5 comments about Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin's Mother Tells the Family Story.

1. a few excellent pages on parent dealing with autism.. then becomes a generic life story



2. This book is a well written book that is easy to read but renders great information on Aspergers. it reads like a novel but is a true story of Temple Gradin and her Mother. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this area but it is a gift to parents who are dealing with raising a child with Autism in general and Aspergers specifically. As a teacher Temple helped me to understand this atypical world and her mother touches me with her story and the impact on her life.



3. I have read several books on families that have a least 1 child that is autistic and this is no different. The only thing, i found interesting is that this mother seemed to be more invovled with her child and encourged her then just pushing away.



4. I like this book. It is extremely well written and expressed. I love reading life stories and hers is brilliant. You can pictures her words in your mind. Thoroughly recommended.



5. This author was constrained in her telling of the 'family story' by an embargo from her adult children who requested that their stories be largely omitted. However, as the main character was her daughter 'Temple'she still managed to impart interesting facts and portrayed the difficulties and some triumphs as she struggled with her unusual daughter and the strains the situations placed on her (Eustacia's) marriage. As a project worker involved in supporting families of school aged children with autism, I found it interesting and valuable as well as a good story in it's own right.

5 comments about As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl.

1. Wow!!! What a read, my friend Phil was raised as a girl for the first 25 years of his life and even after so many therpists, years of counselling & several operations to re-correct "himself" he still feels more comfortable keeping his long hair and still deliberates whether he can ever make that leap and have his breast implants removed. I am so glad I have found this book, now Phil my friend I truly have an insight into what life has dealt you. I only wish I could give this book 6 stars.



2. David took his own life in 2004 at the age of 38. His twin brother died a couple of years before (maybe) also of a suicide. The story of David did not end well, as much as we hoped it would.



3. This was an interesting book in that it told the story of the tragic childhood of David Reimer in addition to summarizing the background of John Money's theoretical underpinnings of his belief in early childhood reconstructive surgery. The fact that Reimer's childhood was being described as a total success by John Money when in fact the reality of the situation was the exact opposite is pretty shocking. Amazing how unethical this guy was. Your archetypal mad scientist.



4. Anyone who looked through a serious book on sex and gender in the 1970s was bound to come across the landmark John/Joan case. It seemed to indicate that children's sense of their sex (i.e., whether they were boys or girls) was soft and malleable. Counterintuitive and Marxian as that sounds now, it was presented as enlightened, forward-looking thinking.
   
   By the time John Colapinto published his expose of the John/Joan case in Rolling Stone in 1997, the jig was already up. Intersex advocates were loudly complaining that they had been mutiliated and tinkered with. The weight of evidence now suggested that for most people, one's mental sex was as fixed at birth as one's physical form.
   
   This book expanded on the original article by naming the actual principals in the tale and describing John/Joan's long and grueling experience of being a Johns Hopkins guinea pig: the transcontinental trips to the doctor once or twice a year, the psychological bullying, the constant reminder that you are some sort of freak.
   
   The article and the book are both heavily biased against John Money, the eminent New Zealander who supervised the experiment, and suspiciously eager to believe any scurrilous tales that his colleagues might offer (e.g., that Money had sexual relations with some of his students; the implication is that this sort of behavior is transgressive to an extreme, seldom encountered among academics and sex researchers!). To which I say--well, whether John Money was good or evil, he accomplished his main objective, which was to push back the frontiers of ignorance about sexual identity. We can now feel fairly confident in saying that you cannot just change someone's sex, willy-nilly, and force the mind to go along. More pertinently, if a child who appears to be female insists that she/he is really a boy, that child should not be regarded as delusional.
   
   Overall, the basic narrative of the Reimer family is not credible, and this is the basic weakness of the book. After all those trips to Baltimore, and the crushing awareness that "she" was some sort of sexual freak, Brenda/David Reimer certainly had some inkling of the truth long before she was 13. At the very least, Brenda and her twin brother must have had many intimate chats while they were growing up; surely there were some wild but accurate guesses in there. And it is inconceivable that the Reimer parents would never have alluded to Brenda's "accident." They probably discussed openly it all the time when the twins were two or three, the same way grown-ups often undress in front of their toddlers, regarding them as no more impressionable or sentient than the kitty-cat.
   
   The death of both twins a few years ago (one by overdose, the other by suicide) suggests that the family dynamics were far more messed up than we knew. I got the idea (from the book) that the twins were seriously lacking in ambition, social skills, and other incentives to get on in life. This is disturbing for me to contemplate, since it makes me wonder if the John/Joan experiment might have had a different outcome in a happier, less dysfunctional family. Would Brenda have adapted better, perhaps as a tomboy? Would she have decided to remain a girl if she'd been happier socially, with more friends and an intellectually stimulating envrionment? Perhaps not. But the sad dynamics of the Reimer family are an annoying variable, making me sometimes wonder whether the John/Joan case teaches us anything useful.



5. Horrifying story of a little baby boy, who suffered, firstly, during a circumcision accident and then every day of his life as he is forced to live as a girl.
   The description of his treatment and the treatment of his brother at the hands of the supervising doctor is beyond horrific. To show small children pornography and to make them simular sex with each other just curdled my mind. And the total lack of listening to the patient is truely unbelievable that it was permitted for so long.
   The book is well written and a realy page turner. Your heart goes out to the boy and his family and you can't help but looking at the photos in the middle. Don't be afraid that the book may be too dry, it is written with the lay person in mind. Sympathetic to David and the choices his parents made in 1967.
   A must read and extremely thought provoking.

5 comments about Curveball: When Life Throws You a Brain Tumor.

1. As the daughter of someone with a meningioma I found this book fantastic. In fact, I literally didnt put it down - I read it from cover to cover in one go. And then I passed it onto another family member, who read it and passed it on again. We have now all read it and have since enjoyed discussing it with each other. There were many snippets that Liz shared that we could all relate to. I highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with a brain tumour and all their loved ones.



2. Very well written and interesting account, while not a brain tumor patient I still found the book very informative and entertaining. I believe anyone suffering from a meningioma would find this book inspiring and uplifting. For those of us without a brain tumor it gives us an insight into the life people with this conditiona lead.



3. This book is sooo well written and gives an excellent account of Liz Holzemer's personal journey with a brain tumor. This book in my opinion, is an inspiration to everyone that has any life changing illness. She relates her tricky ordeal in a straightforward and truthful way exposing her emotional state and brings quite a lot of humor to her story. I strongly recommend this book to be used as a manual for anyone who has a brain tumor, knows someone with a brain tumor as well as doctors, health care professionals, visiting nurses, psychologists...
   I have undergone three brain surgeries and wished that someone had suggested this book when I first was diagnosed(mine was the size of a lemon)so I could have tackled it head -on so to speak. An excellent manual with pertinent information. A very enjoyable and enriching read.



4. I like this book, but I'd only recommend it to people that have undergone brain surgery. I have, so I understood where she was coming from. But I wouldn't loan it out to any of my friends because they probably wouldn't enjoy it.



5. Having just undergone my second brain surgery, I can attest to the fact that this book will prepare anyone who is going to undergo this type of surgery, and would be especially helpful to a family member who wants to understand what their loved one will be experiencing. Liz masterfully interweaves the unvarnished facts with humour, making it delightful read. I would loved to have had such a book to read prior to my surgeries!

5 comments about Making Peace with Autism: One Family's Story of Struggle, Discovery, and Unexpected Gifts.

1. This book was honest and heartfelt. Our family is at the beginning of our journey on the autism spectrum, but there were so many things in this book that we could relate to already. I couldn't put it down when I read it. It was refreshing to read about how another family has coped with this tragedy and how it has survived and even grew stronger without the affected child having necessarily been "cured." It has helped me realize that the most important thing for any family is acceptance.



2. Sue Senator's autism book is not just another parent's story about facing autism. She has something to say, useful information to immpart, and she is not looking to find or share a miracle cure. She is a little ahead of the curve on the autism epidemic - her son is nearly grown - and thus her perspective is very useful for parents with younger children (and typical siblings) wondering about the future and coping with diagnosis and the larger issues of long-term advocacy.



3. After reading countless books on autism, mostly about theories and treatments, this book is a breath of fresh air! It was so encouraging to read an honest, open life story of a family living with autism on a daily basis. It doesn't give false hope, nor do the family members act like little stoics. They're just real people who are dealing with life every day, and who try to find real happiness in just taking life one day at a time. I admire Susan Senator's positive attitude. She admits that she has a tough time, but picks up the pieces and goes on from there. I thank her for sharing such a personal story; it will help countless families.



4. This is a good read for young families first struggling with a new diagnosis of Autism. Also good for families with siblings, with advice about how to care for their needs.



5. Parents of autistic kids and any who work with autism need MAKING PEACE WITH AUTISM: ONE FAMILY'S STORY OF STRUGGLE, DISCOVERY, AND UNEXPECTED GIFTS: it provides important keys to coping and discusses the challenges of raising an autistic child. Susan Senator raised a child with a severe autism spectrum disorder along with two other normally-developing boys: her strategies offer invaluable coping insights and shows how the entire family changed and adjusted.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

5 comments about Prozac Diary.

1. This book was just okay. It was somewhat interesting to read about her experiences with Prozac, but she did a lot of whining about the things that it took away from her, rather than focusing on the fact that it gave her her life back. Her writing is also tangential when she tries to become poetic. Something seemed to be missing. The book felt incomplete or rushed. It is a quick, easy read, but I can't say that I would recommend it.



2. Dr. Lauren Slater woke up one day to discover that Prozac had eliminated one of her most closely held realities - Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This book is a journal of her experiences for the ten years that would follow.
   
   Slater documents her fear of losing that comfortable reality, her ability to write creatively, her disciplined reading and eating habits, her inhibitions and her familiar internal voices. Having survived multiple hospitalizations for anorexia and other medical interpretations of her behavior, Slater agrees to begin therapy with Prozac during the drug's infancy. Her physician, overtly wooed by the pharmaceutical's manufacturer, supplies an ever-increasing dose of the wonder drug without mentioning its side effects and its temporary efficacy. While the author refuses to become the Prozac poster-child, she does experience a significant amount of success with the drug and is forthright about her satisfaction as well as her fears.
   
   Lauren Slater is inspirational on many levels. Not only does she treat the status of her psycho-emotional health as something to be embraced as worthy, she regards this unique piece of her identity as something normal for her in this place and time. Slater acknowledges the need for caution when it comes to safety and well-being without negating the value that an alternate psychological reality can present. In addition to her open-minded views on psychic illness, Slater channeled her experiences into motivation and earned her PhD in psychology. She now sees patients of her own and writes professionally regarding subjects in her field.



3. Lauren Slater was prescribed Prozac in 1988 when the pharmaceutical first came out. She recalls having an almost immediate and "blissed out" feeling. Slater says that Prozac made her "high" and goes on and on about it obsessively as she describes her reaction to Prozac as, "the single most stunning experience of my life." This is rather melodramatic. I have tried Prozac and I have been depressed throughout my life. Taking a pharmacetical like Prozac does not make a person "high."
   
   I have a real problem with the way Slater portrays Prozac as her "drug." She pontificates as if taking an anti-deppressant for DEPPRESSION is shameful, secretive. Slater becomes an intern at a half-way house for "boozers" and is informed that staff member's sign waivers allowing the administration to do random urine screens. Athough Slater does not use any illegal drugs, she panics at the thought of "being revealed." Slater compares herself to the addicts who live at the half-way house. Describing a client, she says "he stared straight at me, one junkie to another..."
   
   It insulting to those of us who have struggled with addiction to have Slater describe herself as a "junkie" because she is over dramatizing her experience with Prozac. It was persribed to her for the treatment of a disease and she was NOT abusing the medication.
   (I am in recovery and have been clean for 3 years). Slater later also considers herself "drug-dependent" and tries to convince the reader of her claim with her interpretation of what The DSM IV calls addiction. I don't buy it, and I don't think anyone who has struggled with drug or alcohol addiction will either. Maybe a reader without a history of addiction and/or depression won't notice that Slater is a phoney and an alarmist. Nobody is buying the "addicted to Prozac" crap.



4. well written. scary details about mental illness. both scary w/ respect to what i might see in myself and what exceeds greatly in a dystopic fashion what i see in myself. is a testament to how well prozac can work, and in that fashion, this memoir is quite effective and honest, although some may call it "over salted" (as Hamlet didn't want his plays to be like over salted dishes.)



5. Lauren Slater's 1999 memoir Prozac Diary is a worthy addition to the "women and madness" genre or for the millions currently taking antidepressants. What makes Slater's book a standout, though, is that it's the experience of one of the first people to use Prozac for depression. Slater writes her diary ten years after she first started taking the drug regularly in 1988, so we get to read of the long-term affects of daily dosing and how the drug changed her life over time. What was most interesting about Slater's story is how she had to learn to live life as a no-longer-depressed person. Her entire life, depression and its consequences dominated her life, gave her life meaning and routine, and defined who she was. When the "Zac" started working, she struggled to develop a new sense of herself, separate and apart from the depressed Lauren.

   For me, the problem was that there wasn't enough experience there; something felt missing from the story. Perhaps it was the editor's fault. Or maybe my expectations were incorrect from the start. Slater's history is briefly given: lifelong struggles with depression and other forms of mental illness, a history of hospitalizations and attempts at various therapies, none of which were successful until Prozac in 1988. Perhaps I wanted to know more or I wanted the story to be told in a different style. I can't put my finger on it, but for this reader there was just something missing. Slater's writing style is poetic, but it was sometimes a distraction.

   I highly recommend the book to those interested in antidepressants for any reason, whether it's history of Prozac's rise to prominence (what some call the aspirin of our age), how it affects people over the short and long-term, or simple voyeurism into the mind and life of someone classified as mentally ill. Lauren Slater truly benefited from this drug, and while many people think Prozac is tossed around too freely these days, she is an excellent example of whom this drug was originally developed for. It's staggering and sad to think how many lives could have been saved if we'd had this drug fifty years ago.

   Prozac Diary is a slim read that can be devoured in one day by the voracious reader. Definitely worth the time for those of us living in this Age of Anxiety.

5 comments about Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger's Love Story.

1. The best way to learn about Aspergers is from what AS people have for sharing! Jerry and Mary share their love story in a way unlike any romance novel you'll find to read. As soon as I began reading this book, I could not put it down until I finished it! It made me laugh, cry, think, and sigh. Never was I bored for even a moment!
   
   What makes this story extra special is that even though Jerry and Mary Newport are both AS people, they provide AS perspectives from their own side. Mary is much more accepting of the unique traits AS gives her than Jerry is. Regardless of this difference between them, they both can understand, appreciate, and accept each another. This is more than what they get from most other people.
   
   The book "Mozart and the Whale" is much better than the movie. The movie is entertaining but the book does a much better job of portraying what AS is like, along with it being more entertaining to read than the movie is to watch.
   
   I was blessed with the opportunity to spend some time with both Jerry and Mary Newport in person after I read their book. They were exactly as I imagined them to be. That must mean their real personalities shine through in this story!



2. 
   Very good book, well written, would recommend it to anyone who someone with autism. AAA+++



3. "Mozart and the Whale" is the story of two people with Asperger's. Despite their areas of competence and even brilliance (Jerry and mathematics), they fail to rise above entry-level jobs such as taxi-driver, librarian assistant, cashier, etc. due to being held back by lacking normal career drive and planning, unpredictable and uncontrollable rages, inability to form normal social relationships and emotional connections, not answering the phone at times, and self-focus, as well as inappropriate job behavior.
   
   The authors take us through their early lives, meeting and marrying, splitting, and finally joining up again. The bad news is that both come close to suicide, and the good news is that they eventually find happiness together.
   
   What is the solution? Jerry suggests understanding adults during one's early life are very helpful, but that marrying Asperger's people together is not a solution - eg. the male/female ratio is about 4:1.
   
   My "frustration" with the book? That so much is lost due to a slightly different DNA, internal brain wiring and/or chemical balance.



4. After seeing the movie and meeting Jerry and Mary Newport really wanted and needed the book. Usually like books over the movies. So glad to have and I am reading it right now. Good to have it.



5. This book is an honest account of growing up autistic. The authors do not, as many authors on the spectrum do, attempt to force-fit their lives into some sort of mold. They describe their lives as they were, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
   
   In doing so, they have made a book that's easier for me as an autistic person to identify with, than a lot of the books in which people fit themselves to a mold. I loved reading about Mary's increased trouble in school during adolescence, I had the same problem, and some of the same responses to it. While it was a confusing and horrible time in my life as far as my own experience of it goes, it might have been less confusing if I'd had a book like this at the time. If Mary Newport reads this, I want to thank her for writing about that.
   
   I also like their unflinching looks at their flaws. The ability to look at oneself honestly without shying away from the bad parts is something I have admired, and wanted to emulate, for some time.
   
   The most important thing that I got out of this book, more than the many complex details in the lives of the authors, was the honesty, the ability to tell it like it was to the best of the authors' ability. I am glad they wrote it, and glad to read it: It is a refreshing change from a lot of what's out there in the world of autism literature.

5 comments about Holy Hunger: A Woman's Journey from Food Addiction to Spiritual Fulfillment.

1. I read Holy Hunger because I have a friend who is struggling with an eating disorder and because I had the pleasure of meeting Bullitt-Jonas at a conference. I was glad I did. Bullitt-Jonas is an Episcopal priest, writer, environmental activist, retreat leader, Harvard PhD, marathon runner, and spiritual director. She was also a food addict who writes to share the lessons she learned about compulsive overeating.
   
   Bullitt-Jonas began binge eating in the tenth grade. By the time she was thirty food controlled her body, mind and spirit. She describes her late night forays to the grocery store where she would furtively buy her "drug of choice." Sometimes she would inhale an entire box of donuts in the car. Other times she would wait until she returned home to consume an entire pie at her kitchen counter. In one four day period she gained eleven pounds; on another occasion she did not eat anything for ten days. In one of many turning points, the pleasant lies told at the funeral of a colleague who had committed suicide outraged her. How could the family lie so badly about what had happened?
   
   And then the penny dropped. Much of Bullitt-Jonas's book is about unearthing her family archaeology of enormous wealth but deep dysfunction. Her grandparents' home was lined with paintings of Picasso, Matisse, and Gaugin. Boarding school in Switzerland and Maryland was followed by Russian studies at Stanford and then Harvard. Her parents were polar opposites. Her mother was taciturn, private, and emotionally distant. Her father, a Harvard professor, was a volatile and verbal alcoholic who loved to sail his boat directly into a storm. In between were the people-pleasing, the peace-making, the perfectionisms that were pleas for love, and the emotional starvation not for food but for human affirmation. Over it all was an unspoken compact of silence: "we didn't do feelings in my house." The wealth could not cloak the deep emotional, psychological and spiritual poverty of everyone involved.
   
   Eventually Bullitt-Jonas connected with Overeaters Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics. She took an acting class, enrolled in Buddhist meditation, met the man she eventually married, and even rejoined her church community, all of which helped her to listen to her own voices, to discover her personal identity apart from her family, and to begin writing a new story. In the end, she construes her story as a memoir about desire, "the desire beyond all desire," as she puts it. Her words reminded me of the opening sentences of Augustine's Confessions, that "God has made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." There are no victims or villains here, no shaming and blaming, either of herself or of her family. Rather, Bullitt-Jonas has written a beautiful story of redemption that combines courageous truth-telling with tender compassion. I hope she will write a sequel.



2. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas has written a compelling account of her addiction to binge eating and the arduous process of recovery through a 12 steps program. She describes with great insight the poison of family secrets, based on her years growing up in a cold household where feelings were buried and everyone ignored her father's destructive alcoholism. During her own recovery, Bullitt-Jonas connects with a deep Christian faith, which is the subject of another book one hopes she will write one day. Bullitt-Jonas provides powerful descriptions and insight into the nature of addiction. This is a beautiful book, well written and filled with memorable stories about family secrets, a daughter's complex relationship with her mom and dad, and her deep need for connection and acceptance.



3. It angers me that a couple of smug and snippy reviewers may have prevented this beautiful story from getting to all the people it could help. In my own twelve-step struggle, Margaret Bullitt-Jonas has become a strong companion on the uphill climb.



4. I could not put this book down. As a person who struggles with compulsive overeating and I have joined Overeater's Anonymous and found the program most effective. The author of this book has also benefitted from the life-saving work of OA and the help of God. A truly beautiful book, it should be read by all women! But especially those struggling with any eating disorder.



5. I don't have much to add to the positive reviews below, but I do want to underscore the quality of the writing, as well as the insight offered in this book. This is a narrative, rather than a 'how-to,' where the author really opens herself up, using her journey as a model for the journey so many of us must take. She is a wonderful example, expressing her life through her excellent writing.

5 comments about It's Always Something.

1. This book is less an autobiography than it is a memoir of dealing with cancer. The entire book is pretty much about the nitty gritty details of cancer, which could prove a valuable comforting resource for those going through something similar. Wish there had been more about her life and career. But it's pretty much all about cancer and Gene Wilder, whom she obviously adored. I like that it feels like you can hear her voice when you read--it sounds like her and can be very funny and touching. She seems like a great person and someone you would have loved to know as a friend.



2. I was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2005 and life has never been the same. My partner purchased this book for me and I loved it. I loved it not because it read like a self help book but because it read as a true commentary of life with cancer. It's words touched a part of me that no self help book could ever touch. Radner's everyday dealings with this insiduous disease made me laugh and cry and boil over with anger. Radner's words help me to roam through the numerous rooms that one staggers through after a diagnosis of cancer. My heartfelt thanks to Gilda and I would recommend the book to everyone who is affected and infected with cancer.



3. I first discovered Gilda from watching the TV-movie of this starring Jami Gertz on ABC back in 2002 (which I don't recommend for highly-acclaimed critics, or to anyone for various reasons resting solely on the persona portrayed by Gertz) .
   Although growing up in Detroit, I wasn't very familiar with Gilda as one would think, being from the same town. I looked EVERYWHERE to try to purchase this book, on here, Border's, Barnes&Noble and other various websites and my last resort, eBay (which I recommend if you don't know where to purchase it). In which case, I received it in the mail after a week or so, ripped opened the packaging and read it like a fat kid eating cake. Wanting more. After reading the book, you feel like you know Gilda. While reading the book, you feel like you know Gilda.
   She starts off talking about her random excursions in her ambiguous life, how she wanted her story to go one way, but it took a left turn and made another. Gilda especially highlights her relationship with Gene and how they met, where they got married, the process of getting married in a French town hall and saying "I do" at every pause, because she couldn't understand the French language. She did everything in her power to try to become Gene's wife. She suffocated him, he moved to New York came back to see her in Connecticut and when "the ducks were landed" she ended her relationship with Former SNL lead-guitarist, G.E. Smith and so began the relationship between Rosanne Rosannadanna and Willy Wonka. Her never ending battle to have a child, put me at the edge of my seat as she went through 2 miscarriages.
   Feeling unexplainably fatigued all the time, she tried to find the source of her problem by taking vitamins, sleeping more, eating properly. She stopped smoking (a habit she picked up at age 14) and went to doctors who mis- prescribed her with "Epsom-Bar Syndrome." Eventually, it got to the point where she couldn't get up and was constantly tired, so she got other opinions and was diagnosed.
   STAGE FOUR Ovarian Cancer.
   Afraid to be seen in public, she took therapy and began to realize how many other people were suffering from the same thing. She joined the Wellness Community, found her place and died on May 20, 1989. This book touched my heart from beginning to end. As if she was my life-long friend. I own the original 1989 edition, and I am NEVER letting ANYONE else touch it.



4. Gilda Radner was a very fine performer, but this book--not devoted to her entertainment career--shows her to be a class act off-stage as well. Some of us are lucky to have faired well at the hands of brilliant medicos, and are very grateful for it, but anyone who has had long-term experience with America's byzantine medical system knows how easy it is to become fixated, to the detriment of one's own health, upon its appalling lapses and petty cruelties, and lose sight of what's positive. Practically crawling, doubled-over in pain, before doctors took her condition seriously, and, later, away from treatment for an extended period of "remission," only to find out it was merely a mistaken test reading, Radner shows no bitterness in this honest, brave, and, yes, sometimes funny book.
   
   Someone so famous during the golden era of "Saturday Night Live" that she could hardly walk the streets of New York without being mobbed by fans, Radner is reduced by illness to humble sprees involving bingo parlors and mail-order catalogues. Demonstrating resilience, but also a sweet brave sadness that makes you hope, against all sane logic, that things will turn out differently.
   
   It has been written elsewhere that when Radner was very ill in the hospital she would make the rounds cheering up other patients, introducing herself "Hi, I used to be Gilda Radner." There you have it--that transcendent quality humor sometimes has to defy all human limitations, even death. Fortunately Radner will defy it more than most because her warm, precise and yet delightfully silly comedy will live on in tape, film and this very good book. Thank you, Gilda, you will always be really something.



5. How wonderful to read something by the funny and wonderful and loveable Gilda Radner. Her descriptions of her trials and tribulations with various doctors..her descriptions of her house. Fate with cancer as a fate worse than the interior decorator..Love for the world..A shining example..A wonderful lady who inspired me during my chemo..Love to her..I shall conjure..The spirit of the one who made us feel not alone..

5 comments about Grand Central Winter.

1. Several reviewers criticize Stringer's Grand Central Winter for what they see as its lack of information about life on the streets as well as an absence of narrative cohesion. While I sympathize with both of these complaints, I also think they're misguided.
   
   In the first place, Stringer doesn't claim to be writing social commentary or advocating social reforms. His book is a memoir, pure and simple. His stories are from the street, as the book's subtitle announces, but not necessarily about the street. Obviously in describing his life on the streets, Stringer necessarily sheds some light on what street life in general is like. Just as obviously, he also has a few things to say in passing about public policy (he's especially bitter about the "antiseptic Good Samaritanism" of large-scale relief agencies). But the focus of his book is sharing his own experiences living on the street.
   
   And this takes us to the second point: Stringer's writes about selected experiences. He's not really trying to tell a neatly packaged story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. (Philosophers might describe his approach as "phenomenological.") I don't know why Stringer chose to write about the episodes in his life he did. Some of them are probably consciously chosen; others may've forced themselves onto the empty page. But the point is that they're vignettes, not sequential episodes that together tell a full-fledged story.
   
   For my money, the vignettes are wonderfully written. Their minimalist style sets an almost photographic tone: to the point, revelatory, unsentimental, sometimes grim. Stringer successfully resists the temptation to demonize or romanticize.



2. I encountered this book on a sale rack and didn't expect much from it. After all why would be so discounted?
   
   I was wrong. This was a chilling and real depiction of life on the streets as a crack addict. What it may lack in direction, it makes up for with hard-hitting writing.
   
   If you are looking for a nice breezy read, this is not the book for you. If you want some food for thought, then don't miss it.



3. This book is an autobiographical account of a time in the author's life, Lee Stringer. Mr.Stringer begins the book describing his life as a homeless, crack addict who finds a pencil he intends to use to clean his crack pipe with. Then he realizes that a pen can be a very powerful tool and he starts to write. He writes about the streets where the homeless are seen but so often overlooked and his eventual position as a writer for a newspaper.Stringer has realized in this book that "the pen is indeed mightier than the sword" as he goes about seeking Recovery and Redemption. This book is a very well written account of a man's struggle to free himself from a serious addiction.The reader will cheer for Mr. Stringer as he tries to regain his Life and his Dignity.



4. I stuck the book out for about 2/3 of it always hoping for some point to be made from the various unconnected stories he tells, but most have no point or real end...such as the story of the blonde hooker who becomes central to his life for many months or the even less understandable the defrocked Greek priest who wants to be in the newspaper.Very little of this book is about how it is to be homeless or to sleep under subway tunnels etc. It's mostly about his hustling newspapers and cans and taking drugs,but even that is surface level & not very detailed.



5. This was the worst book I ever read.I thought the story was going to be about the homeless in Grand Central.Yet all the
   main character Lee talks about is his work with a newspaper
   written by the homeless.The book drags on and on going nowhere.
   The characters Lee mentions in the book are as dull as the book
   itself.I was trully disappionted.The only thing this book is good
   for is putting you to sleep.

5 comments about Too Late to Die Young: Nearly True Tales from a Life.

1. As a child, Harriet McBryde Johnson never thought she would live a long life. At least that is what the telethons on television kept saying. However, she has. Yet, this is not a "triumph over disability" story. It is a story of a woman who is living her life fully. From a law student schooling the University of South Carolina on the subject of civil liberties to experiencing a disability-themed conference in Cuba, the reader is taken on a journey in which he or she just might view disability in a different way by the end of the book.
   
   This book was really powerful for me. I was born with Cerebral Palsy. However, it has not been until the last couple of years that I started feeling comfortable with myself as a person with a disability. I read this book as part of a class I took this semester and I'm very glad I did. Stories like these remind me that disability is not a negative and that we are worthy of full, rich lives.



2. The chapters in this book are arranged chronologically, but each is a discrete story. The episodes varied enough so that I was never bored: Ms. Johnson protested telethons, resisted a search of her dorm by the Secret Service, ran for office, served as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, visited Cuba for an international conference on people with disabilities, argued in a jury trial, and more.
   
   Her views on disability as a civil rights issue aren't presented in a didactic way; they become clear to the reader as she confronts her opponents. I liked being privy to the details of her experience, even though she presents herself as nearly always right. While I read I was thinking that she came off as SO sure of herself that I would find her overbearing and a little obnoxious in person. However, she acknowledges the thorniness, and clearly isn't out to be the reader's best friend.
   
   Other than that note, I felt myself in good hands. I have a better understanding of what it's like to need and live with a personal assistant. I was familiar with the basics of disability rights, but the book got into nuances I hadn't considered-- the pressures and trade-offs in Cuba, where genuine intentions for equality butt up against severe economic limits, for example. And it reinforced ideas that non-disabled people glide over: most of us will be disabled sometime. Disabled people aren't necessarily more "terminal" or "suffering" than the rest of us, because frankly everyone suffers and dies. And if that sounds depressing, don't worry: some of the stories in this book were so funny I had to read bits out loud to my spouse.
   
   This is a four- instead of a five-star review because I didn't feel I quite got a fair view of the author's opponents; it was just a little too one-sided, although that enhanced some of the humor. But the book was still well-written and fascinating. Definitely worth reading.



3. This new book by Harriet McBryde Johnson, a civil rights attorney in Charleston, SC and disability activist, is a must read! Her book, Too Late to Die Young, provides insight into aspects of her life and career, but the author states upfront that "This book doesn't have a tidy message." Ms. Johnson is a gifted writer with a provocatively tilted perspective that is worth hearing. She accurately describes herself as a story teller in the great tradition of southern story tellers. I knew her stories were worth reading when, early on in the book, in describing a German doctor's bedside overnight care, she wrote "Now I remember how he kept vigil at my bedside so my parents could sleep and then fell sleep himself. As I listened to his deep, barrel-chested rumble, I imagined he was snoring in German." Later in the book, Harriet, after having noted that her normal viewpoint of most people is at crotch level (due to her posture), described her first impression of someone she met: "It's love at first sight - at my first sight of his shoes." Wonderful!
   
   This easy to read book (a mere 258 pages) includes the bulk of the text of Unspeakable Conversations, a 2003 New York Times Magazine article she wrote that described her conversations with Princeton Professor Peter Singer about his beliefs that the severely disabled, in some circumstances, can justifiably be killed. Interestingly, she is conflicted about the accommodating and courteous man versus his "evil" ideas. She acknowledges that she stands outside the radical mainstream simply for having engaged Mr. Singer in a conversation. Sundry other topics this self-described "crip" covers are her personal crusade against telethons, her atheism, her battles with the Secret Service, caustically amusing anecdotes from the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago, a trip to Cuba, and battles with a New York Times photographer who wants to shoot her nude ("nekkid" in her parlance) and does -- but not for publication, and many more amusing and unsettling stories.
   
   If you want to read a sweet story about a courageous and noble fight against disability that profiles an individual who overcomes great obstacles to achieve self-fulfillment, this IT NOT the book to read. Johnson`s book isn't about her disability (adamantly so)...but the fact that she is disabled inescapably colors her stories in powerful ways. You won't necessarily fall in love with Harriet, her politics, or all of her causes, but I think you will love her passion for what she believes, what she does, who she is, and why she does what she does. Ms. McBryde is a new and profound voice (at least to me) that is worth listening to.



4. While I disagree with a fundamental premise argued in the book, I do recommend it for many reasons. First of all, the author can write! She has filled the book with interesting and unusual experiences, described them with wit as well as passion, and she challenges people like me on some basic assumptions and conclusions. I do hope readers of this book will follow up with Peter Singer's Writings on an Ethical Life (referred to in Harriet Johnson's book) in order to hear Singer's opinions in his own words.



5. This has been a good year for disability rights in terms of publications. First, Mary Johnson published Make Them Go Away and now we have Harriet McByde Johnson's much anticipated Too Late to Die Young. Read together these texts provide a powerful one two punch for the disability rights movement in an era which has seen the courts gut the Americans with Disability Act. Both authors have been champions and leaders of the disability rights movement and each are gifted writers.
   
   Harriet McBryde Johnson is a gifted story teller--although I wanted to savor the text and make it last I was too spoiled to do so. I read the book cover to cover the day I received it. Now, I am going back to re-read each and every chapter. Each story told resonates at some level regardless of the subject matter. What truly struck me the most was that my life is not so different, that I am not so unsual, and that the bigotry and discrimination I encounter on a daily basis is no different from what other disabled people face. I am not the only one that is subjected to unwanted attention and grossly inappropriate comments. I am not the only one that found Christopher Reeve comments about disability offensive. I am not the only one who is treated poorly when I travel on an airline. In short, discrimination against the disabled is rampant and it is heartening to know others are experiencing and fighting against this. To know that I have two gifted authors on the side of equal rights lets me not only feel better about myself a feel less alone but know the future, in spite of the courts, will be better than the past.