No comments about Surviving A Stroke: Recovering and Adjusting to Living With Hypertension (Isis (Paperback Large Print)).

3 comments about Rhonda - The Woman in Me: A Journey Through Gender Transition.

1. This book is a must for all those interested in gender change operations. The personal story is classic for the trials and tribulations of individuals suffering with this problem. It is a story of personal victory told in a sensitive and warm style that all can relate to. I personally met Rhonda on a plane and saw her in transition. She is an attractive new person with charm and wit! I loved her story.



2. I knew Rhonda as Ron and if anyone can succeed, she can. I have had the chance to talk with Rhonda and she is a sweet and beautiful person. The book is well written and you can almost feel the struggles Ron was going through. I was unable to put the book down. Good luck and "God Bless You".



3. This is not at all the kind of book that I would pick up at a bookstore. I review business books, primarily, though I do read and review other genres from time to time. The book was given to me by the author when I spoke at a professional conference which she attended. I opened the cover on the plane on the way home...and couldn't put it down.
   
   This is a fascinating story of the conversion of a transsexual from a male body (Ron) to a female body (Rhonda). Since childhood, Ron had felt like he was a female trapped in a male body. This concept is difficult to understand and accept, but you'll understand much more as you read the exceptionally well-written account of this person's life. You'll learn so much about Rhonda that you will feel like you know her like an old friend by the time you reluctantly close the back cover.
   
   Reading this book opened my eyes, my mind, and my heart to a part of society that was totally foreign to me. The story was presented in a way that is not at all offensive, but offers a thorough explanation of Rhonda's life and her multi-faceted transformation. You'll experience the turmoil, the change process, and the joy Rhonda went through over a period of years. Because of the way she wrote her life story, this is much, much more than just a sex change story. It's a human story, filled with all the challenges, engagements, activities, and dedications of a professional faced with major decisions. You may relate personally to some of the aspects of Rhonda's life, enabling you to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation.
   
   Rhonda's story, while an inspirational model for transsexuals, is also a motivational insight for all of us. As you move through the pages, you will be captivated with the writing style that draws you in as you learn what a friend experienced. It's a life story that may move you to make changes-though not as drastic-in your life to achieve your dreams.
   
   In my work as a management consultant focused on workforce issues, I found this book to be an eye-opening exposure to an aspect of diversity that had been outside my field of knowledge. I encourage you to read it to gain this appreciation for yourself.

1 comments about Liquid Lover.

1. John Moriarty has been able to put down on paper what a lot of people are afraid to admit to themselves -- It's hard to fix yourself when you are so broken, but it is not possible. This book made me understand that I am not alone. It made me realize that the feelings that I have felt while growing up, growing into myself, were not unique. I would recommend this book to every kid growing up - regardless of their preferences or problems. We all need to remember that it's okay to screw up, it's okay to forgive ourselves for screwing up and we must never stop trying to get better at finding ourselves.

5 comments about Life Prints: A Memoir of Healing and Discovery (The Cross-Cultural Memoir Series).

1. This wonderful book about healing and discovery should not be missed. It's incredibly well crafted. The story is fascinating, painful and uplifting.

   Mary Mason, a critically acclaimed author and professor of English Literature bravely examines her own life to give an honest and revealing look at how our culture treats disabilities in particular women with disabilities.

   I was completely engaged by this compelling story of this little girl growing up in the thirties with polio who overcame this incredible obstacle in addition to other tragedies to achieve success.

   This book is an inspiration not only for women with disabilities but for all women. It examines the struggles we all face with tough odds to beat.

   I highly reccommend it. It will touch you deeply.




2. The author tells a compelling story of life growing up female and disabled. We read a straightforward account of a child growing up in an era when women were supposed to marry and have children first and if necessary work to help support the family. As a disabled woman, there were no expectations that one could attract a man, physically give birth, raise children, or work in any meaningful way. Mary Mason did all of those things but nowhere in this book does she claim to be a superwoman. She moves through her life making choices, and as a scholar, reviewing them over time and finding her way to a truer sense of self. Her feminist beliefs are unimpeachable. Her move toward an understanding of her place in the turbulent world of the disability movement is honest: feminism came first and more easily in both a personal and political way. The movement toward a place in the world as a disabled person required more thought and analysis because there were fewer contemporaries with whom she could share her stories as a young woman. This book is a welcome addition to the genre of memoirs, but it in no way is a familiar story. It is news, and important news about the experience of living at the intersection of the feminist and disability movements at a time when both political bodies are in flux. You will not be bored by rhetoric though you will be challenged by Mason's manner of analyzing her family life, her work life, and her intellectual life, while staying true to her desire to tell her own personal story.



3. This memoir is an inspiring insight into the personal life of a successful professor of English literature at a woman's college in Boston.

   We gradually discover that her cheerful outward appearance at times masks a deep and profound private pain. The revelations in this book make it a spellbinding read.




4. Mason's account of her extraordinarily rich and productive life--traveler, educator, writer as well as wife and mother--makes us question our conventional response to what constitutes a "disability." Despite her inability to walk without crutches, Mason covered more ground than many able-bodied contemporaries. The book is a revelation and inspiration.



5. Life Prints: A Memoir Of Healing And Discovery is the story of Mary Grimley, who at the age of 6 years became America's first "poster child", dining with President Roosevelt at the Warm Springs rehabilitation center and posing in her wheelchair for publicity shots. Mary went on to became a remarkable scholar in the 1950s and 60s, refusing to focus on her disability and making herself a part of the revolution of ideas. Mason has spent her life struggling against the common cultural prejudice against disabled people, including the sexism of mentors, friends, family, and even herself. It was only after many years of physical therapy and social isolation, that she could emerge from the social and psychological handicaps imposed upon her because of her physical disability to embrace feminism, discover her life's work, and come to terms with herself. Life Prints is a candid, revealing, informative, and exceptionally well written autobiography that is highly recommended for women's studies and disability issues reading lists.

2 comments about Graduating With Honor(s).

1. This was an incredible book. A must read! Once I started I could not put it down. This is a book for anyone who is struggling to find the courage to go on. A must read for young people.



2. Dan's love for his son Matt is heartwarming. Any parent who has had to watch a child suffer and not be able to FIX the problem or take on their pain can relate to this story. This book inspired me start getting serious about doing the exercises I need to do to regain strength in my upper body following a motor vehicle accident. Matt had no choice when it came to his pain, those of us that do have a choice need to follow his example and never give up. An amazing family with great faith. I wish them well.

4 comments about A Necessary End.

1. This book could have been a tender and healing accounting the changes which aging brings to relationships. It could have been a thoughtful discussion of the practical aspects of nursing home decisions. However Taylor clearly considered it all an inconvenience and a hassle. I suspect he wrote the book as therapy. The woodblock prints were the best part.



2. I was so engaged and moved by this account of Nick Taylor and his parents in their end years. I have been and am the caretaker for my mother, and I found that reading this book strengthened me to do better, and has helped me to be sensitive and accepting of my mother, and of myself. I can't recommend this book enough. It should not be allowed to be out-of-print!



3. I picked this book up at a garage sale, didn't really know what to expect. The author's story has helped me in my undertaking to be my Dad's caretaker. It shows how we all deal differently with this challenge in our lives. I didn't agree with some of the ways the author handled things, but it validates that we all have to find our own way. This book is a quick read, it's worth the time.



4. In recounting his parents final years and decline, Nick Taylor parallels the decisions and painful adjustments of many baby boomers. Each one of us must cope as best we can with family illness and eventual loss, but it is interesting seeing his ways of dealing with it.
   A slim 194 pages, so it's a quick read. Recognizing our parents personal needs, but constrained by financial and physical burdens, it will be hard to handle their slide from vital active people, into dependents.
   Reading individual accounts like this gives us some mental and emotional preparation.

4 comments about Weep For The Living.

1. A book to read that will keep you captivated from beginning to end. The author tells her story as an experience that nearlly cost her her life. A true Southern Belle in the heart of Louisiana's plantation country running her familys plantation as a B&B. She tells her gripping events as she looked down the barrell a foot away of the 38 special that put 6 bullets in her body. Her courage to assume death to survie her attacker as he stood over her reloading. She talks of the unbelievable pain she has just been rendered, then feeling how serene her body felt as she was carried in the "arms of Angels" for survial. A mother of two children with their thoughts in her mind as she is shot. Who will take care of my children? If you like reading mysteries, this true mystery will keep you on edge as you turn each new page of her account and candid revelations. Knowing the author personally, her near death, and the people surrounding her makes this a more compelling book to read.



2. Anne Butler's horrific but astounding account of a near death experience at the hands of a tormented and twisted cold blooded and clearly calculated killer, is truly more stranger than fiction could ever be, particularly when it is her own husband, that pulls the trigger, not once, but over and over again. From the moment I began to read this amazing piece of literary prozac truth, I knew that there would be no stopping until I had devoured it, sifting the underbelly of it, carefully, weeping and laughing with her as each moment of her life leading up to that ghastly moment and each step thereafter, unfurled. I couldn't stop until I had finished it--all in one setting.

   The book shocks you, saddens you, but it also somehow speaks to the heart of us all; how one can find strength in the midst of literally death and dying; how one can keep her priorities straight and think on, in her case, her two brave yet fainthearted children. I admire how this true-to-life protagonist fought back. Not in a physical way at first, but with the inward will and drive to beat it all and to beat him at his game, a game he had by all accounts mapped out, hoping to win. But he didn't get his wish. This woman fought with the stuff that warriors are made of. She got through surgery after surgery, and from all accounts, it appears she still has more to endure. The need to be around for her children, for her family, and for her friends, surely were the driving pathos, not to mention the love of her stately home and her thriving buisness.

   All I have left to say is kudos to a woman who's made from lion's cloth, to woman who's got grit in her craw. Anne Butler, was in deed carried in the arms of angels, but to me she is an angel. To have lived to tell the story is victorious. I am so grateful to have read her book. And now when I am going through my dark tunnels, and I think that I can't make it, I just think on Miss Butler, and quietly and thankfully I go on.




3. A psychological thriller and at the same a true story of both a heinous crime and emotional and physical survival. The story is beautifully told of a married couple, each individually well respected, and why the marriage went wrong. Anne Butler asked herself this question many, many times during her amazing recovery from five 38-caliber bullets fired at point blank range. The book delves in depth her answers and also shows remarkable aspects of her community -- the friends she never knew she had and the success of the Louisiana criminal justice system in putting here estranged husband in prison for good.

   Follow the steps leading up to the shooting, the recovery (as it is to date), all aspects of the trial which was a perilous trip for Anne Butler as well as for everyone touched by the bizarre crime and finally her forgiveness of her assailant. Anne's prose reads as though she is talking directly to the reader, explaining in detail her pain, her anxiety over her children, her conclusions, and her own realization of how wonderful life can be when you are in the bosom of friends.




4. My daughter who is a very big fan of "Court TV", as am I (this is where she heard about "Weep For The Living")-told me about their review and couldn't wait to read it. It was everything they said and more. How this woman survived the brutal torture at the hands of her husband is difficult to understand. She evidently has a very strong will and desire for life. She is definitely to be admired. Neither one of us could put the book down. We highly recommend it. The title is perfect. Society all to often forgets their is a victim and all attention is put on the defendant, maybe this will help turn this kind of thinking around. Our only regret is that it took a long time to locate this book, couldn't find anywhere ...It definitely should receive more publicity. ...

No comments about Hope: The Story of Geraldine Owen Delaney, Alina Lodge and Recovery.

2 comments about Seeds of Disquiet.

1. I am amazed by this woman!! I grew up in a deaf household and being hearing myself, I have a whole new understanding of what my parents went through during their lives. I think anyone with a curiosity for deafness should read this book because it is extraordinary. I applaud Cheryl Heppner for surviving in the hearing world and finding her way.



2. There is no doubt that Cheryl Heppner rose above her diversity to do many great things. I was particularly excited to know she had an autobiography out, but I must admit I was rather dissapointed at the this book.

   I started this book four times and three times I couldn't get past the middle. The fourth was forced and I did finish the book. Although it has some interesting insight, it's rather dull and I found myself asking, "Why has she gone on for four pages about (such and such) boring subject," many times throughout the book. I am not insulting Cheryl herself or her life by no means. But to sit through that book again would be ... well, unthinkable and I don't recommend it for reading pleasure. Perhaps for a sleep aid.... That's just this deafie's opinion. :o(

No comments about Flying Solo: Reimagining Manhood, Courage, and Loss.