(no subject)
Every now and then I take a quiet day for myself where I don't talk. One of the days I often do that is June 2nd, which marks the anniversary of a suicide attempt I made when I was eleven. I did that Thursday- took a long walk and drew and tried to fly a kite and went on the swings and read a couple books and thought. Remembered being eleven. Felt grateful to not be eleven.It was a good day. This year, I'm twenty two, which is twice eleven, and the details are getting fuzzier, which is a good thing in terms of how I feel but which makes me sad in a way because I want to hold on to the things I learned by being that person. I'm still feeling contemplative and sort of sad. Which kind of makes me feel like I'm missing my own point since the memory of that day is supposed to be as much about rebirth as anything else... but I'm feeling sad.
There's a lot going on in my life but with the school year over, I have no teaching commitments and much less stuff to lug around and a reasonable amount of availability.
Here are some interesting books I've read since I last posted a book list.
My Favorite 5:
Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists interviews by Jean Kennedy Smith and George Plimpton - this is an old book of interviews with artists who are disabled. I kind of expected this book to be about disabled people who happen to do art, but it's really about artists who happen to be disabled. But they talk about disability and art and it's an easy read and I like it.
Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene by Masha Gessen- this is a pretty recent book about genetic issues, and genetic diseases and how we handle the knowledge that we have genes that predispose us or our children or our potential children to be sick or different. I was about fifty pages into the book when I realized that the author is a lesbian and that the partner she keeps referring to is female- I was sort of impressed by how the author makes you feel like you know her when you don't.
Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Robert Whitaker- this is about treatment for mental illness in the United States and how we got duped into believing that sedatives treat schizophrenia. This is more specifically about schizophrenia than other mental illness and it is a painful indictment of the medical industry. This book hit me particularly hard because my brother had his first psychotic break about a month after I read the book- at the time I was reading the book, my brother was acting in a way that made me especially interested in this topic.
The Real Life of a Pediatrician: Candid Stories Along the Path from Student to Veteran Doctor ed Perri Klass
I dunno, I guess I'm just a sucker for anthologies. I liked this one.
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan
This is a story about love. How could I not love it?
The following books I want to mention but don't make my favorites list:
Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Communities ed Dawn Atkins- Let me say first that I find a lot of feminist rhetoric painful. And that this book is chock full of it. Let me say secondly that I am transgender, and some of the essays in this book- particularly those by butch lesbians- are virulently transphobic. They insist that transmen and transwomen are really lesbians and gay men, respectively. But, third, it has a lot of different perspectives, including a lot of transfolks' essays. I am somewhat hopeful that if a similar anthology was published today, the transphobia would be absent. I liked a few of these essays a lot, but others taint the book badly enough that it will not make my recommended reading list.
Dykes with Baggage: The Lighter Side of Lesbians in Therapy ed by Riggin Waugh- this one I reread. It's mostly good. I'm including it especially because I don't think I remembered to put in my list of books by and for queer women.
The rest of these I read, don't feel like commenting on, and you can feel free to ask about:
Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir by Mindy Schneider
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring
Children of Israel, Children of Palestine: Our Own True Stories edited by Laurel Holliday
Shipwrecked! The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy by Rhoda Blumberg
The Century That Was: Reflections on the Last Hundred Years ed James Cross Giblin
Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean by Julia Whitty
Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness by Tracy Kidder
A Passionate Engagement: A Memoir by Ken Harvey
Lust in Translation: Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee by Pamela Druckerman
Maria Montessori: Teacher of Teachers by Marie Tennent Shephard
A Broom of One's Own: Words on Writing, Housecleaning & Life by Nancy Peacock
The Gift of Jazzy by Cindy Adams
Identity Envy: Wanting To Be Who We're Not: Creative Nonfiction by Queer Writers ed Jim Tushinkski and Jim Van Buskirk
Bio of an Ogre by Piers Anthony
My Lives by Edmund White;
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, And Survive a Zombie Apocalypse by Jennifer Ouellette
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta A Ahmed
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt and Sharon M Draper
Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical by Anthony Bourdain
Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health by Keith Wailoo
Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives: Tales of Life and Death From the ER by Pamela Grim
Maggots, Murder, and Men: Memories and Reflections of a Forensic Entomologist by Zakaria Erzinclioglu
Genetic Twists of Fate by Stanley Fields and Mark Johnson
Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders
A Life Worth Living: A Doctor's Reflections On Illness in a High-Tech Era by Robert Martensen
Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S Spiro
Mommy Doesn't Drink Here Anymore: Getting Through the First year of Sobriety by Rachael Brownell
Are You My Guru? How Medicine, Meditation & Madonna Saved My Life by Wendy Shanker
Barry's Stolen Life: From Dialysis Days to the Cruel Facts of Sclerosing Encapsulating Peritonitis by Linda Sweetland
This Lovely Life: A Memoir of Premature Motherhood by Vicki Forman
There's a lot going on in my life but with the school year over, I have no teaching commitments and much less stuff to lug around and a reasonable amount of availability.
Here are some interesting books I've read since I last posted a book list.
My Favorite 5:
Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists interviews by Jean Kennedy Smith and George Plimpton - this is an old book of interviews with artists who are disabled. I kind of expected this book to be about disabled people who happen to do art, but it's really about artists who happen to be disabled. But they talk about disability and art and it's an easy read and I like it.
Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene by Masha Gessen- this is a pretty recent book about genetic issues, and genetic diseases and how we handle the knowledge that we have genes that predispose us or our children or our potential children to be sick or different. I was about fifty pages into the book when I realized that the author is a lesbian and that the partner she keeps referring to is female- I was sort of impressed by how the author makes you feel like you know her when you don't.
Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Robert Whitaker- this is about treatment for mental illness in the United States and how we got duped into believing that sedatives treat schizophrenia. This is more specifically about schizophrenia than other mental illness and it is a painful indictment of the medical industry. This book hit me particularly hard because my brother had his first psychotic break about a month after I read the book- at the time I was reading the book, my brother was acting in a way that made me especially interested in this topic.
The Real Life of a Pediatrician: Candid Stories Along the Path from Student to Veteran Doctor ed Perri Klass
I dunno, I guess I'm just a sucker for anthologies. I liked this one.
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan
This is a story about love. How could I not love it?
The following books I want to mention but don't make my favorites list:
Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Communities ed Dawn Atkins- Let me say first that I find a lot of feminist rhetoric painful. And that this book is chock full of it. Let me say secondly that I am transgender, and some of the essays in this book- particularly those by butch lesbians- are virulently transphobic. They insist that transmen and transwomen are really lesbians and gay men, respectively. But, third, it has a lot of different perspectives, including a lot of transfolks' essays. I am somewhat hopeful that if a similar anthology was published today, the transphobia would be absent. I liked a few of these essays a lot, but others taint the book badly enough that it will not make my recommended reading list.
Dykes with Baggage: The Lighter Side of Lesbians in Therapy ed by Riggin Waugh- this one I reread. It's mostly good. I'm including it especially because I don't think I remembered to put in my list of books by and for queer women.
The rest of these I read, don't feel like commenting on, and you can feel free to ask about:
Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir by Mindy Schneider
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring
Children of Israel, Children of Palestine: Our Own True Stories edited by Laurel Holliday
Shipwrecked! The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy by Rhoda Blumberg
The Century That Was: Reflections on the Last Hundred Years ed James Cross Giblin
Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean by Julia Whitty
Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness by Tracy Kidder
A Passionate Engagement: A Memoir by Ken Harvey
Lust in Translation: Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee by Pamela Druckerman
Maria Montessori: Teacher of Teachers by Marie Tennent Shephard
A Broom of One's Own: Words on Writing, Housecleaning & Life by Nancy Peacock
The Gift of Jazzy by Cindy Adams
Identity Envy: Wanting To Be Who We're Not: Creative Nonfiction by Queer Writers ed Jim Tushinkski and Jim Van Buskirk
Bio of an Ogre by Piers Anthony
My Lives by Edmund White;
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, And Survive a Zombie Apocalypse by Jennifer Ouellette
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta A Ahmed
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt and Sharon M Draper
Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical by Anthony Bourdain
Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health by Keith Wailoo
Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives: Tales of Life and Death From the ER by Pamela Grim
Maggots, Murder, and Men: Memories and Reflections of a Forensic Entomologist by Zakaria Erzinclioglu
Genetic Twists of Fate by Stanley Fields and Mark Johnson
Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders
A Life Worth Living: A Doctor's Reflections On Illness in a High-Tech Era by Robert Martensen
Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S Spiro
Mommy Doesn't Drink Here Anymore: Getting Through the First year of Sobriety by Rachael Brownell
Are You My Guru? How Medicine, Meditation & Madonna Saved My Life by Wendy Shanker
Barry's Stolen Life: From Dialysis Days to the Cruel Facts of Sclerosing Encapsulating Peritonitis by Linda Sweetland
This Lovely Life: A Memoir of Premature Motherhood by Vicki Forman