1 comments about Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist (People Series).

1. For most people who do BDSM or any of its components, the motivation is fun and hot sex. For Bob Flanagan it was a way to exploit the body that was betraying him through illness and make himself as much of a master of it as he could be. Six interviews are the bulk of the book -- each accompanied with pictures from his life. This is also a brief collection of his art and an interview with his partner. Three years after this book, Bob Flanagan's body would give out and he would pass into a better world where I hope that the only "pain" he feels are those that are good for him. It is a moving and distrubing account of his struggle with illness and his attempts to make the world more aware of and accepting of others like himself.

5 comments about Moonrise: One Family, Genetic Identity, and Muscular Dystrophy.

1. This book starts out more like a mystery or spy novel than the memoir it is. We are first introduced to the author, her husband and baby in a poetic first chapter. Next we are introduced to the "villain" (which turns out to be the genetic disease muscular dystrophy) only later to find out that it is not only slowly killing her beautiful child Ansel, but is also hiding inside her newly pregnant sister! We are then led through various vignettes where she describes her son's diagnosis, various treatments, and his transformation from an unusually attractive baby into a disabled child. Wolfson also describes her quest to understand the genetics of this disease where she not only gains insight into its biochemistry but also into the complicated history and dynamics of her own family. As the book concludes we find yet another transformation of Ansel from a troublesome disabled child to a quirky, intellectually gifted teenager. When I got to the end of the book I wanted another chapter to tell me what happens next to this remarkable mother and son. I was left feeling very moved, not with pity but with admiration. Talk about turning a bunch of lemons into lemonade! Anyone with chronic disease lurking in their family (and who doesn't) has got to read this book.



2. let me let you know, take me seriously with the stars, I really love the book. Penny sounds like someone very kind to everyone and everything, she treats everyone the right way. I still think you won't take me seriously, but you're probably right ignoring me.



3. Moonrise is a powerful book, beautifully written, full of forceful oppositions-health and disability, despair and joy, science and poetry. Were it a writer's imagined construct, it might be considered too calculated, too balanced between the life forces we control and those that control us. However, Moonrise is not a novel, rather a book that recalls the truism that life can be stranger than fiction. Penny Wolfson has written from the depths of her own experience a perfect parable, an inspiring story of the life of her son Ansel, rich in humor, strikingly full of unnerving Dantean imagery, and imbued with tremendous pathos. Though ostensibly concerned with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, Moonrise is actually a story about the condition of life and its inherent struggles, speaks to anyone who ponders the eternal mysteries of why we live and how we live. In addition to describing the sobering details of genetic determinism and the wrenching realities of watching a child's body degenerate, Wolfson analyses and celebrates family and all its myriad complexities.



4. ...I was curious and did read it. And I am very glad that I did. You are a very strong person and have been both a great mother and great friend for Ansel. I was touched and moved by how honestly you expressed your ongoing thoughts and feelings towards the disease and the struggle to deal with it as a mother, a wife and a friend. Indeed it is sad that Ansel or anyone for that matter has to suffer such an illness in life, but not everyone is as lucky to have a mother as strong, defiant and loyal as you, who has such a powerful means of expressing herself through writing. Your whole family must be very proud of you, especially Ansel. I am also impressed by your observations and descriptions of Ansel and how brave and strong he has been all of his life....Ansel is an optimistic skeptic, and brave at that (his will not to give up, I noticed, was something he inherited from you). Many of us, including myself, can learn from someone like him. And in the words of Ansel, "everything happens for a reason."



5. This book should appeal to readers who value the hard, loving truth-telling ability of the author, the mother of Ansel, a child with muscular dystrophy. I first read her essay of the same name in Best American Essays, and the book delivered a more edgy, tough potrait of the family. Admirable, credible, and hopeful, the mother is one tough customer, and so is her son. That is the key to surviving and thriving despite the woes of this debilitating, chronic illness. Ansel and his mom (and dad, and siblings) are a real family, in the best sense of the word.

5 comments about My Stroke of Luck.

1. I have always admired Kirk Douglas and bought this book because of that. What I wasn't expecting was how informative and entertaining the book was.
   
   I don't personally know anyone who has had a stroke and so learned a lot about it from the author's personal perspective. He kept a good balance about it - just relating his experience without going into an endless stroke victim advocacy position.
   
   It was also interesting to read about his actor friends. He was not dropping names, but rather was merely mentioning them in the context of his friendships and how they helped him with his condition.
   
   The length of the book was just right.



2. This quick read (167 pages in the large print edition) reveals the life changing experience for Kirk Douglas when he survived a stroke at age 80. The veteran actor struggled to regain his speech and suffered the overwhelming depression that accompanies stroke.
   You get glimpses of his childhood interspersed with flashbacks to his movie and personal experiences with the screen's great stars.
   Although spared the swallowing difficulties and paralysis that make a stroke so debilitating, the loss of speech affected his self-worth. Speech is crucial to an actor, so Douglas had to relearn that ability through therapy. His triumphs along the road to recovery include acting in two films in his 80s and giving a speech when receiving an oscar for lifetime achievement in films.
   His stroke taught him "to be more compassionate, to work harder at my relationships with my loved ones, to value friendship more, to be aware of the world around me, to slow down and to have a richer spiritual life."
   Maybe readers can learn these life lessons without having their own "stroke of luck."



3. It sounds horrible, but as I get older, many relatives are prone to strokes. I've had three in the past couple of years. Each time, I have sent them this book. To some extent, a lot of what's in this book are things that he is largely repeating from some of his earlier ones; but it is condensed (without most of the autobiography of other works) into lessons for life, particularly after a stroke, that are inspirational and surprisingly uplifting, without being too treachly or trite.
   
   Sometimes people complain "why should ws listen to someone just because they're a celebrity?" This book is a counterpoint to that - it reminds us that just because someone is a celebrity, doesn't discount them from reminding us what real life is about.



4. I found this to be an easy read. I felt that Mike was speaking directly to the reader.



5. Excellant book to help you understand what a stroke victim goes through. I would recommend this to everyone who has been touched by a stroke

2 comments about Silent Alarm: On the Edge With a Deaf EMT.

1. I can't believe it. He saw my worst nightmare five times over every day.



2. I believe this book is a very inspiring book that tells you how one lives its life. It gives me a very vivid picture of what the author is writing about, It is like a book come alive, and it's like a movie in some way. I am very proud of this man who sees an opporunity and takes it and achieves it. I can see a deaf man who can do anything, Not even blood stops this man. Death overflows this book, I can see the smoke of the dark cloud come out of this book and it feels scary but is also a very inspirating book which is full of true scenes that happened to him. I recommend anyone to read this book. It may encourage young kids to achieve their dreams and not to let anything stop them. Who can be an Emt like this man and face alot of discrimation? I wonder who can stand this much?
   Read this book!

5 comments about The Rooms of Heaven : A Story of Love, Death, Grief, and the Afterlife.

1. This book so moved me that I felt compelled to write to Mary Allen, though I've never written to an author before. I found my copy in a second-hand store. It drew me to it in much the same way that Mary's life had coincidences and connections that could not be predicted.

   How can I say what affected me so about it? It wasn't that, 22 years ago, a close friend took his life, as Jim Beaman did. It wasn't quite because my ex had a bad relationship with cocaine. It was really that the honest telling of Mary's love and life with Jim was so true, in all its details.

   I believe, as Mary does, in life after death. And I also believe in synchronicity, those strange seeming coincidences that catch us by surprise. Dreaming of a friend, and then she calls the next day, after years of silence. Learning a new word, and then you start seeing it everywhere.

   One coincidence about this particular copy of the book took me totally by surprise. The book, of course, was used, so it had its former owner's name, in feminine script, on the first page. "N. [last name]," it read. When I flipped to the Acknowledgments section at some later point (it was dog-eared), I saw Mary's last thank-you sentence: "... and John [same last name], who read the manuscript and listened to me talk about it so often he practically knows it by heart."

   So this book has come to mean more to me than just the story, which is moving and sparkling enough. Although N. gave it away, I never will!




2. Mary Allan tells quite a story about the love of her life, Jim Beamen. They have somewhat of a whirlwind romance and Mary starts to see that Jim has an addiction to cocaine. Mary chonicles her spiral downward with Jim as his addiction becomes out of control; coupled with alcoholism and their codependecy.

   When Jim commits suicide, Mary can't cope with her loss. She begins a descent into mental illness. Mary becomes 'addicted' to "automatic writing" in which she believes she is corresponding with Jim's spirit.

   I think Allan is very brave to write this memoir. I can't imagine her sadness, or her irrational thoughts. They seem so strange and as I read them, I could feel her overwhelming sadness and desperation to connect with Jim...and it takes courage for her to share that sad desperation with others.

   I found her writing style effective and I would recommend anyone who has suffered a tragic loss to read this book as it offers an insight into codependency, addiction and grief. Worthy of 4 stars.




3. I would also use the word haunting to describe this book. Haunting and gut-wrenching, and in a strange way, almost familiar in parts. As I read it, totally engrossed, I kept thinking "there, but for the grace of God....". The rather innocent beginning, in a college town in the midwest, reminded me of earlier days of my own, as well as the meeting of someone who is so appealing that it creates an instant bond. And then the mysterious stangeness of addiction, and the feeling that somehow you could make it all better, but can't. And then the second part, stranger than the first, but no less plausible, just that the author slid over the edge of 'rationality'. Mary Allen is a compelling writer, and a courageous one. I'm glad I read this book (twice), although it was an intense and occasionally an uncomfortable experience.



4. This for me was actually an engrossing read. The beginning I guess is what really sort of builds you up, because that is what keeps you reading on. It was interesting, but the one thing I really don't care for is the way that some books will not have chapter headings. But, overall I'd say it was worth it. I gave it 4 stars.



5. I picked this up at the library never having heard of it and not expecting much. I was surprised at how interesting it was. The first part is a very honest, beautifully written account of her love affair with an addict. The story is structured in a an unusual, sometimes hard to follow, but effective style. The second part tells of her compulsive attempts to communicate with her dead fiancee. This was very interesting and plausible though she draws conclusions that I did not agree with. She also leaves out much of the actual spirit communications which I would have loved to read. Although she is very reflective and self-critical, it is often hard to see your own problems clearly. There is enough information presented that the reader can form his own opinions about what happened to her, however.
   I'd have to admit that it got long at times and I did have to skim. But, like life, you sometimes have to slog through the boring parts to really appreciate the highlights.

5 comments about Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder's Mother.

1. This one started out so well. A fascinating life story which then morphed into the biography of a son. I picked it up on sale thinking it looked really interesting...and it was...at first. I was disappointed when Lula, the subject of the biography, was forgotten as soon as Stevie signed with Motown. We no longer have Lula's biography, we have "Stevie Wonder: The Early Years". After the Stevie section started we merely get asides mentioning that Lula is divorced, Lula is remarried, Lula is divorced, again. Not what I signed up for when I started reading it.



2. This was a great book! It was wonderful to read about Stevie's mother and her struggles through the years. I grew up listening to Stevie having parents who saw his show a few times. I learned things I never knew about Stevie and his life. I highly suggest this book.



3. 1932-2006.
   
   It was truly a Miraculous Journey.



4. Lula Hardaway was a great, great lady. How many would go through what Mama went through, for the sake of her children? The difficult years of a young girl, the despicable treatment of Lula by her first husband, and her triumph over unbelieveable obstacles, is an amazing story! And her belief in her 12 year old blind son, who became Stevie Wonder, is the ultimate story of a mother's love. I knew Mama since 1965, when I began working with Steve. I spoke to her just two weeks ago, lively, funny, with a laugh that made 'me' laugh. Goodbye Mama. I miss you already.



5. Interesting only to a point. Lula plays off her sons leaving us hanging. By the time I finished the book, any compassion I had for her story was lost in the repeated saga of her own self egotisim.

5 comments about Andrea Bocelli: A Celebration.

1. This is a beautiful book, well written and lavishly filled with wonderful pictures of Andrea and His family, surroundings and special events. This book gives a nice short history of Bocelli's life and a detailed look at his musical career, it is very much a good biography and a good history of Bocelli, it is a good sister book to Andreas auto Biography "The Music Of Silence" which is really detailed about Andrea youth up to his young adulthood and gives his thought's about all the important events of his life, but is not detailed about his career. Felix's book Besides covering HIS Career up To 99 in Great detail she also gives us a nice understanding about those who influenced Andrea musically (the greats of Opera) and about Opera itself. I also agree with the last reviewer it is a nice coffie table book due to the size and the beatiful pictures. Together the books (Andrea Bocelli : A Celebration by Antonia Felix and The Slience of Music : Andrea Bocelli) give a great picture of ANDREA in so many ways, and are a must for every Bocelli fan.



2. "My blindness has never been a tragedy to me; I don't know why it should be a tragedy to others." This quote by Maestro Bocelli, out of many that are included in this interesting and well-written biography, cogently defines the man behind the beautiful voice.

   The author, Ms. Felix, takes the reader on an interesting journey. Her writing style is very engaging and educational, especially for those new to classical music. From his birth with a rare form of congenital glaucoma, all the way to White House to sing for President Clinton, Andrea Bocelli's story has the aura of a fairy tale. But the author firmly grounds the reader in reality. Maestro Bocelli is now a famous man; however, we see his life before and after, and perhaps come away thinking that it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

   From his childhood in the hills of Tuscany, through his years in Pisa for law school, we see the struggle of a young man who never allowed his blindess to close his vision of the world. The author's recounting of his law school years, along with his early forays into piano bars, was very intriguing. The story how he met his wife, Enrica, will captivate the reader with its candor, along with his feelings after their first meeting. "When she touched my hand, I knew I had met the love of my life."

   Many would say that Maestro Bocelli, a former public defender, was lucky to achieve his fame. One of his countless demo tapes fell into the hands of the manager of Italian pop vocal star, Zucchero, who was looking for a tenor to accompany him on a certain song called, "Miserere." His inital choice was Maestro Luciano Pavorotti, who after hearing the demo, could not believe it came from an unknown piano bar singer. In the end, the Maestro told him, "This guy Bocelli will sing it better than anyone." And with that endorsement, the path was paved for Andrea Bocelli to become a household name in Europe.

   This is a very vivid tale about a determined man. The reader may get the impression that he would prefer to sing to his horse, Gisele, rather than combat his admitted stage fright in front of his passionate fans. Or perhaps take to the slopes with gold medalist, Alberto Tomba, who taught Maestro Bocelli how to ski. Or parachute out of a plane on a dare. But this is a rare man with a lifelong passion for singing, and the author paints a complete portrait of him. The reader will come away with an added respect for the man with the angelic voice.

   Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.




3. I appreciate the prompt and excellant condition of this item.
   I am very happy and am a huge supporter of amazon.com



4. I found the piece to be beautifully illustrated with very touching photographs that revealed the essense of a naturally talented vocalist and the protrayl of his life. An exceptional voice as many have stated "sings from the heart" and in my mind "the soul."



5. His range and his clarity make him one of the best tenors of our generation.

5 comments about Does She Know She's There?.

1. It's hard to believe that Mrs. Schaefer isn't a professional writer who spends hours at the typewriter every day of her life. Her writing is amazing! I am the mother of a son with severe disabilities who was born in 1998, and Nicola is now my role model. Her daughter, Catherine, was born just a year before me in 1961, a time when services were essentialy non-existent for someone with her degree of disability. The Schaefer's raised her at home during a period of history when supports were something that had to fought for and won. And fight she did. What a woman.

   What's most inspiring to me, though, is the joy and humor that Nicola shares when telling Catherine's story. Despite the "inconveniences", as she refers to them, that Cath's disability presents, life is good. Not easy, but very, very good. I fell in love with the entire family.




2. What a lovely way with words. The author eloquently welcomes the reader into her world and allows you to meet Catherine, a unique and special young lady. The novel also lends itself to be a textbook on history and legislature regarding those with disabilities. Mrs. Schaefer obviously is rich in both knowledge and love.



3. Wonderfully written! Nicola shares an aspect of life that many are too afraid to explore. Throughout the story of her daughter's life, Nicola shares the inhumanity and stigma that go with being a person with a disability in yesterday's society. This book is a time travel that spans through 1961 to 1999. It was astounding to see how society has changed and unfortunately...how it hasn't. This book will enlighten you and challenge you to view people with disabilities in a new light.

   As part of a college requirement, I read this book along with 3 of my classmates. We have analyzed and come to the conclusion that this book could change even the hardest of hearts.




4. Be careful! There are two versions of this book. You want to read the newer version, so you can get the whole story. Both versions are great. It is an inspirational true story written by a mother of a child with a severe disability. It discusses the mother's courageous attempts to better the quality of her daughter's life, when that was not the normal.



5. We read Does She Know She's There? as a requirement during our college course about teaching students with significant disabilities. We all really enjoyed the book. Although the novel was long, we found it to be a heartwarming story. Nicola Schaefer journals about her life with her daughter Catherine. Catherine is a child with multiple physical and cognitive disabilities. At a time when institutionalization was a common answer for children with disabilities, Nicola spent the great majority of her life advocating for her daughter and other children like her. She worked to get Catherine into appropriate schools and provide nurturing environments for children and adults with significant disabilities. Schaefer's genuine writing style brings readers into the story where they experience both her heartaches and joys. The text is also complimented with touching black and white photos of Catherine and the people that were important in her life.

4 comments about Amanda's Gift.

1. This book, to be quite honest, at times is hard to read. Not because it doesn't flow or make sense, but because it is so easy to relate to what Scott has written. There were many times when I found myself thinking how I have expressed many of the same emotions and frustrations that Scott wrote about. It brought tears on more than one occassion. However, I am very glad I read the book. It is very helpful. Both with practical advice and in dealing with your emotions as you battle serious childhood illness. Thank you Scott, your book has been a gift to countless families.



2. This author has provided the public at large with several real gifts. The first is the gift of his beautiful daughter, Amanda. The second was his unflinchingly honest assessment of Amanda's illness and the tragic impact it had on her family. The third gift was making his (and Amanda's) story public. This man has done an invaluable service and one can't help but hope for peace in their lives. This book is very inspirational.



3. This book has truly helped me, go through the illness and death of my 4 1/2 yr old special needs son. What is so neat is that while this family lived in IL, Amanda and her sister attended the preschool and school where I worked. I met Amanda in person , and watched her in the "green room" many times. I always remember holding her and "Bunnylove" little did I know that when I became a mother I would go down the long road of having a sick child who now lives with the angel's. I hope and pray Amanda is alive and well, but if she too has gone home with the Angel's I know she and my little boy are together



4. I found this book very helpful after our 3 year old was diagnosed with a life threatening illness, PH+ALL. We were able to identify with many of the same experiences as Amanda's family, from middle of the night fevers, failed IV attempts, neglected siblings, friends and coworkers offers of help, and many bills. This book taught us to never turn down help when it is offered. Family, friends, and coworkers want to help and need to. We know that we would feel the same. "Amanda's Gift" reminded us to take care of our marriage and our other children. So we kept date night, and made time to relax, or go out for ice cream with our other children.
   The author talks about his personal relationship with God, how he was able to put his trust for his daughters future in God's hands.

No comments about Moments of Clarity: Voices from the Front Lines of Addiction and Recovery.