2 comments about Into the Shadows: A Journey of Faith and Love into Alzheimer's.

1. Many of my friends have watched their parents disappear into the strange world of Alzheimer's disease, and I read this book to try to understand a little more what they are going through. It is wonderful! The author is a trained psychologist, but he writes with tender romanticism about his beautiful, brilliant wife. Although we meet her as she is teetering over the edge into the darkness of dementia, he brings her vividly back to life by telling us about her as a young woman, a mother,a musician, college professor, community activist and good friend, so that we mourn with him as he watches the woman he knew disappear. He offers a lot of insight into how to understand the Alzheimer's patient and what kind of help the caregiver needs in order to make the right decisions. This book is not a downer, but ultimately a moving message about how great faithfulness makes life's sorrows bearable.



2. I was swept off my feet by this book. It is a love story between a man and his wife, Roberta, who was fighting the battle with Alzheimer's, and between both of them and God. The author's faith grew even as the strain of taking care of his wife increased. His training as a psychologist enabled him to reveal his feelings in many difficult circumstances and to empathize with the horrors that his wife was going through.  At times I cried and at other times I laughed.  This is not a how-to book.  Rather, it is a book written from the inner experience of the caregiver as he accompanied his wife day by day from the earliest days of her journey into this horrific disease, until the day he placed her in the keeping of professional caregivers.

5 comments about MY LEFT FOOT.

1. The book my left foot is very interesting because it deals with a child born with a disease that gives him no control over his body
   but he, at a young age learned to use his left foot to write, eat, actually do anything a normal person can do with there hands. christy shows in this book how any person of any race, or even with any disease has the same feelings and are capable of almost anything.



2. This book was a book because it tells how christy over came his disibality and acomplished his goals in life. Not every person with a disibality can acomplish things like that in their life.I think christy is a very amazing person for doing the things that he has done.



3. The book "My Left Foot", was one of the best books I have read. It tells the life story of Christy Brown and how he still lived his life while his little body was twisted with a disease. I found it very touching at times and it made me happy to when he would over come bumps in his life. When he first made the letter "A" I was smiling from ear to ear.

   I would recommend this book to for anyone to read, especially to a mother with a disabled child. It really proves that no matter who you are, you can do anything you put your mind to.

   I can't wait to see the movie!




4. The book My Left Foot by Christy Brown was an inspiring novel about a young boy yearning to live a life full of communication. The story began with doctors giving his parents no hope for the future for this boy with cerebral palsy. Life takes an unexpected turn when his left foot comes alive. Over time challenges arise. Some obstacles are over come while other hurdles are left for him to face. With his mother by his side they were determined to struggle through poverty and his severe disability.



5. This is the story of a young man who was born in Ireland in 1932, after a difficult birth and with a severe disability that the doctors of the time were unable to name. They urged his parents to disavow him, as he was, they believed, an imbecile with a severely spastic body. Moreover, his parents then had five other children, all healthy. Christy's mother, however, refused to institutionalize him, keeping him at home and treating him as she would her other children. It would not be until years later that she would learn that Christy's affliction was severe cerebral palsy.

   Imprisoned in a world all his own and seeming without means to communicate, Christy, at the age of five, made an attempt that was to change his life forever. Rather than being imbecilic, Christy was actually highly intelligent. He took a piece of chalk with his left foot and, having captured the attention of his family, proceeded to scrawl on the floor a reasonable facsimile of the letter "A", astounding his loving family in the process.

   By breaking the communications barrier, Christy demonstrated that he could learn and understand. From then on, his capacity for learning was prodigious. Who would have thought that within his severely contorted and convulsed body lay a razor sharp mind and a thirst for knowledge? Certainly not the medical community, which had been so willing to consign him to institutional living. Armed with his left foot, the only part of his body over which he seemed to have some control, Christy Brown would demonstrate to the world who he really was. He was, after all, not the imbecile that the medical community had originally thought but an intelligent and sentient human being.

   This is Christy Brown's triumphant and inspirational story of his battle to learn to read, write, and paint, all with the aid of his left foot. It is an inspirational story of his quest for fulfillment. His yearning to be as others are is palpable, and his struggle for acceptance beyond the borders of his home and his physical limitations are well articulated. Christy Brown gives the reader a birds-eye view of what it is like to be a person with severe cerebral palsy. First published in Great Britain in 1954, when Christy Brown was twenty-two, this book, written with his left foot, is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

5 comments about Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W..

1. This book contains great information and insight about the man who was instrumental in the formation of the 12 Step programs. I even bought one for my sponsor, who knew of Ebby, but didn't know some of the history this book provides. A wonderful addition to every recovery library!



2. Ebby was a man you can't help but love. Kind of like Otis from Andy Griffith. Only his life was much more heartbreaking. Also he played a part in changing the world for the better.



3. 1. The Twelve Steps do not work as a program of recovery from drug or alcohol problems.
   o The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:
   o One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless -- that it didn't help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested -- a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as "appalling". While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. After 8 years of A.A. treatment, the score with Dr. Vaillant's first 100 alcoholic patients was: 5 sober, 29 dead, and 66 still drinking.
   (Nevertheless, Vaillant is still a Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he still wants to send all alcoholics to A.A. anyway, to "get an attitude change by confessing their sins to a high-status healer." That is cult religion, not a treatment program for alcoholism.)
   o The A.A. dropout rate is terrible. Most people who come to A.A. looking for help in quitting drinking are appalled by the narrow-minded atmosphere of fundamentalist religion and faith-healing. The A.A. meeting room has a revolving door. The therapists, judges, and parole officers (many of whom are themselves hidden members of A.A. or N.A.) continually send new people to A.A., but those newcomers vote with their feet once they see what A.A. really is. Even A.A.'s own triennial surveys, conducted by the A.A. headquarters (the GSO), say that:
   81% of the newcomers are gone within 30 days,
   90% are gone in 3 months, and
   95% are gone at the end of a year.
   That automatically gives A.A. a failure rate of at least 95%. But the GSO does not count all of those people who only attend a few meetings before quitting -- they don't qualify as "members". (That amounts to "cherry-picking".) If we included them, then the numbers would be much worse.
   
   First there is the propaganda technique of "everybody's doing it": "AA or a similar Twelve-Step program is an integral part of almost all successful recoveries".
   That is a complete falsehood. The vast majority of the successful people recover without A.A. or any "support group". It's what "everybody" is doing.
   Then they use the propaganda techniques of use of the passive voice and vague suggestions: "It is widely believed that not including a Twelve-Step program in a treatment plan can put a recovering addict on the road to relapse."
   It is widely believed by whom? And what do those unnamed people know? What are their qualifications? Are they doctors? Medical school professors? Or salesmen for a 12-Step treatment center? Why should we care what some unnamed invisible fools allegedly believe, anyway?
   The authors also use the propaganda technique of fear-mongering: you will be "on the road to relapse" -- you will probably die -- unless you practice Bill Wilson's Twelve Step cult religion.
   And then the fluff-headed Pollyanna attitude is outrageous: Just going to the wonderful A.A. meetings is supposedly all that is needed to fix some alcoholics.
   But since A.A. has a zero-percent success rate above and beyond the normal rate of spontaneous remission, that cannot possibly be true.



4. I have been interested in AA history for several years. This book provides a lot of interesting facts about Ebby and includes the connections leading up to his meeting with Bill. Without him Bill would have had no message to carry to Dr. Bob and I would not be alive to write this. I loved it and couldn't put it down until I finished it.



5. I've come to know Mel and his lovely wife pretty well. Mel and I began collaborating way back in 1990. At our Marin County AA History Conference. And I've been in touch with him in following years as to his writings, my writings, and various viewpoints on A.A. problems, beliefs, and values. Often he has mentioned to me this or that book on which he was beginning or completing work.
   
   One day Mel said he was going to write about Ebby. He said he felt Ebby had always been sort of short-changed. And most know why--Ebby was just a flash in the pan in the course of A.A. development; and Ebby returned to drinking for much of the later period. But his pal Bill Wilson never deserted him.
   
   This book is important. But it too needs to be taken in context. And it needs to be read in light of some of the material Mel may not have known when he penned this delightful work. I thought Ebby and Bill were classmates at Burr and Burton Academy. But recent research there disclosed that Ebby was kind of a "visiting" student. His family would come up from Albany, and Ebby would study. As to Bill's drinking and Ebby's drinking, I leave the story in Mel's capable hands.
   
   But there's are important gaps in the Ebby Thacher story. Maybe the first one was the number of times people have misspelled Ebby Thacher's name and also the name of his Oxford Group mentor Rowland Hazard. You may see the name "Thatcher." That's not correct, and it was Mel who first set me straight by saying with a chuckle that he had the definitive proof--Ebby's tombstone. People are still using the erroneous "Thatcher," but he's Edwin Throckmorton Thacher! So too as to Rowland Hazard. Bill Wilson and others called him "Roland" and some called him "Hazzard." I had to resolve that one at Brown University where I went to the Main Library and researched the endless Rowland Hazard clan chain and got that one straight. What's the point? Well most of us are so fuzzy minded in early sobriety that we can't even remember much about ourselves, and we resort to calling fellow AAs "Heart Attack Jack," or "Yosemite Tom," or, in my case, "Shaky Dick." And if that stuff isn't supplemented, we never do know the names of our illustrious comrades when they get well. Anonymity protects those who want to be protected and supposedly protects the fellowship if some poor soul goes back to drinking. But most of us don't want to be in the closet of anonymity in "real life"--only when we conform to A.A. Traditions in press, radio, film, and TV; and even that is fast disappearing with celebrity games.
   
   Back to Ebby and the real gap. The messed up part of the story has to do with what Ebby did of major importance before he witnessed to Bill and what Bill did of major importance after Ebby had carried the message. I've seen lots of erroneous tales and half-truths even in A.A. literature. But it's important to know that Ebby was housed at Calvary Rescue Mission in New York; that his real change occurred when he went to the altar and made a decision for Christ; and that this message was conveyed to Bill--something you rarely hear about.The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator's Role in Early A.A.. Next, Bill staggered down to the Mission, said he wanted to get what Ebby had received, and went to the altar himself. There Bill made his decision for Christ.New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. (2d ed.). After that, Bill wrote at least twice that, "for sure." he was born again.Turning Point: A History of Early A.A.'s Spiritual Roots and Successes. Unfortunately the real impact of both Ebby's conversion to Christ and Bill's conversion to Christ has been clouded with all the "choose your own conception of God" and "Oxford Group program" ideas that have led to "higher powers" and "lightbulbs" and door knobs. Actually, whether Ebby actually talked about such nonsense is a matter yet to be resolved; for there's now plenty of historical evidence showing that Ebby told Bill to surrender to God as Bill understood Him, not as Bill wanted to manufacture Him. And God, in the Mission and in Bill's own language, was the "God of the Scriptures"--Creator, Maker, Father, Spirit. Put it all together, without the full details, and you have the erroneous message that Ebby Thacher was telling Bill to choose his own conception of God, follow the Oxford Group precepts, and have a "spiritual experience." But Ebby didn't. Bill didn't. And Bill's earlier manuscripts make that clear.
   
   You probably have to start with the William James, Carl Jung, Rowland Hazard, and William Silkworth facts before you'll believe anything but the myths.Real Twelve Step Fellowship History.
   
   Anyway, Ebby's conversion was recognized by Bill. Bill's conversion was productive of life-long sobriety. And Bill's message on page 191 of the later editions of the Big Book fills in the gap.The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator's Role in Early A.A. Bill said "The Lord has been so wonderful to me curing me of this terrible disease that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people."The Golden Text of A.A.: God, the Pioneers, and Real Spirituality (Why It Worked-- A.A. History Series)
   
   QED. Dick B.

4 comments about The Little Prisoner: A Memoir.

1. 
   
   This young child is forced in to a terrible ordeal with a man. Her life is filled with painful twist and turns. hard to imagine that such things could happen to children byt even more amazing that a child can come out of it and fight with courage and dignity to survive it all.
   Also read Nightmares Echo and Smashed



2. 
   Only two books have ever made me feel so emotional, "THE LITTLE PRISONER" and "NIGHTMARES ECHO". Both tell of child abuse-sexual abuse and both are hard to put down until you have read every page. You will feel for the authors, urging them on...wishing you could make the tough decisions for them and realizing...oh my gawd the courage they have.



3. i have only read 2 other books that shoked and moved me like this a child called it and the lost boy. Wonderfuly written i couldnt put the book down bought it read it that day and read it again. the strenght that jane has nd had is tremedous
   having to endure all that from a man hu was ment to protect her and love her as a daughter and be neglected by her mother and then shuned by her family becase she escaped made me cry so much i loved the book.i recomend it to old and teen but it is not 4 young children . thunbs up i admire jane eliot so much 4 breakin away from it all !!!!!!!!!!



4. The story is harrowing and brutal. By the time I got to chapter three, I afraid the entire book was just going to be a litany of atrocities. I was looking for some insight, introspection, and triumph but the book ended abruptly and left me wondering if the participants in the author's last assault were prosecuted or simply got away with it, which is what the author seemed to imply. This family is seemingly "untouchable" no matter how much harrassment they inflicted--and they seemed to be threatening dozens of different people on a regular basis. Maybe I just don't understand how things criminal justice works in England.
   
   Technically, this book was not all that well written. I was irritated at how many times the editor let the weak construction "There was" stand. Seemingly every paragraph had one. The professional co-writer on the project should have known better. It gave the story the feel of a "just the facts" trial transcipt.
   
   Finally this book contains multiple graphic descriptions of horrific sexual abuse. Children do not be reading it or reviewing it.

5 comments about Making Peace with Autism: One Family's Story of Struggle, Discovery, and Unexpected Gifts.

1. This is a good read for young families first struggling with a new diagnosis of Autism. Also good for families with siblings, with advice about how to care for their needs.



2. After reading countless books on autism, mostly about theories and treatments, this book is a breath of fresh air! It was so encouraging to read an honest, open life story of a family living with autism on a daily basis. It doesn't give false hope, nor do the family members act like little stoics. They're just real people who are dealing with life every day, and who try to find real happiness in just taking life one day at a time. I admire Susan Senator's positive attitude. She admits that she has a tough time, but picks up the pieces and goes on from there. I thank her for sharing such a personal story; it will help countless families.



3. Sue Senator's autism book is not just another parent's story about facing autism. She has something to say, useful information to immpart, and she is not looking to find or share a miracle cure. She is a little ahead of the curve on the autism epidemic - her son is nearly grown - and thus her perspective is very useful for parents with younger children (and typical siblings) wondering about the future and coping with diagnosis and the larger issues of long-term advocacy.



4. This book was honest and heartfelt. Our family is at the beginning of our journey on the autism spectrum, but there were so many things in this book that we could relate to already. I couldn't put it down when I read it. It was refreshing to read about how another family has coped with this tragedy and how it has survived and even grew stronger without the affected child having necessarily been "cured." It has helped me realize that the most important thing for any family is acceptance.



5. The approach of accepting autism would have been enough on its own for me to like the book, but Susan Senator's writing is exceptional, and that is why I love this book. I laughed, I cried, I truly felt she's been through the same trenches I have. She understands. And she exudes a level of empathy through her words that brought me more comfort than any other book about autism I have read.
   
   The book is presented in a mostly chronological format, discussing her son's early years, her reaction to the diagnosis, going into depth about her emotions and listing all the questions that those of us who have been through it also asked. Senator includes a sidebar in this chapter called "Suggestions for Getting Through the Early Days, After Diagnosis," which lists some helpful tips, along with other topics such as "Beginning the Healing Process as a Couple" and "Making Crisis Storybooks for Your Child," known as 'social stories' in some areas. The following chapter describes the various early school programs in which her son was enrolled, and includes tips on preparing for IEP meetings, and what to look for with school placements. This information is invaluable for parents whose child has been recently diagnosed. I found myself wishing this book had been published in the 90s!
   
   The book addresses sibling interactions and traveling, including tips for successful family vacations. Following that is a chapter on sleep problems and the use of medication, with a thoughtful debate on whether to medicate or not. Basically, Senator urges parents to trust their instincts and educate themselves. She also lists strategies for dealing with problem behavior. The remaining chapters deal with more family issues, such as preparing for a new baby in the house and nurturing your marriage. Senator also mentions important information about leaving your child with others and making sure to carve out time to rest.
   
   My favorite part of the book is when Senator discovers that her son is trying to connect with her by laughing. I, too, made this discovery with my own son years ago. My son's sometimes annoying fake laugh is really the way he reaches out, wanting to have fun like everyone he sees around him. He is not completely closed off, in his own world. He has autism, but he is still there with us, interacting. Just on his own terms. It was so affirming to read that other families delight in this discovery as well.

2 comments about Deaf Peddler: Confessions of an Inside Man.

1. For anyone interested in Deaf culture--or, for that matter, anyone who has encountered peddlers selling those ABC cards in airports--this book is an excellent choice. Buck gives a perspective most of us would not otherwise have the opportunity to hear. He discusses his reasons for choosing this way of life, and also describes in detail what his days were like. I highly recommend the book.



2. Deaf Peddler-Confessions of an Inside Man
   By Dennis S. Buck

   When I read this story I couldn't help to think of the old movie "Rebel without a cause", for that is what on the surface appears to be. Although I could never understand his motivation or choice. Yet as a Deaf person I could understand the pressure and rejection he felt from the hearing society. Of the one steady job he did have, he wasn't given the opportunity for training like his peers. When he did work with someone who understood his Sign Language they corrected him and although he had the education he was still held back. Maybe this was his reason to take to the street out of frustration thereby acting out the hearing worlds perception of Deaf people.
   But in the end the wayward son comes home to the Deaf Community and realizes that Deaf people are not single entities like hearing people. That Deaf people are not whole who live outside of our community. When Deaf people strive, we strive for all Deaf people.
   This is not the best book I have ever read, nor is it the worst but I am glad he came home and that his book is now added to Deaf Culture Literature, and for that reason I give this book 5 stars.

5 comments about Meditations from a Movable Chair.

1. Shortly after finishing "Meditations from a Moveable Chair," I learned that Andre Dubus recently had died. I was surprisingly startled, considering he was a man I never knew and with whose writing I was merely acquainted. My reaction to the news of his death speaks a great deal about the quality and affect of Dubus's austere and confessional prose. Dubus frequently ends essays in the volume by recalling the moment of the piece's composition, as if he is offering not only an artifice, but the origin, the spot of time and emotion and weather from which the artifice emerged. In some cases this device seems almost redundant because his clean prose seemed already imbued with the sense of being written; especially in the essays recounting manual labor, jogging, or taking churchyard laps in his wheelchair, I imagined a man (resembling the man with a pensive scowl on the book's jacket) hammering away at a typewriter. Despite being about many quotidian things, Dubus's writing reminds me of a few lines of "Song of Myself": "Not words of routine this song of mine, / But abruptly to question, to leap beyond yet nearer bring." Although at times I thought Dubus was simply repeating himself, well, simply, I found the essays to be touching, memorable, and a pleasure to read. "Meditations from a Moveable Chair" is markedly anti-stoic: beneath its equivocal title, the volume effuses the pleasures and pain of life after a literal "wreck of body," and offers itself to its reader as a sacrifice and another one of Dubus's sacraments.



2. On January 2000, I visited Mr. Andre Dubus' old house and grave in Haverhill, MA. His house was silent like a library and his grave has not been constructed. I showed his letter for me to his family (his son) Andre Dubus III in Newburyport, MA. Though we have not met before we have had same feeling like a deep grief.

   Also I visited the seashore that this book had taken as a cover.

   I had translated his work just one in several months for Japanese readers in two literary magazines in Japan.

   He did not kill by himself, I believe.




3. Many people are familiar with Andre Dubois's son and his book(an Oprah pick) The house of Sand and fog. Andre Duboius has long been considered a master of the short story, and the eye that served him well at that craft is equally appreciated when turned inward. DuBois was confined to a wheelchair when injured in an accident, and as a result, accepted the challenge to look inward. In essays detailing his struggle with mortality, his failings, his life as a writer and the struggle to find the sacred in the everyday Mr. DuBois is honest and open. At times, you may think the conclusions are a bit too pat or packaged, and yet, there is no doubt in regards to the sincerity.



4. A book of occasionally lovely short essays surrounded by a battery of incidental writing that should've been omitted. Dubus at his best, only evident here now and then, offers us writing that builds slowly, gathering a few seemingly unrelated details and weaving them into something uniquely powerful. It shouldn't be surprising then to know that the essays in this book that don't hold up well are all too abbreviated and short, more editorial than essay, ending just as they've begun. His religious thoughts, obviously sincere but still cloying, further interrupt the book's best moments.

   Dubus however knows when he's on to something, and the essays here that stand out, such as that concerning the suicide of a gay military officer, show why Dubus earned his reputation as a craftsman. Much like his seminal story "A Father's Story," this essay tells us as much of the narrator as it does of the narrative's events. It's writing like this that shows the gulf between Dubus at his best, and Dubus simply on a friendly ramble, unable to mask his innate sadness -- both before and after the accident that left him in a wheelchair.

   Perhaps that's what this book suggests most clearly, that Dubus never could quite wheel himself away from a depression that's as present as the author's almost daily upper-case Communion.




5. "Meditations on a Movable Chair" is a great work of creative nonfiction. Dubus' thoughts resonate by the pure honesty in which they are presented. He gives us glimpses of his life that are important to him. And we see a man; not very unlike ourselves, who is struggling with a life lived in body, soul, and spirit. The result of this baring of truth: a slow, steady, and warm beauty that is Dubus' very own soul. We begin to see something beautiful in the brokenness of man. We begin to see that not everything is broken. There is life: and Dubus fights fort this life and meditates on this life for us.
   
   I recommend a slow - meditative - reading of this book to fully enjoy its beauty.

3 comments about Ernie Davis : The Elmira Express, the Story of a Heisman Trophy Winner.

1. This isn't the greatest book, but a very good and emotional read about a guy that a lot of people should strive to be. Hopefully the movie coming out next year will capture the true heart of Ernie Davis.



2. The Elmira Express (on which the movie, The Express, is based) may not be the most literary piece of work ever written, but it the real story of Ernie Davis' legacy. The movie may make for good "family viewing", but this book explains the TRUE story of just how brave, unselfish and caring this young man was, right up until his death. The book explains the indepth accounts of not only Ernie Davis' plight, but also of those who coached him, loved him, and experienced his untimely death. If you have a teen-ager, please try to get him (or her) to read this book. It may just change your child's view of the world. Well... OK...Just maybe.



3. The Elmira Express
   
   I love the Twin Tiers in the autumn. The days are still warm; the nights cool, giving birth to vibrant fall colors. The hills seem almost alive, and the threat of colder weather is a promise on the wind. Fall in the Twin Tiers ushers in a revered tradition. When it's autumn in America, it's time for football. Across the land, in big cities and small towns, in large stadiums and rural high schools--the sights, sounds, and colors of the game are all around us. The common thread is the game, and the athletes that practice and play it with heart and determination to the very best of their abilities.
   
   Few players have shown more heart or determination than Ernie Davis. Davis was born on Dec. 14, 1939, in New Salem, Pa. His parents separated shortly after his birth, and his father was soon killed in an accident. He grew up in poverty in Uniontown, a coal-mining town 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, where caring grandparents raised him.
   
   At 12, Davis moved to live with his mother and stepfather in Elmira. He went on to become Elmira's favorite son, both as an outstanding athlete and as a respected and well-loved citizen. Ernie's talent bloomed, and the honors came early and often. He led Elmira Free Academy to a 52-game winning streak in basketball and as a Syracuse sophomore helped the Orangemen gain their only national football championship.
   
   As a senior in 1961, he became the first African American athlete to win the Heisman trophy and was the number one pick in the 1962 NFL draft. And then, suddenly, he was gone. He was diagnosed with leukemia the summer before his rookie season. He never played in the NFL, but succumbed to the disease less than a year later. Though Ernie never played a game for the Cleveland Browns, they retired his number 45, worn only in practice.
   Davis was easily recognized as a great athlete, but his high school coach, Marty Harrigan, summed up what many felt for Ernie Davis when he said, "Everyone knew Ernie's athletic greatness, but few realized what a great human he was. His concern for his fellow man, and his affection for children, was sincere."
   
   I think this is what moved me the most when I read The Express, The Ernie Davis Story by Robert C. Gallagher. There are lots of talented professional athletes today, and most of them are more than willing to inform you just how gifted they are, but the media exposure never changed him. "Ernie was the same kid at the end as he was at the start," said Jim Flynn, his high school basketball coach.
   Ernie believed he was fortunate to be so gifted and never took his ability for granted. He worked hard both on the field and in the classroom. "Ernie was always the first one on the practice field and the last to leave." Many athletes, assured of a college scholarship, would have coasted in class, but "Ernie worked hard when it wasn't popular to get good grades. The teachers loved him. He never would excuse himself from work and say he had too many outside activities." Ernie intended to play professional football, but he knew that career expectancy in the NFL was only a few seasons, so he wanted to be prepared for another career when he retired from football. He believed that education would lead to social and economic success.
   
   Syracuse University experienced its greatest football success during Ernie's career. The Orangemen became the national champions and winners of the Cotton Bowl. Four days before the game, Ernie pulled a hamstring while practicing place kicks. It was doubtful right up until game time whether he could play. Before leaving the game in the fourth quarter, he scored two touchdowns, including a then Bowl-record pass play, scored twice on two-point conversions, and intercepted a pass that led to Syracuse's final touchdown.
   
   He was voted the game's Most Valuable Player. Davis was to have received his MVP award at the awards banquet that night. But when bowl officials said that only white players were invited to the dinner and that Davis would have to leave after picking up his trophy, the Syracuse team refused to attend.
   
   It was Ernie's performance against the University of Pittsburgh that same year which inspired the nickname "The Elmira Express." Elmira Star-Gazette sports writer Al Mallette coined the phrase. Penn State coach Joe Paterno had this to say about Ernie Davis: "He's the kind of runner you hate to coach against; you can't instruct a boy to tackle a man if he can't catch him."
   
   It was December 1961 when Ernie won the Heisman trophy. Winning the Heisman is a significant accomplishment regardless of the year or player, but it was a significant racial breakthrough at a time with segregation was just beginning to become a social issue. Today, black players often win the award, and it might be hard for his contemporaries to appreciate his achievement.
   
   When he was in New York to receive the Heisman, Davis was treated with media coverage usually reserved for national heroes. President John Kennedy was in the city at the time and asked to see Ernie, a visit that thrilled him. "Imagine," Davis said, "a president wanting to shake hands with me."
   
   Ernie was the number one pick for the 1962 National Football League draft following his senior year. The Washington Redskins had the initial selection, but soon traded him to the Cleveland Browns, who signed him to a three-year no-cut, no-trade $65,000 contract with a $15,000 signing bonus, a new record for a rookie.
   
   The next summer while training for the upcoming All-Star game, Ernie awoke with swelling in his neck. A trainer sent him to the hospital, and doctors soon discovered the leukemia. At the time, Ernie and the public were told only that he had a "blood disorder". He wasn't told it was leukemia until October, after he had been in and out of the hospital. "Either you fight or you give up," Davis said in remembering how he felt when told the news.
   
   The disease went into remission, and Davis kept planning on pro football. He practiced with the Browns. Coach Paul Brown, heeding the advice of medical people who warned him of the risks, did not play Davis. The next spring, Davis noticed more swelling and entered the hospital again. Two days later, on May 18, he died in his sleep. In Elmira, more than 10,000 citizens passed the Neighborhood House on May 21 where Ernie lay in state. Flags in the city were flown at half-mast. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, also the burial place of Mark Twain.
   
   Universal Pictures has finished production on the film adaptation of Davis's life. The movie is slated for release Oct. 10. The book is available now. Stop by your local bookstore or library and check it out. You can catch Kevin tailgating at From My Shelf Books in Wellsboro. Stop by or tackle it online at [...]

5 comments about A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World.

1. I am 54 years old, and have thought about evolution and those of us with different ways of thinking for several years; I was amazed that others think about these things, much more deeply than I ever did. A joy to read.



2. Susanne Antonetta explores the lives and abilities of those who are considered by society to be different. The thought processes of those with multiple personality and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, autism, and various other neurological conditions can be mystifying to those on the outside, including family and friends. Suffering from manic depression for many years, Antonetta utilizes her own experiences to paint a detailed and often personal portrait of the beautiful contributions made by these individuals, and the potential consequences of eradicating such conditions.Advancements in technology are presenting man with many options that were at one time unthinkable. Today, with genetic manipulation and engineering the eradication of many of these disorders must be considered carefully. Diversity is necessary for society to thrive and continue to grow. Many creative, inventive and forward thinking individuals suffered from mental illness... Georgia O'Keefe, Van Gogh, Churchill, and their contributions to society are immeasurable. Had such genetic manipulation been available our society would never have known the beauty of some of the world's most sought after art.Antonetta makes a strong and impressive argument that although technological advancements may make it possible to rid ourselves of undesirable traits today, doing so could prove disastrous in the future. While an important and complex issue, the book often appears unorganized and confusing, making it a very difficult read, even for the most interested reader.
   
   The concepts and thought provoking, controversial issues brought forth in this book may one day (soon) present themselves and force the public and society to face that which would have been considered purely science fiction a mere decade ago. However, such topics need to be thoroughly fleshed out, utilizing every available means. I found it very difficult to read, many important facets were left incomplete and this left me feeling more than bit unsatisfied, confused and let down. I would love to see these issues covered again - thoroughly. Worth a look, but make sure you have lots of patience, as this is not a fast read and check it out from library!
   
   Happy Reading!



3. WHAT I APPRECIATE MOST about Susanne Antonetta's prose is the multiplicity of her voice. Here's a prose writer who appreciates more than one kind of music. Antonetta's work is aptly described as a mosaic hybrid, because of the ways she mingles the confessional, the mental, the lyric and also the scholarly and journalistic report. The music of this writer's literary intelligence is in the impact of montage, the shock of hybrid collision.
   
   In Antonetta's A Mind Apart, bodies, minds and reports from the world collide. A Pacific Northwest community gathers to view a dead whale on the beach. A teenager kills a neighbor boy as a kind of science experiment. The husband of the narrator's cousin has a seeming-sorority of female characters living the mosaic of his multiple personalities, all of whom send her email. The intellectual pleasures of this work occur in the questions it asks about how a culture defines "normal" and what we might lose if genetic engineering succeeds in clarifying the borderline of acceptable human brain process.
   
   The literary pleasures of this work alight out of the layering of many aspects and approaches, the content coming to the page through the voice of a poet, diarist, essayist and reporter who has told us from the start that her skin is too thin to enable her to stave off much of what she finds urgently stacked up in the world.
   
   Antonetta is a writer to whose work I am particularly attuned, because of the ways her narrator is relatively unmasked, her structures metaphorical and lyrically innovative, her interests multiple and surprisingly connected, her aims to layer her own life with that of the larger questions of the world palpable and original. I can't think of many writers who hit all those notes.
   
   I've long told students that my understanding of the "writer's voice" is as a kind of blueprint of the writer's body and mind, translated into language. For the lyric sensibility, the body with too few shields, the mind that experiences the atmosphere of life as stacked and layered and splintered and broken, while at the same time hears human existence as a mad and varied song, may have little choice but to write in such forms. This beautiful book is to my ear is an essential contribution to creative nonfiction form.
   
   Barrie Jean Borich
   author of My Lesbian Husband



4. We're all weird. Just because we have the hubris to put our oddities to paper and offer them to the world doesn't make them worthy of attention.
   
   Antonetta (a.k.a highly functioning university professor Paola) is a mediocre imitation of much more authentic writers--Anne Lamott, Kay Redfield Jamison.
   
   I hate that memoirs have become dumping grounds for neuroses. Don't be fooled into thinking this book has any merits--there are much better ones out there.



5. Although the content of this book isn't quite what one would expect given the description on the dust jacket, it is nevertheless an interesting read. It is a book I would recommend to anyone looking for artistic inspiration and struggling with writer's block, based on the language it is written in and the numerous perspectives being offered on the human mind. While it gives the reader something to ponder, it is not by any means what would be considered in the realm of a medical text or an authority on neurology. The entire book is written in the context of the memoir of a middle aged woman observing the growth of her adopted son, in a search for the answers to existential questions no one can truly answer. Interesting tidbits of more scientific information are thrown in, ranging everywhere from the intelligence of whales and their sophisticated means of communication to theories on the workings of autistic minds and multiple personality disorder.
   
   What's interesting is that in a book dedicated to neurodiversity, which in itself conveys the notion of humanity itself being an incredibly diverse species, the author approaches both her writing and her life as someone living with a mind she perceives to be abnormal and as a result her own self being damaged. She is bipolar and throughout the book addresses her fear that with the progresses of genetic engineering, people like her will gradually cease to exist, and so too will the creativity that drives our culture. If I could offer one suggestion to Susanne Antonetta, it would be that she try, if only for a brief period of time, to view herself and her own mind as being not so much apart from the rest of humanity, but as unique and as diverse as any other and as one treasured piece ingrained within the whole.

5 comments about Women From Another Planet?: Our Lives in the Universe of Autism.

1. I really disliked this book. It is unclear if these woman are even on the spectrum. It trivialized what having autism means. I felt it was a bunch of self diagnosed women writing an artsy fartsy ridiculous look on the world of autism. I have a child with autism, and this book just pissed me off.



2. So often we stereotype autistics as being very limited in their ability to do basic functions of daily life. While this is true of some autistics, this book reveals that autism is not a single,universal condition, but a spectrum with a wide range of abilities as well as disabilities (the book's editor, who is autistic, is a college instructor). This book opens both the mind and the heart, enlightening readers about the variety of people who fall under the umbrella "autistic".



3. Disclosure - I received my copy of this book as a gift from one of the contributors, who has been a personal friend of mine for years.
   As a woman on the spectrum, I am used to our views being constantly ignored. The female experience of autism is qualitatively different from that of the male. If we don't talk, we are "shy". If we don't socialize with others, or need to watch what they are doing before we can attempt to join in, we're "not socially adept". If we don't join in the backstabbing and constant talk about makeup, sexuality, and clothing starting in junior high and high school, we're downright weird.
   
   It is both easier and harder to be a woman autistic. People who think we are just shy frequently try to find ways to encourage us to "join in". And a lot of behavior that people find threatening from males on the spectrum, while not precisely acceptable in us, is less socially inappropriate. If one of us likes someone and doesn't know how to approach them, but constantly hangs around that person, someone might find a way to introduce us, if the person doesn't notice us by him or herself. In a male autistic, this same behavior could lead to stalking charges and restraining orders.
   
   The fact that so many different women contributed to this book is a big factor in its success - at least one voice in there is likely to speak to someone.
   
   And as for being self-diagnosed and "trivializing" autism... it is very hard to get diagnosed as an adult. Most of us, even those who have documentation of our severel language delay, are either "too successful" to be diagnosed (i.e., we have a relationship, employment, or advanced degrees and doctors dismiss our concerns about ourself), or are just diagnosed "Asperger's".
   
   Personally, I spent much of my childhood echolalic and couldn't speak in sentences until I was almost 8. I still flap, rock, and enjoy watching spinning objects, and am extremely auditorily hyper-sensitive. I can still heard dog whistles. Bright colors disturb me, and I still can't drink out of cups that are colors other than clear, white, or blue without throwing up.
   My childhood "diagnosis" was elective mutism (now called selective mutism) with autistic features, because I could read and answer yes/no or multiple choice questions. At the time, to be called autistic, you had to be mentally retarded. Learning disabilities (such as my inability to do even the simplest mathematical calculations) do not count. As an adult, I am labelled Asperger's, even though I STILL meet the DSM-IV-TR criteria for autism, since I have Semantic-Pragmatic Language Disorder, and the speech of people with Asperger's is supposed to be intact.
   
   I work with children on the spectrum. I love most of them very much, and hope that they can become at least as high-functioning as I am. But I cannot understand their parents (other than a few who are actually on the spectrum or close to it [ADHD, etc]) to save my life. I have a very succesful history of being able to connect to autistic children, including ones who "don't like strangers" who were climbing all over me within moments of being introduced, and even occasional words or eye contact from children who otherwise live in their own worlds. People on the spectrum recognize each other, and these children seem to mostly realize that I am like them on some level. At least one of the other women whose writing can be found on this book shares this kind of relationship with these children, and works in the caring professions.
   
   Open your mind, and at least read what some of us think. For people who are supposed incapable of thinking about ourselves or others, or of empathization, I find that most of us actually do better at these things than at least some neurotypicals (people who aren't on the spectrum).



4. My daughter and I were diagnosed with Asperger's a few months ago.
   
   I have been digging painfully through the literature, trying to find a book that "fit" her (our) symptoms enough to help her (us) out.
   
   I am a scared father with Asperger's trying to understand what having Asperger's means to a young woman. I know what it meant to me when I was younger and I don't want any of that junk to happen to her.
   
   Jean Miller and her contributors know and (thank goodness) they share what they know.
   
   You cannot imagine how relieved finding this book made me.



5. This book is all written by women with Asperger syndrome, divided into sections. If you start it and find the first section of discussion random and therefore not very gripping go and read the autobiographical pieces either topically from front to back or by author as I did. Then continue with the first chapter which you will find meaningful. Your eyes and heart will open up! Not that we can fully understand what another person experiences, but this remarkable book undoubtedly goes as far as any, particularly because there are many different writers.
   
   I have a friend who is self-diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. She and I do not meet one on one very often, nor communicate very often. When we do I have a good time. Still puzzled as to why she doesn't communicate often and some other slightly puzzling behaviors, I decided to try to find out.
   
   EVERY TEACHER should read this book as girls with Asperger's often are not readily identifiable without insight into how they feel and act. I think a person with Asperger's would also relate strongly to this book and feel comforted and less isolated. Parents should read this if their daughter is noticeably quirky.
   
   This book is extremely helpful. It would also probably be helpful in understanding men with Asperger's, too. But women have different social expectations and roles, such as being a mother, so this book is of inestimable worth for a "neurotypical" (NT) person whether parent, classmate, doctor, or sibling, etc. to empathize with someone with Asperger.
   
   It is not clinical. Clinical books have their uses no doubt, but you cannot experience many feelings with clinical descriptions and treatment protocols. This book engages your feelings. it will make you a better person as well as possibly an understanding friend or helping person.