LJ's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 19 Oct 2024 14:07:42 -0700 60 LJ's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy]]> 25937937 For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?
These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In"A Mother s Reckoning," she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.
Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, "A Mother s Reckoning"is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.
"All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues."


"From the Hardcover edition.""]]> 305 Sue Klebold 1101902752 LJ 1
"I hadn't even been one of those cool parents who smokes pot with their kids or introduces them to their groovy boyfriends." (119).

So what's she saying here about single moms? Hmm...

From the first chapters, which begin on the day of the shooting, the author focuses specifically on her own image: "I had taken pleasure in being an active and respected part of my community, in being thought of as a good mom. The censure beginning to emerge was excruciating." (44).

This is a mom who, the day after the Columbine massacre and suicide of her mass murdering son, went to the salon to keep her standing hair appointment. She was worried about how she would look at his funeral, and says so. (But says earlier that she actually prayed he would commit suicide if he was killing people at his school. Another example of a hard to understand contradiction). Let me just stop here a moment. Let's go there. Let's imagine you're a parent. You learn increasingly horrific acts are happening at your kid's school. You then learn your child may be doing it. You learn your kid is dead. Are you even aware of other people, or what they think of you? Are you concerned with how you look, whether you need a haircut? If you can relate to this line of thinking, hats off. But this is not remotely relatable to me on any level. The narrative speaks to every excruciating angle: are they being good house guests while staying with family, can she get her hair cut, What? No, I can not at all empathize or even get on a level where this is remotely imaginable.

As a victim, she plays the part well; at least she thinks so. It simply doesn't feel genuine. It feels desperate and forced, as one tries desperately to cajole, manipulate, and MAKE OTHERS BELIEVE what she believes. Sorry. I don't. Aside from snide remarks at single parents, there are numerous mentions of "this doesn't happen here," as Sue Klebold repeatedly makes mention of finally finding peers she can engage with who are "normal": professionals, with etiquette.
White privileged elitism at it's finest, while she claims despite her own microaggressions against others that her children weren't raised to hate anyone.

Aside from her blatant attempts at justifications and fixation on her self and how she and her family look, there is a great danger here in her understanding of mental health. Throughout her own need to understand her son's actions, she skips the psychopathy and obvious deceit almost completely and decides he was depressed and impressionable. This makes inference throughout that one who is suicidal can just as easily become a mass murderer. This. Is. Not. The. Case. As much as this woman name dropped and interviewed people for her own angles, there is NO LINK AT ALL that suicidal people may become homicidal as a regular or likely occurrence. Very rarely (perhaps 2-5%) of suicidal people are also homicidal. She also conveniently leaves out that most people with mental disorders that are diagnosed (while living, not post humorously) are more likely to be victims of violence. Not perpetrators. She also annoyingly decides to call "mental health" "brain health" throughout the book, only explaining about half-way the reasons for it. She claims it may reduce stigma. To me, it looks more like she is attention seeking, in her subtle way.

Post mortem mental health diagnoses for her son, the strange and dangerous link between suicidality and planned, premeditated, and deliberate murder. I find this book to be more harmful and uninformed than helpful, despite her repeatedly mentioned reasons for writing the book. I am one person, but my experience is that this book is an insult to a number of people: survivors of Columbine and other violent shootings; parents who have lost children to violence; parents who have lost children to any reason: and the field of mental health.

Mourning and finding your own personal meaning is one thing. But this book should not have been published.

Never underestimate the power of denial, and skip this book.]]> 4.18 2016 A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
author: Sue Klebold
name: LJ
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2016/02/29
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves:
review:
Sue Klebold's narrative is extremely difficult to relate to and empathize with. This book reads like a taut justification defending how good her family is, while very subtly hinting at how "others" live:

"I hadn't even been one of those cool parents who smokes pot with their kids or introduces them to their groovy boyfriends." (119).

So what's she saying here about single moms? Hmm...

From the first chapters, which begin on the day of the shooting, the author focuses specifically on her own image: "I had taken pleasure in being an active and respected part of my community, in being thought of as a good mom. The censure beginning to emerge was excruciating." (44).

This is a mom who, the day after the Columbine massacre and suicide of her mass murdering son, went to the salon to keep her standing hair appointment. She was worried about how she would look at his funeral, and says so. (But says earlier that she actually prayed he would commit suicide if he was killing people at his school. Another example of a hard to understand contradiction). Let me just stop here a moment. Let's go there. Let's imagine you're a parent. You learn increasingly horrific acts are happening at your kid's school. You then learn your child may be doing it. You learn your kid is dead. Are you even aware of other people, or what they think of you? Are you concerned with how you look, whether you need a haircut? If you can relate to this line of thinking, hats off. But this is not remotely relatable to me on any level. The narrative speaks to every excruciating angle: are they being good house guests while staying with family, can she get her hair cut, What? No, I can not at all empathize or even get on a level where this is remotely imaginable.

As a victim, she plays the part well; at least she thinks so. It simply doesn't feel genuine. It feels desperate and forced, as one tries desperately to cajole, manipulate, and MAKE OTHERS BELIEVE what she believes. Sorry. I don't. Aside from snide remarks at single parents, there are numerous mentions of "this doesn't happen here," as Sue Klebold repeatedly makes mention of finally finding peers she can engage with who are "normal": professionals, with etiquette.
White privileged elitism at it's finest, while she claims despite her own microaggressions against others that her children weren't raised to hate anyone.

Aside from her blatant attempts at justifications and fixation on her self and how she and her family look, there is a great danger here in her understanding of mental health. Throughout her own need to understand her son's actions, she skips the psychopathy and obvious deceit almost completely and decides he was depressed and impressionable. This makes inference throughout that one who is suicidal can just as easily become a mass murderer. This. Is. Not. The. Case. As much as this woman name dropped and interviewed people for her own angles, there is NO LINK AT ALL that suicidal people may become homicidal as a regular or likely occurrence. Very rarely (perhaps 2-5%) of suicidal people are also homicidal. She also conveniently leaves out that most people with mental disorders that are diagnosed (while living, not post humorously) are more likely to be victims of violence. Not perpetrators. She also annoyingly decides to call "mental health" "brain health" throughout the book, only explaining about half-way the reasons for it. She claims it may reduce stigma. To me, it looks more like she is attention seeking, in her subtle way.

Post mortem mental health diagnoses for her son, the strange and dangerous link between suicidality and planned, premeditated, and deliberate murder. I find this book to be more harmful and uninformed than helpful, despite her repeatedly mentioned reasons for writing the book. I am one person, but my experience is that this book is an insult to a number of people: survivors of Columbine and other violent shootings; parents who have lost children to violence; parents who have lost children to any reason: and the field of mental health.

Mourning and finding your own personal meaning is one thing. But this book should not have been published.

Never underestimate the power of denial, and skip this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Professional]]> 19198515
"--Illness, Crisis, & Loss"

Dr. Worden presents the highly anticipated fourth edition to Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy, the gold standard of grief therapy handbooks. The previous editions, translated into 12 languages, received worldwide acclaim for their sensitive, insightful, and practical approach to grief counseling. In this updated and revised fourth edition, Dr. Worden presents his most recent thinking on bereavement drawn from extensive research, clinical work, and the best of the new literature.
Key
The task model has been modified to account for new thinking and research findings in the field, including meaning making, resilience, and continuing bonds A new chapter on the Mediators of Mourning helps clinicians to understand what accounts for individual differences in adapting to the death of a loved one Looks at recent controversies in the field including the best way to understand complicated bereavement and the efficacy of grief counseling and therapy Presents the vital distinction between grief and trauma, and highlights different intervention approaches for each

Comprehensive and highly organized, this text is useful to therapists just beginning to work in the field as well as seasoned practitioners.;chapter]]> 314 J. William Worden 0826101216 LJ 0 psych-books 4.24 1995 Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Professional
author: J. William Worden
name: LJ
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/13
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease]]> 23214265
The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease. But in The Biology of Desire , cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing.

Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it's supposed to do-seek pleasure and relief-in a world that's not cooperating. As a result, most treatment based on the disease model fails. Lewis shows how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery. This is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.]]> 256 Marc Lewis 1610394372 LJ 0 to-read 4.06 2015 The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease
author: Marc Lewis
name: LJ
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Spare 62296528
For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.]]> 410 Prince Harry 0593593804 LJ 5
I am but a simple USian person. Though I’ve grown up knowing about Diana, Charles, and the two princes so close in age to myself, it’s clear that we don’t have much in common. That is-there is a vast difficulty for me at times to empathize with Harry because the whole of his existence is so difficult for me to imagine.

Having to be hooked up to tracking devices at all times while accompanied everywhere by 3 body guards yet never having an emotional connection to a single adult around you sounds uniquely abusive.

Maybe that in itself is what makes the book and it’s author most important: not any one individual’s take, but the fact that the author himself is saying, “look what this institution has done to me and my mother and look at how it continues to abuse us.�

A taboo is a taboo, and many white westerners wouldn’t think to share their family’s “dirty laundry� and mental health problems publicly.

How absolutely *scandalous!*

Could Harry have made better amends at his own antisemitism? Yes! It’s noted he never once mentioned how the abdicated former King Edward VIII who married American Wallace Simpson were both Nazis.

He also didn’t mention Andrew and his alleged child sexual abuse history. In fact, I believe the only time Andrew is mentioned is when Meghan first sees him: and thinks he’s the Queen’s attendant.

As much of a “radical� as I am now, it’s a completely satisfying read. Having read Diana’s biography while going through my own divorce, I found her words echoing in Harry’s experience.

And I can’t help but wonder at the great impact this could have (or won’t have) upon the British Royal family and system as it is and has been.

I appreciate and find some sense of understanding in the taboo sharing of family abuses, secrets, and how to find meaning in one’s life when one takes a stand outside of the toxic dynamics harming them.

It pairs excellently with Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Dr. Lindsay Gibson because, like many commoners, Harry knows from experience how to he has been neglected and abused: he has a uniquely solitary understanding of that as someone who is unlucky enough to be born into royal life.

As I’m writing this after the coronation, I’ll note that it’s been a pleasure to watch Harry rush in and out, hanger in hand, unbothered and uninterested in appearances. Like he came back on his own terms for once.

Many can find this relatable, I’m sure. Anyone who has interest in royal life, family dynamics, abuse, and human development can find interesting information here.

Is Harry going to bring down the global colonizer that is the Firm? No.

But this book won’t help it any, and the damage that he and Diana both have done to the institution shouldn’t be discounted.

Who should read this book? Anyone interested in the British Royal family, anyone wanting to learn more about Meghan and Harry, people interested in history, people who enjoy biographies.

Having been a huge fan of Diana’s, and having heard and seen in tabloids nasty things about her my whole childhood, I feel a selfish inner glee at the embarrassment this book causes Charles and Camilla.

This book is for us, especially, in some ways.

Well done, Harry. Keep. Going.
]]> 3.78 2023 Spare
author: Prince Harry
name: LJ
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/04
date added: 2023/05/11
shelves:
review:
What can I say about this book, and why one would or would not want to read it? I’m sure everything has already been said, and the Royals, whether or not they maintain their Royal titles, have a lot of others who say much about them.

I am but a simple USian person. Though I’ve grown up knowing about Diana, Charles, and the two princes so close in age to myself, it’s clear that we don’t have much in common. That is-there is a vast difficulty for me at times to empathize with Harry because the whole of his existence is so difficult for me to imagine.

Having to be hooked up to tracking devices at all times while accompanied everywhere by 3 body guards yet never having an emotional connection to a single adult around you sounds uniquely abusive.

Maybe that in itself is what makes the book and it’s author most important: not any one individual’s take, but the fact that the author himself is saying, “look what this institution has done to me and my mother and look at how it continues to abuse us.�

A taboo is a taboo, and many white westerners wouldn’t think to share their family’s “dirty laundry� and mental health problems publicly.

How absolutely *scandalous!*

Could Harry have made better amends at his own antisemitism? Yes! It’s noted he never once mentioned how the abdicated former King Edward VIII who married American Wallace Simpson were both Nazis.

He also didn’t mention Andrew and his alleged child sexual abuse history. In fact, I believe the only time Andrew is mentioned is when Meghan first sees him: and thinks he’s the Queen’s attendant.

As much of a “radical� as I am now, it’s a completely satisfying read. Having read Diana’s biography while going through my own divorce, I found her words echoing in Harry’s experience.

And I can’t help but wonder at the great impact this could have (or won’t have) upon the British Royal family and system as it is and has been.

I appreciate and find some sense of understanding in the taboo sharing of family abuses, secrets, and how to find meaning in one’s life when one takes a stand outside of the toxic dynamics harming them.

It pairs excellently with Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Dr. Lindsay Gibson because, like many commoners, Harry knows from experience how to he has been neglected and abused: he has a uniquely solitary understanding of that as someone who is unlucky enough to be born into royal life.

As I’m writing this after the coronation, I’ll note that it’s been a pleasure to watch Harry rush in and out, hanger in hand, unbothered and uninterested in appearances. Like he came back on his own terms for once.

Many can find this relatable, I’m sure. Anyone who has interest in royal life, family dynamics, abuse, and human development can find interesting information here.

Is Harry going to bring down the global colonizer that is the Firm? No.

But this book won’t help it any, and the damage that he and Diana both have done to the institution shouldn’t be discounted.

Who should read this book? Anyone interested in the British Royal family, anyone wanting to learn more about Meghan and Harry, people interested in history, people who enjoy biographies.

Having been a huge fan of Diana’s, and having heard and seen in tabloids nasty things about her my whole childhood, I feel a selfish inner glee at the embarrassment this book causes Charles and Camilla.

This book is for us, especially, in some ways.

Well done, Harry. Keep. Going.

]]> <![CDATA[White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America]]> 55815694
Butler reveals how evangelical racism, propelled by the benefits of whiteness, has since the nation’s founding played a provocative role in severely fracturing the electorate. During the buildup to the Civil War, white evangelicals used scripture to defend slavery and nurture the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, they used it to deny the vote to newly emancipated blacks. In the twentieth century, they sided with segregationists in avidly opposing movements for racial equality and civil rights. Most recently, evangelicals supported the Tea Party, a Muslim ban, and border policies allowing family separation. White evangelicals today, cloaked in a vision of Christian patriarchy and nationhood, form a staunch voting bloc in support of white leadership. Evangelicalism’s racial history festers, splits America, and needs a reckoning now.

Anthea Butler is associate professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World. A leading historian and public commentator on religion and politics, Butler has appeared on networks including CNN, BBC, and MSNBC and has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other media outlets.]]> 176 Anthea Butler LJ 0 to-read 4.25 2021 White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America
author: Anthea Butler
name: LJ
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption]]> 55298403 Against White Feminism, centering women of color in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism’s global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals.

Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist savior complex and “the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West� to the condescension of the white feminist–led “aid industrial complex� and the conflation of sexual liberation as the “sum total of empowerment,� Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberlé Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this staggering, radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront.]]> 272 Rafia Zakaria 1324006617 LJ 5
“Abashed, the (white) devil stood. And felt how awful goodness is.�

Breaking down the emotional and tangible failures of white, cis, middle-to-upper-class USian capitalism in the name of “saving� women around the globe hurts.
It hurts so much, that it took me over a year to actually complete the reading, although the timing above is accurate enough.

It hurts so much because I have seen myself through the author’s lens.

I’ve been the white woman who said something racist and didn’t know it or care. I’ve been the white woman inserting myself into media reports about the seeming terrors of women’s treatment in India, in African countries, and around the world. I’ve been the white woman who assumed I knew better, without ever examining or pausing to consider that this is in no way a reality-based springboard from which to position myself.

Allowing the cultures, individuals, and peoples of the world to self-build, lead, learn, and grow is good advice. To allow others the autonomy we so desperately want to prove that we have; and thereby assume others do not—must be left behind as we move forward.

Autonomy. What a concept.

Instead of flashy ad campaigns of capitalistic ventures for political and monetary gains, what if, now hear me out, white women collectively, allowed the other women of the world to run their own lives?

What if, instead of assuming to know the way we live is “better� or somehow more “right,� we examined the inherent toxicity of this (very white supremacy and therefore inherently patriarchal and capitalist, and individualistic) mindset—and looked at ourselves?

Timely and essential, this book is especially useful for every person who is a US citizen as we face our own communities and politics amidst ongoing right-wing extremism.

White women voted in that last man who was president. And now look-this country is unrecognizable to me, and I’ve been here over four goddamn decades now.

It is time to get our own selves and houses in order. It is time to realize we have individual autonomy.

Take a look around, white women in the US. We have a lot of work emotionally, spiritually, interpersonally, in how we relate to our selves as people; how we raise our kids; how we engage in and reinforce violence against others and ourselves for the comforts of white, cishet, (and I’ll add predominantly Christian) men.

Don’t skip this book. Take as long as you need. And remember that being antiracist and unfurling our own shit won’t happen overnight.

Do better.

Tolerate the discomfort and don’t displace it in anger on the author; or anyone else.

Pay attention to the realities which we create as adjacent to white men, and let us clean up these disgusting messes we’ve made.]]> 4.31 2021 Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption
author: Rafia Zakaria
name: LJ
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/28
date added: 2023/04/01
shelves:
review:
This book is a must read. I see myself and hear myself in it at every turn, and the red-hot embarrassment of my own white, USian, feminist, self.

“Abashed, the (white) devil stood. And felt how awful goodness is.�

Breaking down the emotional and tangible failures of white, cis, middle-to-upper-class USian capitalism in the name of “saving� women around the globe hurts.
It hurts so much, that it took me over a year to actually complete the reading, although the timing above is accurate enough.

It hurts so much because I have seen myself through the author’s lens.

I’ve been the white woman who said something racist and didn’t know it or care. I’ve been the white woman inserting myself into media reports about the seeming terrors of women’s treatment in India, in African countries, and around the world. I’ve been the white woman who assumed I knew better, without ever examining or pausing to consider that this is in no way a reality-based springboard from which to position myself.

Allowing the cultures, individuals, and peoples of the world to self-build, lead, learn, and grow is good advice. To allow others the autonomy we so desperately want to prove that we have; and thereby assume others do not—must be left behind as we move forward.

Autonomy. What a concept.

Instead of flashy ad campaigns of capitalistic ventures for political and monetary gains, what if, now hear me out, white women collectively, allowed the other women of the world to run their own lives?

What if, instead of assuming to know the way we live is “better� or somehow more “right,� we examined the inherent toxicity of this (very white supremacy and therefore inherently patriarchal and capitalist, and individualistic) mindset—and looked at ourselves?

Timely and essential, this book is especially useful for every person who is a US citizen as we face our own communities and politics amidst ongoing right-wing extremism.

White women voted in that last man who was president. And now look-this country is unrecognizable to me, and I’ve been here over four goddamn decades now.

It is time to get our own selves and houses in order. It is time to realize we have individual autonomy.

Take a look around, white women in the US. We have a lot of work emotionally, spiritually, interpersonally, in how we relate to our selves as people; how we raise our kids; how we engage in and reinforce violence against others and ourselves for the comforts of white, cishet, (and I’ll add predominantly Christian) men.

Don’t skip this book. Take as long as you need. And remember that being antiracist and unfurling our own shit won’t happen overnight.

Do better.

Tolerate the discomfort and don’t displace it in anger on the author; or anyone else.

Pay attention to the realities which we create as adjacent to white men, and let us clean up these disgusting messes we’ve made.
]]> <![CDATA[Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery]]> 2603960 224 Steven T. Newcomb 1555916422 LJ 0 to-read 3.89 2008 Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery
author: Steven T. Newcomb
name: LJ
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Seth Material 324424 308 Jane Roberts 0971119805 LJ 5 4.35 1970 The Seth Material
author: Jane Roberts
name: LJ
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better]]> 60371066 A no-holds-barred guidebook aimed at white women who want to stop being nice and start dismantling white supremacy.

It's no secret that white women are conditioned to be nice, but did you know that the desire to be perfect and to avoid conflict at all costs are characteristics of white supremacy culture?

As the founders of Race2Dinner, an organization which facilitates conversations between white women about racism and white supremacy, Regina Jackson and Saira Rao have noticed white women's tendency to maintain a veneer of niceness, and strive for perfection, even at the expense of anti-racism work.

In this book, Jackson and Rao pose these urgent questions: how has being nice helped Black women, Indigenous women and other women of color? How has being nice helped you in your quest to end sexism? Has being nice earned you economic parity with white men? Beginning with freeing white women from this oppressive need to be nice, they deconstruct and analyze nine aspects of traditional white woman behavior--from tone-policing to weaponizing tears--that uphold white supremacy society, and hurt all of us who are trying to live a freer, more equitable life.

White Women is a call to action to those of you who are looking to take the next steps in dismantling white supremacy. Your white supremacy. If you are in fact doing real anti-racism work, you will find few reasons to be nice, as other white people want to limit your membership in the club. If you are not ticking white people off on a regular basis, you are not doing it right.]]> 224 Regina Jackson 0143136437 LJ 0 to-read 4.45 2022 White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better
author: Regina Jackson
name: LJ
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics]]> 168484 123 bell hooks 0896086283 LJ 0 to-read 4.16 2000 Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
author: bell hooks
name: LJ
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice]]> 51265181 An essential tool for healers, therapists, activists, and trauma survivors who are interested in a justice-centered approach to somatic transformation The Politics of Trauma offers somatics with a social analysis. This book is for therapists and social activists who understand that trauma healing is not just for individuals—and that social change is not just for movement builders. Just as health practitioners need to consider the societal factors underlying trauma, so too must activists understand the physical and mental impacts of trauma on their own lives and the lives of the communities with whom they organize. Trauma healing and social change are, at their best, interdependent.   Somatics has proven to be particularly effective in addressing trauma, but in practice it typically focuses solely on the individual, failing to integrate the social conditions that create trauma in the first place. Staci K. Haines, somatic innovator and cofounder of generative somatics, invites readers to look beyond individual experiences of body and mind to examine the social, political, and economic roots of trauma—including racism, environmental degradation, sexism, and poverty. Haines helps readers identify, understand, and address these sources of trauma to help us bridge individual healing with social transformation.]]> 449 Staci Haines 1623173884 LJ 0 to-read 4.25 2019 The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice
author: Staci Haines
name: LJ
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma]]> 58214328 A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life.

"Every cell in my body is filled with the code of generations of trauma, of death, of birth, of migration, of history that I cannot understand. . . . I want to have words for what my bones know."

By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.

Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.

In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.

Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.]]> 352 Stephanie Foo 0593238109 LJ 0 to-read 4.50 2022 What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
author: Stephanie Foo
name: LJ
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Interesting Narrative of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano Or Gustavus Vassa, Th]]> 23386580 98 Olaudah Equiano LJ 0 to-read 3.66 1789 Interesting Narrative of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano Or Gustavus Vassa, Th
author: Olaudah Equiano
name: LJ
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1789
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Abolition. Feminism. Now. 53657256 An urgent, vital manifesto of intersectional, internationalist, abolitionist feminism, from leading scholar-activists Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth E. Richie.

As a politic and a practice, abolition increasingly shapes our political moment—halting the construction of new jails and propelling movements to divest from policing. Yet erased from this landscape are the central histories of feminist organizing—usually queer, anti-capitalist, grassroots, and women of color—that continue to cultivate abolition. Also erased is a recognition of the stark reality: abolition is our best response to endemic forms of state and interpersonal gender and sexual violence.

Amplifying the analysis and the theories of change generated from vibrant community based organizing, Abolition. Feminism. Now. surfaces necessary historical genealogies, key internationalist learnings, and everyday practices to grow our collective and flourishing present and futures.]]> 150 Angela Y. Davis LJ 0 to-read 4.29 2022 Abolition. Feminism. Now.
author: Angela Y. Davis
name: LJ
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts]]> 34146782
In this groundbreaking work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology. He argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

This book paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. It offers a step-by-step solution—a healing process—in addition to incisive social commentary.

Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence. Menakem has studied with bestselling authors Dr. David Schnarch (Passionate Marriage) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score). He also trained at Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.]]> 300 Resmaa Menakem 1942094477 LJ 0 to-read 4.38 2017 My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts
author: Resmaa Menakem
name: LJ
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1) 5025780 Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.]]> 291 Toni Morrison 030738862X LJ 0 to-read 4.12 1987 Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1)
author: Toni Morrison
name: LJ
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Power to Die: Slavery and Suicide in British North America]]> 23452939
In The Power to Die , Terri L. Snyder excavates the history of slave suicide, returning it to its central place in early American history. How did people—traders, plantation owners, and, most importantly, enslaved men and women themselves—view and understand these deaths, and how did they affect understandings of the institution of slavery then and now? Snyder draws on ships� logs, surgeons' journals, judicial and legislative records, newspaper accounts, abolitionist propaganda and slave narratives, and many other sources to build a grim picture of slavery’s toll and detail the ways in which suicide exposed the contradictions of slavery, serving as a powerful indictment that resonated throughout the Anglo-Atlantic world and continues to speak to historians today.]]> 256 Terri L. Snyder 022628056X LJ 0 to-read 4.00 2015 The Power to Die: Slavery and Suicide in British North America
author: Terri L. Snyder
name: LJ
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Teaching Community 833590 216 bell hooks 0415968186 LJ 5 4.33 2002 Teaching Community
author: bell hooks
name: LJ
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/28
date added: 2022/05/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X LJ 0 4.52 2007 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: LJ
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/28
shelves: currently-reading, i-can-t-even
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic]]> 22529381
With the same dramatic drive of El Narco and Methland, Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of American capitalism: The stories of young men in Mexico, independent of the drug cartels, in search of their own American Dream via the fast and enormous profits of trafficking cheap black-tar heroin to America’s rural and suburban addicts; and that of Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut, determined to corner the market on pain with its new and expensive miracle drug, Oxycontin; extremely addictive in its own right. Quinones illuminates just how these two stories fit together as cause and effect: hooked on costly Oxycontin, American addicts were lured to much cheaper black tar heroin and its powerful and dangerous long-lasting high. Embroiled alongside the suppliers and buyers are DEA agents, local, small-town sheriffs, and the US attorney from eastern Virginia whose case against Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin made him an enemy of the Bush-era Justice Department, ultimately stalling and destroying his career in public service.

Dreamland is a scathing and incendiary account of drug culture and addiction spreading to every part of the American landscape.]]> 384 Sam Quinones 1620402505 LJ 0 4.22 2015 Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
author: Sam Quinones
name: LJ
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/28
shelves: currently-reading, psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization]]> 106150
Many patients have substantial problems with daily living and relationships, including serious intrapsychic conflicts and maladaptive coping strategies. Their suffering essentially relates to a terrifying and painful past that haunts them. Even when survivors attempt to hide their distress beneath a facade of normality―a common strategy―therapists often feel besieged by their many symptoms and serious pain. Small wonder that many survivors of chronic traumatization have seen several therapists with little if any gains, and that quite a few have been labeled as untreatable or resistant.

In this book, three leading researchers and clinicians share what they have learned from treating and studying chronically traumatized individuals across more than 65 years of collective experience. Based on the theory of structural dissociation of the personality in combination with a Janetian psychology of action, the authors have developed a model of phase-oriented treatment that focuses on the identification and treatment of structural dissociation and related maladaptive mental and behavioral actions. The foundation of this approach is to support patients in learning more effective mental and behavioral actions that will enable them to become more adaptive in life and to resolve their structural dissociation. This principle implies an overall therapeutic goal of raising the integrative capacity, in order to cope with the demands of daily life and deal with the haunting remnants of the past, with the “unfinished business� of traumatic memories.

Of interest to clinicians, students of clinical psychology and psychiatry, as well as to researchers, all those interested in adult survivors of chronic child abuse and neglect will find helpful insights and tools that may make the treatment more effective and efficient, and more tolerable for the suffering patient.]]> 440 Onno van der Hart 0393704017 LJ 5 4.42 2006 The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization
author: Onno van der Hart
name: LJ
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/28
date added: 2022/05/28
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story]]> 57717410 The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a revealing vision of the American past and present.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story builds on The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning �1619 Project,� which reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on the original "1619 Project, "weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, and the way we remember. Together, the elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.

The book also features an elaboration of the original project’s Pulitzer Prize–winning lead essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones on how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans, as well as two original pieces from Hannah-Jones, one of which makes a case for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice.]]> 590 Nikole Hannah-Jones 0593230574 LJ 0 currently-reading 4.61 2019 The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
author: Nikole Hannah-Jones
name: LJ
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Radical Candor 39313439 * New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller multiple years running
* Translated into 20 languages, with more than half a million copies sold worldwide
* A Hudson and Indigo Best Book of the Year
* Recommended by Shona Brown, Rachel Hollis, Jeff Kinney, Daniel Pink, Sheryl Sandberg, and Gretchen Rubin

Radical Candor has been embraced around the world by leaders of every stripe at companies of all sizes. Now a cultural touchstone, the concept has come to be applied to a wide range of human relationships.
The idea is simple: You don't have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor—avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy—you can be kind and clear at the same time.

Kim Scott was a highly successful leader at Google before decamping to Apple, where she developed and taught a management class. Since the original publication of Radical Candor in 2017, Scott has earned international fame with her vital approach to effective leadership and co-founded the Radical Candor executive education company, which helps companies put the book's philosophy into practice.

Radical Candor is about caring personally and challenging directly, about soliciting criticism to improve your leadership and also providing guidance that helps others grow. It focuses on praise but doesn't shy away from criticism—to help you love your work and the people you work with.

Radically Candid relationships with team members enable bosses to fulfill their three core responsibilities:
1. Create a culture of Compassionate Candor
2. Build a cohesive team
3. Achieve results collaboratively

Required reading for the most successful organizations, Radical Candor has raised the bar for management practices worldwide.]]> 272 Kim Malone Scott 1509845380 LJ 1 i-can-t-even I just can’t. Not my thing. 4.09 2017 Radical Candor
author: Kim Malone Scott
name: LJ
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2017
rating: 1
read at: 2022/05/28
date added: 2022/05/28
shelves: i-can-t-even
review:
I just can’t. Not my thing.
]]> <![CDATA[Trauma-Proofing Your Kids: A Parents' Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy and Resilience]]> 2217906 Trauma-Proofing Your Kids sends a lifeline to parents who wonder how they can help their worried and troubled children now. It offers simple but powerful tools to keep children safe from danger and to help them “bounce back� after feeling scared and overwhelmed. No longer will kids have to be passive prey to predators or the innocent victims of life’s circumstances.

In addition to arming parents with priceless protective strategies, best-selling authors Dr. Peter A. Levine and Maggie Kline offer an antidote to trauma and a recipe for creating resilient kids no matter what misfortune has besieged them. Trauma-Proofing Your Kids is a treasure trove of simple-to-follow “stress-busting,� boundary-setting, sensory/motor-awareness activities that counteract trauma’s effect on a child’s body, mind and spirit. Including a chapter on how to navigate the inevitable difficulties that arise during the various ages and stages of development, this ground-breaking book simplifies an often mystifying and complex subject, empowering parents to raise truly confident and joyful kids despite stressful and turbulent times.]]> 248 Peter A. Levine 1556436998 LJ 0 currently-reading 4.22 2008 Trauma-Proofing Your Kids: A Parents' Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy and Resilience
author: Peter A. Levine
name: LJ
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[So You Want to Talk About Race]]> 35099718 In this breakout book, Ijeoma Oluo explores the complex reality of today's racial landscape--from white privilege and police brutality to systemic discrimination and the Black Lives Matter movement--offering straightforward clarity that readers need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.

Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word."]]> 248 Ijeoma Oluo 1580056776 LJ 0 currently-reading 4.48 2018 So You Want to Talk About Race
author: Ijeoma Oluo
name: LJ
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath]]> 11623
A major literary event--the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time.

Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons. The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essential reading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath's life and work.]]> 732 Sylvia Plath 0385720254 LJ 0 4.27 2000 The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
author: Sylvia Plath
name: LJ
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Trauma Bonding: How to Stop Feeling Stuck, Overcome Heartache, Anxiety and PTSD - Includes Q&A and Case Studies]]> 56344139 243 Annely Alexander LJ 0 to-read 3.81 Trauma Bonding: How to Stop Feeling Stuck, Overcome Heartache, Anxiety and PTSD - Includes Q&A and Case Studies
author: Annely Alexander
name: LJ
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us]]> 119730 236 Robert D. Hare 1572304510 LJ 0 4.06 1993 Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
author: Robert D. Hare
name: LJ
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/27
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]]> <![CDATA[White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity]]> 52764767 Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience, Robert P. Jones delivers a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy, and issues an urgent call for white Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.

As the nation grapples with demographic changes and the legacy of racism in America, Christianity’s role as a cornerstone of white supremacy has been largely overlooked. But white Christians—from evangelicals in the South to mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast—have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the dominant cultural power, they have constructed and sustained a project of protecting white supremacy and opposing black equality that has framed the entire American story.

With his family’s 1815 Bible in one hand and contemporary public opinion surveys by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in the other, Robert P. Jones delivers a groundbreaking analysis of the repressed history of the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy. White Too Long demonstrates how deeply racist attitudes have become embedded in the DNA of white Christian identity over time and calls for an honest reckoning with a complicated, painful, and even shameful past. Jones challenges white Christians to acknowledge that public apologies are not enough—accepting responsibility for the past requires work toward repair in the present.

White Too Long is not an appeal to altruism. Drawing on lessons gleaned from case studies of communities beginning to face these challenges, Jones argues that contemporary white Christians must confront these unsettling truths because this is the only way to salvage the integrity of their faith and their own identities. More broadly, it is no exaggeration to say that not just the future of white Christianity but the outcome of the American experiment is at stake.]]> 306 Robert P. Jones 1982122862 LJ 0 to-read 4.41 2020 White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity
author: Robert P. Jones
name: LJ
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Amityville Horror 293101
In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their dream home, the same home where Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers and sisters just one year earlier.

The psychic phenomena that followed created the most terrifying experience the Lutz family had ever encountered, forcing them to flee the house in 28 days, convinced that it was possessed by evil spirits.

Their fantastic story, never before disclosed in full detail, makes for an unforgettable book with all the shocks and gripping suspense of The Exorcist, The Omen or Rosemary's Baby, but with one vital difference...the story is true.]]> 315 Jay Anson 0553116606 LJ 3
What possible motivation could these two have had make this story up? Maybe a way to cover up the smashed fingers of one of their children, explain a home full of broken windows, kids missing school, husband missing work while he was preoccupied staring into a fire because he was constantly cold, and flare ups of arguments, one-sided experiences only one person at a time had, and to explain the $1500 missing from the ol� BIL.

My favorite part is the forward, where the Lutz adults are described as not believing in spiritual matters, but do casually have Catholic priests on the phone and involved around them, in general. Totally weird, right?

It may be a neat time capsule for people born after technology became a thing, but this is just ridiculous in a weirdly satisfying way akin to watching reality TV dating competitions. Just don’t expect any actual gain other than mild entertainment. ]]> 3.85 1977 The Amityville Horror
author: Jay Anson
name: LJ
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/15
date added: 2021/03/15
shelves:
review:
Excellent Trash, depending upon one’s taste, this book is at times difficult to get through. Partly due to the excruciating detail, and partially due to the fantastical nonsense that sounds more like a young couple having money troubles and a history of poor decision making on a month-long cocaine bender. The story is rife with casual child abuse and neglect, frantic interruptions, intermittent anger and paranoia, disappearing money, and-oh yes-problems with the IRS!

What possible motivation could these two have had make this story up? Maybe a way to cover up the smashed fingers of one of their children, explain a home full of broken windows, kids missing school, husband missing work while he was preoccupied staring into a fire because he was constantly cold, and flare ups of arguments, one-sided experiences only one person at a time had, and to explain the $1500 missing from the ol� BIL.

My favorite part is the forward, where the Lutz adults are described as not believing in spiritual matters, but do casually have Catholic priests on the phone and involved around them, in general. Totally weird, right?

It may be a neat time capsule for people born after technology became a thing, but this is just ridiculous in a weirdly satisfying way akin to watching reality TV dating competitions. Just don’t expect any actual gain other than mild entertainment.
]]> <![CDATA[Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents]]> 23129659 If you grew up with an emotionally immature, unavailable, or selfish parent, you may have lingering feelings of anger, loneliness, betrayal, or abandonment. You may recall your childhood as a time when your emotional needs were not met, when your feelings were dismissed, or when you took on adult levels of responsibility in an effort to compensate for your parent’s behavior. These wounds can be healed, and you can move forward in your life.

In this breakthrough book, clinical psychologist Lindsay Gibson exposes the destructive nature of parents who are emotionally immature or unavailable. You will see how these parents create a sense of neglect, and discover ways to heal from the pain and confusion caused by your childhood. By freeing yourself from your parents� emotional immaturity, you can recover your true nature, control how you react to them, and avoid disappointment. Finally, you’ll learn how to create positive, new relationships so you can build a better life.

Discover the four types of difficult parents:



The emotional parent instills feelings of instability and anxiety

The driven parent stays busy trying to perfect everything and everyone

The passive parent avoids dealing with anything upsetting

The rejecting parent is withdrawn, dismissive, and derogatory
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 201 Lindsay C. Gibson 1626251703 LJ 5 4.36 2015 Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents
author: Lindsay C. Gibson
name: LJ
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/03/15
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review:

]]> Sula 11346 174 Toni Morrison 0452283868 LJ 0 to-read 4.05 1973 Sula
author: Toni Morrison
name: LJ
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Are Prisons Obsolete? 108428
In Are Prisons Obsolete?, Professor Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration", and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole.]]> 128 Angela Y. Davis 1583225811 LJ 0 currently-reading 4.53 2003 Are Prisons Obsolete?
author: Angela Y. Davis
name: LJ
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents]]> 51152447 The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.�

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.]]> 544 Isabel Wilkerson 0593230256 LJ 0 currently-reading 4.52 2020 Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: LJ
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Men Who Hate Women 48635408
Men Who Hate Women examines the rise of secretive extremist communities who despise women and traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spider web of groups. It includes eye-opening interviews with former members of these communities, the academics studying this movement, and the men fighting back.

Women's rights activist Laura Bates wrote this book as someone who has been the target of many hate-fueled misogynistic attacks online. At first, the vitriol seemed to be the work of a small handful of individual men... but over time, the volume and consistency of the attacks hinted at something bigger and more ominous. As Bates went undercover into the corners of the internet, she found an unseen, organized movement of thousands of anonymous men wishing violence (and worse) upon women.
In the book, Bates explores:

Extreme communities like incels, pick-up artists, MGTOW, Men's Rights Activists and more
The hateful, toxic rhetoric used by these groups
How this movement connects to other extremist movements like white supremacy
How young boys are targeted and slowly drawn in
Where this ideology shows up in our everyday lives in mainstream media, our playgrounds, and our government

By turns fascinating and horrifying, Men Who Hate Women is a broad, unflinching account of the deep current of loathing toward women and anti-feminism that underpins our society and is a must-read for parents, educators, and anyone who believes in equality for women.]]> 366 Laura Bates LJ 0 to-read 4.34 2020 Men Who Hate Women
author: Laura Bates
name: LJ
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition]]> 34082146 above the Mason-Dixon Line—its army of four-to-six-million members spanning the continent from New Jersey to Oregon, its ideology of intolerance shaping the course of mainstream national politics throughout the twentieth century.


As prize-winning historian Linda Gordon demonstrates, the second Klan’s enemies included Catholics and Jews as well as African Americans. Its bigotry differed in intensity but not in kind from that of millions of other WASP Americans. Its membership, limited to white Protestant native-born citizens, was entirely respectable, drawn from small businesspeople, farmers, craftsmen, and professionals, and including about 1.5 million women. For many Klanspeople, membership simultaneously reflected a protest against an increasingly urban society and provided an entrée into the new middle class.


Never secret, this Klan recruited openly, through newspaper ads, in churches, and through extravagant mass "Americanism" pageants, often held on Independence Day. These "Klonvocations" drew tens of thousands and featured fireworks, airplane stunts, children’s games, and women’s bake-offs—and, of course, cross-burnings. The Klan even controlled about one hundred and fifty newspapers, as well as the Cavalier Motion Picture Company, dedicated to countering Hollywood’s "immoral"—and Jewish—influence. The Klan became a major political force, electing thousands to state offices and over one hundred to national offices, while successfully lobbying for the anti-immigration Reed-Johnson Act of 1924.


As Gordon shows, the themes of 1920s Klan ideology were not aberrant, but an indelible part of American history: its "100% Americanism" and fake news, broadcast by charismatic speakers, preachers, and columnists, became part of the national fabric. Its spokespeople vilified big-city liberals, "money-grubbing Jews," "Pope-worshipping Irish," and intellectuals for promoting jazz, drinking, and cars (because they provided the young with sexual privacy).


The Klan’s collapse in 1926 was no less flamboyant, done in by its leaders� financial and sexual corruption, culminating in the conviction of Grand Dragon David Stephenson for raping and murdering his secretary, and chewing up parts of her body. Yet the Klan’s brilliant melding of Christian values with racial bigotry lasted long after the organization’s decline, intensifying a fear of diversity that has long been a dominant undercurrent of American history.


Documenting what became the largest social movement of the first half of the twentieth century, The Second Coming of the Ku Klux Klan exposes the ancestry and helps explain the dangerous appeal of today’s welter of intolerance.]]> 272 Linda Gordon 1631493698 LJ 0 currently-reading 3.80 2017 The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition
author: Linda Gordon
name: LJ
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Diary of a Young Girl 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank LJ 5 4.19 1947 The Diary of a Young Girl
author: Anne Frank
name: LJ
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/22
date added: 2020/10/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women's Happiness and Fulfillment]]> 48721291 Dr. Valerie Rein has worked with hundreds of high-achieving women and discovered that the issues they all struggle with are not just personal—they’re rooted in the ancestral and collective trauma experienced by women in the patriarchal world for millennia. In Patriarchy Stress Disorder, Dr. Rein describes how this trauma creates an invisible inner prison, that holds them back from stepping into the full power of their authentic presence, unbridled joy, outrageous success, freedom, and fulfillment. In this book, Dr. Valerie - Why you’re dissatisfied in spite of your achievements, and why it's not your fault. - What secretly drains 90 percent of your time and energy, and how to reclaim it. - How to upgrade your game of “How much can I bear?� to “How good can it get?”]]> 278 Valerie Rein 1544505787 LJ 0 to-read 4.25 Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women's Happiness and Fulfillment
author: Valerie Rein
name: LJ
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present]]> 2767 Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small aggregate of elite rulers from across the orthodox political parties.
A People's History has been assigned as reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States. It has also resulted in a change in the focus of historical work, which now includes stories that previously were ignored

Library Journal calls Howard Zinn’s book “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those…whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.”]]> 729 Howard Zinn 0060838655 LJ 0 to-read 4.07 1980 A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
author: Howard Zinn
name: LJ
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography Of Malcolm X]]> 10317884 An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found: here

Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind.
An established classic of modern America, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcom X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.]]> 460 Malcolm X 0345350685 LJ 5 4.57 1965 The Autobiography Of Malcolm X
author: Malcolm X
name: LJ
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/30
date added: 2020/07/30
shelves:
review:

]]> House of Leaves 24800
Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.]]> 710 Mark Z. Danielewski LJ 0 to-read 4.11 2000 House of Leaves
author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: LJ
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Transsexual From Tobago.(Revised)]]> 24798329 572 Dominique Jackson LJ 0 to-read 4.06 2014 The Transsexual From Tobago.(Revised)
author: Dominique Jackson
name: LJ
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower]]> 33574165
Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper’s world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.]]> 288 Brittney Cooper 1250112575 LJ 0 to-read 4.38 2018 Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
author: Brittney Cooper
name: LJ
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Love in the Time of Cholera 9712 348 Gabriel García Márquez 140003468X LJ 2
If you want to read a classical piece of literature where women and girls simply exist as objects to abuse without consequence, or without an identity outside of the man’s needs and perversions, here’s one of a million such pieces to satisfy that urge. ]]> 3.92 1985 Love in the Time of Cholera
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: LJ
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/12/15
shelves:
review:
This work initially is gripping and very human: until you get to the end, and the protagonist is simply sexually abusing a 14 year-old girl when he is elderly, who kills herself. This leaves the abuser to his lifelong obsession, a woman he’s been hung up on since childhood. She happens to now be a widow, and they become companions.

If you want to read a classical piece of literature where women and girls simply exist as objects to abuse without consequence, or without an identity outside of the man’s needs and perversions, here’s one of a million such pieces to satisfy that urge.
]]> <![CDATA[What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City (One World Essentials)]]> 42040559
What the Eyes Don't See is a riveting account of a shameful disaster that became a tale of hope, the story of a city on the ropes that came together to fight for justice, self-determination, and the right to build a better world for their--and all of our--children.]]> 384 Mona Hanna-Attisha 0399590854 LJ 0 to-read 4.31 2018 What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City (One World Essentials)
author: Mona Hanna-Attisha
name: LJ
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President]]> 35343348 The New York Times bestseller! More than two dozen psychiatrists and psychologists offer their consensus view that Trump's mental state presents a clear and present danger to our nation and individual well-being.

This is not normal.

Since the start of Donald Trump’s presidential run, one question has quietly but urgently permeated the observations of concerned citizens: What is wrong with him? Constrained by the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater rule,� which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to answer this question have shied away from discussing the issue at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both.

In THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP, twenty-seven psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health experts argue that, in Mr. Trump’s case, their moral and civic “duty to warn� America supersedes professional neutrality. They then explore Trump’s symptoms and potentially relevant diagnoses to find a complex, if also dangerously mad, man.

Philip Zimbardo and Rosemary Sword, for instance, explain Trump’s impulsivity in terms of “unbridled and extreme present hedonism.� Craig Malkin writes on pathological narcissism and politics as a lethal mix. Gail Sheehy, on a lack of trust that exceeds paranoia. Lance Dodes, on sociopathy. Robert Jay Lifton, on the “malignant normality� that can set in everyday life if psychiatrists do not speak up.

His madness is catching, too. From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond.

It’s not all in our heads. It’s in his.

"There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump...profound, illuminating and discomforting" —Bill Moyers]]> 360 Bandy X. Lee 1250179459 LJ 2 i-can-t-even
But...

...but...the very beginning of the book uses the adjective “evil� to describe certain behavior, and that’s a problem to me as a professional in the soft sciences. Why are we using archaic and mystical language to describe something loosely quantifiable such as behavior? You lost me immediately, authors.

I tried to hang on. I did. I made it almost halfway through before I made the choice to just stop reading. A great deal of this book was written in a way that read to me like pop psychology one finds in articles by HuffPost. The total overemphasis of the Goldwater Rule was tediously and ridiculously overstated. I GET IT. Readers understand every single author and piece of the book crafted by a licensed psychiatrist is not diagnosing the current President. Perhaps this was something lawyers made sure everyone emphasized for the pieces published, but it is not something a reader needs to hear again and again and again.

Beginning the first portion of the book with author’s self-driven research that is not taught to other clinicians because it isn’t evidence based or used in clinical practice reads as self promoting, and was confusing; I did not particularly find that necessary.

I found the premise of the book to be absolutely warranted. I found that the writing of it and construction of it to be incredibly flawed. Attempting to state that this is not meant to be political in its context is incongruent to the stated need to publish such a piece. I feel for the authors, who did largely get some things correct. Overall, however, the information contained within is easily accessible to published articles any layperson could find easily, if they desire to research this for their own purposes. Walking the very fine line of attempting to warn others of danger while maintaining medical licenses to practice their profession in light of our current political landscape is honorable. I’m sure that many people found information that was not known to them and found the book to be very eye opening. I would recommend the book to others concerned about topics discussed who are not professionals in the field of mental health with the caveat that we don’t diagnose the way this book is written, on top of the content therein.

Example? “Gaslighting.� It is totally a behavior employed by “narcissists,� but both “narcissists� and descriptors of their behavior have largely become a popular colloquialism rather than a diagnostic specifier. Mixing pop psychology and diagnostic information in this context can easily become confusing, or worse, just boring.

At the end of the day, it may be more relevant that such a book exists than to actually read said book. ]]> 3.98 2017 The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
author: Bandy X. Lee
name: LJ
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2019/03/23
date added: 2019/03/23
shelves: i-can-t-even
review:
I have put a great deal of thought into how to write this review. As a mental health professional myself, I greatly respect a number of the contributors to this book.

But...

...but...the very beginning of the book uses the adjective “evil� to describe certain behavior, and that’s a problem to me as a professional in the soft sciences. Why are we using archaic and mystical language to describe something loosely quantifiable such as behavior? You lost me immediately, authors.

I tried to hang on. I did. I made it almost halfway through before I made the choice to just stop reading. A great deal of this book was written in a way that read to me like pop psychology one finds in articles by HuffPost. The total overemphasis of the Goldwater Rule was tediously and ridiculously overstated. I GET IT. Readers understand every single author and piece of the book crafted by a licensed psychiatrist is not diagnosing the current President. Perhaps this was something lawyers made sure everyone emphasized for the pieces published, but it is not something a reader needs to hear again and again and again.

Beginning the first portion of the book with author’s self-driven research that is not taught to other clinicians because it isn’t evidence based or used in clinical practice reads as self promoting, and was confusing; I did not particularly find that necessary.

I found the premise of the book to be absolutely warranted. I found that the writing of it and construction of it to be incredibly flawed. Attempting to state that this is not meant to be political in its context is incongruent to the stated need to publish such a piece. I feel for the authors, who did largely get some things correct. Overall, however, the information contained within is easily accessible to published articles any layperson could find easily, if they desire to research this for their own purposes. Walking the very fine line of attempting to warn others of danger while maintaining medical licenses to practice their profession in light of our current political landscape is honorable. I’m sure that many people found information that was not known to them and found the book to be very eye opening. I would recommend the book to others concerned about topics discussed who are not professionals in the field of mental health with the caveat that we don’t diagnose the way this book is written, on top of the content therein.

Example? “Gaslighting.� It is totally a behavior employed by “narcissists,� but both “narcissists� and descriptors of their behavior have largely become a popular colloquialism rather than a diagnostic specifier. Mixing pop psychology and diagnostic information in this context can easily become confusing, or worse, just boring.

At the end of the day, it may be more relevant that such a book exists than to actually read said book.
]]> <![CDATA[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)]]> 9460487 9781594744761

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.]]> 352 Ransom Riggs 1594744769 LJ 1 i-can-t-even 3.92 2011 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)
author: Ransom Riggs
name: LJ
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2019/02/17
shelves: i-can-t-even
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction]]> 39999461 From a renowned behavioral neuroscientist and recovered drug addict, an authoritative and accessible guide to understanding drug addiction: clearly explained brain science and vivid personal stories reveal how addiction happens, show why specific drugs--from opioids to alcohol to coke and more--are so hard to kick, and illuminate the path to recovery for addicts, loved ones, caregivers, and crafters of public policy.

Addiction is epidemic and catastrophic. With more than one in every five people over the age of fourteen addicted, drug abuse has been called the most formidable health problem worldwide. If we are not victims ourselves, we all know someone struggling with the merciless compulsion to alter their experience by changing how their brain functions.

Drawing on years of research--as well as personal experience as a recovered addict--researcher and professor Judy Grisel has reached a fundamental conclusion: for the addict, there will never be enough drugs. The brain's capacity to learn and adapt is seemingly infinite, allowing it to counteract any regular disruption, including that caused by drugs. What begins as a normal state punctuated by periods of being high transforms over time into a state of desperate craving that is only temporarily subdued by a fix, explaining why addicts are unable to live either with or without their drug. One by one, Grisel shows how different drugs act on the brain, the kind of experiential effects they generate, and the specific reasons why each is so hard to kick.

Grisel's insights lead to a better understanding of the brain's critical contributions to addictive behavior, and will help inform a more rational, coherent, and compassionate response to the epidemic in our homes and communities.]]> 243 Judith Grisel 0385542844 LJ 0 to-read 4.11 2019 Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction
author: Judith Grisel
name: LJ
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/02/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence]]> 320146 Unwarranted fear is a curse.
Learn how to tell the difference.

A date won't take "no" for an answer. The new nanny gives a mother an uneasy feeling. A stranger in a deserted parking lot offers unsolicited help. The threat of violence surrounds us every day. But we can protect ourselves, by learning to trust—and act on—our gut instincts.

In this empowering book, Gavin de Becker, the man Oprah Winfrey calls the nation's leading expert on violent behavior, shows you how to spot even subtle signs of danger—before it's too late. Shattering the myth that most violent acts are unpredictable, de Becker, whose clients include top Hollywood stars and government agencies, offers specific ways to protect yourself and those you love, including how to act when approached by a stranger, when you should fear someone close to you, what to do if you are being stalked, how to uncover the source of anonymous threats or phone calls, the biggest mistake you can make with a threatening person, and more. Learn to spot the danger signals others miss. It might just save your life.
]]> 432 Gavin de Becker 0440226198 LJ 5 4.27 1997 The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
author: Gavin de Becker
name: LJ
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2019/02/10
date added: 2019/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly]]> 33313 A deluxe, annotated edition of Kitchen Confidential to celebrate the life of Anthony Bourdain, featuring new photo inserts

Over two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,� by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain spared no one’s appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. The article was a sensation, and the book it spawned, the now iconic Kitchen Confidential, became an even bigger sensation and megabestseller. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business.

Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade, laying out Bourdain’s more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine. Including a handwritten introduction and annotations done by Bourdain about a decade after the book was originally published, this edition also features previously unpublished photos to accompany the now-classic text.]]> 312 Anthony Bourdain 0060899220 LJ 4
Having read it now, rather than *before*, “before� being a time when it was first published, or earlier in the television career of Anthony Bourdain, it may have had a different impact on me. As someone who knows nothing of the culinary world, and specifically, chefs of the world or New York’s restaurant scene now or previously, I found this book much differently than I’m sure others have that are a part of these worlds when it was published.

I am very glad that I had not much of a glimpse and zero knowledge for the most of the “underbelly� and I am very glad to have read Bourdain’s narrative. Because it exposed me wholly to a world I have no experience in. Apparently, it seems I have a penchant for reading memoirs and biographies, to escape into someone else’s experiences and lives, and I do so to learn more about our basic humanity. And for entertainment and education, of course. Like Bourdain, I still do not understand people, but continuing to explore worlds and experiences is something which I will continue to do.

Then how is this book not for everyone? Well, if one is easily offended by the “f word,� if one finds it shockingly awful to hear someone casually mentioning their crack and heroin addiction, if one finds themselves occasionally exhausted by a narrative whose underlying theme could easily be one of a constant drive for stimulation battling a low burn of constant discontent, this may not be your book. If you’re in early recovery from any substance, this book is likely to be a trigger for you. Maybe. Everyone is different. If you’re easily offended by someone who speaks their mind and airs their opinions bluntly, this book is not for you.

I found myself needing to read this book in mostly small bursts, realizing about half-way through that it was truly exhausting at times. But isn’t that the point? The point is to learn what it’s like. And man, am I not cut out for this line of work. And man, do I have a greater deal of knowledge and respect for anyone, anywhere, in any way involved in the restaurant business.

I also learned, that even though I like to prepare food for people and host and watch them enjoy themselves and get full, I don’t think “cook� means what I think it means. It’s like the difference between dancing and just moving your body. Yes, it’s fun and a satisfying endeavor, but probably not what I’ve been defining it as.

Who should read this book? Anyone who wants to know if they’d make it as a professional cook would be my guess, but again, I know little about this business; anyone who admires and respects Anthony Bourdain and understands that how one dies does not define who you are as a whole person; anyone who likes a glimpse into someone else’s existence and to learn about almost anything.

It is, at the end of it, a brilliantly written work that is a tiny slice of humanity. A crash course in human existence in many facets, at once delicious and memorable.

My favorite quote is from the chapter, Adam Real-Last-Name-Unknown:

“Adam was thrilled to be doing something normal. Dr. Herbert Kleckley, in his groundbreaking work on serial killers, *The Mask of Sanity,* discusses this phenomenon, where the career sociopath, vestigally aware of his character, emulates normalcy by overcompensating—becoming a scoutmaster, a crisis-line counselor, a Republican fundraiser. In this case, Adam, excited by the prospect of a wholesome activity like, â€going skiing with the guys,â€� â€prepared a bacchanalian picnic lunch for his fellow skiers: two chest coolers filled with homemade caponata, anitpasto, sliced cold cuts, freshly baked Italian bread, cheese, marinated artichokes, roasted peppers...he must have been up all night getting it ready. And he skied like a hero, though he’s the last person in the world who should be allowed. He had his ski boots on the wrong feet the first hour. He neglected to bring gloves or mittens. He lost a ski pole. But he soldiered on without complaint...â€�

If this doesn’t describe a person, I don’t know what does.
]]> 4.17 2000 Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
author: Anthony Bourdain
name: LJ
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2019/02/10
date added: 2019/02/10
shelves:
review:
This book is not for everyone.

Having read it now, rather than *before*, “before� being a time when it was first published, or earlier in the television career of Anthony Bourdain, it may have had a different impact on me. As someone who knows nothing of the culinary world, and specifically, chefs of the world or New York’s restaurant scene now or previously, I found this book much differently than I’m sure others have that are a part of these worlds when it was published.

I am very glad that I had not much of a glimpse and zero knowledge for the most of the “underbelly� and I am very glad to have read Bourdain’s narrative. Because it exposed me wholly to a world I have no experience in. Apparently, it seems I have a penchant for reading memoirs and biographies, to escape into someone else’s experiences and lives, and I do so to learn more about our basic humanity. And for entertainment and education, of course. Like Bourdain, I still do not understand people, but continuing to explore worlds and experiences is something which I will continue to do.

Then how is this book not for everyone? Well, if one is easily offended by the “f word,� if one finds it shockingly awful to hear someone casually mentioning their crack and heroin addiction, if one finds themselves occasionally exhausted by a narrative whose underlying theme could easily be one of a constant drive for stimulation battling a low burn of constant discontent, this may not be your book. If you’re in early recovery from any substance, this book is likely to be a trigger for you. Maybe. Everyone is different. If you’re easily offended by someone who speaks their mind and airs their opinions bluntly, this book is not for you.

I found myself needing to read this book in mostly small bursts, realizing about half-way through that it was truly exhausting at times. But isn’t that the point? The point is to learn what it’s like. And man, am I not cut out for this line of work. And man, do I have a greater deal of knowledge and respect for anyone, anywhere, in any way involved in the restaurant business.

I also learned, that even though I like to prepare food for people and host and watch them enjoy themselves and get full, I don’t think “cook� means what I think it means. It’s like the difference between dancing and just moving your body. Yes, it’s fun and a satisfying endeavor, but probably not what I’ve been defining it as.

Who should read this book? Anyone who wants to know if they’d make it as a professional cook would be my guess, but again, I know little about this business; anyone who admires and respects Anthony Bourdain and understands that how one dies does not define who you are as a whole person; anyone who likes a glimpse into someone else’s existence and to learn about almost anything.

It is, at the end of it, a brilliantly written work that is a tiny slice of humanity. A crash course in human existence in many facets, at once delicious and memorable.

My favorite quote is from the chapter, Adam Real-Last-Name-Unknown:

“Adam was thrilled to be doing something normal. Dr. Herbert Kleckley, in his groundbreaking work on serial killers, *The Mask of Sanity,* discusses this phenomenon, where the career sociopath, vestigally aware of his character, emulates normalcy by overcompensating—becoming a scoutmaster, a crisis-line counselor, a Republican fundraiser. In this case, Adam, excited by the prospect of a wholesome activity like, â€going skiing with the guys,â€� â€prepared a bacchanalian picnic lunch for his fellow skiers: two chest coolers filled with homemade caponata, anitpasto, sliced cold cuts, freshly baked Italian bread, cheese, marinated artichokes, roasted peppers...he must have been up all night getting it ready. And he skied like a hero, though he’s the last person in the world who should be allowed. He had his ski boots on the wrong feet the first hour. He neglected to bring gloves or mittens. He lost a ski pole. But he soldiered on without complaint...â€�

If this doesn’t describe a person, I don’t know what does.

]]> <![CDATA[The Managed Body: Developing Girls and Menstrual Health in the Global South]]> 42600503 469 Chris Bobel 3319894145 LJ 0 to-read 4.24 2018 The Managed Body: Developing Girls and Menstrual Health in the Global South
author: Chris Bobel
name: LJ
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wild Truth: A Memoir 20828370 New York Times bestselling author Jon Krakauer, but also the rest of the nation. Krakauer's book, Into the Wild, became an international bestseller, translated into thirty-one languages, and Sean Penn's inspirational film by the same name further skyrocketed Chris McCandless to global fame.

But the real story of Chris's life and his journey has not yet been told—until now. The missing pieces are finally revealed in The Wild Truth, written by Carine McCandless, Chris's beloved and trusted sister. Featured in both the book and film, Carine has wrestled for more than twenty years with the legacy of her brother's journey to self-discovery, and now tells her own story while filling in the blanks of his.

Carine was Chris's best friend, the person with whom he had the closest bond, and who witnessed firsthand the dysfunctional and violent family dynamic that made Chris willing to embrace the harsh wilderness of Alaska. Growing up in the same troubled household, Carine speaks candidly about the deeper reality of life in the McCandless family. In the many years since the tragedy of Chris's death, Carine has searched for some kind of redemption.

In this touching and deeply personal memoir, she reveals how she has learned that real redemption can only come from speaking the truth.]]> 278 Carine McCandless 0062325140 LJ 0 to-read 3.78 2014 The Wild Truth: A Memoir
author: Carine McCandless
name: LJ
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Becoming 38746485
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.]]> 426 Michelle Obama 1524763136 LJ 5 4.42 2018 Becoming
author: Michelle Obama
name: LJ
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)]]> 32075671 An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062498533 can be found here.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.]]> 454 Angie Thomas 0062498533 LJ 5 4.46 2017 The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)
author: Angie Thomas
name: LJ
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Slaughterhouse-Five 108978 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780099800200

Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller - these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.]]> 157 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. LJ 0 4.01 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: LJ
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)]]> 15881
And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls� bathroom. But then the real trouble begins � someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects� Harry Potter himself!]]> 352 J.K. Rowling LJ 5 4.42 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: LJ
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2017/10/09
date added: 2017/10/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Diana: Her True Story—In Her Own Words]]> 32920313
When Her True Story was first published in 1992, it forever changed the way the public viewed the British monarchy. Greeted initially with disbelief and ridicule, the #1 New York Times bestselling biography has become a unique literary classic, not just because of its explosive contents but also because of Diana’s intimate involvement in the publication. Never before had a senior royal spoken in such a raw, unfiltered way about her unhappy marriage, her relationship with the Queen, her extraordinary life inside the House of Windsor, her hopes, her fears, and her dreams. Now, twenty-five years on, biographer Andrew Morton has revisited the secret tapes he and the late princess made to reveal startling new insights into her life and mind. In this fully revised edition of his groundbreaking biography, Morton considers Diana’s legacy and her relevance to the modern royal family.

An icon in life and a legend in death, Diana continues to fascinate. Her True Story in Her Own Words is the closest we will ever come to her autobiography.]]> 448 Andrew Morton 1501169734 LJ 4
But is that fair? Andrew Moron does an excellent job helping to show someone like me--an American who was born the year the Prince and Princess were married--a glimpse into a completely different, and in many ways, barely imagined, culture of the British royalty, norms, and sociology.

The author is extremely biased, the work very much highlighting Diana's malady, which effectively turns out to be the unloving, philandering, Prince of Wales. Bulimia and self harm, suicidal gestures, all symptoms of her cruel marriage: not the cause, Morton insists throughout, of the Prince's affair with you-know-who.

It is worth noting that the author had to sneak interviews into and out of the palace in order to compile them for the original book. He makes note that the kind of security the Princess of Wales was under would cause a public outcry if it were a Muslim female royal in the same set of circumstances. While I believe it is difficult to imagine the very special and specific security the royals are under, I beg to differ. (There are female royals in Saudi Arabia who asked President Obama to allow them out of the palace years ago, and that just wasn't possible). But as far as the British royal family goes, it does make me wonder how one lives under these conditions.

The Princess as humanitarian, the Princess as the People's...the Princess as mother to the heirs of the Crown. I admired her courage and wondered at her mental illnesses. Then I wondered how anyone could survive in such circumstances and not also suffer terrible psychic pain. At minimum.

As someone who was too young and outside the British element as a child, this gives me a very specific and shocking view of the entire monarchy and Princess Diana, specifically. It provides an escape to another world, but causes one to wonder at the lives of those still in it: namely, Harry, William, Kate, and the new and soon-to-arrive new generation of royals.

Diana escaped as much as possible, and this biography will be a comfort to anyone who has had a difficult, unloving marriage, gone through a divorce, been a child of divorce, felt like an outsider, worked hard and felt like no one cared, has suffered from suicidal ideation, bulimia, or depression. Diana can still comfort us, even posthumously.

The irony is her untimely death and the absolute horror of the press and the royal use and abuse of it. This biography is a study of sociology and humanity at its worst. Of the misogyny associated with Diana's treatment vs her husband's. And here is a biography where the vessel to deliver the Princess's story is a man. And here is a woman reading about Diana because she was so hunted that she decided to take the reigns and share, at first in secret, her side of things.

At the end of it, I needed a day to sit and process this. The end did not make me feel good, there is no "end", really. It simply stops, like Diana's life, leaving out the desired "ending" many are used to.

As noted by many, if this marriage was a "fairy tale," it was one penned by the Brother's Grim, and certainly not the Walt Disney company.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more and escape into another world, so close to ours and yet so far.]]> 4.00 1993 Diana: Her True Story—In Her Own Words
author: Andrew Morton
name: LJ
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2017/09/05
date added: 2017/09/07
shelves:
review:
My American heart did not want it to end like this. Of course I know Diana, the Princess of Wales, has long ago died. But it seems profoundly unfair to this commoner, bred on ABC After School Specials and sitcoms where loving parents and friends help one another-that Princess Diana was barely divorced and finally, finally, had a chance at happiness, when she suddenly and violently died.

But is that fair? Andrew Moron does an excellent job helping to show someone like me--an American who was born the year the Prince and Princess were married--a glimpse into a completely different, and in many ways, barely imagined, culture of the British royalty, norms, and sociology.

The author is extremely biased, the work very much highlighting Diana's malady, which effectively turns out to be the unloving, philandering, Prince of Wales. Bulimia and self harm, suicidal gestures, all symptoms of her cruel marriage: not the cause, Morton insists throughout, of the Prince's affair with you-know-who.

It is worth noting that the author had to sneak interviews into and out of the palace in order to compile them for the original book. He makes note that the kind of security the Princess of Wales was under would cause a public outcry if it were a Muslim female royal in the same set of circumstances. While I believe it is difficult to imagine the very special and specific security the royals are under, I beg to differ. (There are female royals in Saudi Arabia who asked President Obama to allow them out of the palace years ago, and that just wasn't possible). But as far as the British royal family goes, it does make me wonder how one lives under these conditions.

The Princess as humanitarian, the Princess as the People's...the Princess as mother to the heirs of the Crown. I admired her courage and wondered at her mental illnesses. Then I wondered how anyone could survive in such circumstances and not also suffer terrible psychic pain. At minimum.

As someone who was too young and outside the British element as a child, this gives me a very specific and shocking view of the entire monarchy and Princess Diana, specifically. It provides an escape to another world, but causes one to wonder at the lives of those still in it: namely, Harry, William, Kate, and the new and soon-to-arrive new generation of royals.

Diana escaped as much as possible, and this biography will be a comfort to anyone who has had a difficult, unloving marriage, gone through a divorce, been a child of divorce, felt like an outsider, worked hard and felt like no one cared, has suffered from suicidal ideation, bulimia, or depression. Diana can still comfort us, even posthumously.

The irony is her untimely death and the absolute horror of the press and the royal use and abuse of it. This biography is a study of sociology and humanity at its worst. Of the misogyny associated with Diana's treatment vs her husband's. And here is a biography where the vessel to deliver the Princess's story is a man. And here is a woman reading about Diana because she was so hunted that she decided to take the reigns and share, at first in secret, her side of things.

At the end of it, I needed a day to sit and process this. The end did not make me feel good, there is no "end", really. It simply stops, like Diana's life, leaving out the desired "ending" many are used to.

As noted by many, if this marriage was a "fairy tale," it was one penned by the Brother's Grim, and certainly not the Walt Disney company.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more and escape into another world, so close to ours and yet so far.
]]> <![CDATA[Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia]]> 46815
Why would a talented young girl go through the looking glass and step into a netherworld where up is down and food is greed, where death is honor and flesh is weak? Why enter into a love affair with hunger, drugs, sex and death? Marya Hornbacher sustained both anorexia and bulimia through five lengthy hospitalizations, endless therapy, the loss of family, friends, jobs and, ultimately, any sense of what it meant to be "normal."

In this vivid, emotionally wrenching memoir, she re-creates the experience and illuminates the tangle of personal, family and cultural causes that underlie eating disorders. Hornbacher's story gathers intensity with each passing year. By the time she is in college and working for a news service in Washington, DC, she is in the grip of a such a horrifying bout with anorexia that it will forever put to rest the romance of wasting away. Down to 52 pounds and counting, Hornbacher's body becomes a the death instinct with the drive to live, mind and body locked in mortal combat.

Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to the darker side of reality, and her decision to find her way back -- on her own terms. A landmark book from a 23-year-old writer of virtuoso prose, Wasted takes us inside the experience of anorexia and bulimia in a way that no one else has ever done.]]> 298 Marya Hornbacher 0060858796 LJ 1 i-can-t-even 4.02 1998 Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
author: Marya Hornbacher
name: LJ
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1998
rating: 1
read at: 2017/06/30
date added: 2017/06/30
shelves: i-can-t-even
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting]]> 11910983 The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent." French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special.

Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play.

Motherhood itself is a whole different experience in France. There's no role model, as there is in America, for the harried new mom with no life of her own. French mothers assume that even good parents aren't at the constant service of their children and that there's no need to feel guilty about this. They have an easy, calm authority with their kids that Druckerman can only envy.

Of course, French parenting wouldn't be worth talking about if it produced robotic, joyless children. In fact, French kids are just as boisterous, curious, and creative as Americans. They're just far better behaved and more in command of themselves. While some American toddlers are getting Mandarin tutors and preliteracy training, French kids are- by design-toddling around and discovering the world at their own pace.

With a notebook stashed in her diaper bag, Druckerman-a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal-sets out to learn the secrets to raising a society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters, and reasonably relaxed parents. She discovers that French parents are extremely strict about some things and strikingly permissive about others. And she realizes that to be a different kind of parent, you don't just need a different parenting philosophy. You need a very different view of what a child actually is.

While finding her own firm non, Druckerman discovers that children-including her own-are capable of feats she'd never imagined.]]> 284 Pamela Druckerman 1594203334 LJ 5 3.98 2012 Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting
author: Pamela Druckerman
name: LJ
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2014/02/05
date added: 2017/03/13
shelves:
review:
This book has put out into the world much of what I felt to be common sense parenting. It's also an easy and fast read;(I just took a long time to update this profile. I read it in a couple days). Aside from my lack of knowledge and interest in French cuisine, I find it well written and helpful for those of us unafraid to take advice from others. As a professional who works with children, I particularly find the emphasis on raising children with a sense of autonomy and allowing freedoms coupled with a proper and nutritious diet invaluable. While much of the book seems common sense to me, this information is not apparent to everyone. Helicopter parents and those with disdain for "taking advice" and general uptight, type As will hate this book.
]]> Sinbad (Singles Classic) 31179339 30 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. LJ 5 3.84 2016 Sinbad (Singles Classic)
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: LJ
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2017/03/03
date added: 2017/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Weight of Silence 6335026
It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.

Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by a tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.

Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.

Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

Don’t miss Heather’s upcoming t wisty locked-room thriller, EVERYONE IS WATCHING!

And don't miss these other great stories by Heather!


These Things Hidden
Little Mercies
Missing Pieces
Not a Sound
Before She Was Found
This is How I Lied
The Overnight Guest]]> 373 Heather Gudenkauf 077832740X LJ 3 3.94 2008 The Weight of Silence
author: Heather Gudenkauf
name: LJ
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2017/02/26
date added: 2017/02/26
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed it over all, but wouldn't consider it something "great" that will stick with me. It kept me entertained, but it has its holes and is predictable. What can I say? It's a decent read, but nothing I'd passionately recommend or passionately pan.
]]> The Color Purple 827792 288 Alice Walker 0156031825 LJ 5
And women. So much of Celie's, Tasha's, Shug, and Sophia's story are happening now and have happened throughout history: casual brutality, based on sex and skin color: the bias against Shug, and her lifestyle as a singer (and other activities); Tasha's cultural ways she adopts, finally; and the given that is incest between father and daughter as a matter of course for young Celie. The writing, the telling of the incestuous brutality alone is not overly done. The casualness and blunt language underlie how awful and normalized the abuse is for so. Many. Girls.

This isn't a book, it's a story. It's not one story, it's millions. Generations of black families in the south living in America. Millions of women who have ever been under appreciated, spoken down to, beaten and raped. It's families who have been split apart and people who have been split apart. It is a snippet of life. It is marvelous. ]]> 4.29 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: LJ
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2017/01/10
date added: 2017/01/10
shelves:
review:
This. This was what I was looking for, and didn't know it. It called me to think of myself, my place in the world, and that of others, our shared history as Americans, and God. And in a few short days that it took to read it.

And women. So much of Celie's, Tasha's, Shug, and Sophia's story are happening now and have happened throughout history: casual brutality, based on sex and skin color: the bias against Shug, and her lifestyle as a singer (and other activities); Tasha's cultural ways she adopts, finally; and the given that is incest between father and daughter as a matter of course for young Celie. The writing, the telling of the incestuous brutality alone is not overly done. The casualness and blunt language underlie how awful and normalized the abuse is for so. Many. Girls.

This isn't a book, it's a story. It's not one story, it's millions. Generations of black families in the south living in America. Millions of women who have ever been under appreciated, spoken down to, beaten and raped. It's families who have been split apart and people who have been split apart. It is a snippet of life. It is marvelous.
]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 LJ 3 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: LJ
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky LJ 0 to-read 4.26 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: LJ
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself]]> 720298
Melody Beattie’s compassionate and insightful look into codependency—the concept of losing oneself in the name of helping another� has helped millions of readers understand that they are powerless to change anyone but themselves and that caring for the self is where healing begins.

Is someone else's problem your problem? If, like so many others, you've lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to a loved one’s self-destructive behavior, you may be codependent--and you may find yourself in this book. With instructive life stories, personal reflections, exercises, and self-tests, Codependent No More helps you to break old patterns, maintain healthy boundaries, and say no to unhealthy relationships. It offers a clear and achievable path to freedom and a lifetime of healing, hope, and happiness.
This ground-breaking book is even more relevant today, as readers confront new, urgent challenges with greater self-awareness, than it was when it first entered the national conversation over 35 years ago.]]> 276 Melody Beattie 0894864025 LJ 5 psych-books 4.12 1986 Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
author: Melody Beattie
name: LJ
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/11/18
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil]]> 359194
Renowned social psychologist and creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo explores the mechanisms that make good people do bad things, how moral people can be seduced into acting immorally, and what this says about the line separating good from evil.

The Lucifer Effect explains how—and the myriad reasons why—we are all susceptible to the lure of “the dark side.� Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women.

Here, for the first time and in detail, Zimbardo tells the full story of the Stanford Prison Experiment, the landmark study in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into “guards� and “inmates� and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within a week the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners.

By illuminating the psychological causes behind such disturbing metamorphoses, Zimbardo enables us to better understand a variety of harrowing phenomena, from corporate malfeasance to organized genocide to how once upstanding American soldiers came to abuse and torture Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. He replaces the long-held notion of the “bad apple� with that of the “bad barrel”—the idea that the social setting and the system contaminate the individual, rather than the other way around.

This is a book that dares to hold a mirror up to mankind, showing us that we might not be who we think we are. While forcing us to reexamine what we are capable of doing when caught up in the crucible of behavioral dynamics, though, Zimbardo also offers hope. We are capable of resisting evil, he argues, and can even teach ourselves to act heroically. Like Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem and Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, The Lucifer Effect is a shocking, engrossing study that will change the way we view human behavior.]]> 551 Philip G. Zimbardo 1400064112 LJ 0 to-read 3.91 2007 The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
author: Philip G. Zimbardo
name: LJ
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Minds of Billy Milligan 1391817
Out of control of his actions, Billy Milligan was a man tormented by twenty-four distinct personalities battling for supremacy over his body—a battle that culminated when he awoke in jail, arrested for the kidnap and rape of three women. In a landmark trial, Billy was acquitted of his crimes by reason of insanity caused by multiple personality—the first such court decision in history—bringing to public light the most remarkable and harrowing case of multiple personality ever recorded.

Twenty-four people live inside Billy Milligan. Philip, a petty criminal; Kevin, who dealt drugs and masterminded a drugstore robbery; April, whose only ambition was to kill Billy's stepfather; Adalana, the shy, lonely, affection-starved lesbian who “used� Billy's body in the rapes that led to his arrest; David, the eight-year-old “keeper of pain�; and all of the others, including men, women, several children, both boys and girls, and the Teacher, the only one who can put them all together. You will meet each in this often shocking true story. And you will be drawn deeply into the mind of this tortured young man and his splintered, terrifying world.]]> 374 Daniel Keyes 0394519434 LJ 3
Did Billy Milligan have MPD? It's highly suspect at best. The historical piece is what got this book three stars from me, as the author clearly likes to paint Billy as an abused and sad figure who was a victim of his own mind. Perhaps it would be more believable had these events occurred at a different time for the field of psychology. It would be interesting to see how this would play out in our current times. Worth the read, and decide for yourself. ]]> 4.26 1981 The Minds of Billy Milligan
author: Daniel Keyes
name: LJ
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1981
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves:
review:
This is a great study in the history of psychiatry and the wave of multiple personality disorder diagnoses that took the profession by storm in the 70's and 80's. (Spoiler alert: I don't for a second believe Billy Milligan had MPD, now termed Dissociative Identity Disorder). Because of my own bias which unfolded as I read, I found what was most fascinating about the events not Billy, but the psychiatrists, hospital staff, and court officials who worked with Billy; and did so in the days before boundaries and ethics were a big deal in the profession of mental health. Perhaps due to the race to become famous and aligned with THE Dr. Wilbur who worked with "Sybil" and so started the trend of fame/career advancement around MPD, Billy was able to manipulate and control his court cases and the hospital staff and social workers around him easily. (It is worth noting that Dr. Wilbur herself has been proven to have fraudulently and deliberately manufactured a great deal of Sybil's story for her own gain).

Did Billy Milligan have MPD? It's highly suspect at best. The historical piece is what got this book three stars from me, as the author clearly likes to paint Billy as an abused and sad figure who was a victim of his own mind. Perhaps it would be more believable had these events occurred at a different time for the field of psychology. It would be interesting to see how this would play out in our current times. Worth the read, and decide for yourself.
]]> The Goodbye Book 24396881 From bestselling author Todd Parr, a poignant and reassuring story about loss.

Through the lens of a pet fish who has lost his companion, Todd Parr tells a moving and wholly accessible story about saying goodbye. Touching upon the host of emotions children experience, Todd reminds readers that it's okay not to know all the answers, and that someone will always be there to support them. An invaluable resource for life's toughest moments.]]> 32 Todd Parr 0316404977 LJ 5 psych-books 4.28 2015 The Goodbye Book
author: Todd Parr
name: LJ
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:
A very good book about any kind of loss. Highly recommend for children who may need to process loss.
]]> <![CDATA[I Hate You—Don't Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality]]> 145391
People with Borderline Personality Disorder experience such violent and frightening mood swings that they often fear for their sanity. They can be euphoric one moment, despairing and depressed the next. There are an estimated 10 million sufferers of BPD living in America today—each displaying remarkably similar symptoms:

â—� a shaky sense of identity
â—� sudden violent outbursts
â—� oversensitivity to real or imagined rejection
â—� brief, turbulent love affairs
â—� frequent periods of intense depression
â—� eating disorders, drug abuse, and other self-destructive tendencies
â—� an irrational fear of abandonment and an inability to be alone

For years BPD was difficult to describe, diagnose, and treat. But now, for the first time, Dr. Jerold J. Kreisman and health writer Hal Straus offer much-needed professional advice, helping victims and their families to understand and cope with this troubling,shockingly widespread affliction.]]> 207 Jerold J. Kreisman 0380713055 LJ 4 psych-books 3.76 1989 I Hate You—Don't Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality
author: Jerold J. Kreisman
name: LJ
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Groups: A Counseling Specialty (6th Edition) (Merrill Counseling (Hardcover))]]> 10290987 512 Samuel T. Gladding 0137051522 LJ 5 psych-books 3.79 1990 Groups: A Counseling Specialty (6th Edition) (Merrill Counseling (Hardcover))
author: Samuel T. Gladding
name: LJ
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1990
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sometimes It's Grandmas and Grandpas, Not Mommies and Daddies]]> 6977422 Sometimes It's Grandmas and Grandpas shares a child's experience living with and being cared for by grandparents through the eyes of a cheerful and delightful little girl. Uplifting watercolor illustrations give extra warmth to this caring and loving story, to which a growing number of children can identify - over 4.5 million children in the United States are primarily cared for by a grandparent.
Poignant moments expressing the child's curiosity and questions give way to comforting and playful exchanges at home with Nonnie and Poppy. Spending the day with this grandparent-led family, we see that it's not always Mommies or Daddies that care for children, and that's okay!
Sometimes It's Grandmas and Grandpas provides a great resource for children who seek reassurance about their particular experience. This unique book will appeal to any grandparent raising or providing long-term care for a grandchild, as well as any teacher who wants to educate children about nontraditional families. Sometimes It's Grandmas and Grandpas sensitively addresses a topic that has been nearly absent in the children's book market, until now.]]> 32 Gayle Byrne 0789210282 LJ 5 psych-books 4.18 2009 Sometimes It's Grandmas and Grandpas, Not Mommies and Daddies
author: Gayle Byrne
name: LJ
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> The I LOVE YOU Book 4589167
I love you when you give me kisses.
I love you when you need hugs.
Most of all, I love you just the way you are.

In this sweet picture book, Todd Parr explores the meaning of unconditional love in a heartfelt, playful way. Perfect for Valentine's Day and beyond, Todd's vibrant illustrations and tender sentiments are sure to inspire parents and caregivers, who will enjoy sharing this very special book with the little ones they love.]]> 32 Todd Parr 0316019852 LJ 5 psych-books 4.22 The I LOVE YOU Book
author: Todd Parr
name: LJ
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Grief Recovery Handbook: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses including Health, Career, and Faith]]> 4129223

Newly updated and expanded to commemorate its 20th anniversary—this classic resource helps people complete the grieving process and move toward recovery and happiness

Incomplete recovery from grief can have a lifelong negative effect on the capacity for happiness. Drawing from their own histories as well as from othersÂ’, the authors illustrate how it is possible to recover from grief and regain energy and spontaneity. Based on a proven program, The Grief Recovery Handbook offers grievers the specific actions needed to move beyond loss.

New material in this edition includes:

How to choose which loss you should work on first How to deal with growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional home Loss of faith Loss of career Loss of health And much, much more. ]]> 208 John W. James 0061686077 LJ 3 psych-books 4.16 1988 The Grief Recovery Handbook: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses including Health, Career, and Faith
author: John W. James
name: LJ
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A Interpretation, Second Edition]]> 202946 488 James N. Butcher 0816635528 LJ 5 psych-books 4.11 1992 Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A Interpretation, Second Edition
author: James N. Butcher
name: LJ
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Personality: Contemporary Theory and Research (with InfoTrac)]]> 2310585 592 Valerian J. Derlega 0534598714 LJ 5 psych-books 4.00 1990 Personality: Contemporary Theory and Research (with InfoTrac)
author: Valerian J. Derlega
name: LJ
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Case Studies in Infant Mental Health: Risk, Resiliency, and Relationships]]> 1875822 203 Deborah J. Weatherston 0943657571 LJ 4 psych-books 4.17 2002 Case Studies in Infant Mental Health: Risk, Resiliency, and Relationships
author: Deborah J. Weatherston
name: LJ
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Psychopharmacology for Helping Professionals: An Integral Exploration (SAB 140 Pharmacology)]]> 1130360 R. Elliott Ingersoll 0534611826 LJ 5 psych-books 3.89 2005 Psychopharmacology for Helping Professionals: An Integral Exploration (SAB 140 Pharmacology)
author: R. Elliott Ingersoll
name: LJ
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health And Development Disorders Of Infancy and Early Childhood: DC:0-3R]]> 972991 75 Zero to Three 0943657903 LJ 3 psych-books 4.44 2005 Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health And Development Disorders Of Infancy and Early Childhood: DC:0-3R
author: Zero to Three
name: LJ
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder]]> 421517
This book is a step-by-step guide to teaching clients four sets of skills: interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and mindfulness. A vital component in Dr. Linehan’s comprehensive treatment program, the manual details precisely how to implement DBT behavioral skills training procedures. It provides everything the clinician needs to implement the program in skills training groups or with individual clients. Included are lecture notes, discussion questions, exercises, and practical advice on dealing with frequently encountered problems. In a large-size format with lay-flat binding for easy photocopying, the book features over three dozen reproducible client handouts and homework sheets.

See also Linehan's comprehensive presentation of DBT, Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Also available: instructive skills training videos for clients--Crisis Survival Skills: Part One, Crisis Survival Skills: Part Two, From Suffering to Freedom, This One Moment, and Opposite Action. Ěý±Ő±Ő> 180 Marsha M. Linehan 0898620341 LJ 4 psych-books 4.22 1993 Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder
author: Marsha M. Linehan
name: LJ
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1993
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Manual for Using the MMPI-2 as a Therapeutic Intervention]]> 769574 96 Stephen E. Finn 0816628858 LJ 5 psych-books 4.00 1996 Manual for Using the MMPI-2 as a Therapeutic Intervention
author: Stephen E. Finn
name: LJ
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> The Family Book 8719069
Parr's message about the importance of embracing our differences is delivered in a playful way. With his trademark bold, bright colors and silly scenes, this book will encourage children to ask questions about their own families. Perfect for young children just beginning to read, The Family Book is designed to encourage early literacy, enhance emotional development, celebrate multiculturalism, promote character growth, and strengthen family relationships. 

Bilingual edition, The Family Book / El libro de la familia , also available for purchase.]]> 32 Todd Parr 0316070408 LJ 5 psych-books 4.41 2003 The Family Book
author: Todd Parr
name: LJ
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2003
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stop Walking on Eggshells: taking your life back when someone you care about has borderline personality disorder]]> 7048755 If the answer is 'yes,' someone you care about may have borderline personality disorder (BPD). Stop Walking on Eggshells has already helped nearly half a million people with friends and family members suffering from BPD understand this destructive disorder, set boundaries, and help their loved ones stop relying on dangerous BPD behaviors. This fully revised edition has been updated with the very latest BPD research and includes coping and communication skills you can use to stabilize your relationship with the BPD sufferer in your life.

This compassionate guide will enable you to:
* Make sense out of the chaos
* Stand up for yourself and assert your needs
* Defuse arguments and conflicts
* Protect yourself and others from violent behavior

]]> 260 Paul T. Mason 1572246901 LJ 5 psych-books 4.16 1998 Stop Walking on Eggshells: taking your life back when someone you care about has borderline personality disorder
author: Paul T. Mason
name: LJ
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2016/01/02
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:
Well-written overall, with practical advice on how to communicate with so-called borderline personalities. I would add that this is a helpful read for anyone who has a relationship with anyone who is abusive, manipulating, potentially narcissistic, and/or an alcoholic/drug abuser. I just wish she would have discussed "the cycle of abuse". (You can Google that easily). It did NOT include entirely appropriate advice for talking to minor children involved in say, a marriage, but most of the advice was practical. Any counselor working with families with this diagnosis, or anyone with above mentioned difficulties in relationships, could find this read helpful. It's written easily, and didn't take long to read. I do recommend reading start to finish, and it makes a handy-dandy accompaniment to "Co-dependent No More."
]]> <![CDATA[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]]> 17293141
The criteria are concise and explicit, intended to facilitate an objective assessment of symptom presentations in a variety of clinical settings -- inpatient, outpatient, partial hospital, consultation-liaison, clinical, private practice, and primary care. New features and enhancements make DSM-5 easier to use across all settings:

- The chapter organization reflects a lifespan approach, with disorders typically diagnosed in childhood (such as neurodevelopmental disorders) at the beginning of the manual, and those more typical of older adults (such as neurocognitive disorders) placed at the end. Also included are age-related factors specific to diagnosis. - The latest findings in neuroimaging and genetics have been integrated into each disorder along with gender and cultural considerations.- The revised organizational structure recognizes symptoms that span multiple diagnostic categories, providing new clinical insight in diagnosis. - Specific criteria have been streamlined, consolidated, or clarified to be consistent with clinical practice (including the consolidation of autism disorder, Asperger's syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder into autism spectrum disorder; the streamlined classification of bipolar and depressive disorders; the restructuring of substance use disorders for consistency and clarity; and the enhanced specificity for major and mild neurocognitive disorders).- Dimensional assessments for research and validation of clinical results have been provided.- Both ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM codes are included for each disorder, and the organizational structure is consistent with the new ICD-11 in development.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, is the most comprehensive, current, and critical resource for clinical practice available to today's mental health clinicians and researchers of all orientations. The information contained in the manual is also valuable to other physicians and health professionals, including psychologists, counselors, nurses, and occupational and rehabilitation therapists, as well as social workers and forensic and legal specialists.]]> 991 0890425558 LJ 1 psych-books 4.15 2013 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
author: American Psychiatric Association
name: LJ
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2016/01/18
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
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]]> <![CDATA[Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence]]> 239401 364 Robin Karr-Morse 0871137348 LJ 5 psych-books 4.09 1997 Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence
author: Robin Karr-Morse
name: LJ
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2016/01/30
date added: 2016/11/15
shelves: psych-books
review:
I did not read the newest version, but the 1997 printing, which only emphasizes the author's message, making their point more vivid in it's warning. The messages are clear, science-based, and yet strangely ignored in the psychiatric, political, and General American community. A book for everyone.
]]> <![CDATA[Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail]]> 12262741 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State � and she would do it alone.

Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.]]> 336 Cheryl Strayed 0307592731 LJ 5 4.06 2012 Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
author: Cheryl Strayed
name: LJ
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/11/15
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]]> Into the Wild 1845 Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.]]> 207 Jon Krakauer 0385486804 LJ 0 to-read 4.01 1996 Into the Wild
author: Jon Krakauer
name: LJ
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/10/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)]]> 77523
All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley - a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry’s room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry - and anyone who reads about him - will find unforgettable.

For it’s there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that’s been waiting for him…if Harry can survive the encounter.
(front flap)]]> 309 J.K. Rowling LJ 5 4.47 1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: LJ
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2016/07/30
date added: 2016/07/30
shelves:
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]]> The Brain: The Story of You 25776132 224 David Eagleman 1101870532 LJ 0 to-read 4.25 2015 The Brain: The Story of You
author: David Eagleman
name: LJ
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Gone Girl 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 LJ 4 4.22 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: LJ
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2016/06/27
date added: 2016/06/29
shelves:
review:
Pretty great book. Good study on two people with personality disorders who come together and somehow that works for them.
]]> The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1 17137673 New York Times Bestseller!

The Sandman is the universally lauded masterwork following Morpheus, Lord of the Dreaming--a vast hallucinatory landscape housing all the dreams of any and everyone who's ever existed. Regardless of cultures or historical eras, all dreamers visit Morpheus' realm--be they gods, demons, muses, mythical creatures, or simply humans who teach Morpheus some surprising lessons.

Upon his escape from an embarrassing captivity at the hands of a mere mortal, Morpheus finds himself at a crossroads, forced to deal with the enormous changes within both himself and his realm. His journey to find his place in a world that's drastically changed takes him through mythical worlds to retrieve his old heirlooms, the back roads of America for a twisted reunion, and even Hell itself--to receive the dubious honor of picking the next Devil. But he'll learn his greatest lessons at the hands of his own family, the Endless, who--like him--are walking embodiments of the most influential aspects of existence.

This massive hardcover tome, over 1000 pages, collects the first 37 issues of Neil Gaiman's groundbreaking series!]]> 1033 Neil Gaiman 1401241883 LJ 5 4.65 2013 The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1
author: Neil Gaiman
name: LJ
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2016/05/09
date added: 2016/05/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution]]> 23317538
It is the rise from falling that Brown takes as her subject in Rising Strong. As a grounded theory researcher, Brown has listened as a range of people—from leaders in Fortune 500 companies and the military to artists, couples in long-term relationships, teachers, and parents—shared their stories of being brave, falling, and getting back up. She asked herself, What do these people with strong and loving relationships, leaders nurturing creativity, artists pushing innovation, and clergy walking with people through faith and mystery have in common? The answer was clear: They recognize the power of emotion and they’re not afraid to lean in to discomfort.

Walking into our stories of hurt can feel dangerous. But the process of regaining our footing in the midst of struggle is where our courage is tested and our values are forged. Our stories of struggle can be big ones, like the loss of a job or the end of a relationship, or smaller ones, like a conflict with a friend or colleague. Regardless of magnitude or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same: We reckon with our emotions and get curious about what we’re feeling; we rumble with our stories until we get to a place of truth; and we live this process, every day, until it becomes a practice and creates nothing short of a revolution in our lives. Rising strong after a fall is how we cultivate wholeheartedness. It’s the process, Brown writes, that teaches us the most about who we are.]]> 336 Brené Brown 0812995821 LJ 0 to-read 4.25 2015 Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution
author: Brené Brown
name: LJ
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/04/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family]]> 25893681 The Washington Post

When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, they thought their lives were complete. But it wasn’t long before they noticed a marked difference between Jonas and his brother, Wyatt. Jonas preferred sports and trucks and many of the things little boys were “supposed� to like; but Wyatt liked princess dolls and dress-up and playing Little Mermaid. By the time the twins were toddlers, confusion over Wyatt’s insistence that he was female began to tear the family apart. In the years that followed, the Maineses came to question their long-held views on gender and identity, to accept and embrace Wyatt’s transition to Nicole, and to undergo an emotionally wrenching transformation of their own that would change all their lives forever.

Becoming Nicole chronicles a journey that could have destroyed a family but instead brought it closer together. It’s the story of a mother whose instincts told her that her child needed love and acceptance, not ostracism and disapproval; of a Republican, Air Force veteran father who overcame his deepest fears to become a vocal advocate for trans rights; of a loving brother who bravely stuck up for his twin sister; and of a town forced to confront its prejudices, a school compelled to rewrite its rules, and a courageous community of transgender activists determined to make their voices heard. Ultimately, Becoming Nicole is the story of an extraordinary girl who fought for the right to be herself.

Granted wide-ranging access to personal diaries, home videos, clinical journals, legal documents, medical records, and the Maineses themselves, Amy Ellis Nutt spent almost four years reporting this immersive account of an American family confronting an issue that is at the center of today’s cultural debate. Becoming Nicole will resonate with anyone who’s ever raised a child, felt at odds with society’s conventions and norms, or had to embrace life when it plays out unexpectedly. It’s a story of standing up for your beliefs and yourself—and it will inspire all of us to do the same.]]> 279 Amy Ellis Nutt LJ 0 to-read 4.19 2015 Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family
author: Amy Ellis Nutt
name: LJ
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/04/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran]]> 25776124
For years the Islamic Republic tried to intimidate Ebadi, but after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rose to power in 2005, the censorship and persecution intensified. The government wiretapped Ebadi’s phones, bugged her law firm, sent spies to follow her, harassed her colleagues, detained her daughter, and arrested her sister on trumped-up charges. It shut down her lectures, fired up mobs to attack her home, seized her offices, and nailed a death threat to her front door. Despite finding herself living under circumstances reminiscent of a spy novel, nothing could keep Ebadi from speaking out and standing up for human dignity.

But it was not until she received a phone call from her distraught husband—and he made a shocking confession that would all but destroy her family—that she realized what the intelligence apparatus was capable of to silence its critics. The Iranian government would end up taking everything from Shirin Ebadi—her marriage, friends, and colleagues, her home, her legal career, even her Nobel Prize—but the one thing it could never steal was her spirit to fight for justice and a better future. This is the story of a woman who would never give up, no matter the risks.]]> 304 Shirin Ebadi 0812998871 LJ 0 to-read 4.27 2016 Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran
author: Shirin Ebadi
name: LJ
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/03/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe]]> 24805680 Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven's Door and one of today's most influential and highly cited theoretical physicists, Professor Lisa Randall once again effortlessly delivers fascinating science to the general reader. Weaving together the cosmos' history and our own in an expanding intellectual adventure story, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs takes us from the mysteries of dark matter and our cosmic environment to the conditions for life on Earth.

Sixty-six million years ago, an object the size of a city descended from space to crash into Earth, creating a cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of the other species on the planet. What was its origin? Randall proposes it was a comet that was dislodged from its orbit as the Solar System passed through a disk of dark matter that is embedded in the plane of the Milky Way. Her research challenges the usual assumptions about the simple nature of dark matter and demonstrates how scientists formulate and establish new ideas. In a sense, it might have been dark matter that killed the dinosaurs.

With her unique and wide-ranging perspective, Randall connects dark matter to the history of the world in the broadest terms. Bringing in pop culture and social and political viewpoints, she shares with us the latest findings—established and speculative—regarding dark matter, the cosmos, the galaxy, asteroids, comets, and impacts, as well as life's development and extinctions. Randall makes clear how connected the planet is to the makeup of the Universe, but also how fragile our place in the Universe, which evolved over billions of years, might be.

In this brilliant and fresh exploration of our cosmic environment, Professor Randall explains the underlying science of our world in the breathtaking tale of a Universe in which the small and the large, the visible and the hidden are intimately related. Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs illuminates the deep relationships that are critical to our world as well as the astonishing beauty of the structures and connections that surround us. It's impossible to read this book and look at either Earth or sky again in the same way.]]> 432 Lisa Randall 0062328514 LJ 0 to-read 3.64 2015 Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe
author: Lisa Randall
name: LJ
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/11/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Quiet Girl 528918 424 Peter Høeg 0374263698 LJ 0 to-read 3.24 2006 The Quiet Girl
author: Peter Høeg
name: LJ
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Smilla's Sense of Snow 124509
It happened in the Copenhagen snow. A six-year-old boy, a Greenlander like Smilla, fell to his death from the top of his apartment building. While the boy's body is still warm, the police pronounce his death an accident. But Smilla knows her young neighbor didn't fall from the roof on his own. Soon she is following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow. For her dead neighbor, and for herself, she must embark on a harrowing journey of lies, revelation and violence that will take her back to the world of ice and snow from which she comes, where an explosive secret waits beneath the ice....]]> 480 Peter Høeg 0385315147 LJ 0 to-read 3.77 1992 Smilla's Sense of Snow
author: Peter Høeg
name: LJ
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Elephant Keepers' Children]]> 13367230
When Peter and Tilte learn that scientific and religious leaders from around the world are assembling in Copenhagen for a conference, they know their parents are up to something. Peter and Tilte's quest to find them exposes conspiracies, terrorist plots, an angry bishop, a deranged headmaster, two love-struck police officers, a deluded aristocrat and much more along the way.

Part adventure story, part study of human nature, The Elephant Keepers' Children is a delightful and thought-provoking novel from the prizewinning Danish author Peter Høeg.]]> 496 Peter Høeg 1590514904 LJ 0 to-read 3.37 2010 The Elephant Keepers' Children
author: Peter Høeg
name: LJ
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Borderliners 429631 Borderliners is a "uniquely philosophical thriller" (Boston Sunday Globe) and a haunting story of childhood travail and hope.]]> 288 Peter Høeg 0385315082 LJ 5 3.70 1993 Borderliners
author: Peter Høeg
name: LJ
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> The Upanishads 290882
Older cover edition for ISBN 9780140441635.]]> 143 Anonymous LJ 0 to-read 4.21 -500 The Upanishads
author: Anonymous
name: LJ
average rating: 4.21
book published: -500
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Beautiful Mind 13912 The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall," a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the math and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up—only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.

Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash's Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees).]]> 461 Sylvia Nasar 0571212921 LJ 0 to-read 4.14 1998 A Beautiful Mind
author: Sylvia Nasar
name: LJ
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>