1 comments about Jenessa's Journey.

1. Debbie Sherman does a superb job of sharing with us her challenges and blessings of discovering that Jenessa has Downs syndrome and a major heart defect. As an Ob Gyn physician, I am delighted that Debbie has gone to this effort, so that others will benefit from their experiences. Each step along they way, Debbie describes her experiences, and educates us, and this will be a tremendous help to others! I plan to tell all of my colleagues about this book which will serve as a tremendous resource. Thank you!

3 comments about A Real Person: Life on the Outside.

1. One of the most eloquent first-hand accounts of growing up with an undiagnosed autistic spectrum condition, this book should be compulsory reading for anyone working with, teaching or parenting people on the spectrum.



2. This book is a brutally honest account of the childhood, adolescence and beginning of adult life of an intelligent and insightful woman who did not recieve a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome until adulthood. It shows a side of the "Aspergers experience" that one doesn't read about often, a family and school that were anything but supportive, and the lonely experience of knowing that one is different from other people, but not knowing why. If you didn't know that aspies (people with Asperger syndrome) are often treated really badly by "normal" people, have a read of this book, you will find it informative, but perhaps a bit depressing. I hope the author sent a copy of this book to the evil aunt when it was published!



3. If you are an adult with Asperger's Syndrome, which is the spectrum partner to autism, make this book your best friend. Believe me, you will be glad you did because Gerland takes readers through her odessy of ill treatment by people lacking understanding of her sensori-neurobiological condition.
   
   This book is an excellent insider's view of what it means to have Asperger's Syndrome and to cope with sensory issues and baffling behavior on the part of neurotypical (NT) counterparts. One of the most frustrating things people on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum encounter and endure is not knowing when the Tacit Social Codes & Rules will change. These Rules change always at the behest of the NT population and seems always to suit the needs of the NT population. Gerland has done an admirable job of providing a voice for those with AS. At last people on the spectrum have had their turn at bat - knowing what undefined differences are can make all the difference in the world in helping people on the a/A spectrum cope. Once armed with such knowledge can one gain a better understanding of things that always seemed so nebulous.
   
   This book deserves a place of high honor. It will enrich and empower people and generate tolerance, understanding and ultimately acceptance among the NT population. We need this book!

5 comments about A Single Step.

1. This book has been out for at least three years, but its price is what drew me to it! I like biographies and will give almost anyone's a chance. The beginning chapters, describing her childhood, were written in a very amateurish style, but I found them interesting reading nonetheless. Oddly, the writing style improved quite a bit in the middle of the book and I could not put it down. Toward the end of the book, my interest waned, but I kept at it. I do not regret it.
   
   I know the rags to riches story has been told a million times, but I never get sick of it. Like the song by Paul McCartney says people seem to be sick of those silly love songs, but it just isn't so. I also don't think many of us will tire of stories like Heather's story. The person she became was amazing after being raised in a home with a violent, narcissistic father and a mother who left her three children with that father so she herself could escape her bad marriage. Heather Mills has guts and determination and was painfully honest about her failings too.
   
   I am not sure where a previous rater found her criticizing Paul McCarney for being uncompromising. I must have missed that part. She spoke of Paul, Linda and their children with great respect. It changed the opinion I had of her from what I read in the media. Surprisingly, I would recommend this book.



2. Living in the USA, we were not regaled with the blow by blow, tabloid fevered, paparrazzi driven accounts of Paul McCartney's new love interest. Consequently, I knew very little about her background and her life prior to picking up this book. I found that her early life story bordered on "soap opera", though that is not to diminish in any way the obvious struggles that she and her siblings undoubtably faced. She is obviously a survivor and managed by strength of will and ingenuity to rise above her circumstances and fashion (pardon the pun) a life for herself.
   The most intriguing facet of her life as far as I'm concerned is how someone so self driven and somewhat selfish in terms of her love-life, could at the same time be so devoted to causes that certainly put her outside of her comfort zone. There are echoes of Princess Diana in this story. THe other point that struck me was how little reference there is to faith or religion in a story that seems to be permeated with an unseen grace and blessing.
   It is a good fast read...I found it hard to put down and enjoyed the reading journey.



3. Revised: 11-06.
   
   Actually forget almost everything I wrote down there. We now know Heather Mills probably made her entire life story up. Might her autobiography be more honest if it began with a preface that said, "Why I am a gold digger..."?
   
   
   For posterity, here is what I said in 2005 about "A Single Step" back before I found out what Heather truly is:
   
   Heather Mills McCartney comes through these pages as a delightfully tough, caring woman, who has endured more in her still-young lifetime than any human should have to bear. I read along glued to each page as she took me from her difficult childhood in a working class home, through an adolescence that included homelessness and brushes with the law, up through the horrific motorcycle accident in which she lost her leg. After following her through of all of that, I was delighted when her story took its upswing and she met and later married the great love of her life, Paul McCartney. I felt like cheering for Heather! Good karma had come home to roost at last!
   
   Something I also admire about this remarkable woman is that she does not use the space of this (auto)biography as an exercise in vanity, she makes full use of her newfound place in the public eye to campaign for such worthy causes as a global ban on land mines, and also to inform about the evils of international child labor, which forces Third World children as young as three into cruel employment in sweat shops and agicultural concerns. I see in Heather Mills McCartney not just a fine woman I now admire very much, but the makings of one of the great humanitarians of our time.
   
   (11-06: Wow, was I ever wrong!)



4. Given the current media interest in the breakup of her marriage to Paul McCartney, I picked this up to learn more about the woman the tabloids all call a golddigger.
   
   As an autobiography, it's not the best I've ever read. So many incidents are vague in terms of time frame, and especially names of people involved that it gives credence to those accusations that Ms. Mills has embellished her life story. There are two separate stories of her being threatened by people (a lesbian roommate, a french magazine employee) in such a similar and bizarre way that I was left wondering what really happened. The latter incident is used to explain her sudden flight from France and back to her on-again off-again boyfriend Alfie Karmal. Apparently, a former prostitute to rich Arabs is claiming that Ms. Mills was enjoying the same lifestyle during this period when her book says she had a high-paying contract with a French cosmetics company. She never mentions the company's name. I found it a strange thing to leave out.
   
   It's not my intention to point another finger at Ms. Mills and scream "liar". I'm judging the book solely on its merits and as it's an autobiography she's entitled to write whatever she likes. It's just not very effective.
   
   I would have enjoyed learning more about her charity work between the time of her accident and meeting Paul McCartney. It seems like this is the period when she re-invented herself, and I mean that in a totally positive way. She could very easily have hit the bottle after her accident, but she found a purpose her prior years of life had been missing.
   
   Overall, I give the book 2.5 stars. It's an easy read, but the omission of basic facts is distracting.



5. Not quite what I expected, but interesting. HM wrote this book just before her marriage to Sir Paul, so there is very little in it about their relationship. Pity. But she tells a compelling story in her own right, from her childhood with an abusive father and bolter mother up through having her leg torn off in a traffic accident, then on again to her being a crusader to distribute prosthetic limbs and ban land mines. (Oh, and she was also a model.) Perhaps a bit of "St. Heather" going on? But her childhood was Dickensian and she lost a pregnancy and she had horrible relationships with all the primary men in her life, including father and stepfather and even perhaps brother plus lovers, and she was for a time homeless and living under bridges. She comes right out at one point and says that she craves money for security. She portrays Paul as a romantic suitor, not at all pushing the status symbols he was entitled to. Had he read her book and fathomed its implications (men, $, and pregnancy), I doubt he would have married her.

5 comments about Being with Rachel: A Personal Story of Memory and Survival.

1. This is a wonderfully touching story of brain injury survival that hasn't been seen much. Instead of from a survivors voice, it's from a parents voice. What a couragous and strong woman Karen is. This book shows you what daily life is like living with a survivor. This story reads alot like my own. I identified with Rachel on a very personal level and put me in touch even more with perhaps what my mother went through with me. This is such good writting that I feel I know Karen and her family personally. And not becuase I have brain injury. Read this book! Even if you don't know brain injury, this can apply to any life altering stuggle people go through.



2. Karen Brennan's Being With Rachel ... tells of a family's changes when a 25-year-old daughter is gravely injured in a motorcycle accident. Her mother's account of her daughter's slow recovery, determination to walk again, and lasting brain injuries makes for a moving story of rebirth and courage.



3. Atop all the courageous acts in this story, the final and most lasting one is Karen Brennan's commitment of her story to print. In her turmoil's depths, she attests to uncomfortable truths and confesses her impassioned dismay that love is sometimes mixed with guilt, that hope is a hairsbreadth from dread, that the cruelest and most unjust penalty is in another light a largesse with unending rewards. Most impressive is the revelatory presentation of an active mind (or perhaps two minds) learning, reformulating, performing. In her new role as caregiver researching her daughter's brain injury, Brennan confronts anew terms she had understood as fiction instructor and critical theorist: reading this, you'll come to know that what you appreciate in your favorite author or in your best friend's letters is your own innate complicity in a good act of perserveration or confabulation or dissociation. The gradual reunderstanding of memory and narrative is a thrill to experience.

   Notwithstanding her publisher's marketing strategy, this is far more than a story of survival; and though she may share with Mark Doty or John Bayley a life marked by caregiving and loss, Brennan authors a far finer literary memoir, imaginatively and unsympathetically crafted, with a style more akin to the radical sincerity of J.R. Ackerley or Annie Ernaux or Herve Guibert.

   These are your best friend's letters. Karen Brennan is your favorite author.




4. This book is a must read for anyone who has had a family member suffer a TBI (traumatic brain injury) and I wish those who don't deal with TBI's to read it so they have an understanding of those who do have one. I have a son who suffered one and even though his wasn't as severe as Rachel's, there were parts of Rachel's problems that he also dealt with.
   
   This book is also a wonderful story that miracles do happen. I think Rachel's mother was the driving force in her recovery.
   
   Great Book



5. A very interesting memoir. I thought the blend of medical and personal was very good. The author (Rachel's Mom) wrote a very moving memoir.

1 comments about Christina's World.

1. This book was very good. It should be read by foster parents, as well as anyone who loves children, caretakers, parents and even grandparents. This story is about an elderly couple who had raised over 50 foster children that they later adopted, as well as 3 of thier own. They are fighting for Christina, a young girl they were fostering since she was an infant. It will make you mad how the Department of social services treated the family. It's hard ot find a nice family who won't abuse foster children, but it appears as though they don't do any justice for the good parents out there either. This book is a very touching book, it even mentions relaigion, and describes the prayer that Mrs. Lubben says each day., She feels Godis on her side and continues to keep faith throughout the story. The book is wonderful. I'd definitely recommend it. Matter of fact, I'm going to read it again.
   Happy reading!!!!!!!!!

5 comments about The Unlikely Celebrity: Bill Sackter's Triumph over Disability.

1. The Unlikely Celebrity is a heart-warming and uplifting story. Bill Sackter was an amazing person who had nothing but love in his heart, despite many difficult years in the Faribault State Hospital. In this day and age of almost nothing but bad news and scandal, The Unlikely Celebrity is a refreshing change, and I recommend it to everybody.



2. Dr. Walz tells the life story of Bill Sackter's triumph over disability. The book is written from Bill's perspective and tells of his journey in a Minnesota mental institution to being named Iowa's Handicapped Person of the year. There is a wonderful Christmas story which makes this book particularly timely. I would recommend this book to readers of all ages.



3. This uplifting story will appeal to anyone who is interested in how the human spirit overcomes great adversity. It is also of local interest to residents of Iowa City, as it recaps events that happened in this town and on this campus. A thoroughly enjoyable read that I would highly recommend.



4. This book is a love feast. Story after story of Bill and the "frens" who were fortunate enough to be a part of Bill's circle, including the regulars on the bus who were cheerfully greeted upon boarding, the day care children who had a happy transition from parents dropping them off for day care, the nice lady prostitutes who enjoyed his happy harmonica tunes when he was in Washington, DC to be honored for his achievements. Not only does the book make you glad to know about Bill's magnificent gift of loving, it gives hints about how to nurture that in life. The book is for everyone who celebrates the great diversity of gifts that make life wonderful



5. The story of the life and times of William ("Bill for short") Sackter is as remarkable and inspiring as any in American history. Bill's story is re-told by his good friend Professor Thomas Walz (now retired from the social work department of the University of Iowa) in such sharp, believable detail as even to go so far as to write the majority of the book from Bill's point of view, using the sort of speech, broken perhaps but very gripping, as Bill had used; this aspect brings a great deal of accuracy to the book. The Bible says in I Thessalonians 5 to rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances. Bill Sackter took these principles to the extreme, and as a result, made everyone who knew him take a much closer look at themselves and the world around them. His life still has that effect on people today.

   I'm not going to say here what all happened in Bill's life; the book will do a much better job of that than I. However, I will simply say that this book will open your eyes to an incredible sense of optimism little known in the world we live in today. I can't imagine someone reading this book and being disappointed.

   One thing more: for those of you who have seen and loved the movies "Bill" and "Bill On His Own" (which have been out of print for who-knows-how-many-years), they are available from the very good people at Wild Bill's Coffee Shop at the University of Iowa.

2 comments about Will the Real John Callahan Please Stand Up?: A Quasi Memoir.

1. Humor beyond compare. This book belongs in every nursing home, living resources center, self-help library -- not to mention on the nightstand of anyone who's ailing and needs a good laugh. A prolific cartoonist, all of Callahan's books are excellent, and none of the cartoons repeat in any of his several volumes. The vision of John Callahan is monumental. Don't miss the laughter; it will make you well.



2. I don't know about you. But I get sick and tired of asking how someone is - and getting a tale of woe. Perhaps I am a bit hard on them. But frankly, having lived amid the so-called differently-abled for about 20 years...it is so remarkable that they are the least likely to complain; love John Callahan's books; laugh at themselves; and give me (a so-called "normal") the courage to go on. Thanks John! But could you please write some more books? We all really need them!!!

5 comments about Under the Devil's Thumb.

1. From start to finish, I was deeply moved by Gessner's insightful and creative prose. This is perhaps the greatest book I've ever read. Thank you, Mr. Gessner, for making an invaluable contribution to contemporary American literature.



2. Though I enjoyed much of this book immensely, calling it a book would be a bit generous. Though its major theme of the importance of a person establishing connectedness to a place rings true, the disparate chapters and their topics do not lead to a book that is greater than the sum of its parts. It stands better as a series of essays. Some chapters are full of the overwrought musings of an overly sentimental tree hugger, others are just too downright giddy and reek of so much gosh gee willikers amazement as to be pure drivel. There is also a narcissistic tone to the book that detracts from many of the aithors very moving and genuine observations. However, other sections ring so true that they should be lifted straight out of the book and put on a travel brochure. Mr. Gessner is at his best when waxing eloquently about the past (his own or anyone else's) or when he is on his bike ( a kindred spirit with this reviewer), but when he drifts into reflections on the zen of the moment it seems just too drippingly forced for this rreviewers taste.



3. It sounded good. And I could relate to parts of it, as a recent transplant to Denver and having just experienced the deaths of close relatives. But the pomposity was too much. Some interesting stuff, but a lot of disorganized rambling. It feels like Gessner is just trying too hard to write the book he wants to be so proud of. The word "narcissistic" pops up a lot in the book. Totally appropriately. Does the guy mention beer in every single essay in the book? Yes, David, you're cool - you carried beer along on your hike.



4. After 143 pages of drinking in the great outdoors, on page 144 David blunders onto the idea that he might be an alcoholic. Gee, dyathink? This book sounds like work of a man who desperately wants his words or his life to mean something big. He must refer to "personal myths" a dozen times in this book. He uses an incident where he leaves his sick, laboring wife behind on a x/c ski trip, only to "rescue" her and carry her pack near the end as a launching pad into an essay on heroism and heros (a title he doesnt claim, but one gets the sense he thinks he deserves). Oh puhlease! David is obviously well-read and I think he has potential when he writes about something other than himself. But his personal essay is too personal, he is too shallow for me to care about his character, and he never does anything interesting to write about (unless you call ski-drinking interesting). His essays of "place" about his affection for his new home in the west ring hollow to me, as if he desperately wants to believe what he has written. The book has its good moments, he occasionally turns a few good paragraphs when he is talking about something other than himself. But they seem like window dressing when viewed in the context of the whole. This was a hard book to finish because I just didnt care.



5. Found this to be an ejoyable read. It fits on the shelf next to edward abbey and bill bryson quite nicely. I recently read an essay by David Gessner in Orion - Learning to Surf - find the article online and read that if you want a quick taste of the superb writing gessner is capable of. I found this book to be close to that level of greatness; no "desert solitaire" but thoroughly enjoyable. I don't understand the previous reviewers abhorrence of beer - those contradictions contribute to a rich life. But fair enough, if you are the type who will occasionally negate your lightweight hiking gear by packing in a bottle of wine to share around the campfire, you will love this book.
   Be Well,
   Art

No comments about And the Journey Begins.

No comments about Letters to Henrietta.