A Woman’s Journey with a Chronic Illness: A Review of Take Daily as Needed
The thing about chronic illness is that life doesn’t stop. It continues its messy, difficult, joyful, out-of-your-control spinning right around you. Kathryn Trueblood’s new book Take Daily As Needed captures it all, then weaves it together to show how every bit of your life is interconnected and affected by all the other parts. Recently, I…
Lisa Sniderman: Being a Light in the Darkness for People with Chronic Illness
Lisa Sniderman`s book A Light in the Darkness: Transcending Chronic Illness through the Power of Art and Attitude is a memoir of her life as an artist with dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease. Using her artist persona, Aoede, the Muse of Song in Greek mythology, she greeted songs informed, winning multiple awards, until sidelined by…
Book Review: Errant Gods (Blood of the Isir)
It’s not often that you read a book in which a character has rheumatoid arthritis (RA). I don’t recall such a character ever being the hero of any story. Errant Gods, the first book in the Blood of the Isir series by Erik Henry Vick, changes all of that. Hank Jensen used to be a…
Random 5 at the New Year
How were your holidays? I hope they were fantastically wonderful and that you got to have a lot of rest. Personally, I’m not quite done with sleeping yet, but here we are back in the active part of the calendar yet again. As my thinking processes are still being dragged kicking and screaming into 2018,…
Top Chronic Illness Books You Should Read
I’ve always looked to books for inspiration, information and community. This can be especially helpful when you have a chronic illness — adapting is hard and reading how others have found a way through can make a tremendous difference. In my new slideshow for HealthCentral, I have put together a collection of the best chronic…
Book Review: Turtles All the Way Down
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety, read Turtles All the Way Down. There are also a lot of other reason is to read the book. It’s an amazing story of friendship, of growing up, of love in many different forms, of obsessions, compulsions, and finding a…
Book Review: The Iron Druid Chronicles
Atticus O’Sullivan lives a mostly quiet life in Tempe, Arizona with Oberon, his Irish wolfhound. He runs an occult bookshop, hangs out with his friends, and his biggest problem is a cranky neighbour. Well, and that he’s been hiding from Aenghus Óg, the Celtic god of love for well over a thousand years and that…
Book Review: Without You There is No Us
What do you know about North Korea? If you’re like me, the answer is “not much,” and that’s no accident. The country is notoriously isolated by its ruler and regime, closed up to the world outside in a much the same way as communist countries like the USSR and China. Without You, There Is No…
Book Review: You
“You should own what you love.” Joe Goldberg is in love with Beck (first name Guinevere, can’t blame her for going by her last name). So naturally, he tries to woo her and that starts with research. The kind of research that involves watching her and hacking her email, and that’s just for starters. You,…
Book Review: Rather Outspoken
The news matters. This is the central tenet that runs throughout Dan Rather’s Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News. Woven through stories of 60 years working in the news, Rather has written a passionate argument for keeping the news independent and unbiased. And then he tells you why this is an important topic, but…
Book Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
Updated November 21, 2021 Forever, the third book in the Shiver Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater was hotly anticipated in my house. This wonderful YA series about teens falling in love in a small town called Mercy Falls, finding out that who you are is so much more important than what you are. As this third book in the…
Book Review: Linger
Updated November 21, 2021 Following up on perfection is a difficult thing. When I read Shiver, the first book in the trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater, I called it perfection and was in complete raptures over the beauty of the story, the beauty of the writing, and the beauty of the narration. So when I found…