Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast

 Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

by

Roz Chast

The December selection for my local library reading group is a graphic novel about caring for aging parents.  It is called Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant and is written by a cartoonist for The New Yorker by the name of Roz Chast.  Her parents were both the children of poor Russian Jewish immigrants.  They lived into their 90's and in the book the author has to navigate the health care system for elders in 21st century America.  Since I worked most of my nursing career in long term care facilities I was able to really get what she was talking about.  This is the first graphic novel I have ever read and I found it hard to get the hang of at first.  I expected to have problems so instead of getting the book on my kindle or in audio form I actually checked out a hard back copy of the book at the local library during the book group meeting for November.   It did take me quite a few pages to get the hang of the order of the cartoons.  But I enjoyed the format once I got the format figured out.  This  is a worth while book to read if you are going through dealing with aged parents.  It also might help open up some dialog for those that want to get family members talking about end of life decisions.   Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

On Writing Well

by

William Zinsser

As a teenager I wrote a lot of bad poetry.   And the last several years I have played around with my blog.  First on Yahoo360 and then on Multiply.  When those sites closed I moved to Blogger.   And while I do not get many comments I am always surprised at the number of  page views to my posts.  This past March when my three months in the recliner started with both bones broken in my lower leg, I got aspirations that maybe I would like to be prepared to enter some of the writing contests that I was seeing announced at that time by the time the 2017 contests were announced.  I began to gather information on a couple of my family  lines that seemed like interesting ones to write about and at the end of August for my birthday gift to myself I purchased and participated in a six week creative family history writing workshop that can be found at this SITE.  One of the many resources provided at The Family History Writing Studio is a book list of recommended reading.  One of the books that was recommended that I could check out from the State Of Ohio library on my kindle was the classic book On Writing Well by William Zinsser.   I finished reading the book in the night last night and found a lot of useful information in it.  I did find myself skimming through parts of it that did not apply to my interests and concentrating on the parts of the book that applied to my aspirations.  I do not have any desire to be a full time writer.  I don't even care if I win the contests I enter.  I just do not want to send in an entry that I am not happy with.   The course I took this September and October convinced me that "creative non fiction" is not my genre although I do think elements of it are things I will use a lot and the organizational skills I learned for putting together my writing are going to be invaluable.  In addition there were check lists provided that will facilitate exactly the items I want to research to find the information I want to include in my pieces.   William Zinsser's book also provided information that I will use on how to proceed and some pitfalls to avoid.  I do not know whether this is a book that people who normally read my blog for reading ideas will be interested in, but it is a book I would recommend if a person is trying to polish their writing craft and has not yet read it.  Please click on the links above and enjoy the video below presented by the author.  

Brain On FIre: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

Brain On Fire:

My Month of Madness

by

Susannah Cahalan

Library reading groups provide a couple of things to me.  One is a social group to attend but another is that the books that we read are often books that I would never choose.  Therefore to be involved in the group stretches me to new experiences and new ways of thinking.  A good example of this is the book that is the selection for my local library's reading group in November.   Susannah Cahalan's memoir Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness is not a book that would end up on my wish list.  I listened to it on audio and spent a good bit of the first two thirds of the book rolling my eyes as I drove to and from work.   Her symptoms were so obviously psychotic and as new symptoms showed up any nurse who had ever performed an AIMS assessment  would have asked the docs if they wanted to adjust her medication due to her EPS symptoms.   I envisioned a young woman who had pretty darn good insurance at her job at a New York City newspaper and had parents who both were very well off, admitted to The University Of New York Medical Center and burning through a million dollars because her friends and family could not accept a psychiatric diagnosis.  But well into the second half of the book something happened to open my mind and I was able to make the connection between auto immune disease and behavior.  After that I thought of the progress being made with cancer and our immune system.  Then my brain jumped to dementia and other forms of mental illness and the hope that perhaps as time went on more connections would be made between some psychotic symptoms and various auto immune diseases.   For several months I have been excited about the work that is taking place involving cancer, the immune system and genetic research.  Since reading this book that excitement has been extended from my hopes for the future on the oncology floors to my hopes for future on the psychiatric wards.   Susannah was in extremely fortunate circumstances and the fact that a particularly bright  Syrian immigrant physician was there to connect the proper dots was very lucky.  She realizes that the average person in America who would be admitted to the hospital with her symptoms would not get the same diagnosis but instead would get a one way ticket to a state hospital.   As a result she has re-dedicated her life to getting the word out about her disease.  This book is not an easy one to get through.   A young woman with psychotic behavior is upsetting to visualize.  But it is a book about a cutting edge medical breakthrough that is important to be aware of.   Please follow the links above and enjoy the video that follows to learn more about Anti-NMDA-Receptor auto immune encephalitis.