5 comments about Only When I Sleep: My Family's Journey Through Cancer.

1. Only When I Sleep: My Family's Journey Through Cancer is an intensely personal, candid, and compelling account of then 24-year-old Lisa Shaw-Brawley's battle to overcome Hodgkin's disease and give birth to a child. This superbly written and presented biographical account is an inspiring testament to the human spirit in overcoming adversity and striving for a dream against all the odds. Highly recommended reading.



2. This is a wonderful book. It will make you cry, but will also bring joy to your heart and a smile to your face. It makes you realize the "choices" Lisa and her family had to make to survive where very hard for her and her family. You will admire her strength, courage, and her determination to beat this. You see first hand how it effects everyone in her family. How the love of her husband, parents, family members and friends are unconditional. It shows us how the small things we all take for granted can be taken away from us in seconds and our world can be turned upside down. How Lisa never gave up and if you "believe" anything is possible.

   I highly recommend this book to everyone, not just those dealing with cancer. There is a "lesson" for everyone to learn from Lisa's experience. It's a WONDERFUL story of love, courage, faith and determination of a young woman who is fighting to survive cancer.




3. This is a wonderful book. It will make you cry, but will also bring joy to your heart and a smile to your face. It makes you realize the "choices" Lisa and her family had to make to survive where very hard for her and her family. You will admire her strength, courage, and her determination to beat this. You see first hand how it effects everyone in her family. How the love of her husband, parents, family members and friends are unconditional. It shows us how the small things we all take for granted can be taken away from us in seconds and our world can be turned upside down. How Lisa never gave up and if you "believe" anything is possible.

   I highly recommend this book to everyone, not just those dealing with cancer. There is a "lesson" for everyone to learn from Lisa's experience. It's a WONDERFUL story of love, courage, faith and determination of a young woman who is fighting to survive cancer.




4. Lisa is a brave and intelligent person. The words she writes of her cancer experience are from inside her soul, they are real. She dares to speak of her fear. You can hear her fear and her courage to fight fear. She insists on explaining this life changing event. She describes cancer's potential and how paraylzing an experience can be. I myself am a (2) time Hodgkins Disease survivor. I can relate to Lisa in many, many ways. The title, "Only When I Sleep," says it all. I strongly encourage anyone to read this book to hear words of a cancer experience and the meaning of a cancer survivor. Those who have experienced cancer and read this book will applaud Lisa for her strength to overcome adversity and commend her for not letting her experience go unnoticed. That yes, Cancer is life changing, it will try to take you down, but for many not without a fight. With a loving support system, you can overcome.
   Thanks Lisa, and happy healthy - life to you and yours.
   Patti Nowak



5. The pouty look on the author's face on the cover of the book should be enough for anyone to know exactly how the book will read.
   As a current Hodgkin's patient, I was highly disappointed in Only When I Sleep. I kept reading it only because I wanted to be able to write a review here to counter those that convinced me I should buy the book. I am experiencing how personally devastating cancer can be, however, I am ashamed (and a little bit angry) that people might think that all cancer patients behave like spoiled children, moping around in search of pity and verbally abusing those who love them.
   There are certain emotions and ideas about cancer which the author writes about that I do agree with; however, it's mind-boggling why someone would want to actually put their selfish and immature behavior on display like this. Shaw-Brawley wasn't happy unless everyone was coddling her; she had to see everyone cry over her before she was happy. Her poor parents and husband deserve some kind of award for putting up with her--they were probably exhausted by the time her treatments were over. I agree that families experience cancer right along with the patient--there's no denying that--but none should have to suffer like Shaw-Brawley's.
   I don't doubt that keeping a journal throughout her ordeal was beneficial and cathartic to Shaw-Brawley, it was not something I feel she should share with the world. In no way am I saying that what she was feeling was wrong or that she should have kept it bottled up...it just wasn't worth publishing. Journals are meant for personal reflection and should be kept in a box in the back of the closet.
   I gave the book two stars only because it must have took some kind of gumption to show this side of herself in a book. Do yourself a favor and don't buy this book...neither the writing or the editing is that good anyway.

No comments about Solo Flight: A Bipolar Odyssey.

5 comments about Morning Has Broken: A Couple's Journey Through Depression.

1. I could not put this book down. It is an insightful, honest account of a couple's experience to the depths and back up again. It is written in such an engaging manner that you just have to keep reading until you finish. This book gives strength and encouragement to anyone touched by depression, or any other major life struggle. (and who hasn't??) Thank you to Phil and Emme for bringing this topic out into the open and to the front burner. We can all benefit from this wonderful book!!!



2. This book is a literal life saver. I had just finished reading this book about a week ago. It was an opportunity to learn first hand what a person experiencing clilnical depression feels and acts on.
   
   Then, I got an urgent call from my neighbor -- she had just received a desperate phone call from her daughter-in-law. My friend's son tried to leave their apartment and said he planned to jump off the bridge. My friend was shaking and crying out of control. I ran back to my apartment, grabbed Phillip and Emme's book. I told her about the book and there was hope for her son.
   
   We quickly consulted the resource references in the book for help for this young couple. I am confident they will now be able to get the guidance they need to work through this crisis.
   
   I want to express a heartfelt thank you, Phillip and Emme, for showing the way to other people to save the life of a loved one, or someone they don't even know personally. This book is an outstanding contribution to the world.



3. This unique book gives insight from both the patient and caregiver's perspective on Phil Aronson's bout with major clinical depression. While their story was difficult for them to live through, as you read through the book it becomes obvious that this book would not have been written if Phil's depression had been "ordinary" and not lasted so long. Out of their ashes has come the fruit of hope for the rest of us. As of now this is easily one of the top five books available for men with depression.
   
   (........)



4. I found out about this book when watching Oprah, and bought it the next day.
   After living with a depressed husband since January 2006, I finally found a book that gives me insight into how he is feeling and validation for many of my feelings. So much of this book is exactly what we have been going through although the ending to our journey has not surfaced as yet. I wish I could sit down and talk with the Aronsons, especially to thank them for sharing their horrific experience so honestly.
   I have read many, many, many books about depression in the last year and a half, the only other one I would recommend is "When Someone You Love is Depressed" by Laura Rosen, Ph D. and Xavier Amador, Ph.D.
   Canterbury, NH



5. This was a very well written book and very hard to put down. He hit the nail on the head when describing what it feels like to be beyond the pit of hell of depression. The only part that saddens me is that there was never any blame put on the flouroquinolone antibiotics, pain killers, Ambien and Xanax as possible causes of this black hole depression. They are all central nervous system depressants and I'd blame them before I blamed 9/11 and the other life stressors. I wish he and Emme would have researched the dangers of these drugs and they would have found that they often cause people to spiral into mental illness. Stopping and starting psychiatric drugs without slowly tapering also sends the brain into chaos, and leads to treatment resistant clinical depression. Phil, please don't ever think you can simply stop your medications once you believe you are well. You must taper them over periods of months and even years, or your depression will surely return ten-fold and be harder to treat than ever before.
   Thanks for sharing your story and dampening the stigma of depression.

No comments about Holding On for Dear Life.

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.

No comments about Threading the Snail: My Journey Through Deafness.

3 comments about If You Could See What I Hear.

1. I gave this book 5 stars because it has to be at least 20 years since I read it last (read it over and over and over then) and I still remember it with a great deal of fondness. My personal favorite has to be his descriptions of spending the summer in Scituate Mass--my mother was great friends with Tommy and his family and this is one of those books that just gives lots of laughs and reflections.



2. I'm stationed overseas in bosnia, and it can be very boring. this book gave me hope that my life will be better when i get back to the world. we'll see.



3. I ran across this book and was compelled to read it. This stunning portrayal of the life of Tom Sullivan and how he overcame adversity in a world that he was unable to see, opens the eyes of the reader. He takes his darkened world and livens it up with color and animation taking you on a journey that surprises and delights. This is a must read.

5 comments about Confessions of an English Opium Eater (Penguin English Library).

1. De Quincey is an exceptionally honest writer. Yet, while remaining honest, he manages to express his thoughts and emotions in beautiful words. While reading this book, one feels as if they're having a personal conversation with De Quincey(no doubt, a one-way conversation), and it becomes easy to develop a love and admiration for the guy. Moreover, it is interesting to hear a first hand account of what life was like in the early 19th century. It is not hard to see why this book is a classic. Read it, its short.



2. When I first heard of this book, I thought that it was a work of fiction. Given my basic knowledge of the Victorian era, I didn't think anyone, much less a writer, would stand up and talk about addiction. Alas, I was wrong, but do not regret reading this in the least.

   Although this book is short, about 70 pages for this edition, it is not as quick a read as you would think. His vocabulary can be quite extensive and to fully understand him, you have to have his background in Greek (the language and mythology) to understand his allusions. His writing seems to approximate a conversation with a very intelligent, but distracted, person. Many of these sentences (especially in the beginning) are quite long and filled with commas and colons. It is like the intelligent person trying to tell you something important, but as he speaks, he is not sure that he is being clear, so he adds little phrases to try to illustrate his point more effectively as he leans forward earnestly in hopes of adequately trying to prove his point.

   Within this piece, he talks of his background and why he started taking opium. He debunks many commentaries on opium use and explains why. DeQuincey also mentions other famous people who took opium (or laudanum). Lastly, he tells of some of his dreams which were "enhanced" by his opium taking. After reading these descriptions, I find myself looking at the work of Coleridge in a new light, and even the fictional character Sherlock Holmes.

   I would recommend this piece to any wanting a better understanding of DeQuincey and his time.




3. Confessions of an Opium Eater, almost entirely autobiographical, has a great many words of text but fails to say much of anything. Worse yet, it suffers form the greatest of literary afflictions....want of interesting writing.

   Confessions has the appeal of listening to the incoherent, unorganized ramblings of a thoroughly bland speechgiver. He gives fits of lucidity to his story, in the form of making a point, only to derail it into some meaningless anecdote or philosophical pondering that leaves you wondering what his original point was to begin with.

   The sum of his story is he began taking opium to alleviate the pain from a stomach malady and through increased use and increasing dosage became an addict. Little insight is given that would be relevant to understanding modern day drug abuse. However, much of the physical effects of opium abuse related by the author are common to the hell of chemical abuse suffered by today's addict.

   I cannot remember the last time I fell asleep reading a novel but I did so 4 times while reading Confessions from sheer boredom. The unimaginative use of his obviously well developed vocabulary coupled with a story that ultimately goes nowhere made reading this book a most unbearable, tediuos chore.




4. Thomas De Quincey was a contemporary of Wordsworth and more importantly in terms of comparison, Coleridge. He writes that Coleridge and he met several times and in one instance they perused some Parnesi prints together. Whether on not they were both high at the time, De Quincey doesn't reveal. However, given the tenor of the tangent upon which De Quincey expounds, it is certain that at least he was using, and given Coleridge's history, he probably was a well. Why do I cite this incident? Because it is one of the few points in the narrative that is memorable. As someone interested in literary figures, the image of two 19th century literary hop-heads grooving-out whilst staring at Parnesi prints (you should look up Parnesi on the web - a definite precursor to M.C. Escher)is just plain marvelous.

   Unfortunately, that, and a few paragraphs depicting some truly macabre nightmares are the only noteworthy incidents in this book. Too often, De Quicey's labarynthine riffs doen't really lead anywhere. His writing style in some ways can be compared to another of his more illustrious contemporaries, Thomas Carlyle's. Both go in for elongated Latinate constructions, with modifier upon modifier and dependent and independent clauses ad infinitum. Carlyle, however, can pull it off. His great wit and energy of mind holds the center of the thought together, even as the rest of his sentence veers off into Baroque space. De Quincey is not an adept enough magician to perform this trick.
   
   De Quincey's subject is himself. His mode of writing in this instance is primarily that of a diarist. This leads to comparisons with some other English diarists of note. Two that come immediately to mind are Defoe (A Journal of the Plague Year) and Pepys (the most famous of all). De Quincey doesn't hold up well in comparision. Defoe's journal is interesting because his subject matter is compelling, he's a great journalist (conveying to our mind's eye the events he depicts), and he gets to the point. Pepys is wonderful because he provides us a full panorama of life in London in the latter half of the 17th century. De Quincey is so absorbed in his solipsistic self-examination, that we as readers aren't even allowed to come up for air, much less see anything around us. That would even be permissable if the narrator were like Proust's Swann, who is at least likeable and self-effacing. Not so De Quincey. He interupts his own narrative on countless occasions to tell us what a splendid scholar he is and (to borrow a phrase from Ophelia) "what a great mind is here o'erthrown." He peppers the text with words like "heautontimoroumenos" to indicate that he is learned in Greek. Throughout the narrative, he is in way to big a hurry to impress these points upon the reader, instead of allowing the reader to judge for him/herself.

   If you want to know what it's like to be a junkie, read Burroughs. If you want to read some painfully constructed English prose, give this one a go.
   BK




5. I recently learned that Thomas De Quincey attended my school, although this is a fact that is not prominent in its promotional literature (having the distinction of being the alma mater of one of history's most famous drug addicts not being high on the list of items deemed likely to attract the attention of well-heeled parents seeking a school for their precocious ten-year olds). This is a drug memoir of sorts, but it is washed in a romantic aestheticism that distinguishes it from the familiar gritty and sordid morality plays of more recent times. De Quincy sometimes comes off as an erudite version of the charcher played by Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting. Entertaining stuff, if a little dry in places.

5 comments about One Tattered Angel: A Touching True Story of the Power of Love.

1. This book touched and inspired me so much that we named our daughter Charity after the subject of this book. This book helps us to better understand what our Heavenly Father expects of us, how very much he loves us and how he compensates for the weaknesses we have been given. There are blessings, even in the toughest of trials. Don't hesitate to buy this book. It may (and should) change your life.



2. i was on the island of st. martin recently, staying at a small hotel on the beach; to pass some time, i'd noticed they had "used" books on the shelf in the lobby to borrow and saw this little book called "one tattered angel". i started reading it and couldn't put it down. it affected the rest of my trip & my outlook on things, especially the power of prayer. i wanted to take the book with me - i was going to ask the hotel if i could buy it, just in case i couldn't find it anywhere. however, i noticed that it was signed by the author! i realized that the book needed to be left right there, so someone else could have the pleasure of reading it, like i did.



3. This awesomely well-written little book is one of the most inspiring and humbling books I have read in a long time. I have given several as gifts and will give more. My sister's comments were that it "should be required reading for everyone." That pretty well sums it up. Highly recommended.



4. I first heard a part of this story from my Mother when I was young. I found it again later in life, read the whole story, and fell in love with Blaine's story all over again.
   
   Miracles are all around us if we just open our eyes and SEE all that God has revealed to make man's life better!
   
   One Tattered angel is a very great witness that miracles do happen and God is the God of all..... even the little ones.



5. This book shows how close we are to the spiritual world and how we can stay in tune with the spirits.

5 comments about Paula (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. I like this book very much, but it is sad... The way Paula dies is just terrible, and Isabel Allende suffered so much!!



2. This story is so inspiring. It is so amazing how Isabel Allende shows the love to her daughter in this autobiographic story. We gave the graduating palliative care fellows this book as a gift. It demostrated very well all that there is to life that goes beyond death.



3. When Isabel Allende's daughter suffered a calamatous illness, Allende did what came naturally. She wrote a story. On its most basic level, this book is about a mother who is losing her child. She goes through the stages of grieving, sometimes even arguing with herself on the pages about what might come next. It goes much deeper, though. There is a point in the book when it seems she has discovered she is no longer writing the book for her daughter. A seer told Allende that her daughter would be known throughout the world. At some point in the writing, Allende discovered it would be through her own efforts, not her daughter's.
   Allende has so many fascinating pieces in the story of her life, not the least of which is the fact that she is an extremely famous author. She is also a historical figure, being the niece of the Chilean president ousted by a military coup. She witnessed this and talks about it in the book. She was also raised by a man in the Foreign Service of Chile. She has traveled around the world and experienced what it is like to be accepted and what it is like to be rejected. She has been an exile as well. She wonders in the book whether her life has been very interesting. To her, it seemed normal and boring.
   This is really one of the best books I have read. The vulnerability with which Allende writes is devastatingly beautiful. In her sorrow, she chooses to share her story and the story of her daughter with us. I feel honored.



4. In this book, Isabel Allende downplays her first two traumatic experiences. The central focus is her third trauma, her daughter's illness.
   
   The first trauma is a predator who's incomplete seduction is enough to scar a child; moreover, she sees the man's death. The second trauma is that of her uncle forced from office in an air bombardment and dies (perhaps at his own hand) along with many supporters, precipitating a military coup in which thousands die, flee and/or are tortured. She is not numbed by these, but she is by her third trauma, her daughter's coma.
   
   It took about 100 pages for me to get into it. I almost put it down. After about 100 pages, the breezy language and cryptic metaphors seemed to stop and Allende opened up. She became frank about about her married and extramarital life, but continued to restrain the prose relating the first two traumas. For instance, the childhood predator story is told like it was someone else's. Her uncle is like a stranger, and if how she is related to him is mentioned, I don't remember it. There is some discussion of family members who oppose the uncle, but nothing about their actually knowing him.
   
   There is some of the language of magical realism present in her novels. This book is worth reading for it's description of letting go. There are some vague descriptions (admittedly not the focus of the book) of life in Chile after the coup and life as an exile. I think there is a bigger memoir inside of Isabel Allende yet to be written.



5. A writer who can make you laugh, smile, and cry in the same chapter is indeed a writer to be cherished. Such is the case with Allende's Paula. As a mother, I suffered with Allende's description of her struggle to keep her comatose daughter alive, yet amid the tragedy she could digress and recall earlier periods of laughter and funny irony. Even in the midst of the anguish of trying to find a way to communicate with her inert daughter, she found comic relief in the drama of the lives of other patients in the hospital. The author provides compelling stories of her early childhood, great loves, and introduces a parade of interesting characters. All these are gently interwoven with a description of historical events and political turmoil in Chile creating a provocative glimpse of an era which I suspect most US readers were probably unaware. A tender and sensitive description of loss, tragedy, and of finding peace, Paula is indeed one of my more revered reads for this year.