“…as Oliver Wendell Holmes says, a weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself.” (61) I am an animal lover, so when I first spotted Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves (2014) by Laurel Braitman at my local Costco, I was intrigued. I imagined in-depth stories of animals that have made miraculous recoveries. I wanted inspiring tales of elephants with new best friends and dogs who become miraculously happy and well-adjusted. I was really […]
A Haunting Tale about the Human/Animal Equation
A laugh-out-loud/cry-out-loud tale designed to illuminate our lives and prick our conscience. It is the story of Rosemary, who begins her story “in the middle,” saving the big reveal for later. Rosemary is at college when the novel begins, suffering from a lack of friends, a lack of self-esteem and from a huge gaping hole inside her dating back to when she lost her twin sister Fern at age five, her beloved older brother Lowell not too long afterwards, and watched her father descend into […]
I paid attention to the hype
This book was the newest to me of all the books I have read. It’s just Jack and Ma in Room and they take vitamins and water plant and do phys ed. Jack talked like this and the book made it hard to read but good. We don’t know why Jack an Ma are in Room and in the beginning it doesn’t even matter. Slowly we learn of the world as Jack sees it, but being Outside (and grownup) we intepret and understand the things […]
Would this book become a classic if it were published today?
Quickie summary: “In this classic story that inspired the hit movie by the same name, Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled adult who cleans floors and toilets, becomes a genius through an experimental operation.” I never read this in school, as I believe many did, so though I came to understand popular references to the book or film, I still felt like I was lacking in some collective education. One thought that continually ran through my mind as I was reading the story was the question […]
Also, he’s totally a closeted lush.
This was adorable, and surprisingly insightful. Of course, I’m always susceptible to books that feature socially challenged individuals, especially ones that are male, so there was probably no way I wasn’t going to like this book. I’m glad to say that not only did I like it, I very very much liked it, and I can’t wait to see the movie version (also written by Simsion — actually, I believe the script came first, and then he wrote the novel). A lot of people have […]
Our house is a very, very fine house
This book came highly recommended by a psychologist friend of mine. While it is fiction, it gives a very realistic look into the lives of a family affected by autism. Told in the first person, you get an intimate view of how autism feels. Livvie Owen is 14, and she has two sisters, one older, one younger, and a mom & dad. They’ve moved multiple times, a result of both life circumstances–they live in a dying small town–and Livvie’s disruptive behavior, which landlords find hard […]