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1 comments about Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride.

1. As an author and PhD student I take seriously the area of disability studies. This thought provoking book is an excellent way to consider those whom society deems different and the limitations we place which blocks an individual more than any physical disability could. I found the writing exemplary and the content utterly compelling.
   I would recommend this book not only to educators but to authors and writers who wish to add depth to their characterizations and develop an understanding of disability culture.

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

1. 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!!!



2. 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.

4 comments about Signs of Life: A Memoir of Dying and Discovery.

1. My beloved father passed away on March 3, 2005 after living for 2 years with Stage IV lung cancer. I was his caretaker for the last 6 weeks of his life whe I moved to New York to care for him. This book is a beautiful heartfelt story of the author's experience with his own's mother's illness and death. I found it to be very cathartic and appreciated the beauty of his words. i even found things within to adapt when writing my dad's eulogy. If only i could write so well to write something beautiful for my father. Thank you Tim Brookes, bless your family and your mother, may she live though you all who loved her so. Lori



2. Tim Brookes offers a well written, engaging account of the dying and death process. My father was diagnosed with a brain tumor a few weeks ago and a dear friend put this book in my hands. It is a tribute to life and dignity in dying. As I write this we are still in the middle of searching for treatment and I find the words of this book comforting and a guide of sorts to the process of living, essentially with a death sentence. The author shines a light on a process we are all engaged in, as we all eventually face the dying process. This book would be helpful for family members as well as professionls...and not only those dealing with cancer.



3. When my grandmother was diagnosed terminally ill(suffering from COPD), the family chose hospice care instead of a nursing home. I went to the library to get a book on hospice and this is the book that carried me through the heartbreaking yet beautiful last week of my beloved Nany's life. I know that every dying experience is different, but there were similarities between the author's mother and my grandmother's. It gave me great comfort to read Mr. Brookes words as I sat beside my grandmother's bedside. Many thanks for putting into words what my family and I were observing and feeling.



4. Tim Brookes very eloquently voiced some of my own thoughts, feelings and struggles as I experienced my mother's death from cancer 2 months ago. It is a time of great intimacy and discovery about the very meaning of life. Our culture's beliefs and fears around death are interwoven with his very personal story, which he shares with great poignancy. This book is NOT a downer but a tribute to life. It is HIGHLY recommended for everyone, as death is a part of everyone's life

2 comments about Tiger's Eye: A Memoir.

1. I have to disagree with the other reviewer with 5 stars. The book just didn't grab me as I hoped it would, and it was a bit of a struggle to complete. I thought about ditching it at around page 50, but continued on to see if it improved--which it did to a small extent. After reading other books about people with illnesses, I found that Tiger's Eye paled in comparison. Go for "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong if you want a more gripping personal account of someone dealing and overcoming serious illness. Now that's a real page-turner!



2. Tiger's Eye is Inga Clendinnen's account of her diagnosis of a rare liver disease, her rapidly debilitating illness, finally a liver transplant and ultimate if precarious recovery. But that is like saying Moby Dick is about whaling. This historian from Australia has written a superb treatise full of hard truths on both illness and memory. After all, the truth is not always carried on angels' wings. Along the way she also has written fiction-- short stories-- and some of the history of Australia. After her diagnosis of Active Auto-Immune Hepatitis, she began writing this memoir on her laptop computer, not knowing if she would live or not. She writes searing accounts of her hospitalization: the good, the bad, the indifferent hospital personnel. The visitors who came late and leave early, to get back to their lives outside an institution.

   Ms. Clendinnen writes: "What distinguishes the healthy from the ill--which is a more significant division in any society than class or gender or possibly even homelessness--is that the healthy consider feeling well to be the normal state of things." Then there is memory and all the attendant problems. For example, two children of the same parents have different recollections of their parents, but they are both right. "Being ill had taught me how much of ourselves there is in all the stories we tell about the past." Ms. Clendinnen wanted to preserve the memories of her parents, to try to discover what they were like before she was born. The portraits, "as accurate as memory allows," the author would say, of her parents are the best thing I think in this book. Her descriptions of her mother Catherine, born in Melbourne in 1897-- and her futile attempts ever really to know her mother made my eyes water. Her mother's hard life was in some part her own making. Not all her sisters, for example, were as miserable as she. About her mother's death, Ms. Clendinnen writes "how could her life be ending when it had not yet begun? Bound from childhood in a net of unsought obligations, she fought hard, but with weapons which always turned and lacerated her own flesh. In the desolation of old age, with death imminent, I think she finally knew herself to have been trapped, and defeated, from the beginning."

   Ms. Clendinnen named this memoir Tiger's Eye after her favorite animal, the tiger, "because he was the only animal who did not acknowledge he was in a cage. . . I too was in a cage, with feeding times and washing times and bars at the side of my cot, and people coming to stare and prod, but the kaleidoscope of the horror of helplessness ceased to turn because I withdrew my consent from it." Like Melville's Ishmael, the now wiser writer lived to tell her tale: "Illness granted me a set of experiences otherwise unobtainable. It liberated me from the routines which would have delivered me, unchallenged and unchanged, to discreet death. Illness casts you out, but it also cuts you free. I will never take conventional expectations seriously again, and the clear prospect of death only makes living more engaging." There is so much to learn from Ms. Clendinnen's ordeal-- about illness, about courage, about getting on with our lives. A very fine book indeed.

5 comments about Up and Running: The Jami Goldman Story.

1. THis is a wonderful book. I knew Jami back in high school. We went to peer counseling camp together. She was just as she says, not very active. I am sure that today she is the same great spririted person I knew back when. She has survived and overcome.I read the book after seeing her on To Tell the Truth. I am proud to say that I know her. I truly recommend this book. It is quite a story of determination.



2. I was so shocked to know how she got both legs amputated. And I was so shocked to know that could happen to anybody. But her extraordinary strength of will to live gave me great courage to confront with my losses or unfortunates. While sensitively expressing a feminine part of her, she was also very competitive and eager to find her new life. Her optimism reminded me how profound our lives and possibilities are. This book will be a beautiful gift to share with all my precious friends. Thank you, Jami and Andrea.



3. Incredible personal narrative about what it's like to be average turned to handicapped turned to awesome source of power! I picked this book up in the library, reading back cover and was intrigued before looking at the picture on front cover and wondering, how? My brother is an amputee and I've witnessed first hand the strange way that people treat him, as an outsider from normal existance. Jami describes herself and the way others perceive her very clearly. This book is impossible to put down as you read about the terror of being stuck in a vehicle for 11 days and wondering why you haven't died yet. It is equally as difficult to put down as you read about Jami's determination to return to life as it was before the accident. This book is passionate, informed, relevant to today, romantic, inspirational, realistic, descriptive, adventurous, and well thought out. However, as a 7 months pregnant about to be first time mother, I do not recommend this book for readers under 18 years old.



4. As a single leg amputee I found it very easy to relate with a lot of the different trials and tribulations that Jami discussed in her inspirational story.I found on somedays not being able to put the book down just to see how she made it to the next step of her incredible journeys of adapting to her whole new world.It's also nice to know that no matter of ones differences from others, you are never alone.



5. This is the most amazing and inspirational story I have ever read.I read the book cover to cover. I couldn't put it down. I learned so much about living life to the fullest it made me excited about living again. I want to thank Jami for sharing her amazing journey with the world. I hope everyone gets the chance to read this wonderful book!

5 comments about Devil in the Details.

1. I just finished reading Jennifer Traig's incredibly engaging memoir. Who knew a book about a serious condition- OCD, more specifically srucpulosity- would be so entertaining, yet endearing? I was constantly reading parts of the books outloud to my husband, who was wondering why I was giggling.
   Traig is both a gifted and clever author as she gives us an inside peak into a world of extreme religion and cleanliness.
   The story was captivating, the writing wonderful, and yes, the devil is in the details. If you are considering buying this book, definitely buy it. Put a tissue on your head and read it!!



2. Is it wrong to fall over laughing when reading a book about a person with severe OCD? If so, I'm in some deep cosmic trouble, because this was hilarious.
   
   "Scenes" aptly describes the book because, as Traig herself makes clear, her battles with the disease were sporadic. Plus, the book has scattered through it various (also very funny) quizzes, proofs, sample SAT questions, and so forth that give insight into the OCD mind. Somehow, Traig helps us find humor in the horror of bloody, chapped hands, anorexia, and hair-pulling. It's almost a hat trick; I'm not sure how she did it.
   
   Traig and her family, as presented in the book, are immensely likable and weather the bizzare with good humor. There are colorful portraits of them as well as of Traig; no member of her immediate family is there as a mere prop to her own story, which is a real strength in the book, something that helps make it more substantial than many of the more "me-centric" memoirs.
   
   Religion plays a heavy part in this memoir, something that many readers may not expect, but it was the key piece of Traig's disorder. I personally found it fascinating to read about, as so many elements of Orthodox Judaism were unfamiliar to me, and, again, I thought it gave the book a good deal of substance. Some readers may be put off by this element of the unfamiliar, while others may find it intriguing (and it certainly makes this book stand out from any other OCD memoir). The book becomes not just a "book about a girl with OCD" but also a more profound look at a girl coming to terms with her identity and faith. And again-- to be able to make all of this side-splittingly funny reveals rare talent indeed!



3. Intrigued by the excellent art design on the cover of this book, I recently enjoyed stepping into the mind of author Traig as a young girl struggling with a mental disorder amongst other pains of growing up. She writes with a very sardonic tone, which suits the serious subject quite well, making it a fun read instead of a potentially dreary one. The only aspect that seemed slightly out of place was how she didn't really wrap the memoir up with any sense of finality. There was hardly any sense of the author in the present tense, aside from a few mentions of her religious life currently. Perhaps the intent was to create a snapshot of her as an adolescent, but it seems like an abrupt ending to the book regardless. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in reading a sharply written memoir.



4. Jennifer Traig uses a distinctive comic voice throughout this book that makes it very easy to read. The author describes the trials and tribulations of growing up with OCD, and her anecdotes are both poignant and funny. She provides a non-clinical point of view, describing the impact of OCD on her everyday life. I would recommend this book and am looking forward to reading more works by Traig.



5. I really liked this book. A good read about growing up, religion, family and OCD. I just saw that the author has another book, and I'm ordering that one right now! Good read!

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