand point of his actions. In other words, his fifty years of service and the establishment of the Lambarene hospital, speaks for itself.

   Schweitzer became aware of his mission to serve his fellow travellers on this planet somewhat late in life. An established philosopher and theologian at age thirty, a principal of a respected seminary, he awoke one morning to realize everything life had given him, and it was time to give back. After reading an article calling for trained medical staff to work in West Africa, he knew what he needed to do. Against heavy opposition from family and friends, he returned to university as a mature-aged student to study medicine, attaining his degree. The public know much about his early life but as his daughter, Rhena Schweitzer, writes in the Forward, "It is the first biography that gives an account of the last years of my fathers live. It helps explain and dissipates some of the false ideas about his relationship to the Africans." This book dispels these falsehoods and myths, and is also a sensitive and objective appraisal of a man and his life.

   An inspiring read.

5 comments about Secret Life: An Autobiography.

1. My Dad used to teach me that no one is "weird", but that we are all people of different backgrounds and experiences. This book shows that truth in the life story of Michael Ryan. It's a brilliant example of the experiences that shape each individual life, for better or worse or sometimes, eventually, both



2. I found Secret Life reveals many insights about human nature. Michael Ryan models a way to honestly face the worst aspects of oneself--right through adolescence--with humor, compassion, and therefore the capacity to change.



3. This is one of the very best books I have ever read about sex addiction. Not only does it present a powerful, gut-wrenching account of what it feels like to be such an addict, it also tells a moving, often tragic, but also inspiring story of growing up in the America of the '50s and '60s.

   The author wins you over early as he leads you slowly and painfully through his early childhood and molestation, his memories of his alcoholic father, academic and athletic struggles, peer conflicts, bottoming out in his sex addiction, then seeking recovery through a 12-step program.

   Must reading for anyone affiliated in any way at all with any of the nearly half dozen programs dealing with sex/lust addiction. Highly recommended for other 12-step recovery people who might be tempted to snear at sex addiction. Ryan demonstrates that his disease was just as deadly as alcoholism and drug addiction. After reading the book, one realizes it is no laughing matter - regardless of what some sitcoms and commercials say.

   Compares well with "Asylum" by Patrick McGrath, also about sex addiction, but, unlike "Secret Life," a novel with the tone of a thriller. Ryan's story is so compelling, one almost feels sorry to put it down but wishes the author well at the end as he embarks on a hopeful journey of recovery.




4. I never understood sexual addiction until I read this book. Ryan is incredible - he is able to completely convey what horrors this compulsive behavior meant for him. What said it all to me is when he explained he would go into bars and pick up whomever - a man, a woman . . . it didn't seem to matter! (He wasn't bisexual) Another shocker is that he had an incredible position at Princeton, but just couldn't keep his you-know-what away from his students. All that mattered is that he HAD to have sex, the compulsion was so incredibly intense, he just approached whomever was handy. In addition, this book, surprisingly enough, is amazingly funny (it reminds me of another memoir, "Permanent Midnight" in that way). Sometimes I found myself laughing out loud! It seemed that the humor was a great healer for him. My only regret is that he didn't reveal his treatment, which I would have loved to have learned about, as his compulsion was so deeply engrained. Bravo to him for "coming out of the closet" on this issue, writing this book, and showing us what this compulsion took from him.



5. This book was tasteful and interesting. I bought and read this book because I saw that my english professor was reading it--I didn't even know what it was about. When I bought it and saw it was about an addiction to sex I felt a little embarrassed--but soon got over it because it's not about sex, it's about a man with an addiction. I reccomend this as a literary read if nothing else. Ryan has true talent.

5 comments about My Father's Heart: A Son's Journey.

1. Steve McKee has written a touching, nostalgic and informative book that will appeal to everyone.
   My Father's Heart is about Mr. McKee's family's experience of his father's fatal heart attack that came in the prime of his life. The book explores the personal and biological legacy of Mr. McKee's father's death. Cutting back and forth in time and geography Mr. McKee creates an engaging story that weaves themes of family and community relationships, coming of age and how he has come to terms with his father's heart attack and death.
   The book is also very informative about the current state of medical arts concerning healthy heart care and healthy living; the interplay of biological predispositions and the impact and control we can have on our own medical destinies. Mr. McKee leaves us with the reaffirming message that we are capable of influencing the course of our physical wellbeing and our life outlook.



2. As a teenager author Steven McKee watched his father die of a heart attack in their living room, part of a family chain of heart disease and death caused by lifestyle and family heritage. Disappointed by his father's ignoring of his disease, the author vowed to keep his heart in top condition - yet a lifetime of dieting and exercise didn't change his own diagnosis of serious cardiovascular disease. McKee's probe into a family heritage of illness makes for a moving story blending health and genetic insights with his own discoveries of motivations for change and health, making for a moving, engrossing survey hard to put down. Both health libraries and general-interest collections will find it involving.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. A touching book that brought me back to my own childhood...I am thankful to the author for impressing on me a very important lesson, that is, even though our fathers may pass on physically, their memories continue to live in our hearts forever influencing us in very important ways. Even though I was fortunate to have my father until he was 84 years old, it will always feel that he too was taken from our family too soon. My father's death, like the author's, from a heart condition, taught his children how very important it was to take better care of ourselves physically before it was too late. I especially appreciated the author's depiction of his childhood years, growing up in a neighborhood similar to my own in suburban Detroit. The author brought it all alive for me. This book is a GREAT read and I highly recommend it...



4. The number one killer in the United States has a personality. In Steve McKee's family odyssey--as with most people's--heart disease is very personal. It can snatch the life of your father, turn your world upside down, make you obsessively interested in your family tree, drive you to swear oaths of healthy eating and exercise, wring your worried hands over living long enough to see your own children make it to adulthood, curse the universe because you got what your father got, and finally understand that the life you want is up to you. "My Father's Heart" is as much about healthy hearts and loving hearts as it is about hearts under siege.



5. I heard about the book, "My Father's Heart: A Son's Journey" during an interview with the author, Steve McKee. The reason for the interest was loosing my husband suddenly last July 30, 2007 to a massive heart attack.
   We have 4 children, 2 boys then 2 girls. They range in age 41 - 47 years old.
   
   The children have become very conscious of making sure that they are getting thorough doctor examinations every year, something that, especially the men, have not been faithful in doing. They all do exercise. So this part is good. However, they are all having a very difficult time in the grieving process because of the closeness to their father. He was a very animated and loving man, so the void is great.
   
   When I listened to the interview on the Today Show, I thought that this book might just be something that the children should read to help them in their loss. I purchased 4 copies and gave a copy to each one on Valentine's Day.
   
   I have started to read the book and have found many similarities that I know they will be able to relate to.
   
   I was very happy to have found the book on Amizon.Com. The cost was a lot more reasonable then if I had bought these copies at a book store. I received the books 3 days after I ordered them.
   
   This book depicts the love of family and the loss of a very dear member of that family, even though the father, knowing his condition, did not take care of himself as he should have.

2 comments about The Doctor Wore Petticoats: Women Physicians of the Old West.

1. I picked this book up to read around 8pm in the evening. I didn't put it down
   until I was finished reading it at 2:15am. Although I am able to speed read
   this book was so interesting and entertaining that I couldn't miss a single
   word. This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the Old West.
   It combined humor, struggle and determination to give a very insightful and
   educating book. The book gave a very vivid picture of female doctors in the
   Old West. As a bonus it has a wonderful collection of "Frontier Medicine"
   listed in the back of the book. Remedies such as carrying an onion in your
   pocket to prevent smallpox and owl broth to cure whooping cough are just
   a few. If you pick up this book...clear your schedule because you won't be
   able to put it down until you have read every single page.



2. After reading Hearts West and enjoying it so much, I looked into other books by this author and discovered this jewel. It was an incredibly informative and interesting read. Chris Enss is a gifted writer. She gives the reader insight to a world that was so vastly different from that of today. After reading each woman's story in the book, I longed for more. That is my only disappointment; that I can't know more about each of these women Ms. Enss writes about. I highly recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in what life was like for women in the Old West.

5 comments about No Footprints in the Sand - A Memoir of Kalaupapa.

1. I've now given away so many copies of No Footprints that I should have bought a dozen or twenty at wholesale. Henry's is an amazing story of a kolohe kanaka - naughty Hawaiian - who had the misfortune to contract a dreaded disease in 1936. Sally-Jo Bowman's input makes it a fascinating read. Sounds just like Henry sat down and wrote it all by himself, but we know it doesn't work that way. I chuckled at Henry's can-do attitude. Man after my own heart. I'm glad the book includes all his Casanova events. What a guy, a real renaissance kanaka kane - Hawaiian man. Great title!



2. In his powerful first book, "Uncle Henry" Nalaielua tells a story that has rarely been told, of a dark moment of Hawai'i's history; not from the distant viewpoint of the historian, but from the first-person testimony of its survivor.
   
   With honesty, humor and vivid detail, Henry's courageous tale touched my soul, so profoundly, that I kept wanting to know more. I couldn't put it down and finished it in one sitting, wishing that it wouldn't end. It stirred emotions in the same way as Paulo Coelho's, "The Alchemist," in its message of following one's dream, despite all obstacles. (Except, this is no fable; it is a real life piece.)
   
   Along with his brilliant co-author, Sally-Jo Bowman, he weaves an intimate story of strength and perserverence, which will surely be known for decades to come as one of the islands' finest mo`olelo.
   
   This is a must read for everyone and makes for a wonderful gift. It will touch you in surprising ways, and make you want to meet this incredible man and the spiritual place that he would finally call, "home."



3. Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (3/07)
   
   This is an amazing story. It is Henry's story. Henry Nalielua, diagnosed with Hansen's disease at the age of ten, was branded leprous. "No Footprints in the Sand" is an important memoir. It tells of the journey that took Henry from a sugar plantation community on the Island of Hawaii to Kalaupapa, a remote settlement on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.
   
   Nalaielua's story is inspiring. Even in exile, with lifelong medical and physical challenges and isolation from his family, he faced life with hope, perseverance, courage, and humor. Henry learned to draw and paint. He became an artist. Henry loved music and mastered the ukulele and upright bass. He became a musician. Henry's mind was sharp. He was determined and quick-to-learn. He became an historian. Henry has also served on numerous public agency advisory boards. When the facility at Kalaupapa was named a National Historic Park, Henry became a guide for park visitors. He still resides at Kalaupapa
   
   Co-author Sally-Jo Bowman worked determinedly over a period of years to help bring Henry's story to publication. She first met Henry in 1995, when he helped her with on-site research at Kaluapapa for several magazine articles about the Hansen's disease colony.
   
   Henry's story is unforgettable. It is told with intimacy and openness. "No Footprints in the Sand" is a heartwarming memoir that will inspire anyone facing adversity, long term illness, or needing encouragement. This was a very positive reading experience.



4. Aloha kakou,
   Outstanding collaborative effort by two very important Native Hawaiian voices. This wonderful portrait details a man`s life spent well--dealing with the challenges and trials of surviving Hansen`s disease in Kalaupapa, Moloka`i. Not an in depth about Hansen`s or Kalaupapa, this is Henry`s story, his life, loves, talents and legacy. Henry tells his story, through Sally-Jo`s sensitive handling, with the self effacing, off hand manner of a true local Bruddah. Typical of Hawaiians of his generation, he can do a handful of difficult things really well. This celebration of a life lived with purpose also shows what can result from a life lived purposefully with Aloha. I strongly recommend this book.



5. we loved this story I didn't not realize there was a history on these
   people. and it was done so well I would recommend you read Malaki first
   then this book after. good read

3 comments about Final Negotiations Pb (Health Society And Policy).

1. This book is so insightful and a wonderful description of what it is like to be primary caretaker for one you love. The text is wonderfully written and moves you deeply into the lives of the characters. Ellis does not shy away from honesty, and in doing so helps us all better face the realities of caring for the terminally ill. On the other hand, Ellis still manages to leave us with hope.



2. Ellis' autoethnographic novel graphically depicted details about the relationship she had with Gene who was her professor, partner and who later became her husband. As a scholar Ellis' Final Negotiations offered poignant thoughts, which are often ignored in academia. Ellis' experiences regarding her open relationship with Gene, his deteriorating health and her own professional growth, as a woman and scholar in her field were raw, authentic and made you appreciate healthy relationships, supportive colleagues and the ability to express yourself despite what critics have to say. Ellis' willingness to allow her readers to study how she analyzed her own subjectivity made me consider some of my inner thoughts. I recommend this book to anyone interested in finding hope and balance in all life bring us.



3. "Final Negotiations," for all its flaws, should help a lot of people. These are the people suffering from insomnia.
   
   Think of the book as a sandwich. Two wafer-thin slices of sociology in the introduction and conclusion, holding between them a big fat slice of baloney.
   
   The separation of evocative prose and sociology is the book's main flaw. In addition, the long narrative of illness is absolutely dull and tedious to read. It reads like.... fieldnotes. Like the fieldnotes of a goody two-shoes master's student who has discovered Autoethnography and is struggling to write one. Ellis is the author of good methodological treatises, but she can preach better than she can practice. "The Ethnographic I" is an excellent textbook, but "Final Negotations" is as scintillating as mucus.
   
   I think more sex would have made the book halfway passable.

5 comments about I Remember Running: The Year I Got Everything I Ever Wanted - and ALS.

1. This book is very easy & quick to read - good for those who don't like to spend a lot of time reading one book.
   
   As I was reading this book, I could easily relate to Darcy's frustration. A few years ago, I had a neurological problem where my muscles were slowly becoming weak, and I could hardly walk or move. It was extremely exhausting just getting out of bed. Thankfully, my problem was resolved, but I remember at the time watching other people go about their normal business, like walking etc, and thinking "They are walking so easily, like they don't have to think about it", yet I had to think about everything I did, just like Darcy.
   
   I felt genuine empathy for Darcy, and I am so happy that she lived her last year with so much happiness, despite her terminal illness.
   
   This book reminds me of another I have read recently by Kim Dalton "The Real Fight". Recommended reading.



2. This is a book I find myselfing re-reading a couple times a year (and I don't tend to re-read books). Inspiring, truthful, I feel I could really relate and understand the author. Love this book! Truly beautiful. She left a precious gift to her readers. Highly recommend. Please read other reviews to learn about the content of this book.



3. I was hoping that this book would be an uplifting account of hope to encourage my husband who was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. It was NOT. Would not recommend it.



4. I HAVE NOTICED THAT SOME OF THESE REVIEWS ARE FROM PEOPLE WHO KNEW DARCY. FROM THIS, I AM SURE THAT HER FAMILY AND FRIENDS WILL CHECK UP ON THE REVIEWS ON AMAZON FROM TIME TO TIME. TEN YEARS FROM NOW, WHEN SAMUEL READS THIS HE CAN FEEL PROUD OF HIS MOTHER AND THE LIFE SHE GAVE HIM. THIS BOOK BY DARCY IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN. I HAVE A 1 YEAR OLD AND I AM ALONE THIS WEEKEND TAKING CARE OF HIM AND I MADE TIME TO READ THIS BOOK WHILE HE NAPPED A COUPLE TIMES AND FINISHED THIS BOOK AFTER HIS BEDTIME. AFTER READING THIS BOOK, I WILL ALWAYS REALIZE HOW LUCKY I AM, EVEN THOUGH I HAVE SUFFERED FROM MANY PHYSICAL PROBLEMS THROUGH MY LIFE, NOTHING COMPARES TO WHAT DARCY WENT THROUGH AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY THAT SHE GOT TO MEET HER SON BEFORE SHE WENT ON TO THE NEXT WORLD. ONLY A PARENT COULD UNDERSTAND THAT FEELING.
   
   ALSO, I AM SURE YOU WILL AT TIMES FEEL AN EMPTINESS IN YOUR HEART, SAMUEL, BUT I HAVE A GIFT TO HELP YOU THROUGH YOUR TOUGH TIMES. I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHY I RECOMMEND THESE GIFTS, BUT ORDER THEM OR CALL ME AND I'LL PURCHASE THEM FOR YOU! I MEAN IT.
   
   ORDER THE BOOKS AND READ THEM IN THIS ORDER.
   1.CLOSER TO THE LIGHT BY MELVIN MORSE
   2.RETURN FROM TOMORROW BY GEORGE RITCHIE
   3.AND IF YOU LIKE THOSE TWO FOR MORE,,,READ THE STARTER, LIFE AFTER LIFE BY MOODY.
   
   I HAVE READ HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS OF BOOKS AND I RECOMMEND THESE TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO'S EVER LIVED.
   
   
   
   YOUR MOTHER IS AN INSPIRATION TO ANYONE WHO COMES ACROSS HER STORY. GOD BLESS HER.



5. 
   In the first half of 2003 Darcy Wakefield, age 33, began to seriously assess her life. A relationship had broken up and while she was happy with her roles as runner, swimmer, writer and college English professor, she longed for more. A child, she realized, was essential to her; a man, important but not essential. She took a bilateral approach to her goals, registering with dating services and investigating sperm banks. Darcy had the magnificent good fortune to meet her soulmate in a Denver doctor named Steve, nearly 2,100 miles from her home in southern Maine.
   
   As her relationship with Steve grew in strength, Darcy's strong runner's legs began to weaken. In October of that year she was diagnosed with motor neuron syndrome -- ALS -- Lou Gehrig's disease. This fatal but unpredictable disease kicked Darcy's life into "fast-forward." Steve moved to Maine to be with her, they began house hunting, and early in 2004 Darcy was pregnant.
   
   This journal-like little book is Darcy's exploration of her new world. The short essays are dated and each is named with a present participle that celebrates her new appreciation of life in the here-and-now -- "Committing;" "Expecting;" "Moving;" "Helping;" "Loving;" and the poignant final section, "Birthing," in which she describes the birth of their son Samuel.
   
   While Darcy hopes for a remission of her disease, her thoughtful writing explores the twin realities of her blessings and her losses. Within a year she loses the ability not just to run, bike and swim, but eventually to walk, write and speak. Along the way are wonderful lessons about how to live life joyfully and understand the meaning of disability. "I hate asking for help," Darcy writes. "I am ... a Mainer by birth and disposition, which is to say that I am an independent, stubborn, do-it-my-way-and-by-myself kind of woman, the sort of person who hates being dependent on others."
   
   When the simple things that Darcy took for granted are lost to her, she finds a way to accommodate the loss. In her former life as a busy athletic woman, for example, she rarely took time for manicures. Now unable to do her own nails, she begins to have them done regularly. She writes, "The real truth of my ALS is that it takes daily acts of courage to get up, live the day fully, be grateful for what I have, and to find the humor and grace and the pleasure, yes, pleasure, in not being able to clip my own nails." And as cooking and even eating become difficult for her, she describes her new way of eating: "Slowly. Mindfully. Thankfully."
   
   There is nothing self-pitying about I Remember Running: The Year I Got Everything I Ever Wanted - and ALS; nor is there a false gaiety or denial about her life with ALS. Darcy Wakefield writes intelligently and with the utmost courage about her daily accommodations to weakness and to getting everything she ever wanted, all in the space of little more than a year. Far from being a sorrowful read, this little book may be the most heart-warming and thought-provoking thing you will read this year. Some of Darcy's essays were produced for Maine Public Radio and she made fund-raising public appearances. When she could no longer read her work, her sister Betsy read to the audience. In her last appearance Darcy sat in her wheelchair while Betsy spoke her words: ''You may very well be one of those people who's sitting on a great story, waiting for the right time to write it. Here's my challenge to you. Write now. Write here. Write your first sentence."
   
   Although it's outside the time scale of this brave little book, readers should know that Darcy Wakefield died in December 2005, three months after this book was released. Her partner, Dr. Steve Stout, lives in Maine with their young son Sam.
   
   If you've ever lost or loved -- and who hasn't? -- Darcy Wakefield's intensely personal story will touch your soul.
   
   Linda Bulger, 2008

1 comments about Vaccination Against Smallpox (Great Minds Series).

1. I'm always in awe of the great science pioneers that have gone before us. This brief book provides a peak into the thoughts and methods of one of those pioneers. As long as the reader keeps in mind the literary style of the time as well as the level of maturity of scientific experimentation, they will find this book to be inspiring and useful. I especially recommend this book to future scientists and those interested in the history of science.