Sybil

This book by Flora Rheta Schreiber chronicles the treatment of a woman with multiple personality disorder & is the classic book that the movie was based on. Recommended for readers interested in mental illness and for people who read books that feature a main character (real or fictional) with massive problems who may or may not come out on top in the end (e.g. A Child Called It, etc., Go Ask Alice, etc...). It's long, but worth it for those readers.

The Hot Zone

(Whew! Gonna take awhile to catch up - I've read a lot since I last posted, but didn't have time to add anything what with having to pull off my wedding and everything. At last I'm feeling more sane and am ready to work on catching up my blog here.)

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is very well written, though extremely graphic descriptions of the course Ebola Zaire takes through the human body. If you like medical thrillers and are interested in a series of true (and somewhat harrowing) anecdotes tied up neatly together, you will love this book. I will admit I enjoyed the feeling of squeamishness and slight paranoia that the book leaves you with.

Recommended. Highly recommended for anyone who likes medical thrillers or (perhaps) true crime - it is a medical thriller, but reads a little like true crime.

Journal of a Plague Year

I enjoyed this book largely because at the time I was getting sick with the cold/flu that all my friends and co-workers had. I kept thinking that I "had the distemper" and that "the pestilence was sweeping over us." Not so bad that anyone thought it was God's way of cleansing Southern California, but everyone was coughing and sneezing and generally sounding awful.

Journal of a Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (better known as the author of Robinson Crusoe) recounts the events that took place during the outbreak of plague in the mid-1660's - the year before the Great Fire wiped out a good portion of the city.

Highly recommended for all plague buffs. Also highly recommended for readers with an interest in medical history and/or municipal response to a biological disaster, this will prove very illuminating. Other readers may find the lack of chapters and most other breaks in the text distressing in addition to phrasing differences between contemporary English and Defoe's English.

Divided Minds

Divided Minds : Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro, MD. is a memoir of mental illness and coping with a loved one's mental illness. The segments from both sisters - one with schizophrenia. one a licensed psychiatrist - describe the world as each experienced it often retelling the same set of events from each sister's perspective at the time.

The book is a fairly quick read. I found myself wanting to like them - and there are many things about them to like and to respect, but found their dependence on others to make them happy and the competition they perceived (probably really there) very frustrating. Easy for me to say, I know. That being said, the book does not sugar coat their individual difficulties with growing up as twins or with Pamela's struggle with mental illness. What I found fascinating, though is the fine line between a "sane" woman who has some issues and a mentally ill woman. That our brains are so fine-tuned. Amazing. I could go on and on, but don't have a lot of outside knowledge on the topic, so will stop here!

Recommended - I would say if you liked Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, this is right up your alley. If you're looking for something that includes more of the scientific perspective or a clearer history of the treatment of schizophrenia, this isn't it - but it doesn't set out to be, either. Good interesting read for something different.