Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
by Susannah Cahalan

Brain on Fire is a memoir of the author's descent into madness as a result of an unidentified condition.  As her rare illness is finally diagnosed and treated she has a long road ahead to recovery and hopefully return to normal. 

Ms. Cahalan found no explanation for the brain infection that caused her madness, nor was she ever sure that she would recover completely, a process that took nearly a year or more.  In this case, recovery not only refers to the physical issues that she endured but also the return of her former personality and ability to do her job as a journalist.

The disease she eventually was diagnosed with was very rare and the cause unknown.  When she was well on her way to recovering she accepted a work assignment to do an article about her experience.  As a result she brought the condition to the attention of physicians and patients alike, perhaps saving many people, certainly educating and giving hope to more.  Because of the seizures and irrational behaviors, many with the same illness could easily be diagnosed with various psychosis. 

I enjoyed Ms. Cahalan's story although I expected to find her "madness" more horrifying.  Perhaps because she herself could not recall that time and wrote from what she was told, or maybe because it's impossible to know the horror without the experience. 

I think this book is important for it's impact on the medical community and the people who have been or will be affected by this illness.  As a casual read, it's definitely not for everyone.  I give it 3 of 5 shots.

Half Broke Horses

"Half Broke Horses"(Audio)
by Jeannette Walls

I read the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls many years ago and loved it.  Sadly I wasn't writing about the books I was reading at that time.  It was a memoir of growing up with parents who were dreamers and drifters.  Parts of it romanticizing (my take on it) the childhood of living without boundaries and much of it horrific, living homeless, cold, and hungry. 

This prequel delves into the history of Ms. Walls' family, through the life of her maternal grandmother.  Ms. Walls calls it a "True Life Novel" as she has filled in and embellished, as a writer, the stories passed down in her family.  I don't believe she has embellished on facts, so much, as taken liberties with conversation and such, as the story is told through the voice of her grandmother.

Ms. Walls tells the story of this remarkable woman, her grandmother, Lily, starting with a time in our history where cars were just a vision of the future and families struggled daily to make a living off the land.  Lily was a bright, courageous and adventurous woman.  As a teen she rode by horse alone for days to take a job teaching a couple of states away.  She later moved to a big city to find work just to end up as a maid. She fell in love with and married a man who already had a wife and children, unbeknown to her.  

She left the city and returned to teaching when teachers were scarce due to the war. She married, raised a family, eventually got her college degree, helped run a ranch, learned to fly a plane, continued teaching school and more.  A true pioneer coming into the industrial age.  

Walls also tells of the life of Lily's daughter Rosemary, who was to become her mother.  Initially she wanted to tell Rosemary's story, but her mother insisted the real story was about Lily.  It's hard to believe the book could be as entertaining without Lily.  

I enjoyed this story very much and I'm now inspired to re-read The Glass Castle, something I rarely do.  

Four of Five Shots by me.  

A Place to Lay My Head

A Place to Lay My Head
by Joe Moreland

Writing this review has a challenging new twist to it compared to any other review I've ever written.  That is the fact that it will most likely be read by the author of the book.  Yikes!  Never had that happen to me before!

A Place to Lay my Head is Joe's memoir of life in rural Oregon in a very poor family.  He's just a few years older than me and his story brought back the days when our best "toys" were our imaginations and our playgrounds were simply undeveloped outdoor landscape.  Computer games and fancy playground equipment didn't exist and consequently we explored and used our imaginations and created worlds so much larger than reality.  We also took a lot more risks and no one got sued by our parents if we were dumb.

But I digress.  This is Joe's story.

The story revolves around the "homes" and jobs his family found.  Their longest residence described in the book was at the dump.  They started with a broken down school bus and developed it into a maze of rooms consisting of structures built from items salvaged from the dump.  Crude and elementary even by the standards of that time, it was fascinating to read how this family thrived in conditions that are unimaginable to me.

The story spans from Joe's earliest memories to his latter years in high school and the family grows from five to seven. This family was poor but in no way lazy or dumb. The book is filled with stories of Joe's father designing, building and/or fixing things to use in their home or on their "farm."  He was rarely without a paying job as well.  I suspect their financial situation was more due to the way these parents viewed the world than anything else. 

Although their home was at the dump, they were also on the edge of Forest Service land. The family worked hard discreetly scraping a little farm out of that land and raised chickens, cows, and vegetables at one time or another. Their playground was a swimming hole and an entire forest.

The children were also hard workers.  They were expected to go to school as well as come home to chores. In the summer they cut, hauled & piled wood for the coming winter and found an assortment of jobs to earn cash.  I suspect their mother was a victim of some severe post partum depression and this family of boys also hand washed much of their clothing and cooked many of the meals.  Indeed, living their life was much harder than most of their contemporaries.

I was struck by some of the seeming lack of respect by the parents.  I don't like my choice of words in this case... maybe lack of concern?  The incident I am thinking of involves a time they were living in one of the nicest homes they'd had.  Yet Mom was unconcerned when her young boys chose the walls as a canvas for their art work. In fact she may have even encouraged them to use the cowboy wallpaper for such.  And when Dad brings an entire engine into the house so he can avoid the rain while he works on it, the oil spilling from it causes no reaction.  None of this is malicious, it just doesn't seem to concern or bother them.

While I found the story very interesting and such a contrast to my own childhood, I also felt the book was in need of some serious editing.  Along with a very nice narrative and occasional photos of the family, there was dialog tossed into the mix. I felt the dialog was unnecessary and dumbed down the text by being too contrived.  The story could have been told equally as well without it.  I'm not sure if the dialog actually got better as I went along or if I just got used to it, but it wasn't as detracting by the end of the book as at the beginning.

My other complaint was that the book seemed to just stop.  The family eventually builds a real home (although the county deemed it not fit to live in) and at that point the story ends.

Huh? 

We are told that the house was home to several families over the years and remains standing to this day, but what about the family?  I became vested in the lives of these five children and their parents and suddenly they were just gone, with a little hint that the parents and youngest child eventually moved to Washington.

This book needs an epilogue.  I  know that Joe went on to college, obviously winning a scholarship, but I have no idea about his siblings.  Did Ed find his career in fishing?  What about the younger children?  Why did Mom & Dad leave Oregon?

I need a tidy little bow to wrap up the story.  I give this book three of five shots.  It's an easy read and quite enjoyable.

Homer's Odyssey

Homer's Odyssey
by Gwen Cooper

Homer was a kitten, found only a few weeks old, with eyes so infected they had to be removed to save his life.  Of course an eyeless kitten is hard to find a home for so he was in danger of being euthanized.  Gwen Cooper rescues him and adopts him into her family which consists of herself and her two feline fur children adopted previously.

I adore this story of Homer's life.  He is truly an amazing cat.  His story ranges from out loud funny to tear streaked face to pure amazement.  And his Mom's telling of the story is perfect. Like everyone (almost) who meets Homer, I fell in love with him, too, and also wanted to be "Homer's buddy."

Okay, to be honest, I didn't want to just be his buddy, I wanted to be his new mommy and take him for myself.

 The things an eyeless cat, at least this eyeless cat, can do are amazing.  Like blind people who use echolocation to navigate their world, Homer has super sharp hearing and sense of smell to offset his "disability."  Indeed, "disability" can almost hardly be used in describing Homer. He is fearless and determined to make the world his own on his terms.

Homer enters Gwen's life when she has newly broken up with a live-in boyfriend.  As Homer's story unfolds, so does Gwen's, although hers is definitely the background story.  The most poignant part of the story was the telling of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center from the author's perspective as the resident of an apartment only a few blocks from ground zero.  Forced out of the area with no notice, the despair of not being able to get back to her apartment or her cats was unbearable. I witnessed 9/11 only through news coverage and was enthralled with this personal account.

I am a cat lover and related to this book in many ways with tales and memories of my own roaming through my mind as I read.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been owned and loved by a pet.  And just one little *SPOILER ALERT* that you probably won't mind...  no cats die in this book, of old age or any other cause.  I think that would have made it unbearable!

Five shots of five from me.

I Am Nujood

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui

Nujood is a Yemeni girl, probably around 10 years old.  She is born in a very small village in the countryside where no records are kept of births. In a large family with illiterate parents no one is entirely sure of her age, but probably between eight and ten years.

As a young girl with older siblings there are many things happening around her that she doesn't understand.  She is interested in things children are.  Adult concerns are beyond her interests and understanding.

Nujood's family is cast out of their small village and go to Sana'a, the capitol of Yemen.  They arrive as a poor family.  Her father loses interest in supporting his family and spends his time chewing khat with his friends as his family loses their home and begin begging on the streets.  Eventually he agrees to marry Nujood off to a man three times her age in exchange for a dowry of about $750 (US value).

Understandably, Nujood is very upset by these circumstances and even more so as she learns what marriage means to a woman. Her husband forces himself on her night after night and beats her when she fights his advances. Her days are spent in dread of the coming night and the nightmares that follow. Somehow she finds the strength to go to the courts and ask for a divorce.  In her naive mind she believes it will be that easy.

Nujood was fortunate in connecting with judges and a strong female lawyer, Shada Nasser, who were outraged by her circumstances and fought for her divorce.  Although she was far below their legal age of marriage, her lack of birth records and the popular practice of marrying girls off this young was not in her favor of being granted a divorce. 

This book is Nujood's story and is told as simply as she tells it from the perspective of a child.  Her life and struggles are detailed but in its simplicity it failed to elicit the emotional response I expected of myself.  I am outraged that her story is one of many and that young girls are simply family possession in too many instances, but I felt detached from the story. For instance, Nujood was told by everyone in the legal system, her attorney and the judges, that her divorce would be very hard to get and she would likely fail.  However, it seemed to be granted very easily. Few details of the legal battle are shared.

I do feel it's a good "jumping off" point to learn more. I googled Nujood and Shada trying to find updates on either of them.  Nujood is doing well, the royalties from her book helping her family and her education.  Shada continues to help young girls in similar circumstances and lobbies for the legal age of marriage in Yemen to be raised.  There are more heartbreaking stories that parallel this one, indeed even in Nujood's own family.

I give the book three of five shots.  It's a story that needs to be told, but I would have liked more depth.

Pretty In Plaid

Pretty in Plaid
by Jen Lancaster

It's been a couple three or four months since I actually finished this memoir and I have to beg off doing a very detailed review. 

Growing up Jen always had a good idea of who she is and her importance in the world.  Whether she was the most popular kid in class or just thought she was, she always moved ahead with the self assurance that she was destined for greatness.  She writes about herself and her experiences candidly and humorously.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Lucky Man, a Memoir

Lucky Man, a Memoir

by Michael J. Fox

Audio: 5 CDs, read by Michael J. Fox

"If you were to rush into this room right now and announce that you had struck a deal - with God, Allah, Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Bill Gates, whomever - in which the ten years since my diagnosis could magically be taken away, traded in for ten more years as the person I was before, I would, without a moment's hesitation, tell you to take a hike." ~ Michael J. Fox  

From his youth, through his celebrity, his Parkinson's disease and revealing his illness to the world, Michael J. Fox is candid and honest about himself and his feelings.  As a young man he is arrogant enough to think he can conquer the world, and does precisely that as an unknown in a new sitcom. He works hard and parties hard. 

We follow his career through his movies and marriage and into fatherhood.  Michael takes us on his journey as he begins to experience the first signs of Parkinson's and his denial and mis-handling of managing the disease.  He shares his life with us including his fears, marital problems, alcoholism.  

The disease, although horrible, is what forces him to mature, realize his priorities and really appreciate his family.

 
Perhaps part of why I liked this book so much is that I grew up close to where Michael spent his teen years and I couldn't help but wonder if our paths may have ever crossed.  But aside from that and the disease, I enjoyed a look into his private life and coming to realize that his celebrity is really just a job to him. If you are a fan of Michael J. Fox don't miss this read!

(from my former MySpace blog)

The Unusual Suspect

"The Unusual Suspect" 

by Stephen Baldwin

Hardcover, 281 pages

 Pages read: 102
 

Yes, this book is by Steve Baldwin of the famous Baldwin brothers. It is his account of finding God, Christ and creation of his Christian ministry. The title is of course, a take off of the title of one of his more famous movies.
 

I hate to start books and not finish them. This sometimes causes me to quit reading for months, because if I don't finish what I am reading I can't start another book and therefore come to a reading stalemate. In the case of this book, since starting it I've read two other books and cannot seem to force myself to pick it back up again and finish it.
 

I've heard good reviews on this book and I do commend Mr. Baldwin for his enthusiasm and giving his life to God, but I found reading about it tedious. The book is too full of Stephen Baldwin who is too full of himself. He constantly reminds the reader that we should be so amazed that someone like "little Stevie B" has found God and a purpose in life. 

I'm happy for you Mr. Baldwin, but perhaps this book wasn't one of your better ventures.