5 comments about Curing the Incurable.

1. Jacque Rigg dared to do what the medical establishment tells the patient is iether incorrect or ineffected... taking control of your own health and denying the establishment 16K a year to pay for harmful pharmacueticals. I agree whole heartedly with most of what I have read. I myself refuse to take the medications which cause tremendous side effects, often leading to a host of other illnesses and disorders. I have turned only to organic/living foods, magnetic matresses, yoga, prayer, nutritional supplements, acupuncture and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In a matter of four months, almost all of my symptoms have disappeared. This I know, is not due a "natural" remission, but my body's capacity to heal itself through proper nutrition and lifestyle. This is a wonderful introductory guide for those seeking to avoid the horrendous side effects associated with traditional "western" medicine. There are however several other natural protocols not included in the book that readers may also want to explore. Ironically, I am an Epidemiologist who teaches at a medical school, but who under any and all circumstances would follow Rigg's advise before taking the toxic medications which are currently available to MS patients. Thank you Jacque for a "true" contribution to the field of health. There are many of us out here who truly love and respect you for your efforts. Dr. Liza Molina



2. I thought this was a terrific book on using nutrition and related approaches to "heal" MS, primarily because Ms. Rigg does not advocate any one particular approach but rather emphasizes the need for each person with MS (or any other health challenge) to do lots of research and figure out what works best for him or her. Her emphasis on keeping a diary to record reactions to different foods and the inclusion of many recipes are both practical and useful ways to help the person with MS. After almost a decade with this disease, I am tired of medication and even more of insurance companies, and am committed to trying the nutritional approach to MS by starting a diary this week. Thanks Ms. Rigg!



3. This was fantastic. my partner has been diagnosed with ms but chooses not to take medication. this book has helped both of us and has improved his symptoms no end. it is so good to read a book that isn't full of medical terminology but just states things how they are. easy to read, easy to understand and the recipes really do taste good



4. In '97 I was diagnosed with MS. Someone told me about this book and I ordered it. Its a best buy with the best advise!!! A must read for anyone who seeks to listen to the inner self. Don't do as I did. Read the book and follow it. I wasted a lot of time before I finally followed it and my own inner self to wellness.



5. It should be pointed out that this book was written before the DMD or CRAB drugs were used to help suppress MS. Chemotherapy is only used in aggressive relapsing-remitting MS and in conjunction with Copaxone now. Jacqueline Rigg wrote this book from her experiences with active MS, over 20 years ago.
   I found this book's recipes to be quite useful. I don't believe that there is a 'cure' for MS, but that it is best to examine all options.
   Personally, diet plus DMD has worked very nicely for me. However....this could have happened anyway.
   Sticking rigidly to a diet just because it has worked for someone else is very common and can be encountered in all diet groups, Raw, Vegan, Best Bet, Swank, Atkins, you name it, there will be diet evangelists and their devout followers.
   Diet is not a religion and it's time that people grew up about this. The same goes for medicine.
   When you live with a disease that can affect your body differently each day, you learn the hard lesson of living without absolutes.

1 comments about Miles to Go Before I Sleep: My Grateful Journey Back from the Hijacking of Egyptair Flight 648.

1. This is an incredible first person account of a woman who was the selected target of terrorists on an Egypt Air Flight because she was holding an American Passport. She was taken outside of the plane onto the top of the stairs and was shot in the head. Her body fell down the stairs onto the tarmack and she was left there for dead. People picking up her body unexpectedly discovered she was alive and rushed her to a hospital. The remainder of the story is of her amazing recovery coupled with personal tragedy and overcoming obstacles to teach herself to read again(she was able to do this based on her special education background/experience) in spite of her prognosis.

1 comments about The MUSIC OF LIGHT: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF HIKARI AND KENZABURO OE.

1. This is the best book I've read this year. It covers so much: a family's love for their brain damaged child and their commitment to the grueling, challenging years raising him in a society that wants him to just disappear. It is at once literary criticism, classical music criticism, cultural commentary, biography, pschology, psychiatry, medicine and a touchingly told love story between man and son. By the end of this book you will have fallen in love with Hikari the sweet savant from Kobe and his wonderful father, Kenzaburo.

5 comments about Brush with Darkness: Learning to Paint After Losing My Sight.

1. A book and story like no other that I have read. The author becomes blind and then learns to paint, as the title indicates, but what the review and title do not reveal is that the author guides the reader through her personal journey toward self actualization. By her frankness in revealing the changes she endured, the emotions she felt and the methods that lead to her acceptance, the reader gets a great insight into their own life and how to handle personal problems. A marvelously insightful book by a mind that is creative, mature and certainly a genius. I could not wait to see what happened next and found myself reading the book late into the night.



2. I recently had the pleasure of meeting the author and her husband. I thought she was inspiring after a short visit over breakfast. But until reading this book, I had only seen the tip of the iceberg! It is amazing that someone who has endured so much can remain so positive and create great works on canvas as well as create great impacts on the lives of others. There is so much inspiration in this book. This will be great for Christmas gifts!



3. As Lisa Fittipaldi's "art dealer extraordinaire," I was honored to be included in her touching account of how she overcame going blind and went on to produce such moving realism in her paintings. As I read the book, I found myself unable to put it down, despite the fact that I have known the artist for more than five years and thought I knew her whole story. This book shows Lisa's journey to re-enter the sighted world after going blind and how she used art to find that path. The following quotes from the jacket cover indicate how this book inspired Natalie Maines, Heloise, Kinky Freidman, and Rick Riordan.
   
   "This book goes far beyond learning how a blind painter creates her works of art. It is an honest, heartfelt look at a woman who struggles to overcome her own faults and fears to find her authentic self."
   - Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks
   
   "A truly inspirational story with highlights, lowlights, and lessons we can all learn from."
   - Heloise, international household hints columnist
   
   "Lisa Fittipaldi is a great artist who also happens to be blind. "A Brush with Darkness" is the story of how art imitates life, and how life imitates art, and how both are mirror reflections of the miracle that is the human spirit."
   - Kinky Friedman, singer, songwriter, and author
   
   "By turns poignant, enthralling, and uplifting, "A Brush with Darkness" is a tribute to human perseverance and creativity. Lisa Fittipaldi writes as she paints - with deft strokes and vibrant color."
   - Rick Riordan, Edgar Award-winning author



4. This is a well-written story about a woman who, after being suddenly plunged into darkness, struggling with denial and profound depression, ultimately triumphs and goes on to soar into a life she could never have imagined. This is a truly inspirational story which has lessons for all of us.



5. It took an incredible loss for Lisa Fittipaldi to become a winner. Her inability to see the world from the outside forces her to look within. The author entices you from the beginning by intimately sharing her painful discovery into who she really was, and wasn't. A brilliant career woman channels her intelligence, determination, and resourcefulness into finding an answer, but not knowing to what. As her health continues to deteriorate she explores every dimension imaginable desperately attempting to discover her purpose in life. Miracuously everything seems to flow together and manifests itself in every stroke of her brush. It is difficult to conceive that her images come from an internal memmory bank, eloquently transfering onto canvas. Just as skillfully she takes the reader through this process managing to explain the impossible. After reading all night I finished the book feeling refreshed and inspired. A remarkable woman!

5 comments about Show Me the Way to Go Home.

1. Rose poignantly describes his painful experiences of living midlife with Alzheimer's disease. He recalls the early warning signs and symptoms; the process of medical diagnosis and treatment; telling friends and family; coping with the confusion, fear and anger; and family involvement in decisions of property, caregiving and support. Personal quality of life issues are addressed as the author's awareness of the beauty in the ordinariness of life is increased through this experience. A highly individual, personal experience with universal appeal. Recommended for general public library collections.



2. I picked up Larry's Book, "Show me the way to go home", quite by chanceat a local book store. I was interested in Alzheimer's disease because my mother died from it a few years ago. I could not put the book down until I had read the last page. I read it again the next day and then again and again. Then I sat down and cried for a week. I found that I had fallen in Love with this handsome, dashing, man. If you have a friend or relative that is afflicted with this disease, you must read Larry's Book. He has achieved the impossible. He has given us an insight into the mind of person afflicted with this terrible disease. After reading his book and looking at his picture on the back cover, I feel that I know him well enough to call him Larry. Thank You, Larry, for your book and God Bless!Kathleen



3. I bought this book shortly after my husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimers. At that time he was 54 - the same age as Larry Rose. I found the book to be helpful & giving us both a positive outlook after being told of this dreadful diagnosis. Larry Rose allowed us to see into his life, showing us so many things that we could recognise from dealing with our own day to day problems, and always writing with a sense of humour & dignity. This book has now been passed on to my family, enabling them to better understand my husbands emotions & feelings. It will be highly recommended to the people in my support group.



4. This is a fascinating story actually written by an Alzheimer's patient in the early stages of the disease. Larry was diagnosed at age 54. This came after his getting lost on a trip, driving more than a hundred miles out of the way of the route to his destination before realizing it. Larry tries to see the good in this, writing that he has "more compassion for people, birds, deer, and the like" and he says "If when you read this book you feel a certain sadness...let yourself be sad, but not for me...I have had a good and prosperous life...Most of all, I have had the love of some beautiful people...and I have loved them, too."



5. My mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease at fifty years. I found Larry Rose's account of what was happening to be a wonderful way to relate to her in a way that she was unable to describe to me. This book will be a "hard to put down" account of daily life for those facing similar experiences along the way through this dibilitating illness that robs so much. Larry finds a positive light to shine on purpose in life and to keep on living. He is truly a courageous story that should not be missed. A big five star read with a human approach.

5 comments about The Black Veil: A Memoir with Digressions.

1. The "digressions" part of the subtitle primarily refers to the fact that this is not only a memoir but also a sort of family genealogy, or an attempt at one. Moody finds that he may be the descendant of a Reverend Moody who was fictionalized as the title character of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil." Digging through obscure histories and travelling about New England in an attempt to find out more about the man behind Hawthorne's self-loathing minister, Moody creates a sense of very powerful parallels to his own struggles with severe depression and drugs. These sections alternate without Moody making explicit connections between the two stories, but the format keeps the pages turning and the reader intrigued.



2. First off, I'm not a huge fan of Moody's italics. He writes so well that they seem unnecessary; they're the equivalent often of someone jabbing you with a pencil as you're trying to study. This memoir is almost interchangeable from all the others by young writers who tell their story of grappling with broken homes, mood disorders, breakdowns, etc. However, there is almost no emphasis on the author's career, instead we get page after page of quotes of a distant relative, Hankerchief Moody, whose odd life interests the author (although there is never any guarantee from the beginning that they are actually related). While this may sound like a way to keep the book from getting bogged down in too much "I" time, it doesn't really work. When the author stops quoting his relative, he digresses into ruminations about various subjects such as school shootings and William Burroughs.

   To be fair, the reader is warned in the beginning about how the writer will digress. You can't say you haven't been warned. But by the time a writer pens a memoir, hopefully he or she is old enough to have pulled many of the threads together. Cliched though it is, Moody does not seem to have "come to terms" or had much closure on the rocky period he describes here. That would have helped. Or maybe just a skilled editor.




3. ...and I did read the book from cover to cover. I was captivated by the interview that Moody did on NPR's Fresh Air and thought the book would offer more of the same. But where the radio interview offered an honest, intriguing look inward at depression and substance abuse, Moody's book was all over the place. The problem with the book wasn't so much a lack of restraint as a lack of any unifying theme.
   
   I was fascinated by the premise of an author searching his family tree for clues to his own identity. Add to that Moody's writing style--dense, detailed, and intricately designed--and it certainly looked promising. I kept thinking that the ever-lengthening sentences, the eclectic array of allusions and references, and the somber subject matter would eventually pay off, but the book ended before this happened.
   
   If this is starting to remind anyone of Faulkner, you're not far off; Moody's writing style has a lot in common with Faulkner on the surface. The two writers sound alike in a superficial way; however, where Faulkner eventually weaves his themes together in a way that is awe-inspiring, Moody just keeps on relating one esoteric (though well-worded) remembrance after another, with seemingly no reason for doing so.
   
   I suppose all this could be easily explained away with the thought that this is a memoir, not a novel. Even so, by the book's end, I was desperately wishing someone had made free use of an editing pencil. It took a while to adjust to run-on sentences which composed entire paragraphs, which cover two and a half pages apiece. But near the end of the book, as Moody describes a visit to a rock quarry and then goes off on a purposeless tangent about concrete, I could no longer suspend my disbelief. The Black Veil may bill itself as a memoir, but it best serves the function of a journal--a place to jot down all the disparate ideas that need to be recorded, so they can be used to better effect later.



4. Rick Moody's always been an author I admired. "The Ice Storm," obviously, is his best work in that his ranty style of writing found a perfect counterpart: the Watergate-era '70s. I've always admired his progressive use of punctuation (i.e. the comma, italicizing everything), run-on sentences and generally neurotic way of writing. There's something lyrical and sarcastic there, and it's not an easy way to tell a story--for either the writer or the reader. A style to marvel at, yes, but not always one you love (and one that sometimes dominates the story).
   
   And that's where Moody falters in "The Black Veil," I suppose: outside of it's grad school-esque underlying structure, his memoir takes a whole lot of pages to say very, very little. "The Black Veil" is supposed to be an experimental memoir, in that it's not only about Moody's specific decline into various addictions and psychoses, but also a kind of wide-spread condemnation of America itself. Kind of like "The Ice Storm," except this time Moody's using source texts from the early Puritan days (an endless list of books which he annotates in the back), rather than the commercialism of the '70s.
   
   Sounds intesting, right? Well... it's not, really. At times the source texts are compelling, but usually only in the stylized way Moody uses them (which avoids footnotes or even really telling you where the various quotes come from, other than sometimes italicizing them). It's kind of like in a pretty film (i.e. "Hero") where you find yourself marveling at the shot, rather than what's going on in the story. It's sad, but most of the time, the Puritan stuff is downright boring. The language is hard to get into, and it doesn't blend well with Moody's own story, which, as the memoir goes on, gets dominated by the Puritan stuff. Besides, if you want early American history, just go check out those books. Here, you get it in bits and pieces, which is frustrating within itself.
   
   Why is there so much early New England history and analysis packed into Moody's memoir? Well, the basic idea he came up with is that he's vaguely related to Handkerchief Moody, a man who may or may not have been the central inspiration for Hawthorne's "The Minister of the Black Veil." ... Again, a compelling thesis, but one that is explored and ultimately concluded with about as much satisfaction as those papers you shortchanged yourself through while getting your Bachelor's.
   
   I guess that's what makes this memoir, at the end of the day, one of those books you throw onto the "Back to the Used Bookstore" pile: it's intersting, sure, but there are tons of interesting books out there. And I get it: the themes, the attacks on America as violent and a people of colonizers, etc., I'm not stupid, I just don't really care b/c these themes were explored better elsewhere.
   
   If you're getting your PHD in English or like early American history, along with analysis, get this book. But if you're just into memoirs, esp. addiction-related ones, you may feel as though you've been cheated. "The Black Veil" is much more of an "essay with digressions," than it is a "memoir."
   
   If you want great memoirs, check out Jerry Stahl's "Permanent Midnight," or even Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar," which was probably a minor inspiration for Moody. So I give the book two stars on my scale, which is five stars for a masterpiece, four for Top Tens of the year, three for simply good, two for average, and one for bad (but I don't read bad books).
   
   Two stars. Interesting, but so-so.



5. Now that time has passed, and the bad reviews are remembered best as, well, examples of bad reviewing, why not revisit The Black Veil, and read it on its own terms?
   
   My guess is that you'll find, as I did, a really beautiful narrative, a work of sustained mystery, the kind of book (like the best of John Hawkes, W.G. Sebald, Marilynne Robinson) that will help the reader find a profound quiet, a meditative space, where comfort might be found in the complexities of things, and in finding a fellow traveler who whispers a familiar sad song.

5 comments about Agents in My Brain: How I Survived Manic Depression.

1. This is a wonderful account of the path of destruction manic-depressive illness can leave in the life of it's victim. I was really moved by Mr. Bill Hannon's story. I feel like I know some of the most intimate details of his life. I also felt a kinship to Bill because I also suffer with Manic-Deppresive Illness and had been mis-diagnosed for many years with schizo-affective and schizophrenia regardless to the obvious history my family had with manic-depressive illness. My daughter has now been diagnosed with Manic-depression and even though I had attempted to convey my family history to the psychiatrist treating her, manic-depression was their last resort diagnosis. They tried ADHD, borderline, and schizoaffective labels on her. When they finally put her on the right dose of Depakote, a sleeping peel, and an anti-depressant, she is now like the daughter I remember before the onset of the disorder. She is now 16, her first episode was manic at 14 years of age.

   Bill does a wonderful job of detailing the symptoms that he went through, even though the lousy psychiatrists he had didn't recognize and diagnose them properly. Bill also does a wonderful job showing how important early diagnosis and treatment is to the sufferer even though he didn't have the benefits of it as a result of incompetence, arrogance, and/or complacency.

   Finally, I have had a lot of delusion and paranoid thoughts and behaviors with the illness. It really helped to hear the details of what was going on in another manic depressives head. I was afraid to tell my care provider's some things because I didn't want to be misdiagnoses as schizoprenic again. It help to know that the delusions I have while manic are still within the same diagnosis. As Bill says, "Knowledge is Power".

   Thanks for sharing Bill. I am so happy you are getting better as am I.




2. I have a friend who is bipolar. I'd read "A Mood Apart" a few months ago, which gave me some good information. But Hannon's book provides real insight and understanding for a nonbipolar person about what this condition must be like. The list of symptoms at the back of the book is also very useful in identifying what may seem like eccentricities of M-Ds. This book, along with "A Mood Apart" or "The Unquiet Mind" will take anyone who wishes to understand the topic a long way down that road. If I could have a magic wish in regard to this book, however, it would be for a better style of writing. At times, it reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions," but I think that may have been unintentional.



3. I knew nothing about manic depression. This book opened my eyes to a disease that is hard to image for most people. Mr. Hannon brings his feelings and thoughts to his readers and in a very remarkable way, he is able to share his painful daily struggles. I would highly recommend this book to all University psychology classes and in particular to Medical Schools. Mr. Hannon's personal insight could help physicians make an earlier diagnosis and positively impact the lives of others that become afflicted with this disease.



4. I have read the reviews of the readers and I was so impressed that I am going to buy this book. My husband is Bipolar and he was first diagnosed with this illness when he was 21 yrs old. He is now 54 years old. We have been married for 24 yrs and it wasn't until 1995 that he was diagnosed as Bipolar. The doctors who treated him in the late '60's said he was paronoid schizophrenia. It is a shame that these people are treated like lepers. Bioplar is an illness like, cancer or any other illness. Why is it hard for others to understand that? His bestfriend since he was 6 yrs old doesn't talk or call him. I will get this book.



5. This book provides an interesting first hand account of bipolar I disorder with psychotic features. In other words, the author has the most severe form of the illness. While the writing isn't as good as in the finest mental illness memoirs, like "An Unquiet Mind", the author is still able to vividly communicate the horrors of this illness. I do wish he would have been a little more constructive in his criticisms of psychiatry, as perhaps some readers will get the impression that this is not a very treatable illness, when in fact it is. I do, however, agree that it does often take many years before a bipolar individual is properly diagnosed. Overall, a good book that should be read by anyone interested in bipolar disorder. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".

5 comments about Count Us In: Growing Up with Down Syndrome.

1. This is a book written in their own words by two young men who have Down's Syndrome. They share the ups and down's of their lives . Although my son is only nine, I found this book very helpful because it gave me some preview of things to come. Because the book was written in the boys' own words, it gives a unique picture into the minds and lives of older children with Down syndrome. It also gave some insight into familiar problems, as well as some events that were unique to these boys who authored the book. I found myself wishing that my own son had a close friend to help guide him through the ups and downs that await him in his teenage years. Then I realised that I could actively seek out peers for him to become friendly with at my local Down syndrome chapter, and maybe I could find some friends that he could become close with in a similar fashion to the authors of this book. I highly recommend this book to all parents, caregivers, teachers and other professionals who work with children who have disabliities similar to Down Syndrome, because the experiences of these boys could cover a broad spectrum of disabilities, not only Down Syndrome. So many books are written from an outsider's prespective. This book comes straight from the sourcel.



2. I read this when my son was a baby and the book was new. I couldn't relate to ANYTHING about these boys lives. As a woman, I just couldn't relate to their male view of the world. We did not share any interests either. This book might be more appreciated by an adult male relative, professional, or family friend, but I wouldn't recommend it for a teen. It is nice that these two boys with DS are so capable, but their book would be more interesting for someone that shared their viewpoint and/or interests. If you are a woman, read something more uplifting.



3. i think this book should go to individuals to learn about issues that might be dealing with. these two advocates have learned a lot and how their parents has taught them i think i definitively recommend this book to go to many libraries and bookstores so that other men can learn how to do things on their own just like any other men. i am a women and i have down syndrome to i have read this it made me realize that having down syndrome is a celebration



4. I read this book when my son was just a baby, and I was still full of misconceptions and misunderstandings about Down syndrome. The story of these two young men, told in their own words, did more to help me begin to envision a life full of hope and potential for my baby than any other book I'd read. I want to thank them for helping me learn, and grow as a person, and be a better mother to my own son.



5. I've never read a book by people with Down Syndrome before, and haven't gotten to meet many people with Down Syndrome either, so it was a real pleasure to get to meet and understand what these two young men are thinking and feeling on a variety of topics from having Down Syndrome, school and interacting with others, what their dreams are for their future, how they feel about women, marriage, and children, etc.
   
   It was a hard book to sit down and read front to back because the book was structured as a series of quotes from both boys or conversations between them and their family members, and also because the way they phrase things is different from what I am used to, so I instead enjoyed reading a few chapters a day.
   
   I was a little taken aback at some of Jason's attitudes towards women at that time, but I appreciate that he was a high school student at that time and may have matured in his viewpoints since then - I know I am very different from when I was a high-schooler! People with strong religious convictions may prefer to read this book before handing it off to their teen with DS, since the views are largely secular.
   
   This was a valuable and unique look inside the heads of two strong young men who are working hard to be accepted and beloved contributors to society, and I am so glad they wrote this book to share their thoughts with us.

5 comments about Losing My Mind : An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer's.

1. For those interested in this subject this book is an engaging and rewarding read. Some may find DeBaggio's anguish a bit excessive, but to me it was a genuine expression of his emotion, not buffered by what is 'proper'.



2. Mr. DeBaggio is so wonderful to have shared his experiences with diagnosis, physicians, others reactions, and his own struggle to understand and deal with what is happening to him. This book brought a new enlightenment to me, newly dealing with a family diagnosis. It is so easy to forget the person who is actually fighting with the disease when it affects so many in the family. His true account of what his feelings are throughout the months it took to write the book has given me more compassion for my mom and the ability to be angry at the disease as the culprit for all of the cruel things that are happening to all of us while we watch the progression. Thank you, Mr. DeBaggio, for opening my eyes to my mom's struggles.



3. 
   At one point in this sad autobiography the author states, "We are foolish, those of us who think we can escape the traps of aging." In Mr. Debaggio's case he found himself caught in one of those traps when he was 57 years old. Healthy and robust, with an optimistic look to the future he one day is told that he is a victim of early onset Alzheimer's disease. The author, who is a talented writer of books on gardening, decides to write a book describing his gradual mental deterioration.
   
   Losing My Mind shifts back and forth between comments on his present condition, excerpts from medical articles, and reminiscences on his past life. This is not an inspirational book. Mr. DeBaggio is depressed, frightened, and filled with despair over his future. Fortunately his writing skills are still intact enough that he can fluently describe his descent into the abyss.
   
   It is not the author alone who suffers. His wife is grief stricken that she is going to gradually lose her life's companion, and she feels totally frustrated in knowing that she can do nothing to help him. His grow son shares her grief, and also worries that he will eventually suffer the same illness.
   
   Increasingly he has to hunt for words to express himself. He raises herbs for a living, and begins to forget their names. He goes to a store to operate a copying machine, and finds he can't figure out how to operate this rather simple device. Writing this book helps him to hold on to our world. He spends a lot of time reminiscing about his childhood, because those memories still are clear in his mind.
   
   Mr. DeBaggio has received, as he puts it, a death sentence, and that thought remains constantly in mind. He courageously tackles each day one by one, but knows he is fighting a losing battle. I am an older person who has a deteriorating condition that gradually causes me increasing pain, so I have a glimmer of what he is going through. What will our status be next month, next year? It is interesting that he mentions that dealing with his diagnosis is one thing, but dealing with some of his well-wishers is often more difficult. There are the people who suggest that if he would just take some sort of sea weed or herbal medicine he would be restored to normal. Folks like that mean well, but their suggestions show a total lack of understanding of the forces at work in his physical condition, and, in a sense, diminish the seriousness of the problem (I've experienced the same thing).
   
   This book is remarkable. It gives us a view of the problems, thoughts and torment that are part of an Alzheimer's sufferer's life. It is anything but a joyous book. It is one that points out how close we live to the threat of ultimate disaster.



4. We can probably all relate to this title, however, this is a road map into the mind of Thomas DeBaggio, who was a professional herb grower and journalist, and how he dealt with his journey into Alzheimers disease. It wanders a bit, as the mind does with this disease, and your heart will go out to him struggling to be his own person.This disease robs you of your person.



5. This book was written by a gentleman with Alzheimer's disease. I had the privilege of hearing him read part of it in person. It is quite moving.

2 comments about On Sight and Insight: A Journey into the World of Blindness.

1. A book review, by Carlton Griffin:

   "On Sight & Insight, a Journey into the world of Blindness", by John Hull

   After losing much of my vision over the past four years due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, I went looking for more information about going blind.

   I recently finished this book and I've had a few days to reflect upon it. The book is written by John Hull, who tells about going blind as an adult. As a young man, John has blinding cataracts. He was blind for quite some time in the hospital, long enough to teach himself braille and read several chapters in the Bible.

   The corrective surgery for the cataracts detached both of his retinas, one of which they were able to correct. He was blind in his left eye for the rest of his life, but his right eye stayed pretty dependable until he was about 45, and over the following three years he went completely blind.

   It's a new book, John went blind in the 1980's and his book reads like a diary or journal. It's very easy to read and John easily holds the reader's attention.

   John mostly tells what it is like, emotionally, to go blind. He talks about all aspects of blindness, but the focus on the book is to share how it affected and affects his emotions and his spirit; his soul. John really shares of himself in this book, it's very frank and in some places painful.

   However, I enjoyed having read the book because it provided me with some information I was lacking, helped me come to terms with some things that before I could not conceive. I've been worried so much, the nagging question is always "What will it be like to go blind, how will I live my life?".

   While John's book certainly doesn't fully answer that question, it does allow the reader to gain much insight into what it is like, at least from one man's perspective. While it did confirm a few fears I have, at least I feel more informed now; certainly the unknown is still more frightening than my actual fate.

   I wish I could say more about this book, I think Mr Hull did a fine job. I refer to him as John in this review because I feel so close to him and his family, having read the book. If you want to know what it's like for an adult to go blind, John's perspective is wonderfully told in this book.

   Carlton Griffin




2. On Sight and Insight is a wholly remarkable and wondrous book that should be read by anyone with an interest in blindness, perception, embodiment and human existence. In this book John Hull documents his journey from the world of sight into the world of blindness, by describing what it is like to make this transition, through detailed and revealing descriptions of his daily activities, and by giving us his dreams, thoughts and reflections. His journey, in fact, is from a world of sight into one of insight, for it is not only a story of a courageous and emotionally complex life-transformation, but a profound study of who we are, how we see or do not see, touch or do not touch, how we relate to our world-and most of all an insightful study of what it means to be with one another. Anyone who reads this book will not quite hear a voice or touch or see a face in the same way again.