Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel

I read Prozac Nation for the first time when I was in High School. I don't remember why - maybe because the cover intrigued me by showing a girl that was like me or someone I wanted to be. Anyways, I remember devouring it then and I wanted to read it again because Elizabeth Wurtzel recently passed away.

Much like The  Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (also a book I adore!), Prozac Nation graphically details Wutrzel's struggles with depression in the eighties and early 90's - the book was published in 1994. She attended Harvard, where many of her battles took fruition. Initially, I don't think that the book got the attention it deserved.  This is a rich memoir of how Wurtzel pulled herself up by her bootstraps, won numerous awards, got into Harvard and yet, was plagued by a deep seated depression that traces back to her youth.

This book changed the world of writing in many ways, but most notably, it was unashamed and unabashed and allowed people to really talk about things like mental health without shame.  Wurtzel was one of the first to use Prozac to treat depression successfully and she told us her stories without shame.  I loved it.  And I loved reading about her.

This book is just as good as it was when it was released over twenty years ago and is just as important and relevant now as it was then. 

Book Sale Haul

I absolutely love my local library. I'm pretty sure that they love me too because I'm there so often taking books out that they know my name!  Anyways, today, they had their semi-annual book sale, and I brought the kids to it. As you can see, we brought home a bunch of things - this haul cost me a whopping five dollars.  My son is excited to start the Eragon series (I already have the second book and now have the complete set) and Gabby got a Nancy Drew book and a Judy Blume book - neither of which you could go wrong with! 

I'm excited to get cracking on these. Just so you know, there's a resource to find local booksales in your neighborhood.  If you go to this site, you can select your state and will be able to find one in your area!  :)  Happy book hunting!

The Red Daughter by Jonathan Burnham Schwartz

For such a short novel, this book packed a huge punch.  Schwartz tells the story of the defection of Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalin's only daughter to the United States in the form of diary entries written by her. At 41, she abruptly defects to the United States, leaving her two oldest children in the USSR, hoping that they will be able to forge an identity separately from her and their notorious grandfather. Alliluyeva spends some time in Princeton, NJ giving lectures and writing and then moves to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in Arizona and has another child.  

Svetlana has written her own books: Twenty Letters to a Friend, Only One Year and another that wasn't very widely published.  Obviously, this is a fictionalized account of Svetlana's life and her experiences but I found myself drawn to her story and her experiences so much that I plan on reading Twenty Letters to a Friend. Interestingly, Schwartz had access to the file of the lawyer that went to Europe to escort Svetlana back because that lawyer was his father!  

This book was fascinating because of the themes that it explored. Svetlana never really had a life or identity of her own - either in the USSR or in the United States.  Stalin controlled her every move, including who she could marry and when and where she had to ve and then, in the United States, she had CIA minders with her all the time. Ultimately, Svetlana herself and by extension her children were used as pawns in the Cold War. Burnham does a great job in exploring this theme.  She was constantly seeking connection to people in order to fill the void that had been left within her by her leaving her two eldest children - this included imprinting on her lawyer (there was never a real romantic relationship but the possibility was definitely there) and marrying an architect at Taliesin West, in addition to having another child.  There was also significant and prolonged guilt about having to leave her two eldest children behind and her desire to have a relationship with them.

This book was impressive and a pleasure to read.  

The Memory Police by Yogo Odawa - review

This is a Japanese novel in translation by Yogo Odawa and which I heard about in one of the blogs that I read. It takes place on a small island, where we learn that random things are disappearing.  These things are everything from perfume and roses to boats and novels and even people. The goal is that the remaining people will slowly forget the items and people that are gone. And yet, it's not like 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale.  It's very, slow. 

The protagonist is a young woman who is a novelist and she floats along, not caring if things are happening and not making things happen. She is hardly an agent of ANYTHING, whether it is for change or advocating for the state. It's like she doesn't care about anything. Nothing happens - she doesn't learn anything and the plot doesn't move. I kept waiting for something but nothing happened and I was left unsatisfied and disappointed. 

I would pass on this one. 

Review: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Do Therapists have their own therapists to help them with their life stresses?  How about when they absolutely fall apart in a situation that some other people wouldn't?  Lori Gottlieb, a therapist based in beautiful, sunny California - where therapy is almost the norm - details her search for a therapist when her boyfriend and she break up (and she wasn't expecting it!). As she searches for and attends her own therapy sessions, Dr. Gottlieb continues to see her own patients and parent her youngish son at the same time. Her patients and she battle painfully through their sessions, struggling through self realization.

The book is split into 58 separate chapters, which are short and are addictingly readable. There are biographical chapters in which Gottlieb talks about her breakdowns and her distractions related to her breakup, her inability to complete a book about happiness because she is profoundly unhappy and how she began her career working on shows like ER and did a stint in medical school before realizing that she liked people and stories. We also learn about her patients and their struggles - and what a motley crew they are!

I loved reading this book but I can see how she can be too provocative for some and her use of the jargon, without translating or using normal "English," can turn a reader off. I didn't mind it at all.  I enjoyed getting insight into how therapists operate and I appreciated that she was a "normal" person that happened to be helping people in the way that she too was being helped.  I found her extremely relatable. Yes, it's also voyeuristic to some degree.  Let's be honest. But it was also insanely fun to read and insightful as well.

A really good read. 

New Review: Blue Moon Promise by Colleen Coble

I'll be honest: this isn't my "normal" go-to type of book. It's about subjects that I don't normally read about or enjoy, but I wanted something lighter right now - ok, to be honest, I needed something that was light and quick to read right now.  So I picked this book up and read the description of the story, and it seemed right, under the circumstances. I wasn't let down by it, considering the goals and expectations and needs that I had in picking the book up to begin with.

Blue Moon Promise by Colleen Coble takes place in both Indiana and Texas (mostly, the latter).  When we first meet Lucy, her brother, and her sister, they are living in Wabash, Indiana in the late 1700's or early 1800's. Lucy's life is absolutely falling apart - she is a seamstress that has just lost her job and only means of supporting her family financially.  When she arrives home, she learns that her father has died, their house has been sold and there are people that seem to be out to get them or something in their possession. Additionally, her no good stepmother has abandoned the family in their time of need and after the death of her husband, Lucy's father. 

Lucy is quite fierce and determined to make sure that her family is cared for.  When she learned that her father's death may have been a homicide, she determines that it is safest to leave town. In order to do so, she conveniently accepts a proxy marriage to a young Texan ranch owner named Nate and uproots the family, moving them to the ranch in Texas. However, trouble follows her there. This novel follows her troubles as well as her relationship with Nate as they get to know each other.

I was most surprised by the amount of Christian education in this novel - I think that I missed that this had some of that in the book. I wasn't expecting any and there was some (not as much as in other books that I have read, but it was there - the main subjects were definitely the mystery and the romance, with only minimal attention being made to the Christian parts).  That being said, it was the sort of book that I enjoyed at the time I read it because it was what I was looking for and what I needed to read under the circumstances - I can't read heavy all the time!

I felt very involved in the book right from the get go.  And I read it quickly - it took me two or three days tops to complete and it was an easy, uncomplicated read. The plot moved along and at the end, seemed to resolve in a very quick and succinct way, almost as if the author had panicked about finishing up and thought to herself, "oh, I need to tie this up now and neatly!" There were times when I thought that Lucy's brother and sister's dialogue was more mature for their ages as far as word choice and syntax.  Lucy's sister in the book is, I think supposed to be three and I felt that she was speaking at a developmental level similar to that of my 9 year old.  This wasn't anything that made or broke anything though.

Generally, an ok read - nothing to rush out for, but perfect for me in the moment.