No comments about Closing Comments: ALS - A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of a Fatal Affliction.

5 comments about Millie-Christine : Fearfully And Wonderfully Made.

1. Millie-Christine deserves ongoing recommendation, providing the remarkable story of Siamese twins who were born into slavery in 1851 and who moved from slavery to the courts of Europe during their lives. Twice sold and kidnapped as a child, Millie-Christine traveled throughout Europe and earned a fortune.



2. This amazing, fascinating true tale deserves more attention than it has gotten from the press and review sources. Author Joanne Martel does a terrific job of not only telling Millie-Christine's story, but also of detailing the world she lived in.

   Much more interesting than the original Siamese twings Chang and Eng, her life crossed theirs and they even exhibited together for a time. Why their story survived in popular culture and hers is largely lost is a mystery. This is a remarkable story.




3. Millie-Christine is a fascinating story. She/they managed to have a happy life, full of love and faith, despite their condition. They come across MUCH more sympathetically than do Chang and Eng in the recent novel about those Siamese twin brothers. Chang and Eng's degree of conjoinment was considerably less serious than Millie-Christine's, yet the Siamese Twins led a much more unhappy and depressing life, constantly bickering with each other. Millie-Christine chose to live by the philosophy "As God Decreed, We Agreed". They seemed to really love each other, and nearly everybody around them seemed to love them. They didn't let prejudice, slavery, or the ridicule of others get them down--they chose to cherish the unique advantages of their situation (what black girls in the 19th century would EVER have gotten to meet Queen Victoria)? They come across as truly inspirational.

   I give this book 4 stars because the writing, although the research is commendable, doesn't quite "grab" you, doesn't seem to really bring out their personalities or to tell enough about Millie-Christine as people, especially as children. The first part is a bit confusing--too many people kidnap Millie-Christine, the girls are being tossed around like a hot potato and it's hard to figure out who's got them, or who should have them! But of course that really did happen to slaves and "freaks of nature" in those days. The use of both singular and plural ("she" and "they") for the girl(s) is also a bit jarring, although it is explained clearly at the beginning why this is done. I wish there had been more elaboration of their thoughts and feelings--but probably that kind of stuff just didn't really get recorded beyond the innocent songs/poems and sanitized mini-biography which they wrote for their show. More from their letters and family memoirs would be interesting.

   All in all, though, a well researched portrait of one (or two, if you prefer, as I do) amazing, intelligent, and lovely and loving lady/ies.




4. I really enjoyed learning about another set of conjoined twins. I felt the author told a story and didn't just rehash facts.
   Thanks.



5. I'm so glad that this book was written! I read another book years ago about the freak show circuit in which that author dismissed Millie-Christine as an obscure act about which very little was known. Wrong!

   Joanne Martel has found a rich trove of information about the conjoined twins, and she presents it in an interesting way. Photographs show the twins at different stages of their development. There are exerpts from newspaper accounts,handbills from their performances, family letters, etc. This author really did her homework to produce this solid work.

   While exhibiting "human oddities" is distasteful to us today, this book shows how Millie-Christine's life was not entirely horrific. The twins led a dignified life in the show business world. Born as slaves in 1851, they were lifted up from that life and were educated and taught to perform pretty songs and light amusements for the benefit of their audience. They were adept in social chatter, and were able to converse with adults and children in all walks of life. They traveled through Europe at an early age and met famous people and nobility.

   They were able to contribute to their family's support immediately after th Civil War, when the entire family found themselves free. Without the income provided by his twins, their father would not have been able to buy his parcels of land in North Carolina.

   Their specialness did cause unfortunate events in their lives. When young children, they were removed from their mother's care and sold to a showman who later lost custody. They passed through several hands, and ended up the wards of a kind and generous man who cared for them and their entire family.
   The constant prodding and poking of physicians, especially trying to the young girls as they approached womanhood, was a source of sorrow and embarassment.

   This is a good, readable account of two girls born into an interesting situation during interesting times. Recommended!

3 comments about A Healing Family.

1. Hard to believe that no one else has written a review of this book because it is excellent... Oe's manner of dealing with his son's affliction and the effects it has on his family is truly amazing... His manner is truly one of love and serenity.... Without any reservations, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about "heart"...



2. Kenzaburo Oe, the Japanese novelist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, was 28 when his son, Hikari, was born. This event was the most important in Oe's life. Born with a herniated brain, Hikari has needed almost constant care since birth. "A Healing Family" is Oe's first non-fiction attempt to make sense of Hikari's life and the effect it has had on the people around him, most importantly his family.

   This beautiful book shows the profound love, affection and pride the Oe family take in Hikari's accomplishments and happiness. From the age of five, Hikari has been obsessed with classical music, and eventually began to compose pieces for piano and violin. Much of "A Healing Family" concerns Oe's attempts to understand his son through music.

   "A Healing Family" is a book everyone should read. Finely crafted, perceptive, intelligent and moving, it shows us again that compassion and empathy can make all the difference in the world.




3. My first book by Kenzaburo was Silent Cry. Recently I read A Healing Family and found that I really liked it a lot. Yukari's illustrations were beautiful. This book made me feel closer to Oe's family. It is very heart-warming.

   At the time I read it, I was in the process of deciding whether to get my wisdom teeth extracted by a dentist or an oral surgeon. I heard that my face would be bruised and swollen, my jaws unhinged, etc. after the surgery. It was quite unnerving just to think about it. Then I read that Hikari has to make weekly visits to the dentist, and that his epileptic pills make his gum terribly swollen. I felt that I am in a much much better situation than some people. It was a consolation to read this book.

   One thing I don't quite like about most of Kenzaburo's books is that he refers to a lot of other European writers and their works, which I find hard to understand. Well, that's just my ignorance.

5 comments about On Pilgrimage.

1. Just finished the book and found it very poetic in some parts and kind of confusing in others. There were two errors that I found, and maybe it is nit-picking, but it made me wonder about other information that was given. First, Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine in the cathedral at Poitiers, not in Lisieux, and Abelard is buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetary in Paris with Heloise, not in Cluny. Well worth reading, tho, especially if you've been to some of the places mentioned, or plan to visit others. I found it fascinating that she most always found a room wherever she stopped whatever the time. Obviously she spoke French well.



2. Jennifer Lash, who appears to be the mother of the actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, made a solo trip of pilgrimage through France in l993 after winning a battle with cancer (for awhile). As a non-practising Catholic in late middle age, she knew her theological territory when traveling from convent to monastery to basilica to pilgrimage camp; but she approached her visits in a determined spirit of not-knowing. I found that intellectually or maybe morally refreshing; it served as a Carlos-Castaneda-like bridge role which helped me, the reader, someone else who does "not know". Her experience of moving on repeatedly reminded her that travel brings us back up against our selves. She feels strongly and works transparently to understand her feelings; the sorting-out process which the pilgrimage crystallizes for this writer can illuminate whatever journey her reader is on.
   
   Her writing is both erudite and humble. She was a sophisticated Briton who had spent much of her life raising her very large family. From miracle site to miracle site on the French trains, carrying her baggage on an injured back, she tells us the stories of the saints whose cults have given rise to these sites, and describes the religious communities which maintain them. In between, she tells us about the people she meets and re-meets. She is often wry, but never sarcastic; describes ridiculousness sharply but never cruelly. She learns as she goes, and as she learns she teaches, in the kindest way. She is a LADY - decent and sincere, and also funny and engaged.
   Her descriptions make the feel of each place most vivid - the baroque, fully alive Santiago de Compostela, the gloomy, cold Rocamadour, the wild emotional Gypsy pilgrimage in the Camargue are all made quite visible, audible, smellable, each entirely different from the others - and there are about fifteen of these places in the book.
   The book is horribly proofread - the commas are in the wrong places, so that Ms. Lash reads like a rather bizarre speaker - a peculiar pauser for breath in funny places. There are outright mistakes that no one caught - the word "paramount" is confused with "tantamount", for example, and a priest is described as wearing a "scapula", the shoulder blade, when she meant "scapular", a liturgical garment. We know what she means, but we have to wade along doing our own corrections.
   This strange aberration makes reading the book feel like chatting with a deeply imaginative, thoughtful, unselfconsciously wacky human being, rather than "a writer". But what a writer, and what a significant story this journey is when told in her voice.



3. It was too wordy and because I don't know much about the Catholic Saints it was very confusing. This was not fun or enjoyable to read. It was more like an assignment than for pleasure, which is why I didn't bother finishing it. There are too many other good books out there to read than to waste my time finishing this one. My book club read this and all of us found it very blah. If you do decide to read it I hope you find it as interesting as the other reviewers did -- but notice that they even found a lot of problems with the prose and editing.



4. My motivation for reading this book was to gain insight into the astounding acting talent and integrity of one of Jennifer Lash's sons, Joseph Fiennes.She was the formative influence in his life and I was curious as to what is was about her that could produce such results.
   She took her pilgrimage as a result of having survived cancer and now questioned some of the beliefs on which she had heretofore based her life, namely her Catholic faith. Non catholics may have a difficult time understanding the significance of the holy sites that she visits on her pilgrimage. However, this is not a syrupy, God is Love kind of tome. She does not necessarily believe in God and is objective about the arcane practises that have grown up around these "holy" places. Women, particularly, will identify with her need to go off on a solo journey at midlife. They also will understand that as she attempts to find answers she only comes up with more questions.



5. ...so comforting. Her tone is so easy to relate with, her writing is prosaic and full of feeling, totally uncontrived. She goes to all these Catholic shrines seeking something she's not quite sure of and in the end we're fairly sure she has found an elusive truce with her God. The characters we meet on the journey range from heartwarming to simply disgusting (like [...]priest and the freak on the train to Spain (just read the book). This book made me very glad to be a Jew. We don't have to traipse all over the globe seeking out Marian apparitions or mythical magical global Christian Hot Spots, all we need is Israel. Anyway, my favorite piece is where she's feeling disconsolate and alone in a café and suddenly she sees an apparition of her husband walk in and she's flooded with peace.
   Here's hoping we get a re-release of Jini's older work an perhaps a new edition of On Pilgrimage with proper copyediting.

3 comments about Determined to Win: The Overcoming Spirit of Jean Driscoll.

1. Determined to win is an absolute winner. This book flowed like an exciting best selling novel. I feel I've not only been into Jean Driscoll's head, but also in her heart.



2. Determined to Win was an excellent book. It sounded so much like what has happened in my life. Hopefully some day I'll be as sucessful as Jean in wheelchair racing but this book surely inspires me to push myself to ultimite limit in everything. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone!



3. My son was in the hospital when I read this book, the Child Life Specialist asked if I would "look" at it. I read it in five hours (and I am not much of a reader)! It took off like a rocket and never stopped. Jean's story is not only an inspiring one, but it helps a parent of a child with Spina Bifida see from the child's point of view. That alone makes this book priceless. Thank you Jean, for laying it all out in the open. You have a graceful courage that any mother would be proud of.

1 comments about What I'Ve Learned from My Daughter: Blessings from a Special Child.

1. Nancy Jo Sullivan probably never dreamed that one day she'd "grow up" to write this book - sometimes life brings unexpected twists and turns that we can never imagine. In this wonderful book, Nancy Jo shares her experiences as a mom of three beautiful daughters, one of whom was born with Down syndrome. It's easy to fall in love with Sarah, "God's Princess", who succeeds in teaching us all many lessons in this book.
   
   This is not just a book for parents of children with disabilities. It is a book for all of us, looking to count our blessings, love unconditionally, and never take the everyday treasures of life for granted. Nancy Jo ends each chapter of this book with a set of "ponderings", which will prompt you to ask yourself a few questions, consider a few new ideas and learn some valuable lessons from Sarah. Gift yourself the gift of this book and you will find yourself with a new, uplifted perspective on life.

5 comments about More Than Meets the Eye: The Story of a Remarkable Life and a Transcending Love (Harper Spotlight).

1. This is a wonderful story of love, devotion, and courage; the courage to have an attitude to adapt and make the best of whatever situation you are in. I was so touched by it's message, I return to it's pages when life seems TOO hard. It helps me regain my perspective. An excellent book!



2. I had the pleasure of hearing and seeing Joan Brock while at a convention in Oakland, CA in May of 1999. This woman has been through so much, yet still manages to see the good in life and in people. She will inspire you and lift you. The book make my mother cry with joy as she read it. I hope to have the pleasure of reading more books of Joan's should she choose to write them. Thank you Joan for the joy you have added to my life.



3. I knew Joan when she was going through her loss of vision. She is a very positive and uplifting person. Her book is true to the experiences we all had with her and her family. You have to read the book and feel that your outlook on life can be just as positive and happy!



4. I was recently fortunate enough to hear Joan speak at the ICAN conference in Omaha. She is truly amazing! Hearing her story puts all of the little bumps in my life into perspective. I would recomend this book to anyone!



5. This is a remarkable autobiographical story told in a really interesting and powerful way by Joan Brock. She tells first hand of the challenges in her life and how she has dealt with them. High on credibility and very high on inspiration this is a worthwhile story for anyone to think about and learn from. I purchased this tape when on the lookout for a DVD of the telemovie made on Joan Brock's life. My mother had seen the movie on TV and wanted to share it with others. My mother loved this audio version of the story as told by Joan Brock and has recently started to read the book. If the audio tape fosters enough interest to read the book, this must be a worthwhile experience.

No comments about The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist.

No comments about Alive and Fighting: Coping with a Brain Tumor and a Bone Marrow Transplant.

5 comments about George & Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism.

1. I have a 3 yr old autistic son who moved from severe to mild with a lot of intervention. I have read a lot of books, and I was particularly interested in this one because I had heard so many positive things about it. I am glad that I did because overall, I really liked the book. I found her accounts of her sons to be filled with love, honesty, and sometimes even humor. She is an amazing woman to raise 3 boys alone (she's a single Mom!), and two of them with autism. I give her a lot of credit. I give it 4 stars though instead of 5 because while I liked her accounts, I think she made some pretty odd assertions. Some of it has been mentioned already in the reviews, and some not. I just hope that people read it with an open mind - that her assertions on autism is just that of a Mom with two autistic boys, and they are not always...accurate. Regardless, I highly recommend this book.



2. I read this book because Nick Hornby recommended it in his book, "The Polyphonic Spree." (By the way, Hornby's novel, "How to be Good," though not about autism, is an entertaining read). Hornby has a son affected by autism, so he has insight into the subject.
   
   I don't agree with everything Moore writes, but I found this memoir to be very real and moving. She discusses the CF GF diet, but isn't a zealot about it, which I appreciated. She uses ABA, whereas we use Floortime in our family. She's anti-inclusion, whereas my son attends a school with an inclusion program.
   
   This book shows what it's like to live with autism. The author has a sense of humor, which makes it readable. I could identify with her gradual awakening to the fact that something was wrong. I appreciated her worries about what will happen to her boys after she's gone.
   
   Moore says her sons are "autistic through and through," which is to say, there are not "normal" boys inside, struggling to get out. I think this is an important view to have represented, because there are a lot of miraculous recovery stories out there, and the truth is that sometimes, recovery doesn't happen. Recovery makes for a more dramatic story, and probably sells more books. But there's a place for truthful accounts like this, too. I resonated with it.



3. As a psychologist who works with children with autism, I have read many of the books written by parents so I can have a better understanding of their experience. Many of the books focus on some of the alternative treatments and how one or another "cured" their child. This is not the case with "George and Sam". Charlotte Moore does describe treatments that she has tried, and discusses the pros and cons of the outcome in a realistic way. She doesn't expect to find a miracle cure, just treatments that can improve her boys' quality of life. She wholly accepts who they are. She doesn't lead the reader to believe that if they try a particular treatment their child will be cured. I believe this is a great book for parents, especially those who have a child that is newly diagnosed.



4. I read this book on a recommendation and it was of particular interest to me, since a close friend has an autistic child and another close friend works with autistic children. This book deals with a heavy subject in a very accessible manner and gives out a lot of information without feeling preachy or reading like a textbook. I recommend it for everyone.



5. The book is so informative and gives the opportunity to look inside this family's life with two children with autism. If you are a parent or a caregiver, you will relate to a lot of the behaviors, actions and reactions of the boys. The mom is very good telling all and not feeling like is a tragedy to be the mom of these two kids.
   Very informative about the things that have helped them improve their quality of life. A must read for families of children with autism, like mine.