I didn't post for What I'm Reading Tuesday or WIP Wednesday this week, mainly because I haven't been feeling up to doing much of anything this week. I've come down with some kind of cold, stuffy nose, coughs, you know, the awful stuff. So I figured I'd at least get one post out this week, why not combine both Tuesday and Wednesday posts?
What I'm Reading
This week, I'm reading Manic: a Memoir by Terri Cheney, it's about a woman with manic bipolar depression, and let me tell you, it is interesting.
(C) Goodreads
On the outside, Terri Cheney was a highly successful, attractive Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer. But behind her seemingly flawless façade lay a dangerous secret—for the better part of her life Cheney had been battling debilitating bipolar disorder and concealing a pharmacy's worth of prescriptions meant to stabilize her moods and make her "normal."
In bursts of prose that mirror the devastating highs and extreme lows of her illness, Cheney describes her roller-coaster life with shocking honesty—from glamorous parties to a night in jail; from flying fourteen kites off the edge of a cliff in a thunderstorm to crying beneath her office desk; from electroshock therapy to a suicide attempt fueled by tequila and prescription painkillers.
With Manic, Cheney gives voice to the unarticulated madness she endured. The clinical terms used to describe her illness were so inadequate that she chose to focus instead on her own experience, in her words, "on what bipolar disorder felt like inside my own body." Here the events unfold episodically, from mood to mood, the way she lived and remembers life. In this way the reader is able to viscerally experience the incredible speeding highs of mania and the crushing blows of depression, just as Cheney did. Manic does not simply explain bipolar disorder—it takes us in its grasp and does not let go.
(C) Goodreads
And Me, Myself, and Them by Kurt Snyder. I only started this book last night, so I really don't have anything to say about it just yet.
(C) Goodreads
During his second semester at college, Kurt Snyder became convinced that he was about to discover a fabulously important mathematical principle, spending hours lost in daydreams about numbers and symbols. In time, his thoughts took a darker turn, and he became preoccupied with the idea that cars were following him, or that strangers wanted to harm him. Kurt's mind had been hijacked by schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that typically strikes during the late teen or young adult years.
In Me, Myself, and Them, Kurt, now an adult, looks back from the vantage point of recovery and eloquently describes the debilitating changes in thoughts and perceptions that took hold of his life during his teens and twenties. As a memoir, this book is remarkable for its unvarnished look at the slow and difficult process of coming back from severe mental illness. Yet Kurt's memoir is only half the story. With the help of psychiatrist Raquel E. Gur, M.D., Ph.D., and veteran science writer Linda Wasmer Andrews, Kurt paints the big picture for others affected by adolescent schizophrenia. Drawing on the latest scientific and medical evidence, he explains how to recognize warning signs, where to find help, and what treatments have proved effective. Kurt also offers practical advice on topics of particular interest to young people, such as suggestions on managing the illness at home, school, and work, and in relationships with family and friends.
(C) Goodreads
WIPs
Julissa by Vanessa Smith (RHSS "Country Rose")
I am LOVING this pattern, I can't wait to finish it and get to wear it!
Vanilla Socks (Deborah Norville Serenity Sock "Amethyst")
I literally have like 30 rows left. Why I haven't buckled down and gotten these done yet, I have no idea.
Featherweight by Hannah Fettig (Lost City Knits Oak Barn Merino Lace "Cocksure")
As you can tell, it needs a serious blocking. I've got about 5" on the first sleeve left to knit, and half of the second sleeve.
MKAL Spring 2014 by Cheri McEwen (RHSS "Soft White" "Glowworm" CSS "Black")
I haven't worked on this this week, but I think I forgot to show it last week.
Splintered by AG Howard is an Alice in Wonderland retelling. We all know AG Howard for Roseblood, but I found this gem browsing through Goodreads. It's a trilogy, the other other two books are called Unhinged and Ensnared. Alyssa is a relative of Alice Liddell, the woman who inspired Lewis Carrol's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The curse of hearing everything in the world around you speak has come upon each woman in the family line as soon as they get their first period. Alyssa has held it together, creating art with the creatures that are speaking to her, silencing them in a cruel, but beautiful, way. Alyssa's mother, however, did not fair so well. She is in a mental institution that Alyssa and her father visit every week to see her mother. That's as far as I've gotten in the book right now, but I'm really enjoying it.
I have been waiting for this book forever. Everybody was raving about it but neither of my digital libraries had it and my local library didn't have it, so I asked them to get it. And they did! Really quickly too! (They also got Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco and Cruel Prince by Holly Black, but we'll talk about those when I start reading them.) My library is actually really great about getting books that I recommend, I think that they're glad to have someone utilizing the building so often and so eagerly. I just finished chapter six last night and I am already loving it! Definitely check it out if you're into horror/murder mystery type books.
King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard is the third book in the Red Queen series (book 4 comes out this year) and I will say, it's been a rough one. I have been "reading" this book since November 13th and I feel like Mare is excessively whiny and overly dramatic, which is sad because I really enjoyed books 1 and 2. I still want to finish it because I want to know what happens, it just might take me a while to get there.
