Book Description

In the acclaimed sequel to Nobody Nowhere--in which Donna Williams gives readers a guided tour of life with autism--Williams explores the four years since her diagnosis and her attempts to leave her "world under glass" and live normally. NPR sponsorship. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The sequel I was waiting for...
The first book was an amazing journey for me, and to read the second book was just as wonderful as the first. It left me wondering if there was a third book. A must read!

There is always more to know.
Have you read her first book? You'll be happy to read this one too, and share her experience. Learn more about autism, conquering it, and dealing with it.

Should be A prescribed Text ............
Donna Williams book 'Somebody Somewhere' is one of those books that opens your mind - and makes you want to stand up and applaud human courage. My personal interests include psychology, child development, communication, extra sensory perception psychic ability, and Metaphysics. Donna Williams sharing of her 'world' inadvertently embraced all these subjects, and made me highly aware - not of 'differences' but of 'similarities'. Our human need to be understood, to be treated with dignity, and to be accepted in our individuality.

Donna Williams is truly an Expert on the world of Autism, way beyond the usual sets of clinical observations, and range of treatments designed to 'normalise'. We 'normals' do have to rethink the term 'dis-abled'!

Just what I need to know as I am studing Autism..
I am teaching autistic children and Donna Williams has given me so much information and insite. My students are so much better because of her honisty. Thanks Ms. Williams. I understand you did an interview with Connie Chung on 20/20 in 1994. I can not find it and if there is anyway you can help me I would be very greatful. Thanks again. God bless you. ... Read more

Book Description

During the early fifties, nothing seemed impossible. There wasn't a problem that couldn't be solved, an enemy that couldn't be licked, a dream that couldn't be achieved. America believed this, and so did fourteen-year-old Charles Mee.

A boy from a small Midwestern town, Mee believed in God, family, and his future, which, at the very least, included girls and long spell as hometown football hero. It wasn't until he collapsed one night at a dance that those dreams vanished.

Polio was every American parent's nightmare; it struck ruthlessly every summer, and the fear of it was pervasive. Aside from Communism, polio was the great enemy - a rampant, contagious epidemic. Bizarre treatments emerged, and victims were subjected to pointless, painful therapies. Stories of children who, refusing to give up, conquered the disease by sheer willpower abounded. But most couldn't get much better and suffered the disappointed chill of doctors and families alike.

Mee emerged from near death confronted by an enormous life change that challenged all the institutions he believed in. He was forced to redefine himself - a task requiring constant subterfuge. He was almost the same person as before; he was nearly normal. Through voracious reading, Mee discovered his intellectual precocity and his status as an outsider. Ultimately, he rejected the beliefs of his father, causing a lifelong estrangement.

Polio has been a journey that brought Charles Mee to places he would never have otherwise gone - and to where he stands today. His consciousness as a man and a writer began the night he collapsed. In beautiful prose, he unravels the mysteries of his Cold War youth, voicing the mind of a child with potentially fatal disease and of a man whose recognition of himself as a disabled outsider heightens his brilliance as a storyteller. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Five stars are not enough...
I don't write many reviews anymore, who has time? However, this book stood out so much above the rest I've read lately that I just had to share. The book is about a polio survivor, the 50's, the discovery of the vaccine and oh so much more. It's about living the life you were handed, not the want you thought you were going to get.

His epilogue is pure poetry. An example: "Life continues to change. New things surface; old wounds hidden by bigger wounds show up when the bigger wounds are healed; new clusters of misgivings and confusion take shape to replace old clusters of exhausted adjustments. New things come along to be accepted with grace and peace. The disability and its challenges continue to evolve, and one must achieve acceptance and grace and peace again and again, day after day."

I highly recommend this book to everyone. I read about 5 books a week and this book is in my top 20 of all time.

Read This Book-- It's Good.
No matter how great a person's chances are of getting ill or injured, everybody always thinks "it's never going to happen to me." Charles L. Mee was no different than everybody else in the 1950s who thought that they would not get polio; he thought that it would be somebody else who would catch the disease. In his touching and witty memoir, A Nearly Normal Life, Mee tells of his arduous struggle to overcome his devastating case of polio during his teenage years; Mee was one of the millions who were afflicted with spinal polio during the epidemic of the 1950s. The author vividly recounts his battle against paralysis and death, as well as his endeavor to recover and return to the normalcy that the 1950s culture emphasized. Not only does the memoir give the reader a lucid and detailed picture of the Eisenhower years, but it is also a reflective essay about America in the 1950s, polio,and the American culture that relentlessly advocated the idea of being "normal." For those of us who did not live through the fifties, A Nearly Normal Life provides a good description of what life was like for the average middle-class American family.

A nearly perfect book
Until his 14th summer, Charles Mee's world seemed safe and unshakable --- secure in a small Midwestern town, surrounded by a loving family, winning praise for his athletic prowess and on the verge of getting his first kiss. And then, suddenly, everything changed. Mee's exposure to the polio virus didn't just infect him --- it profoundly altered his reality, forever changing his perceptions of himself, his family and the way the world works. In this beautiful, heartbreaking tale, Mee poignantly recounts the story of the sick, lonely, frightened child he was and his transformation to the man he is today --- brilliant, creative, funny and "nearly normal."

A personal story attesting to the indomitable human spirit.
In the early fifties, polio was every parent's nightmare. Each summer it struck ruthlessly, killing and maiming children without warning. The virus "stripped away from the nerves their myelin sheath, which acts like insulation around an electric cord, so that the nerves short-circuited, sizzled, and died. they stopped sending signals to the muscles, and so the muscles stopped working. Arms and legs lay limp and useless." It was a vastly misunderstood disease which prompted treatments often painful and sometimes bizarre. Patients were covered in hot, wet blankets, stimulated by electric shock, immersed in boiling hot tubs, subjected to experimental surgeries, and imprisoned in iron lung machines. Hospitals sometimes had 60 children in iron lungs at one time jammed into one ward room. Charles Mee's account of the disease which irrevocably altered his life is both intriguing and horrifying, but always inspiring. An athlete as a teenager, he was forced to redefine himself. He emerged from a near-death experience to discover an intellectuality in himself which might never have been realized. The book is a personal story which attests to the indomitable human spirit, but it is also an absorbing account of a gruesome chapter in medical history. ... Read more

Book Description

As the trial over her fate rages in a stately old courtroom in southwestern Missouri, the unmistakable voice of Ted Koppel tells the nation about Nancy Cruzan— "This is, at one and the same time, one of the simplest and one of the most complicated stories with which we have ever dealt." Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan follows an ordinary family’s extraordinary journey to the United States Supreme Court. The book looks behind the scenes at the painful human cost exacted in a highly public legal battle. It is the true story of an American tragedy—a tragedy that could visit any of us in an instant.

On a black January night Nancy Cruzan’s 20-year-old Rambler flies off the road and travels the length of two football fields before flipping to a stop. Nancy is thrown out face down on the cold ground, apparently dead. But not quite. Five years later, Nancy has not emerged from her coma, and her family makes the grim request that the state hospital remove Nancy’s feeding tube, which the family authorized years before when hope remained. But the state refuses, and the battle begins. Before the battle is over, powerful forces in society will team up to oppose the family—including the Missouri Attorney General, Missouri Governor John Ashcroft, United States Solicitor General Ken Starr, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Near the end, protestors from around the country converge on Missouri, and attempt to storm the hospital. Their fight reaches its climax, and resolution, shortly after midnight on a bitter cold Christmas Day. This blue-collar family keeps one goal from!beginning to end – trying to do what they know in their hearts their loved one would want them to do. In the process, they help to raise the consciousness of a nation, and "free countless Americans of some of the fears attending death," according to the New York Times. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A fair and balanced account
Despite this book being written by the lawyer who represented the parents of Nancy Cruzan who wanted feeding apparatus to be withdrawn and thus to have Nancy die, this book presents the issues and the struggle fairly and even-handedly. This is shown in a way since after reading it I conclude the U.S Supreme Court's decision was right--in the circumstances shown the family could without monetary loss have permitted their child to not be starved to death. The account of the trial and of the appellate history of the case is absorbing and shows the author is an able lawyer, admirable in representing his clients. I have no hesitancy in saying if it had been my child I would not have gone to the efforts which Nancy's father went to in order to have his child die. But psychologically Nancy's parents wanted the living death to end and their lawyer was right to seek the relief his clients desired. An extraordinary book.

As thoughtful and compelling a book as you will find.
"The Long Goodbye" tells the story of Nancy Cruzan, a young Missouri women left in a persistent vegetative state by a serious car accident in 1983. The tale is told by attorney William Colby who, together with members of Nancy's family, battled both the medical community and the legal system to ensure that Nancy's right to be free from unwanted medical treatment would be honored. Mr. Colby's artfully crafted work is notable for its care, its compassion, its clarity, and its honesty. Nancy's legacy -- an increased sensitivity to the principle of patient autonomy at the end of life, as exercised by loving, caring family members who know best what a patient unable to make decisions for him- or herself might want -- is a powerful tribute to the Cruzan family's courageous fight.

A profoundly emotional story
Long Goodbye: The Deaths Of Nancy Cruzan by William H. Colby is the in-depth and true story of a judicial trial concerning Nancy Cruzan, a woman who was thrown from her vehicle and suffered horrific injuries. Since that tragic accident, Nancy has remained in a coma for five years, until her family abandoned hope for her revival and requested the removal of Nancy's feeding tube so her life could end peacefully. But the state intervened and denied the family's wishes. Thus began a extended legal battle began over who had the authority and the right to authorize the end of medical intervention with respect to a patient like Nancy. Long Goodbye is a profoundly emotional story of striving to do what one hopes is the right thing, in accordance with the wishes of those who cannot speak for themselves -- and the role of government to intrude into family and medical issues. This is a profoundly important issue that plays out in our hospitals and nursing homes every day. At the crux of the matter is the right to life, the right to die, and who has the final authority over a loved one caught up in a plight similar to Nancy Cruzan and her family.

A true tragedy that changed the way we look at death...
During my training as a chaplain at Baylor University Medical Center, it was considered part of the "dues" of training that one would take lots of being on-call at the hospital for handling of emergencies. To that end, there was a "call room" where a chaplain could catch a little sleep, while waiting. On one of those sleepless nights in the call room, I viewed a Frontline special on the story of Nancy Beth Cruzan. She was a young woman, fully alive, who, as a result of a terrible accident, would become a test case for end-of-life matters for years to come. After seeing that special, I was deeply touched by the need to convey what our wishes were for the ends of our lives.

The Nancy Beth Cruzan case took the better part of ten years before resolution. The lawyer who fought for her right to be disconnected from the feeding tube was William Colby, the author of this outstanding book. Those of us on the front lines of trying to help families prepare for the issues they will face at the end of life will find insight into the ramifications of that case, as well as grist for the mill of the work that we are doing.

Colby is a highly readable author (at times, I felt like I was reading a Grisham novel), the Cruzan's case is deeply compelling, the story is truly tragic, and readers will come away with an appreciation of the law and concepts that are involved in pursuing these matters. There are several important story lines running throughout this volume: There are the lawyers, one who pulls an unexpected punch; the politicians, aiming for re-election; the Cruzans, especially Nancy's father, Joe, a salt-of-the-earth laborer, broken to the core over the loss of his little girl; a common sense probate judge, just trying to do the right thing; and the right-to-life movement (with whom we generally have sympathy, but not in this case). Indeed, under the skillful telling of Mr. Colby, law itself becomes a character, fickle at times, inflexible at others, and, at the last, compassionate.

ElderHope heartily recommends this excellent book.

A journey through a family's heartbreak
When I started this book I knew it would be hard to put down. Bill Colby is not only a brilliant attorney but he's also captured the public's attention with his spellbinding book on Nancy Cruzan's family fighting for her right to die. His genius approach to every obstacle thrown at him in court was met with sheer determination and a cool savvy that persevered for the clients he grew to love.
His success as an attorney and an author parallels his success as a husband and a father. Congratulations Bill! You've done beautifully in all areas. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Robert Leonard Reid, a well-known writer on alpinism, delights in the satori-inducing dangers of mountaineering. "Once on vertical rock in desert country," he writes in Mountains of the Great Blue Dream, "I reached for a crack, inserted my fingers, stepped up, and stared into the steely eyes of a rattlesnake coiled two feet from my hand." And that's just a start, for this fine collection of essays recounts many other death-defying adventures endured in nights spent pinned to rock walls in howling winds, days battling ice storms and uncooperative ropes. But this is not just a book of macho accomplishment on the high peaks: Reid writes affectionately of the mountain landscapes among which he has walked and climbed, lending his book a rare and welcome poetry. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Book Description

I crush up my pills and snort them like dust. They are my sugar. They are the sweetness in the days that have none. They drip through me like tupelo honey. Then they are gone. Then I need more. I always need more.

For all of my life I have needed more.

A precocious literary light, Elizabeth Wurtzel published her groundbreaking memoir of depression, Prozac Nation, at the tender age of twenty-six. A worldwide success, a cultural phenomenon, the book opened doors to a rarefied world about which Elizabeth had only dared to dream during her middle-class upbringing in New York City. But no success could staunch her continuous battle with depression. The terrible truth was that nothing had changed the emptiness inside Elizabeth. Her relationships universally failed; she was fired from every magazine job she held. Indeed, the absence of fulfillment in the wake of success became yet another seemingly insurmountable hurdle.

When her doctor prescribed Ritalin to boost the effects of her antidepression medication, Elizabeth jumped. And the Ritalin worked. And worked. And worked. Within weeks, she was grinding up the pills and snorting them for a greater effect. It reached the point where she couldn't go more than five minutes without a fix. It was Ritalin, and then cocaine, and then more Ritalin. In a harrowing account, Elizabeth Wurtzel contemplates what it means to be in love with something in your blood that takes over your body, becomes the life force within you -- and could ultimately kill you.

More, Now, Again is an astonishing and timely story of a new kind of addiction. But it is also a story of survival. Elizabeth Wurtzel hits rock bottom, gets clean, uses again, and finally gains control over her drug and her life. As honest as a confession and as heartfelt as a prayer, More, Now, Again recounts a courageous fight back to a life worth living. ... Read more

Reviews (63)

Not quite addictive
Reading an Elizabeth Wurtzel book is like watching a slow-motion train moving towards a stalled car: you don't really want to look because of the impending crash, but you look anyhow. Her latest book, "More Now Again" is a peculiar look inside the mind of a repeat addict, which has some definite bumpy spots sprinkled with insight.

It begins as Wurtzel is seemingly clean of her drug addictions, until she is prescribed Ritalin for an attention-span problem. However, she soon began crushing the pills and snorting them, as she once did cocaine, because she missed sniffing things. Soon cocaine and stolen pills are back in her life, as she ends up stuck in obsessive behavior patterns, engages in inept shoplifting, and spins back into the world of addiction.

Wurtzel is alternately annoying and sympathetic; she frankly admits to handicapping marriages whenever she can, and to stealing when big-store clerks don't serve her fast enough, though she claims to scrupulously not steal from small stores. At the same time, there is something pitifully sympathetic about her spiral into addiction and the humiliating arrest when she was unable to stop sobbing. It's difficult to explain exactly what qualities in Wurtzel are either annoying or endearing, because of the blatant honesty with which she presents unsympathetic facets of herself such as, for example, her rantings about how she feels for Timothy McVeigh. There are passages where readers will sympathize with Wurtzel's long-suffering mother, who wants her to be "normal."

However, her descriptions of both drug addiction and the psychological state that drags certain people back to it is both harrowing and revealing. We see Wurtzel obsessively underlining interesting passages in a book and tweezing her legs to the bone, but walking around with filthy hair and a shirt stained with spilled coffee and tea. However, she does not go to the other extreme, which too often ends up glamorizing addiction; rather, she tells the reader plainly and calmly what she does, without overemphasizing it. Only occasionally does her prose lapse into a sense of true panic and/or despair. In one particularly affecting passage, she describes the mindset of a repeat addict: "It's the stuff people can handle that makes addicts get high. We get high over nothing."

Perhaps the best look at Wurtzel is the picture on the back cover. Though at first glance she seems like a conventionally pretty blonde with artfully-arranged hair, makeup and clothing, her large, heavily dark-rimmed, staring eyes add an air of bizarre sadness to her face.

Her writing style has an addled air most of the time, as if she were still on drugs as she wrote it. The frequent lapses into self-examination are sometimes interesting but sometimes merely seem self-indulgent. However, they never lack in response quality: whether it is an angry bristling or nods of sudden understanding, the readers WILL react with one emotion or another.

Love her or loathe her, Elizabeth Wurtzel provides a bizarre, sometimes disgusting look at addiction in this follow-up to "Prozac Nation." Her fans will enjoy it, her detractors will be revolted by it, and newcomers may not be sure what to think.

a good book... but grotesquely realistic
Wurtzel's writing remains vital, though this is not as satisfying as 'Prozac Nation.' She maintains her voice of honesty, refusing to censor the disgusting qualities of self-adulation/egomania and grotesque drives which lead to her downfall into the depths of addiction. There are parts of this novel that are uncomfortable to read due to the graphic nature of her descriptions of self-mutilation; her rationalizations for her behavior are practically offensive.

However, I felt the book was a satisfying read. It's actually a bit refreshing the way Wurtzel lets it all hang out. Most characters in similar books are dramatized and overly romanticized so that you will like them. To be quite honest, I doubt anyone is going to idolize Wurtzel after reading this book. She is truly repulsive, though she's generous enough to let you judge her in the same objective way which she judges every person she meets(with respect to their value within the context of our society). She even offers up her pseudo-intellectual commentary with disclaimer for her own semi-concious motives/drives. I do think she adds too much contextual reference/name dropping (ie citing movies and books almost incessantly) to her own experiences--it's annoying at times and may actually make the work less significant in the long run, but it does get you to see the true E.W. that Wurtzel herself sees in the mirror. This is truly a work of surrender for which we ought to thank Wurtzel. Wurtzel's works are a vital contribution that may lend relatives and friends an inside view of depression so that they may truly see what a miserable and insurmountable trap that deep depression represents. EW's voice is articulate and honest. EW demonstrates how depressives, as a distraction, often become junkies by choice. It is very hard for friends and relatives to understand this concept, one that EW elucidates with compassion and self-loathing at the same time. The book is taxing at times, but I think it was worth the time.

ENOUGH, ALREADY, PLEASE
Stoned or sober, Wurtzel herself can be so selfish, so nasty and so pampered -- she checks into $450-a-night hotel rooms on a whim, gives drug dealers her publisher's FedEx account number and leans on friends so heavily that they wind up more haggard than Wurtzel herself -- that even readers who've gone through a similar hell may find it difficult to relate Wurtzel's experiences to their own. Were her publishers also stoned?

Something has gone terribly wrong with this book. The problem goes back to one of the most basic questions you encounter in writing classes: How do you create a "boring" character without being a terrific bore yourself? She succeeds admirably; she succeeds too well. Elizabeth Wurtzel has set out to create a selfish, shallow, repetitive, exasperatingly stupid, hideously self-centered, morbidly narcissistic, excruciatingly dull, pre-recovery persona.

I honestly had no idea that this sort of material could actually get published. Reading the first 329 pages of this book is like nothing so much as listening to a girlfriend from Hell yammering on endlessly about every aspect of her pitiful life. It's a form of rampant egotism, the belief that even your shopping lists will be of interest to people.

Like all narcissists, she suffers from a basic lack of empathy. ''I've never been much interested in terrorism. It seems like someone else's problem,'' she says of the Oklahoma bombing trial. ''The victims of Timothy McVeigh start to really irritate me,"

Wurtzel cannot write and certainly never touched the depths of addiction, and found little worth recording in the shallows. A better title would have been Me, Myself, I.

puhleese
This woman would be pitiful if she were not so apallingly arrogant. She is genuinely sick; however, one cannot feel sorry for her in the face of her meanspirited remarks. She has had every advantage, yet she obviously learned nothing at Harvard. She boasts that she is the leading non-fiction writer of her generation and that she is the 'prettiest girl she knows." This is good because no one else thinks so. She may have a ph.d. in the reader's digest or in junk food, but she certainly is not worldly, knowledgeable or scholarly. I haven't read one good review of any of her books. How in heaven's name could this sloppy work have been published? The publishers were evidently high as well. I feel sorry for the poor trees that sacrificed their lives for the paper.

give me a break
this woman needs to get a grip, stop writing, and go back to school to learn English grammar. She's knowledgeable about tv guide and junk cereal, but she hasn't got a clue how to write. But it's ok because she's "the prettiest girl I know." She's a pathetic twerp. I feel sorry for the poor trees used to make the paper for this 'book.' ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Life of a cerebral cartographer.
You don't have to learn a little bit about neuroscience to understand why Wilder Penfield, M.D., was so important. You don't have to appreciate the contrast between the ridiculous 19th-century field of phrenology and the eloquent experimental data summarized in Penfield and Jasper's landmark _Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain_ to understand what the name Penfield means in neuroscience today.

In fact, even a casual reading of Rudy Rucker reveals jacked-in cybernauts, their neurosurgeons doubtless Penfield's spiritual descendants.

The work stands on its own, and this autobiography will barely touch on it, or the turbulent relationship between Penfield and Jasper (the latter is barely mentioned.) But if your question is, "Who was that man," this book provides the answer.

If you're not interested in an out-of-print book, there's a book called "Something Hidden," by Penfield's grandson, that covers much the same ground; in fact, whole chapters are practically lifted word-for-word with only the person changed from first to third. ... Read more

Book Description

This long-awaited biography is a fascinating analysis of Camillo Golgi's experiments, ideas, and personal life and is welcomed by anyone who has ever learned about his brilliant discoveries in biology but wondered about the man behind them. ... Read more

Amazon.com

From early childhood, Laurance S. Rockefeller was deeply interested in natureand conservation. Influenced by his family's long history of philanthropy, Rockefeller hasused his considerable fortune to support environmental goals, even making conservationand historical preservation his life's work. Now 87, he is the subject of Robin W. Winks'sbiography, Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for Conservation. Over the years,Rockefeller has donated undisclosed millions of dollars to support national parks andestablish historic sites. Winks suggests that his greatest contribution, however, was thetime he spent as chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission inthe 1950s. During that time, many of the programs in place today that protect againstpollution and designate federally protected wilderness areas were first proposed. Winks'ssympathetic portrayal of an old-school philanthropistprovides insight into both theconservationist movement in Americatoday and the life of an extraordinary man. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (3)

Courage and Integrity in Science: A Precious Rarety
Courage and Integrity in Science: A Precious Rarety

The Woman Who Knew Too Much: Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiationby Gayle Greene. Dr. Stewart is a British physician and epidemiologist (born in 1906 into a large family of physicians) who revolutionized the concept of radiation risk. In the 1950s, while surveying childhood mortalities in theBritish Isles, she finds that then quite common X-ray examinations duringpregnancy doubled the risk for childhood cancer. Fueled by the wrath ofradiologists, her work has been viciously derided among the medicalestablishment for more than two decades.In the 1970s, she finds that someworkers at nuclear weapons production sites, such as Hanford, WA orOakridge, TN are dying of radiation induced cancers, showing that presumed"safe" levels of occupational exposures put these workers at atwenty times higher risk than officially admitted.With that finding sheplaces herself on the "enemy list" of an immensely powerfulnuclear weapons establishment, including its scientific elite, and at thecenter of an international controversy over radiation risks.Stewart'sfascinating story, a collaborative memoir told by herself and Greene withverve and humor, is one of a woman scientist's ingenuity, independence,perseverance, compassion,and integrity, a fascinating tale in thecheckered history of a mostly male-dominated science.Rudi H. Nussbaum,PhD, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Environmental Science.

Fascinating insight into the history of radiation & medicine
The book spans the lifetimes of Dr. Stewart and her parents.It offers a fascinating description of medicine in Britain in the late 19th century, the entry of women into the medical field, and the institutional resistancein the second half of the 20th century to the fact that low levels ofradiation are dangerous.Given the recent announcements by the USGovernment concerning health risks in the nuclear arms industry, this is atimely and fascinating book. Well written and researched.

Have your children, your daughters must, read this book.
As Research Director of the Hanford Veterans Cancer Mortality Study I have worked closely with Dr. Alice Stewart.I have learned from her, laughed with her and admired her as the most extraordinary human being I have everknown.But, I never knew her well enough.You must read this book!Itwill give you a new understanding of the meaning of courage and integrity. More importantly - have your children, especially your daughters, read thisbook.Thank goodness Gayle Greene has written this eminently readablebiography of Alice.It allows us to understand where her drive comes fromand how Dr. Stewart can suffer the slings and arrows of the federalscientific pygmies who attack her work.The heart of the story, and a keyto Dr. Stewart's personality, can be found in the juxtaposition of the theending words of Chapter 13 where Professor Greene says "Alice iscalled in by...radiation victims, her investigations turn up cancer inexcess ... the studies are handed over to official bodies...the officialstudies invoke the A-bomb data to discredit her finds....Time passes." `It's a long, slow business,' she (Dr. Stewart) says."Compare thiswith one of Dr. Stewart's favorite quotations, "truth is the daughterof time."She has waited, we will wait; but Dr. Helen Caldicott isright "her work may (I say `will') receive the recognition and thanksof the future."When one finishes reading this marvelous book onecannot help but think of George Sand saying "humanity is outraged inme and with me.We must not dissimulate nor try to forget thisindignation; which is one of the most passionate forms of love." Thank the Good Lord for this stunning creature called Alice Stewart.Andthank Gayle Greene for helping us to know her just a bit better. ... Read more

Book Description

Heinz Kohut (1913-1981) stood at the center of the twentieth-century psychoanalytic movement.After fleeing his native Vienna when the Nazis took power, he arrived in Chicago, where he spent the rest of his life.He became the most creative figure in the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and is now remembered as the founder of "self psychology," whose emphasis on empathy sought to make Freudian psychoanalysis less neutral.

Kohut's life invited complexity.He obfuscated his identity as a Jew, negotiated a protean sexuality, and could be surprisingly secretive about his health and other matters.In this biography, Charles Strozier shows Kohut as a paradigmatic figure in American intellectual life: a charismatic man whose ideas embodied the hope and confusions of a country still in turmoil.Inherent in his life and formulated in his work were the core issues of modern America.

The years after World War II were the halcyon days of American psychoanalysis, which thrived as one analysts after another expanded upon Freud's insights.The gradual erosion of the discipline's humanism, however, began to trouble clinicians and patients alike.Heinz Kohut took the lead in the creation of the first authentically home-grown psychoanalytic movement.It took an émigré to be so distinctly American.

Strozier brings to his telling of Kohut's life all the tools of a skillful analyst: intelligence, erudition, empathy, contrary insight, and a willingness to look far below the surface. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

a deep drink from an unusual well.
A biography of Heinz Kohut who was at the center of the 20th century American psychoanalytic movement. After the Nazis took over Vienna he fled to Chicago, where he spent the rest of his life & is now remembered as the founder of "self psychology."

That said: you have got to have an appetite for exploration into the deep recesses of our psychology & the ways we live our lives.

This biography will appeal to those who have lived through the same era as Heinz Kohut & who have encountered the less authoritarian & more compassionate school of psychoanalysis now known as self-psychology which made major changes in reformatting the revered Freudian theory & practice.

A deep drink from an unusual well - well-written, if somewhat dense in places. Well worth it, however, if you are at all interested in the signs of intelligent life during America's post WWII years which led up to the human potential movement.

I'm amazed that I read it because my mind was boggled by the subject & the author! What did I learn? Zounds - it'll take me years to process a fraction of what has been brought to the surface! ... Read more

Book Description

From mortal illness to miraculous recovery, a doctor's moving account of his own experience as a patient

At forty-two, Geoffrey Kurland, a pediatric pulmonologist specializing in such deadly diseases as cystic fibrosis, was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia, a rare cancer with a statistically low survival rate. A remarkably fit man in training for 100-mile "extreme" races whose job is equally high performance, he is forced to confront the challenge of his own mortality. He tries to cope by turning inward in a desperate search for ever-elusive answers. As the doctor becomes a patient and lives through the terror and pain that he had until then only observed at a remove in his young patients, he learns invaluable life lessons that will ultimately make him a better doctor.

This is Kurland's memoir of his diagnosis, treatment, and return to health and "normal" life-an unforgettable testament to the resilence of the human spirit.
... Read more

Reviews (4)

power of the human mind and spirit
Our family was inspired by the stamina and ability to reach for the stars that doctor Kurland demonstrated in his book. It was quite helpful in dealing with our own personal fight against a difficult illness. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone dealing with disease and irony.As a doctor he has an aura of magnetic strength and is highly regarded in his profession. We tip our hats off to you!

Pleasure, inspiration AND education.
Nonfiction with all the excitement of a novel. It reads easily, stays on track, holds the reader's interest and has to have wide appeal. How a physician barely survives a frightening disease and manages to achieve some lifelong dreams in the face of extreme adversity. It offers special insight to all of us as potential patients or medical providers, with some special appeal to runners and endurance athletes.

Great Read!
Wonderful book with a lot of insight on the doctor being the patient. Despite the seriousness of the subject (diagnosis and treatment of lymphoma), it is sprinkled with humorous anecdotes about medical sub-specialists and medical training. Gives insight into physician thinking and training that should prove enlightening to non-physicians. A well-written, wise book by a great doctor.

moving and fascinating perspective on being a patient
This book is a refreshingly candid, funny, and moving account of one physician's experiences as a patient with a serious and often fatal illness. I found it difficult to put down, extremely well written, and accessible to both lay public and medical professional. Dr. Kurland's account is an important addition to the genre addressing the patient experience. It is must reading for anyone involved in patient care... and anyone who might be a patient... ... Read more

Book Description

In 1977, at the age of 36, Jeffrey Cohen, a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. But it wasn't until 10 years later that the "dirty details" began, when the disease had progressed to the point where he could not transfer himself out of his wheelchair. That point is where his wife Marion begins her memoir of caregiving: "If I had to explain it in three words, those words would be 'nights,' 'lifting,' and 'toilet.' And then, if I were permitted to elaborate further, I would continue, 'nights' does not mean lying awake in fear listening for his breathing. 'Lifting' does not mean dragging him by the feet along the floor. And 'toilet' does not mean changing catheters."

But "dirty details," Marion Cohen teaches us, involves more than "nights," "lifting," and "toilet." There is the loss, anger, fear, and desperation that envelops the family. She reveals what it felt like to be consistently in "dire straits" with no real help or understanding, what she characterizes as society's "conspiracy of silence." Chronicling their lives in the context of her husband's progressing disease, she discusses the raging emotions, the celebrations, the day-to-day routine, the arguments, the disappointments, and the moments of closeness. During the 15 years she cared for him at home, both continued to work on various projects, share in the rearing of their four children, and be very much in love. This powerful, honest narrative also delves into the process of making the "nursing-home decision" and those decisions Cohen made to put her and her family's life together again. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Necessary Medicine for a Well Spouse
This book is painful to read and even more painful to live. That is why it proved to be necessary medicine for this well spouse. A testament to the fact that I am not alone, I am not crazy, and there is "life after innocence." I will cling to that as I trudge this path of "chronic bereavement." For a Well Spouse, this read is a must for surviving the isolation and endless hard work imposed upon unwitting victims of devastating, chronic illness.

Thank you Marion D. Cohen, God bless you for your brutal honesty.

Exceptional and Honest Account
This exceptional experience of a person with MS and the problems of living with a well spouse are documented thoroughly here. I wouldn't say this is an optimal guide for the newly diagnosed, but it is an honest account of much of what a well spouse goes through in coping with a chronically ill spouse.

powerful and troubling look into the life of a well spouse
This book is difficult to read, but difficult to put down as well. The unimaginably difficult life of a person with severe MS is virtually ignored by his spouse as she describes her daily routine of caring for her husband. This bothered me at first, but there are other books about those who live with MS -- this book is about how this disease cripples the life of a spouse who is in perfect health. My husband has MS and I have to say, this book scared me to death. Yet it was a comfort to know there are others who understand the frustrations, guilt, and anger a well spouse experiences. ... Read more

Book Description

Into the Shadows offers a message of hope to the one in four adults in America today affected by Alzheimer's disease, either as caregivers, relatives or friends. In this intimate and moving chronicle, Robert DeHaan combines his finely honed skills as a professional psychologist with his unwavering Christian faith to show that the love and grace of God are far greater than this terrible disease. Into the Shadows is a portrait of a gifted woman, Roberta Timmer DeHaan, as she embarks upon "a journey from which no one has ever returned." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Not a "how to" book
I was swept off my feet by this book. It is a love story between a man and his wife, Roberta, who was fighting the battle with Alzheimer's, and between both of them and God. The author's faith grew even as the strain of taking care of his wife increased. His training as a psychologist enabled him to reveal his feelings in many difficult circumstances and to empathize with the horrors that his wife was going through.  At times I cried and at other times I laughed.  This is not a how-to book.  Rather, it is a book written from the inner experience of the caregiver as he accompanied his wife day by day from the earliest days of her journey into this horrific disease, until the day he placed her in the keeping of professional caregivers.

A new perspective on caring for an alzheimer's patient
Many of my friends have watched their parents disappear into the strange world of Alzheimer's disease, and I read this book to try to understand a little more what they are going through. It is wonderful! The author is a trained psychologist, but he writes with tender romanticism about his beautiful, brilliant wife. Although we meet her as she is teetering over the edge into the darkness of dementia, he brings her vividly back to life by telling us about her as a young woman, a mother,a musician, college professor, community activist and good friend, so that we mourn with him as he watches the woman he knew disappear. He offers a lot of insight into how to understand the Alzheimer's patient and what kind of help the caregiver needs in order to make the right decisions. This book is not a downer, but ultimately a moving message about how great faithfulness makes life's sorrows bearable. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

dr neiper was a great humanitarian and a great healer
dr neiper will always be remebered to me as a true hero in alternative medicine! my spouse has multiple sclerosis and without his works, she would be alot worse off today! his findings stunned the american fda and they forbade him entrance into the U.S. because his cures were not approved by our ever protecting FDA. what is the FDA protecting us from? getting well? Thank you Dr.Neiper for your books,writings, and for helping my spouse! ... Read more

Book Description

No one wants to face this problem until they have to, but most of us must one day face the loss of our mother and father. Fred Hill discusses this difficult but very timely issue.The author shares his own recent experience, along with his wife Barbara in the difficult process of providing home-care for two parents, dying simultaneously. He searches for meaning throughout the challenging experience and takes the reader along on a journey that leads finally to understanding and redemption. The author addresses serious issues, such as aging and grief, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. Practicalities are discussed, including matters regarding Living Wills, Medicare, hospice, and nursing home considerations. But the author also adds words of comfort, compassion, and even humor that helped him along the way. Hill shares the selected reflections of poets and songwriters, spiritual leaders, anthropologists and others that also helped him to understand and cope with this crisis. He strives to remain frank about the facts and honest about the emotions he experienced, while preserving the upbeat and inspiring tone of the story. "Yes, it was a difficult-experience. But I found that I could do it, and-in-the end I was very glad I did. If I had not been there for my parents, I would have missed a lot." The author found both trials and rewards from caring for his parents, long time Charleston, IN residents. He celebrates Bill and Kathy Hills lives together and struggles to address their suffering. He also challenges others of his generation to consider acting as caregivers for their aging parents when the need arises. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Must Read (I'm not alone anymore)
If you find yourself in a position to care for a parent, then this is the book to read. It is an excellent book to begin to understand all of the emotions, mental and physical challenges that a primary caregiver experiences. Until I read this book, I thought I was all-alone with these feelings. I thank Fred Hill for making me feel that I am not alone anymore. This book is a must read for any caregiver. It is packed with inspiration to carry on! ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (17)

Too difficult to hold, too engaging to put down
Like its prequel "Becoming a Man", Paul Monette's Borrowed Time is exceptionally well-written, and together they form one of the most important autobiographies our times. Borrowed Time, the story of Paul Monette's and his partner Roger Horowitz's struggle with AIDS, is sometimes emotionally too hard to go on reading, but at the same time too engaging to put down. While reading it I literaly had those feelings. If Becoming a Man is the ultimate growing up/coming out story, then Borrowed Time is the ultimate AIDS story. Together they tell the story of gay life in our times better than any other book I read.

Provocative, tragic
I picked this book up in a thrift store last week and have just suffered with Paul and Roger as I read. Immediately I searched Amazon.com looking for other writings by Paul Monette and learned of his death in 1995. Now I'm really depressed. I'm straight, white, female, a wife and a mother of a 2 year old. Probably not Paul's expected audience yet he reached me deeply. I feel tremendous compassion for anyone dying of AIDS and for those that love them. I will look for an opportunity to demonstrate love to someone with AIDS.

Bravo!
I had to take two days off from work when I started this book because I just couldnt make myself put it down.

Paul (I write in Frankness because by the end of the book all the charecters become like Family) writes with such simplicity and command that one feels like sitting by a campside listening to a wise man tell a heart wrenching tale.

Moreover, one thing i really admired about monette was that he doesnt try to gain sympathy by cashing in on his life. He doesnt use over dramatization as tools of deploying tears!

I really loved the ending because it brought such a fatal blow and with so little effort that the readers themselves had to grieve.

Furthermore, I learnt a wealth of information about HIV and AIDS from this book. Plus I just couldnt believe the red-tapism in the USA medical system. It really made me angry.

Read this book , Pronto!!
May Paul and his lover rest in peace!!

Profoundly emotional
The story of Paul and Roger starts off as the ultimate love story of two people who found themselves in their partner. Their struggle with Roger's diagnosis and illness just cements that feeling of absolute oneness. I have never read a book as emotionally demanding. I have never cried when closing a book. Until now.

A classic love story
More than anything, this book struck me as being a love story. Paul and Roger share a really warm, comfortable life...the kind most people hope to find with a partner. This makes the fact that Roger dies so young, of such a devestating illness, doubly tragic, because of all we know he is leaving behind. Paul Monette was a gifted writer, who showed a great deal of courage when he shared so personal a piece of his life with the world. ... Read more

Book Description

Small-town doctor Thomas Stern built a practice filled with memorable characters in rural Oregon. Then he moved to Southern California to work as technical advisor on the beloved TV series, “Marcus Welby, M.D.” His life story is filled with episodes that are thought provoking, heart-warming, and even rib tickling. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Pleasant House Calls
Dr. Thomas Stern's book "House Calls" is a stimulating story of rural medical practice in the 1950's and urban practice in the 1960's.It begins with excerpts from his personal story which are touching and inspiring.He went from being an orphan teenager on his own to a well respected physician.He began his practice in rural Oregon where he had many great adventures.The descriptions of his travails are funny and to the point.He cared for a wide variety of patients and acquired a great insight into the human condition.He describes the priorities and struggles of a young doctor with a growing family and a large practice.His personal, as well as, career aspirations are clearly described.There are many funny moments in the book and some of heartbreak.His joys and sorrows and the misfortunes and successes experienced by his patients are discussed in a very sensitive and caring way.

The years in California provide insight into the visionary efforts of Dr. Stern, a pioneer in the specialty of Family Practice.He developed one of the early residency programs for family doctors in the Los Angeles area and worked for several years as the technical consultant to the hit TV series, Marcus Welby, M.D.

Most readers will be lay people who will gain insight into the workings of a caring physician's heart and mind from the book.As a former rural and later urban family doctor myself, I can attest to the validity of the human drama which Dr. Stern so ably describes.Dr. Stern has textured this book with the art, as well as, the science of medicine as it was practiced in the 1950's and 1960's and provided us all with a good read.

V. Franklin Colon, M.D.

A warm account of personal challenges and healing
The author practiced family medicine in rural Oregon and Southern California for over twenty years: his reflections and memoirs tell of delivering babies, struggling with heart attack victims and healing challenges, and becoming involved in his patients' lives. House Calls is a warm account of personal challenges and healing.

House Calls - A Wonderful Reading Experience
This is a great read for both the physician and the patient.Its stories are brief,interesting,humorous, and easily understood.A very pleasant experience to be enjoyed by all. Best wishes, Archie W. Bedell, M.D., Ph.D. Director Emeritus, Mercy Health Partners Family Practice Residency Program, Toledo, OH

Recollections of a Family Physician
"House Calls" is a thinly veiled autobiography, of a boy, orphaned at fifteen, who grows up to become a pioneer in the field offamily practice medicine.Born and raised in California, Thomas L. Stern,after a stint in the navy, finds himself in the navy's V-12 programassigned to medical school in Salem, Oregon.After med school with hisbride, Gladys, he begins his practice in a small rural town where his housecalls begin in earnest.The author's recounting of his cases andadventures will make you laugh and sometimes cry.It will make you longfor that time before HMO's when doctors knew their patients, were part ofthe family and made house calls.

In 1960, with Gladys, three kids, aseveral pets in tow and armed with years of experience in rural Oregon, Dr.Stern heads back to California where he sets up his medical practice inManhattan Beach, becomes the technical advisor on the television show,Marcus Welby, M.D., and creates a residency program in family practice atSanta Monica Hospital.

A page turning read, "House Calls" isan endearing, humorous and sometimes tragic look at life through the eyesof a family physician.This is a book people will be talking about longafter they've read it. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Touching and courageous, The Victoria's Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming blends the medical realities of breast cancer with the wise and thoughtful opinions of author Jennie Nash. Nash shares every step of her experience with breast cancer, from the first mammogram to the final reconstructive surgery, in a series of "lessons" that divide chapters into stories that are equally meaningful to survivors and their friends and families. While many of the individual stories are sad, taken as whole this is an ultimately positive book--Nash survives with her health and family intact and is spared harrowing chemo and further metastasizing. Her lessons range from "bad news does less damage when it's shared" to "caregivers are human," and are illustrated with deeply personal stories of sobbing telephone messages, family arguments, and never-ending streams of frozen casseroles. The last lesson, "make the experience matter," revolves around Nash's first breast-cancer walk as a survivor, though it could just as easily revolve around the writing of this book, as it is sure to make a welcome difference in the lives of countless women. --Jill Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Taken by Surprise
This book, The Victoria's Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming and other Lessons I Learned from Breast Cancer, was just what I needed. I was diagnosed with the dreaded BC three weeks ago. I went through a lumpectomy a week ago. I spent the last 3 weeks pouring over technical medical books, reviewing statistics, researching information on the web and learning as much as I could about the disease. I purchased this book on a whim, thinking it may give a perspective that would help alleviate the stress I was going through.
I laughed, cried and also realized that I was not alone. The descriptions of friends and family mirror my situation as well.
The book is now an all time favorite of mine that I hope others will read and also be inspired to tell their story.

I'm Glad She Shared
Here is an excerpt from a journal entry written while reading this book:

"This is the most difficult book I have ever read. Jennie Nash is a wonderful writer, and she says beautiful things. It is SO powerful though - so vivid - that I can't take it. I cry page after page. I just lay it down a few minutes ago, b/c I literally could not read the words through my tears. I have always had trouble reading about blood, sickness, wounds, disease ... you name it (no, I don't think I will ever be a doctor. You think?), so I am queasy as I read her description of the gaping wound in her abdomen and throwing up while literally holding her stomach in."

Any book that can make me feel that much deserves 11 hundred stars, not 5.

Touching
I bought and read this book after my mothers diagnosis with breast cancer,and I have to say this is one of the most realistically heart-wrenching books I have ever read. Any time I ever heard anything about breast cancer,I never paid attention, but little did I know the impact it would have on my (and especially my mother's) life. Breast cancer is one of the most physically,and emotionally draining things you can go through.As my mother's sole caretaker I didn't know what to do to help her.I bought this book as my mother was going through one of her most difficult times,and this helped brighten her spirit. It also gave me tips on what to do to help my mother out and make things more comfortable for her. Even though I am still very young,this helped me realize breast cancer is an epidemic,and you never know when or how badly this will affect you. I liked this book so much I bought two copies,in order to give one to my mom's friend who had also suffered this monster known as cancer. I RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE TOUCHED BY THIS DISEASE, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE,OR FORM.

30's and breast cancer
As a young, 31 year-old, breast cancer survivor, this book touched more emotions pertaining to my life, outlook and feelings than the hundreds of other books I have read on breast cancer. It focuses on the lives of young breast cancer survivors, all our options for chemo, radiation, breast reconstruction. Jennie explores our relationships and the meaning of our lives. Breast cancer makes you take a step back and re-examine your life and what you want it to mean. Breast cancer makes you re-examine your relationships with spouses, children, parents, siblings, etc. Jennie fully examines these ideas in this book. This is a delightful book for young breast cancer survivors, but Kleenexes are a must for this 2 hour read!

A touching account that anyone can relate to...
My mother had breast cancer while I was in high school. I read this book recently, now 10 years later, after a friends mother was diagnosed. It help me console my friend and her family by helping me remember the real realities of the disease and treatment. Even if you don't have cancer or know anyone that does the touching account in this book make it well worth the read. ... Read more