No comments about Breaking Barriers : Blind Rites of Passage the Extraordinary Stories of Uncommon People.

No comments about Seeds of Peace: A Narrative Journey of a 20th Century Foreign Service Family.

5 comments about Fevers of the Mind.

1. I think that Avery did an excellent job of taking us through his childhood into his adulthood, giving us insight to this wicked disease. It's always there in a person and much seems to get missed, until the diagnosis and even then, much still gets missed. I am the mother of a recently disgnosed 16 year old with bipolar.
   
   I think the person who stated that Avery cycled so much because he went on and off his meds so often missed the point. I think Avery wrote this book to 'teach' those with the disease, the importance of taking the meds on a consistent basis and to help those of us who love a person with bipolar to understand what they are going through more.
   
   I would love to talk with Avery. I too live in IN and West Lafayette isn't too far.
   
   I would recommend this book moreso for the people who love the person suffering. I would be fearful that my son would think it would be ok to go on and off the meds if he were to read this at his young age.



2. If anyone actually knew about this book, it could become a classic. I've read many different memoirs, including many mental illness memoirs, and this is probably the most entertaining one I've come across yet. Conner has a minimalistic writing style that I find very appealing, and the story moves at a very fast pace, in stark contrast to the boring drivel in books such as A Million Little Pieces and Prozac Nation. In comparison, most of the other mental illness memoirs are pretty bad, such as Electroboy, Detour, and Burn. I rank Fevers up there with the finest mental illness memoirs, such as Girl Interrupted and An Unquiet Mind.



3. As someone who has battled bipolar disorder for over 40 years (onset at age 13), I find it appalling that someone as "smart" as Mr. Conner (1510 on his SAT, near-perfect grades, "high" GRE scores, etc.) would pit his own knowledge against that of trained psychiatric professionals by indiscriminately starting-stopping-reducing dosages of meds. No wonder he cycled so frequently and so severly as he did. He states that he was running out of treatment options after having tried only Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Lithium, Depakote, Neurontin, two tricyclics and Zyprexa. When he's tried 34 meds, ECT and participated in a clinical trial (NIMH), as I have, to try to find a "cocktail" that works, then he'll be qualified to make that statement. I bought this book to be part of the library of a depression and bipolar support group that I facilitate; however, after reading it, I feel that it could foster irresponsible and even dangerous behavior in some very vulnerable people.



4. Fevers of the Mind is a great read that provides an honest narrative on what it means to live with and battle against a mental illness. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a family member or close friend diagnosed with depression or bipolar disease. While many of Conner's anecdotes were entertaining, I finished the book with a profound appreciation for all that he suffered through in his attempts at diagnosing and treating his illness. I imagine many of us have at one point or another fallen into a bleak despair, but reading about Conner's tribulations really put my experiences in perspective. Most importantly, Conner's story provides hope that disabling mental disorders can be overcome with the support of family and friends, meticulous application of the scientific method with regard to treatment, and a good deal of persistence.



5. I purchased this book hoping to glean some of the author's knowledge of the brain as it relates to bipolar illness. As I pondered though each incident in his very active life I kept waiting for the good stuff. Never found it. Instead I found a few pages of data relating drugs to dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. If you are looking for a portrayal of manic thinking you will find it here. If you are looking for answers, for a larger perspective, or even new, innovative, leading edge discoveries in the field you will not find it here.

1 comments about Little Girl.

1. $50 for a paperback from a vanity publisher? What the &^%_?

No comments about Time Is All We Have: Library Edition.

No comments about EPILEPSY and All the Torments.

1 comments about Memoir of a Miracle.

1. Dawn Curazzato's true life journey to faith has been instrumental in strengthening my own faith. Through faith and praying the rosary, Dawn has shown that anything is possible. After reading her book, you'll examine your own religious beliefs in trying to evolve to a deeper belief in God and Mary, His Mother. Having known Dawn for many years, I could have not imagined the level of pain and suffering that her family has been through. This book is her real life story and reveals how her journey can help bring you back to your own faith. On the lighter side,Dawn reveals her relationship with her husband,Sam,and how important it is to share your journey. These revelations can be viewed as a guideline to making the connection between faith and love.

5 comments about Four Seasons of Life.

1. It's difficult to say what's more pathetic: This vanity-press pile of puerile drivel, or the 'author' herself coming here to repeatedly post five-star feedback for herself (see below!). 'Kathi Kay' is the pen-name of one Kathleen Sourwine of Chicago, a self-confessed failed wife and even more failed mother, who obviously scrawled this cheap pulp to shamefully cash in on the "repressed memories of incest" self-outings that swept the nation a few years back.
   
   The result?: A sparse, salacious little screed much more illiterate than illuminating. It's not easy to find any meaning through the constant gaffes of misspellings and bad grammar in every limp sentence. Was this sorry excuse of a woman actually an incest survivor? Is that excuse for her adult miseries real or imagined? Hard to tell, since the book fumbles from embarrassingly eroticised 'memories' to self-pity poesy in a muddled, confused fashion.
   
   The net effect is a creepy, almost laughable FEEL SORRY FOR ME whinefest that treats a serious subject with crass indignity: The author's not a charity case. She's a head case; skip this amateur trash.



2. This book was raw and intense. A bit difficult to follow but considering it's content, very understandable. I felt I was there! The madness came through as only true madness can. Good job, tough story.



3. I found this book to be REAL. I don't sense this is a seasoned author but a seasoned survivor! I found it hard to follow in the beginning, but after the culmination of the story, I could understand why! Definitely not a CLASSIC. Definitely an EXPERIENCE in life!



4. This is a poorly written, uninteresting dirge.

   The changes from 1st person to third person were maddening and one has to slog through it just to find out that it adds nothing to the story but confusion. I have to confess that it was so poorly done, initially I though it was in error. Upon further evaluation of the material I think the author was attempting (ineffectively I might add) help the reader experience her protagonist's multiple personality disorder.

   This book attemtps, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to deal with some very meaningfull issues. Unfortunately, the character development is so poor that it hardly seems to matter what happens to them.

   This book comes off as a whining justification for the protagonist's deficiencies as a wife and mother. The truely sad part is that it has become so common a theme in our popular culture that now people accept these rationalizations as the whole truth. If you're a screw-up it must be due to the horrors suffered during childhood, because without that rationale we would have to take some responsibility ourselves for doing things that are unthinkable.

   This is a very difficult subject to do well and it certainly wasn't done well here. I came out of the book feeling little more than contempt for the protagonist, when I should have felt empathy. Don't waste time on this one.




5. An interesting, compelling story from child to survior. Well written. Not ever coming from a harmful childhood or disruptive relationships, I found it compelling reading. I couldn't put it down until I finished it.

1 comments about Surprised by Hope.

1. This book is a joy to read. It is very well written and full of lessons for all of us, whether we live with disabilties or not. Highly recommended.

No comments about Counting the Rivers.