5 comments about Showdown with Diabetes.

1. For anyone affected by diabetes, especially those of us with type 1 - this book should be a real fast and insightful read. Having personally lived with type 1 for the past 25 years, this is the first book I've seen which doesn't try to perpetuate the prevailing myth that the patient is ultimately responsible for his or her condition, or that this illness is nearly as "manageable" as the medical profession, the media or society in general would have us believe. I suspect that much of the first part of the book, which takes the reader through Deb's own struggle with diabetes, is so familiar that it could have been written by anyone who has lived with this illness. The second part closes on a positive note outlining the breakthoughs that will impact finding a cure. But it also serves as a message to the diabetic community that they must do better in advocating for a cure (including funding and policies) which are required to get there. A really good book.



2. Deb was looking back at me from my mirror! What an incredibly insightful, hopeful, powerful story of diabetes ... Showdown really tells it like it is ... unbelievable refreshing and cathartic! THANKS!



3. Before a few months ago I did not have a detailed knowledge of diabetes, although I have worked for academic medical centers for over twenty years.

   I did a good deal of research when I was asked to consider the position of President and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Foudation. Of all my readings, none was as important as Showdown with Diabetes. Most important of all, it enabled me to understand the passion for a cure that has driven JDF's volunteers and staff for over 30 years.

   Thankyou Deb for sharing your experiences. I hope that, in my new position, I can help to accomplish the goals you have so articulately described in Showdown with Diabetes.




4. ... you just HAVE to check out Deb Butterfield's book "Showdown With Diabetes"! In her book she tells about her life with diabetes and her transplant! In the second part of her book, she talks about the progress over the years that pancreas and islet transplants have made! What impressed me is how she takes all the MANY researchers' information and discusses it all in an easy to understand and positive manner! I'm just so impressed and just had to share this book with you! It's the best thing I've read in a long time!



5. ... you just HAVE to check out Deb Butterfield's book "Showdown With Diabetes"! In her book she tells about her life with diabetes and her transplant! In the second part of her book, she talks about the progress over the years that pancreas and islet transplants have made! What impressed me is how she takes all the MANY researchers' information and discusses it all in an easy to understand and positive manner! I'm just so impressed and just had to share this book with you! It's the best thing I've read in a long time!

No comments about El Rey Mendigo Y El Secreto De La Felicidad/ the Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness.

No comments about The Disability Experience: A Healing Journey.

No comments about Every Loving Gift: How a Family's Courage Saved a Special Child.

3 comments about Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin (Library).

1. SWEEPING UP GLASS (Novel/Mys-Olivia Harker-Kentucky-1930s) - Ex
   Wall, Carolyn D. - 1st book
   Poisoned Pen Press, 2008, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9781590585122
   
   First Sentence: The long howl of a wolf rolls over me like a toothache.
   
   Olivia Harker lives with her grandson in a run-down, cold-water building with a grocery out front, a small bedroom, kitchen and sleeping alcove in back and an outhouse. Her emotionally abusive mother lives an a shack separate from the house.
   
   Someone is killing silver-faced wolves on her property. She knows who, but the why takes her back through her life's story until it places her, her family and friends in danger for their lives.
   
   This is quite a story. It covers 40+ years of a woman's life. It's a hard life filled with emotional pain, hard work and disappointment while Olivia is hardened by it, in the way steel is tempered by fire and pressure. While Olivia is the primary character, those around her are just as real and memorable.
   
   It's hard to say much about the story without, in some way, diminishing it. It is sometimes painful to read, buy only because Olivia is such a wonderful, fully-realized character.
   
   Wall doesn't just give you a sense of place. She takes you to the sights, sounds and smells of Kentucky hill country along with very real emotions that can make it an uncomfortable and painful read at times. But it's wonderfully done; a book I shan't soon forget and one I'm very glad to have read.



2. In 1938 Kentucky, Olivia Harker Cross runs Harker's Grocery; her only help comes from preadolescent Will'm, whose mom Pauline dumped him on her before vanishing. Business is poor as no one can afford much. Looking back she thinks about her mom Ida living in a sanitarium in nearby Buelton, while her beloved Pap Tate ran a still and cared for ailing animals. Though married to Saul, for three decades Olivia has loved trumpeter Wing Harris who reciprocates, but neither has made the first move beyond howdy.
   
   After Tate delivered a litter of puppies, he ran into James Arnold Phelps. Soon afterward Pap was dead and Ida had come home. Saul died not long afterward. Despondent, Olivia turned to Wing, but he rejected her. Even further upset, she chases after seedy male losers in dives.
   
   However, she began to turn it around when Pauline dropped off Will'm on her as he is her salvation. When they hear shots fired by the mysterious Hunt Club members tracking silver-faced wolves, the pair becomes frightened as it is too cold to be outdoors hunting for sport. However, they soon have a bigger fear as the hunters stalk Olivia and Will'm.
   
   Not for everyone as this is a strange historical thriller in which fans obtain a deep look at a beleaguered heroine who is seemingly betrayed by her loved ones whom she has loyally taken care of. Will'm is her redemption as Olivia will do whatever it takes to keep the boy safe although that might mean breaking the perceptions she and others have of her. Fans who enjoy something different will relish a tense look at Depression Era rural Kentucky.
   
   Harriet Klausner



3. Sweeping Up Glass is the story of Olivia Harker, her family, her friends, and the hardships they all endure in rural 1938 Kentucky. The book introduces us to Olivia and her immediate surviving family, and then shifts off into about 15 chapters of back story. These chapters relate Olivia's childhood and her previous struggles with her mentally ill mother, her doting father, the love of her life, and the segregated black community in her area. Olivia encounters many hardships and setbacks as she grows up, and some are completely devastating. She grows from being a sweet and loving child into an acerbic and unbending woman. She is fiercely loyal in her love and ardently forceful in her hate. It is clear that her circumstances have shaped her. Olivia's daily existence is a tribulation that most would shrink from. Though she handles her situation with poise, she also carries more than a little bitterness. Olivia is a complex woman who is stubborn and resigned, yet still somehow hopeful. When we finally resume the action in the present, Olivia is faced with the realization that someone is killing the wolves that have always been protected residents of her land. Along with her grandson William, she attempts to track down the hunters. What she discovers is more than a simple poaching scheme, and the effects will be volatile to herself and the community.
   
   The secondary plot revolves around Ida, Olivia's mother, who lives in a tar paper shack on the edge of her property. Ida is a fantastically rash character. She is mentally ill and has been abusive towards Olivia all her life; there is no love lost between them. Though Ida was absent for most of Olivia's adolescence, she returns to the family and creates havoc and heartache for Olivia and her father. Through all of her erratic behavior, Olivia's father, Tate Harker, remains loyal and steadfast to her. Yet Ida shows no reciprocation towards Tate, and remains cruel and unyielding. One of the interesting aspects of this book was the portrayal of the mental hospitals of the day. When Ida must retreat to one of these hospitals, Olivia visits to inspect it, and it is harrowing. The women there are either forced to be immobile or locked in small cages. Electroshock is mentioned, as are head shavings and ice baths. I had trouble with this section of the book, as it seemed a savage fate for Ida, one that Olivia didn't fully ruminate on. Though Ida had made some very bad choices in her life and didn't feel even the slightest bit of remorse, the choice to send her to that facility seemed heinous. It seems the author's point was that Olivia couldn't forgive Ida for what she had done and that as far as she was concerned, Ida was irredeemable. I feel that this section of the book may disturb many readers, and it was the only thing that marred my pleasure in this book. It was the only piece in the book that didn't seem to fit. The blatant cruelty of the decision was shocking.
   
   Another aspect of the story involved Olivia's current relationship with her former high school sweetheart, Wing Harris. Olivia and Wing had only a brief time together before events separated them. Wing watched with stolid silence as Olivia went through horrible stages of her life, offering any help he could, while Olivia in her pride rejected him. As the book progresses, Wing and Olivia tackle the obstacles involved in their reconciliation. It is not as easy for them to reunite as one would hope. I liked the character of Wing because he was noble in the face of all his humiliations and trials, and he was always there when it mattered. Wing was a likeable character. Though somewhat sedate, he was unflinching in his honesty and loyalty.
   
   The segregated black community portrayed in this book is poignant and revealing. Though they must remain separate from the whites, even having separate days for shopping at the local store, they embrace Olivia and her family as one of their own. The community's hardships are not harped upon, but relayed with respect to the adversity they faced. It was touching to see that there could indeed be no separation of color as far as Olivia's family was concerned. Themes of racial acceptance, real or imagined, hoped for or denied, ran through the book.
   
   But as wolves continue to be slaughtered, Olivia unwittingly places herself and those she loves into the hands of unjust men who are trying to keep a devastating underground society alive. The story becomes a race to save those she loves, and the town, from certain destruction. Great forces are aligned against her, and it was with great trepidation that I realized the odds were against her. The many tiny revelations, along with the great, kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering if there was more to come, wondering how much more she and those of the town could take. Malice and discord sweep through the pages as the truths are slowly picked out. In addition, there are mysteries surrounding her father, secrets shrouded in perplexity that may indicate that her father was not the man she once knew.
   
   This book had me hooked from the very first pages. The hard-scrabble daily existence of the characters was captivating and engrossing. The economies that had to be made were many, and the details of 1930's Kentucky were so precise that it was greatly absorbing. The language was rustic and simple, yet very clear and concise. I found myself wanting to know more about these people, to know more about their lives, hurts and victories. This book has a lot to say about the times that it portrays. The small issues and the great, neither is neglected. There are wise and humble characters as well as wicked and sinister ones. Love, anger, betrayal, duty, honor, racism, and death, forgiveness: they are all here. And the tapestry created is one of beautiful complexity.
   
   By the end of the book, I was wishing I could spend more time with these characters, that they would not go. Aside from the aberration regarding the mental hospital, this was an outstanding debut novel. I will definitely read any other offerings from this author, and I wish her luck in her writing career.

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2 comments about Remember Me? / Te acuerdas de mi? (Bilingual Edition).

1. Children tend to live in the present. This trait helps a young girl deal with her feelings of guilt about her grandfather's alzheimer's disease. As children often do, she thinks he doesn't want to remember her because of something terrible she did or said. There is a powerful message for parents to realize the possibility of this reaction in children. Talking about it helps.
   
   The child's tendency to live in the present and her grandfather's life without memories from the past, ends the book with a hopeful note as the two relate to each other on a new level.
   
   An added benefit is that the book has English and Spanish on each page. It also has a glossary to help readers of both languages.



2. This is a great example for young children. The author was my little brothers 2nd and 3rd grade teacher and he absolutly loved her. Her book was just as good

No comments about One Brief Shining Moment.

1 comments about Stations.

1. This is memoir in the form of a novella by a multi-lingual (German, French, and English) writer who was in love with language and with (among others) "Alexander," a beautiful man dying of AIDS in the early 1980's. There are a lot of friends, heart-wrenching and tender hospital scenes, visits to doctors and others who might have a cure, plus nightmares, dreams, and characters and memories out of life and literature. It can be said that for this writer, friends and literature sustained him, and he knew it.

   The protagonists exert a powerful erotic pull on one another. They are highly verbal people and clear thinkers. Sometimes, though, words fail them. Some of their exchanges seem almost shocking in their honesty, even harshness. Gottfried (Weiss's name for himself in this) never loses his desire for Alexander; he says that he never loved him more than at the moment of his death. Not quite defeated, he says simply, even clinically, of his lover's final moments: "In the end life and death were a simple question of oxygen."

   This is an unusual AIDS memoir, unsentimental, wholly affecting, and well worth reading.

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