2 comments about As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl (P.S.).

1. This is an incredibly poignant and painful book to read--in my case being read to by my husband, sometimes with his voice choking. We both missed the story when it was making the news and neither of us had heard of the book when it first came out. So for us, it read almost as a mystery adventure. I did go online just before we finished the book and learned that David (the subject of the book) tragically took his own life in 2004.
   
   I offer the title of this review "As GOD made him" because this is a more acceptable term for my fellow Christians than "nature" (or Mother Nature) as is used in the actual title of the book. But I'm certainly not challenging the author on this point. Nor do I challenge the author on any of his points---an unusual stance for me to take.
   
   I would highly recommend this book for everyone. It's truly a DAVID and GOLIATH tale, in this case a "freek" kid throwing his smooth little stones at the giant medical establishment. For fellow Christians who so often see matters of sex and gender in black and white absolutes, the book also has a profound message. We are WAY too judgmental on such issues.
   
   This is a heart-wrenching book. All along the way, year after year, I kept pleading for someone--for anybody--to hear the cry of "Brenda" the boy who had been unsuccessfully refashioned as a girl. But no one really listens. To parents and counselors, this is a striking message to listen to the voice that is not always clearly articulated.
   
   The book has been a New York TIMES bestseller, and I hope it keeps on selling. David, bless his soul, performed an incredible service to medicine and psychiatry and the general public.



2. This is a wonderfully written book and a fascinating look into the debate of nature versus nurture in the area of gender assignment. Intelligent and insightful, the author draws a compassionate portrait of a family who, faced with a decision in the wake of a tragedy, relies upon the advice of a well-respected doctor, which reliance turned out to be misplaced. The book details the aftermath of the family's fateful decision and the impact it was to have on them all.
   
   In August 1965, Canadians Janet and Ron Reimer gave birth to identical twin boys, whom they named Brian and Bruce. When they were about eight months old, they arranged to have them circumcised due to a medical condition that caused them pain during urination. Circumcision was to remedy the problem. Little did they know that the circumcision for Bruce would be botched, resulting in the loss of his penis.
   
   A plastic surgeon with whom the Reimers had consulted in connection with the catastrophe that had struck Bruce had spoken to a sex researcher who had recommended that they raise Bruce as a girl. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic had suggested that they ought to get a second opinion with regards to that suggestion. The parents then consulted with a doctor affiliated with John Hopkins Hospital, Dr. John Money, a renowned doctor in the area of gender transformation, who had been the driving force behind the then controversial surgical gender re-assignment procedure for which the hospital was becoming known.
   
   In 1967, the distraught parents met with Dr. Money and shortly after, Bruce became Brenda and clinical castration followed. Thus, their child, who genetically and anatomically had been born a boy, was for all extent and purposes now deemed to be a girl. Brian was now on the other side of the gender divide of his identical twin brother, the twin formerly known as Bruce.
   
   Moreover, Dr. Money now had a dream scientific experiment, because he had a set of twins for which the unafflicted twin could act as a control by which to measure the afflicted one. In 1972, Dr. Money disclosed his "twins case" to the medical world, giving a slanted version of the experiment that made it appear to be an unqualified success. Unfortunately, his analysis of the situation did not disclose the difficulties that Brenda was having and her seeming inability to adjust to being a girl.
   
   Apparently, though Brenda had no idea as she was growing up that she had originally been born a boy, she never felt that she was a girl. Years of follow-up visits with Dr. Money for both twins proved to be unsettling for them, as Dr. Money employed somewhat bizarre methods and procedures. Moreover, as Brenda grew older, she would resist additional surgeries and initially resisted the hormone therapy that was introduced on the eve of puberty. Even when confronted with a totally rebellious Brenda, Dr. Money, however, remained in denial about the failure of his experiment. He would continue to tout his treatment of Brenda as an unqualified success.
   
   It was not until March of 1980 that Brenda was finally informed by her father about what had happened to her years ago and what had been decided in light of the circumstances. It was a revelation that was to dramatically change Brenda's life. What followed was a repudiation of Dr. Money's assertions with respect to his treatment. The book details the changes that Brenda was to make in her life, changes that would find her living the life she was originally meant to lead. Brenda would now become David and live the life of a male. Unfortunately, happiness would continue to elude him.
   
   This is a simply wonderful, intimate look at a family that survived a hideous tragedy. It also sympathetically and sensitively details the personal journey of one family through the labyrinthine differences in opinion surrounding the age old debate over nature versus nature. I would certainly assert that nature, and not nurture, controls. This is a very well thought out book on the issue, grounded in the tragic experience of one family. Bravo!

5 comments about A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler (P.S.).

1. Jason Roberts has done a fantastic job researching and writing about a forgotten "celebrity" of the early 19th century, a man made historically obscure largely by misconceptions and prejudices against the blind.
   
   James Holman would not become blind until age 25. He was an ambitious, thoughtful, assertive, resourceful, moral man who was willing to work hard and pay his dues to rise up the social ladders that were such an integral part of British society. Holman's ambition was tempered by his unquenchable, sincere, and respectful curiosity about other lands, cultures, people, languages, literature, and science - a remarkably open-minded man for the time. Holman reminds me of a wandering and gregarious Henry David Thoreau, though he was not as philosophical, he was certainly just as fond of intense observation, quiet and solitary contemplation, and sharing his thoughts in written form, even if he wasn't fond of living by a pond.
   
   Holman's travels around the world and his writings would be remarkable even if he were sighted, healthy, and independently wealthy. That he was none of these makes this story not only more fantastic but compulsively readable. At the time, anyone who declared an interest in traveling the world on foot and horseback, alone, for pleasure and curiosity, would have been thought out of his senses and possibly locked up for his own good. But Holman was not out of his senses, even with the loss of his sense of sight. What is even more amazing, partly because it is so understated, is that Holman manages to pull it off without drawing much attention to his blindness or to his own accomplishments. For Holman, the subject is the world, not himself. By all accounts, he was a man with whom people around the world liked to be in company, and it's easy to understand why. But then, as the author states, Holman was a man who could form attachments and perhaps more importantly let them go, as needed. But as much as Holman relied on the hospitality and generosity of people, he never took advantage. He never overstayed his welcome or stayed in any one place merely for comfort or convenience.
   
   I must agree with other reviewers at being surprised that this book is not available on audio. But such things are not controlled by the author or even the publisher. This is a fine book of narrative history and biography, and includes ample excerpts from Holman's writings. There are also chapter notes and a bibliography, but strangely, no index in the hardback edition I read.



2. It amazes me that such a highly reviewed book about a blind man is not available in audiobook on Amazon! Who better to be inspired by this book than the visually impaired? I was hoping to buy this book for my mother's birthday, but since she is blind she relies on audiobooks, and I will have to search somewhere else.



3. I just finished reading this book and I loved it. Not only did I learn about Mr. Holman's amazing life, but I got a clear sense of the period in which he lived. All in all a great read. I recommend it to all, but especially those who love history.



4. I have just finished reading A Sense of the World, which I found while aimlessly wandering around Borders one day. What an amazing book.
   
   This book is a fascinating, real-life adventure story. It introduces the reader to James Holman, an inspirational man who ignored both physical & financial constraints to follow his dream of circumnavigating the world. It also brings to life early 19th century England, and the experience of travelling to Europe & way, way beyond.
   
   On top of that, it is an extremely well-written biography, entertaining, informative, respectful & true to its subject. I hope to read more of Jason Roberts' books in future.



5. Jason Roberts does an exquisite job of research on a man whose very own autobiography most likely was thrown away after being stored in a madhouse owned by Holman's friend for several decades. Hats off to Roberts for so thoroughly researching this amazing man, but now about Holman himself.
   
   Roberts does an excellent job of portraying James Holman's early life as a lieutenant on a ship in the Americas, getting his first taste of the world and exploration. Holman lost his sight in his mid 20's from what we later learn is most likely idiopathic blindness, meaning there is really no explanation for exactly why he went blind.
   
   Holman made several trips, first attempting to circumnavigate the world east through Siberia and Russia, only to be turned back after being suspected of being a spy. He would later begin his true circumnavigation of the world westward to confuse people because he was all too cognizant that there were many who would have held him back from doing so because of his condition. Yet deep down, he was not a man whose nature allowed him to stay in one place for very long. His circumnavigation was later published in a book entitled A Voyage Round the World.
   
   The mere fact that he completed several trips encompassing a total of 250,000 miles, with one total circumnavigation of the globe is remarkable enough. But the fact that he did all of this in the early 19th Century as a blind man is what makes his story so astounding. And it is made even moreso by the fact that he liked to undertake his journeys alone, and without understanding the language of the countries in which he traveled, but rather picking it up as he went along. And he lived in a time when there were no special accommodations made for the blind. En total, remarkable does not begin to describe what he did.
   
   James Holman put all of his thoughts to paper via a Noctograph, a device used to aid the transcription for the blind. He would carry this with him the world over, and detail every nuance, down to the paint on tribal peoples' faces, so detailed in fact that it was more thorough and descriptive than that of his contemporaries who also wrote travel essays. Charles Darwin even used his writings as a reference.
   
   The one criticism one could make of A Sense of the World is the fact that it is exhaustively detailed in the early part of Holman's life but much less so in the later years. But again, this is probably due to the paucity of references Roberts had to work with in putting this work together, as I am sure he would have been more thorough if indeed he had been able to provide us with those details, as Roberts' respect and admiration for the man shows in his writing on every page.
   
   James Holman was truly an exceptional man. You would be well advised to get to know this remarkable person, who almost went by the wayside of history.
   
   One of the best biographies I have ever read.

5 comments about The Story of My Life.

1. Great book about a great lady who was blind and deaf. She had many struggles but became a speaker and a writter. I received the book right away without any problem, and it great condition.



2. Most moving and inspiring book I have ever read. It should be required reading in all elementary schools throughout the world. I could go on and on, but that should suffice.
   
   James Donovan
   Del Mar, CA



3. A deaf dumb and blind girl, but no pinball. Helen Keller, bereft of the senses that your average person is able to utilise, has to learn other ways to communicate. She is instrumental in forming systems that will lay the foundation to enable other people so afflicted to do the same, with the work she does herself, and with her tutors.
   
   Well worth a look.



4. Helen Keller gives a sweetly innocent rundown of her life in this brief book. It's just enough to get a glimpse into her well publicized transformation into a girl lost in her own inability to communicate to a wonderfully prolific soul; a person who changed the world. She is disarming and self aware and isn't afraid to gloss over a little bit of the struggle to paint a journey of searching that led to many rivers of experience. It's a charming book and if one is curious about Helen Keller it is best to 'hear' the words from the author than another source.



5. The Story Of My Life was a life-changing book for me. The reason for this is because I never thought that a person who had no power could do so much and have so much of it. As soon as I read this book it made me feel that no matter how small you are you can accomplish your dreams and goals. My opinion about this book is that it taught me that even if you are disabled, like Helen Keller you can still do many things. I think what Helen Keller did was outstanding because even though she was blind, deaf, and only a kid she did some indescribable things. I think this book will be a page-turner for people in middle school and up. This has inspired me to do anything and believe that I can accomplish many goals that I have.

5 comments about We Are All the Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love.

1. Loved this book. I learned so much about the history (and present) of South Africa. And what it was like for a real person to live through it. Addressing issues from both sides and through three generations. This story was definitely told by someone passionate about the subject and emotionally involved with the characters--in a good way. I am so thankfuls that someone has told Nkosi's story and the story of South Africa. It is pretty even and doesn't shy away from the flaws of its heroes or the truth of the times. Very well told, a must read to anyone who wants to consider themselves educated and interested in international matters. The AIDS crisis isn't something anyone can ignore anymore and this book really brings it home. Also, just a great story.



2. This is an absolutely incredible book about the story of AIDs in South Africa. Never before has the AIDs crisis been made so real to the reader. The story is focused around hero Nkosi Johnson's short life and legacy. Jim Wooten did a wonderful job of conveying the emotion and struggle of this conflict which is the greatest enemy of Africa today. Whoever gave this book two stars for not saying Wooten got across the emotion, must not have a pulse. I highly recommend this book for your own good of exposure to the AIDs crisis. There is something for all of us to learn from this story.



3. The book was initially purchased and discussed as a part of my participation in a book club. I purchased three more copies and sent them to friends knowing they would enjoy this book as I did.



4. It is a very touching book and I would recommend it to everyone. I received the book in a little over a week and it was in perfect condition.



5. My name is Sewon, and I am a freshman in high school. In one of my classes, I had to read a book, We Are All The Same by Jim Wooten. The cover of the book tempted me at first because it was a real story and the comments of other people were praiseful. Although I had a hard time reading this book at first because several chapters such as chapter 1 and 2 were really boring, it was a really good book to read, overall. To briefly describe the book, this book represents the life of Gail Johnson and Nkosi. Gail is a woman who adopts a boy from South Africa, a segregated country, who is living with AIDS. This book shows many important qualities that we must have in life, such as courage and equality. Since this is a real story, this is more interesting and realistic. While I was reading this book, I felt as though I was part of the book. The strength of this book is that the book is not that long. The readers may become bored when the book is too long. a majority of pages tells of life's teachings while using very eloquent language. I really think this is the best book for any of the teenagers who are interested in reading the book! I really enjoyed reading the book and I strongly recommend it for teenagers.

5 comments about The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins.

1. According to taste, Dean Jensen's "Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton" can be read as tragedy or triumph. After being on display almost all their lives, the Siamese twins at the end lived in quiet obscurity, clerking in a grocery. All their lives they had said that was how they wanted to finish.
   
   However, they had also wanted husbands and children, and they never got those.
   
   Unlike most Siamese twins, who have to deal with an array of deficits and health problems, Daisy and Violet Hilton were normal in every other way. Not just normal but, as we'd say today, gifted and talented.
   
   More remarkable than the link of flesh at the base of their spines was their sunny disposition, maintained somehow despite an infancy and childhood that was extremely restricted by a stepmother who didn't want anyone to see them for free.
   
   Their charm was their salvation. Although they were wickedly exploited, over their lives they repeatedly attracted devoted friends who rescued them time and again. These never were able to rescue the twins entirely from the exploiters, or from their own sad inability to judge boyfriends, but they kept the Hiltons from utter degradation.
   
   Jensen interprets their lives as an endless search for love, which he -- and they -- interpreted as romantic, sexual love. That escaped them, but they did enjoy and attract affectionate love, which, it may be, they were always too distracted to quite recognize.
   
   Jensen tells the story at a glacial pace but with plenty of detail. He rescues an amazing story. In the `20s, the Hilton Sisters were as celebrated -- and, briefly, as highly paid -- any of the characters of that wacky decade. Somehow they failed to make it into the popular histories along with such comparatively dull stars as Shipwreck Kelly.
   
   The Hiltons' story is a gold mine of irony, but Jensen is not an ironist. By a odd accident, the women ended up in the same place, North Carolina, where the first famous set of Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, had enjoyed the kind of life the sisters had longed for: surrounded by children in rural domesticity. Jensen fails to make the connection.



2. This was the BEST book that I have read in YEARS.
   The book held my interest.
   The story was great, along with the ending.
   It was not a fluffy gloss over of the twins, but an honest bare-bones account of their lives.
   It was happy, uplifting, tragic, and sad in all.
   The book truly made an impression on me.
   I think about these two girls often.
   It's been 100 years on Feb 5th 2008 since they were born.
   Buy it & read it.
   You will not be disappointed!



3. It may sound unbelieveable, but The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton is the best book that I have ever read. I am surprised at how emotionally involved I became with regards to the twins triumphs and tradgies. The book kept me in suspense from start to finish. I think that the author (Dean Jensen) did a fantastic and brilliant job of really getting you to know the sisters individually. He also touched on things going on in history at the time to help create a realistic and interesting setting. Great photos too. It was also fun to read the book and then watch Chained For Life. So wonderful to see the twins perform. I am encouraging all of my friends to read this incredible book.



4. F. Scott Fitzgerald, perceptibly hung over, possibly still drunk, eyed the Hilton sisters over breakfast at MGM Studios. Daisy and Violet had just strolled into the commissary, taking a single empty chair across from him. Daisy picked up a menu, and without looking at her sister, asked Violet what she planned on ordering. Fitzgerald turned pea-green, ran outside, and retched. The sisters were at MGM to star in the film Freaks.
   
   Daisy and Violet Hilton were pygopagus conjoined twins, united by a "cord of flesh" near the base of their spines. As described in Dean Jensen's biography, The Lives And Loves Of Daisy And Violet Hilton: A True Story Of Conjoined Twins, they were also clever, beautiful, and eminently likable women. And yet, Fitzgerald's reaction to them was uncommon only in manifestation. For something in the sister's irregular form converted even their most trivial activities into enchantments. In merely wanting breakfast, Daisy and Violet inspire our unseemly fascination, exposing us as gawkers, or moralists, or miserable, inconsiderate drunks.
   
   Born in England, Daisy and Violet were just infants when the Brighton press proclaimed the occurrence of "an extraordinary freak of nature." They were toddlers when championed by Harry Houdini. At sixteen, having conquered American midways, they attempted a transition typically blocked to "sideshow freaks": they tried to make it in Vaudeville. In their first performance, Daisy and Violet sang, played instrumentals, and charmed the crowd with tosses of brown curls. Then two young boys, dressed in tuxedoes, joined them onstage. Each took a twin by the hand. Music swelled and the foursome began to glide across the stage, "locked in a pas de quatre." The sold-out crowd erupted. They stood in applause. They cried "tears of joy." They dashed toward the box office to secure tickets for the next show.
   
   Such reactions, sparked at the sight of something as natural as teenagers dancing, explain Daisy and Violet's legendary success. It also inversely illustrates the more common, less noble, response they elicited: dehumanization. Given away by their unwed, terrified mother, the twins grew up chattel to guardians whose parental interest stopped at exploitation and appropriation. Even their first memories, "the movements of the visitor's hands which were forever lifting our baby clothes to see just how we were attached," recall their tragic position: trapped between those who used them and those who wanted only to look. Their childhood was replete with threats of being sent to the "asylum for monster children." They spent most of their time confined in a room - lest someone catch a free glimpse. Years later, while in the office of the attorney who would eventually emancipate them, Daisy and Violet were recounting their upbringing when they were interrupted by sobbing. The stenographer had begun to cry.
   
   Curiously, the empathy wrought by Jensen's faithful portrayal of Daisy's and Violet's lives is no prophylactic to the rubbernecking its details will inspire. It is easy to chastise the surgeons who wanted to saw the sisters apart, but upon the discovery that when Violet got drunk - which she often did - Daisy would get "a little buzzed," the teratologic glee is irresistible.
   
   This conflict resonates loudest in Jensen's chapters discussing the sisters' love lives. Readers will no doubt be moved by Daisy and Violet's inability to find lasting love outside themselves. They will decry the twenty-one states that refused, on moral grounds, to permit Violet to marry. They will disdain the reporters who pressed their eyeballs to the keyhole of Daisy's bridal suite. They will blame the public responsible for this media circus when her introverted husband runs off. And yet, when the reader's friends discover the Hiltons were conjoined twins, and ask the question that everyone asks, the reader will will be quick to answer: Yes, Daisy and Violet had sex, lots of it. Even Jensen, unflaggingly sympathetic as he is, seems unable to resist this salacious urge, ending his story with Daisy and Violet's most enduring "trebling," a burial plot shared with a man whom they never met.
   
   Had Daisy and Violet not been conjoined twins, their biography might well resemble that of those other Hilton sisters, circa 2050. The Hiltons sought and eventually rebuked public attention. The Hiltons learned those well-worn lessons of fleeting fame and wasted fortune. Such comparisons phosphoresce in Jensen's exposition, which can, at varying times, feel either rudimentary or dispensable. Yet, Jensen avoids melodrama. He evokes the Dickensian far more than he uses it as an adjective. And he is delightfully adept with anecdotes, a skill put to memorable use recounting a world populated by the likes of pugilistic bandleader Blue Steel; "flimflam man extraordinaire," Terry Turner; and a villain who actually named himself, Myer Myers. And besides, Daisy and Violet are not those other Hiltons. They were world famous: the Royal English Twins United, made singular by a slip of Mother Nature's hand, "grown together the way tomatoes on a vine sometimes do."



5. I just could not put this book down. These girls were vulnerable, tragic, and strong and heroic all at once. The author reports of a life I cannot imagine. Very well written and researched. DO NOT start reading this book unless you have all night to do so.

3 comments about The Story of My Life (Enriched Classics Series).

1. Keller has a remarkable story of how she overcame her obstacles, but I do not recommend this book for students under 16. It's just very dry and her writing was overly detailed when she was in her young 20s and that writing can go over the heads of younger learners.



2. This extraordinary biography is a true masterpiece. One of the greatest books of the 20th Century.
   Dr R. Chris Barden



3. Truly inspiring! Helen Keller beautifully narrates all her deepest thoughts and also projects her dark and human life so skillfully. She vehemently points out that she has got a mind of her own and the life of Helen Keller makes the reader feel that he is dim-witted. This book is a jolt to the reader in a positive sense.

5 comments about Stick Figure.

1. Honestly, I'm still struggling with my eating disorder I've had for 6 years, and for some reason I'm falling into a rough patch. So I picked this book up looking for some triggering material. I didn't really get anything out of it. Not even psychological explanations that normally come with a book on eating disorders. The book is cute, to say the most, and I would recommend it for seriously bored human beings. I wouldn't call it triggering really, so I might let my niece read it one day when she's old enough to understand the concept of an eating disorder, and when I know that she over the age of aquiring one. So I suppose this book is for the mature audience who has been through that part of her life. Very easy reading also.



2. I couldn't help but be a bit offended by this book. I mean, I read the whole thing and it wasn't terrible, but it didn't portray eating disorders in a way that I would want individuals who have not suffered from the disorder themselves to see. "Wasted" by Marya Hornbacher is much more realistic and a better use of one's reading time.



3. I'm first of all very upset at some of these reviews. When people say "an adult trying to sound like an elevn year old." and "this isnt by an eleven year old"
   
   The women who wrote it IS an adult, relating to her journals FROM the age of eleven.
   
   With that being said, I very much enjoy this book. Lori is a very humerous and clever eleven year old dealing with the struggles of becoming a women and poor self imagine. The emotional neglect from her parents is very present and you start feeling for her.
   
   I think this book wa sa good idea for the author. Because it takes her back to her childhood and painful events that took place. She trys to make peopel understand what a real person suffering from anorexia is like.
   
   I own this book, and it's one of my favorite books about anoreixa. It's not a self help book, nor an educational one, a small bit of autobiograpghy is in play
   and thats it, which I would ceratinly say go ahead and read it, besides it's not very long



4. I loved this book, it made me laugh so hard that people sitting around me probably thought i was "unique"



5. I read a few snippets from this book - but put it down.
   
   To a male, this sort of thing is very shocking. Why would a young woman starve herself rather than simply going out and meeting guys? It makes no sense why these girls convert the natural impulse to flirt into a desire to starve or otherwise hurt their bodies.
   
   On one end, we have the extreme of anorexia - where girls hurt their bodies by not eating anything, to the point of not being attractive. On the other end, we have obesity, where women hurt their bodies and justify it with some hogwash about how 'beautiful' they are for loving their body! Perhaps a psychologist should look into the problem and try to unearth what makes these women compulsively opt for a nonsolution, rather than simple excercise and dieting - as well as a healthy, outgoing social life.

3 comments about Me, Myself, and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person's Experience with Schizophrenia (Adolescent Mental Health Initiative).

1. A very well written and informative book. It provided information and insight into the illness of schizophrenia. I learned much from reading it and gained new insight and perspective about the disease. We all need to know more about mental illness-only when we all do, can we collectively remove the stigma attached to it. Thank you for writing this personal and painful tale and educating me.



2. I've enjoyed the book. I agree that a lot of people with schizophrenia do not accept their illness and we need to understand that.



3. As a psych nurse, I found this book to be not only accurate, but very engaging. There are a couple others with different Axis I diagnoses that I'm going to get as well. Thinking of purchasing some for the psych unit to help newly-diagnosed folks understand this isn't the end of the world, there is hope, and there are others out there who understand.

5 comments about My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson--His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous.

1. I was actually looking for the autobiography of Bill W. but stumbled upon this in the search. I am pleasantly surprised. It gives a thorough chronological sequence that shaped Bill W.into the man he became and his never ending battle with the bottle. Ms. Cheever also gives good detail to the emotional struggles of those touched by alcolholism. It truly gave me an even deeper appreciation for all that Bill W. went through and accomplished. At times, the characters got a little confusing (so many of them) that I had to go back and reread a bit, but I think that you will find it well with your while.



2. how this squirrel made it to the top god only knows, the miracle is aa works for a few of us, too bad the rest of you drunks are screwedStarbucks Assortment



3. While Susan Cheever makes a valiant effort to use imagery and some carefully styled first person musings of Emily and Bill Wilson, her efforts fall somewaht flat. On the balance, this is essentially a retelling of "Pass It On." There are a few details at the end regarding Bill W.'s sexual compulsions that are common AA lore, and have appeared elsewhere.
   
   For those interested in the history of AA, this won't offer much in the way of insight into the early days of AA and how the program worked. Entertaining at points, but difficult to read attenteively if you have already read other accounts of Bill Wilson's life.
   
   Cheever's artistic touches didn't do much for me. I would rather she had put additional effort into her research, and brought a fresh telling with some new facts or insights.
   
   A completist must have. For the rest...optional.



4. I just finished reading this biography. I am so grateful for Bill and Bob and for me - they are a constant reminder that there is a Higher Power looking out for us.
   
   So what if Bill was less than perfect? Yeah, I was a little surprised at some of the content of the book - but again I ask so what? Bill always said that Dr. Bob was the more "spiritual" of the two of them. He never claimed to be the saint that so many people in program seem to need to make him in order to ?????
   
   Bill was an ordinary man with ordinary human issues - and he did his best with what he had. I believe that Bill would be amazed at the sainthood that seems to have been given to him since his death.
   
   Personally, it makes me feel safe to know that throughout all of Bill's experiences he managed to keep sober AND to share this so important message. This book clearly tells us that while Bill was at times struggling with his demons, he cared about other people (drunks) anyway.
   
   So, he had affairs? Who am I to judge? Step 4 - asks me to make a fearless inventory of MY affairs - not of other people's -
   
   Reading this well researched and written book only makes me appreciate Bill and Bob MORE - wow! they were actual ordinary guys who gave the world the most magical of gifts and for that I am grateful.



5. I read this book and I was disappointed beyond words. If you really want a great book about Bill W. I Suggest the book by Rober Thomsen, who
   knew Bill Wilson personally (The title is Bill W.)

5 comments about The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity.

1. I bought and read this book many, many years ago when my son was just a happy baby, still less than a year old. I enjoyed it immensely and tucked it away on my bookshelf, until several years passed away and many moving days later, it perished in disastrous house fire. By then I had become aware that my son was almost certainly schizophrenic, but he refused counseling, obtaining a formal diagnosis and therefore any of the medications available for his disorder. Finally less than a year ago he became afraid of what he might do to others or himself, so much so that he resolved to ask for help and has started down the long road, on and off medications and seeking counseling. It was a rough and heroic thing for him to have done, beginning his recovery by his own decision at nearly thirty years old. He has depended on and trusted enough in one of his twin sisters to assist him along the way. He doesn't yet trust me, his mother, enough to speak to me right now. I remembered reading "The Eden Express", and I thought that it might help him to know that others like him have had success, and that there was real hope for him. In all I have bought five copies of this book in the past month: a copy for him, one each for his two sisters and another to replace the copy that disappeared in a puff of smoke for myself. I hope that he will read it at some point in the future and that he will appreciate it enough to someday speak to me again. I enjoyed reading the new forward and prefice to the book since I first read it back in the late seventies. Thank you Dr. Mark Vonnegut, and his father, Kurt Vonnegut for sharing!



2. Though I enjoyed this book, I found it so exhausting at times trying to understand what Vonnegut was describing. I know that this is a chronicle of his ever-steepening slide into insanity and I guess Vonnegut is trying to take the reader along the same dysfunctional, confusing and sometimes scary path he was on - if that was his goal, he totally succeeded. It was an interesting topic to read about, especially from a firsthand account, and I was totally absorbed by some of the experiences Vonnegut had. I liked that he shared his experience so honestly, sometimes brutally so, and it gave me a very real insight into schizophrenia that made me much more sympathetic to those inflicted with mental illness.
   I wouldn't say this book is a gripping page turner but it's definitely well worth reading.



3. Mark Vonnegut is a very good writer. He clearly describes, in a very convincing way, his spiral down into and then climb out of serious psychosis. As a mother of a young man recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, this book gave me an insight into what my son might be feeling and dealing with. It has also given me hope that he too will climb out of his madness and have a good life in his future.



4. The book seemed one very large introduction to the last 30 pages. I found it rather difficult to read, depending on a lot of slang American language. Still, the message of the book is hopeful. It is possible to lead a normal life, even if you have schizofrenia. The most important part of the book is how the author manages to get out of his frenzy by taking his medication and vitamine supplements. The book would win by making the first part a lot shorter and adapt the language to European English so that also Europeans can read it.



5. This is a pretty scary look into the mind of a schizophrenic, from his shakily maintained environment as a late 1960s hippie to his complete psychotic breakdown. It is the worst possible thing you could imagine happening to your child I think, a waking nightmare: Vonnegut describes, with startling talent, his visions. Many of them are remarkable, from a face coming towards him until he is lost in one of its pores, to intimate interactions with angels, while resurfacing in reality every so often. Not only is the horror and lack of control brought to life, but so is the beauty and untapped potential of the human mind, such as his recitation of Moby Dick from memory.
   
   While many of the reviewers scorn the author as a silly naif, I find him sympathetic and brilliant, indeed courageous to explore and expose himself in this way. In the process, he debunks a lot of what was common talk of the period, such as the society and not the individual being "sick" or the total freedom that he thought he could find. Thus, it is a lament on the illusions of the time and about growing up, issues that many critics of the 1960s would do beter to acknowledge. I was also a Vonnegut fan, so the inights into his family interested me.
   
   It is but one window, of course, into a horrible state of existence. Recommended.