Book Review: George by Alex Gino

How about a wee book review for George by Alex Gino. Great for #NationalComingOutDay, which today is!

George is a 4^th grader who knows that she is a girl, despite what her outside body looks like. This year, her class is putting on Charlotte’s Web. You know how I feel about books with theatre references, y'all! George desperately wants to play the title role, even though she knows that some people will say she shouldn’t because they don’t know that she is a girl.

Book Review: A List of Cages by Robin Roe

I’m already cheating at my own challenge. The point of the ClearASHelf challenge is for me to focus on books that I own. However, to make it more inclusive, books that have been on a virtual shelf can count, too. So, I’m not really cheating, I’m just violating The Spirit of the challenge. This confession absolves me from all feelings of guilt.

Let’s talk about this book, shall we? There may be spoilers, alas, so proceed as you dare.

Mini-Reviews: Behind Closed Doors and The Girl on the Train (Book Club Picks)

Already The Girl on the Train and Behind Closed Doors are mingling in my mind and they are not even that similar. It would be hard for me to really talk about them without giving away the stories as they are both psych-thrillers and I have a big-ass mouth with loose boundaries.

I’ll just say that they are probably both good for Book Club options because there are characters with questionable behaviors which always spark those "Bad things for the right reasons and good things for the wrong reasons" discussions. It always ends with everyone feeling a little superior. Neither are good options if one of your book club goals is to read about a non- white person. Or to like men. Either way, add wine.

Book Recommendations and The Stories of Mental Illness

I had hoped to post a blog with BookBloggers International for their Mental Health awareness month series. But, I totally dropped the ball. Ain’t that the way? Anyway, here’s the post I would have posted for them.

I thought it would be easy to write a post about a book or two that I have recommended to my patients to read about depression or anxiety or whatever other things are going on for them. And I think it would be one way to go with a Mental Health-focused post. But, that’s not what I’m going to write about, exactly.

Books are a great way to learn about individuals and their stories as part of a way to increase awareness, understanding, and perspective taking. But this post is really more about how you don’t want to get too caught up in just one story.

Book Review: It's kind of a funny story (how I can't NOT be a shrink).

It’s actually pretty hard for me to read books about kids with depression, anxiety, PTSD or whatever. Hard isn’t the right word. It’s not as enjoyable for me as it might be for others. I’m like a painter in a museum. I can’t relax and let the story unfold; I have to critique the interactions the characters are having with their therapists, look for symptoms that are inconsistent with their stated diagnosis, lament therapeutic responses to comments that go unsaid… that kind of thing. Basically, I pick apart details that are so minor they don’t really affect the story that much. Plus, I keep a critical eye open for whether I think it would be a good recommendation for other mental health providers or even my own patients to read.

All that being said. I enjoyed reading about Craig’s fall into some fairly significant depression. He spends a week in an adult inpatient hospital which gives him time to think about what’s important to him and how to make meaningful changes in his life. The relationships that Craig forms and the people that he meets while hospitalized are realistic and true to experiences I’ve seen while working in similar places. This makes sense, since the author himself spent a week in a hospital before writing this book. Craig also gets a new appreciation for some of the things he has going for himself.

As an aside: people don’t really think about how different the culture of mental health care can be depending on what region you’re in. The way things are done in New York City are very different from the way they’re done Upstate, for example. It was interesting to read about the psycho-pharmacologist and their role in referring to a therapist, or many therapists in Craig’s case. That’s not unheard of here, but the book sort of sounds like it’s a matter of course but maybe that’s only the case for the family in the book. It’s certainly not the only way to do things, which is good given the shortage of psychiatric medication providers in my area.

This book’s mental health stuff didn’t irk me too much and it was easy to settle in with the characters and the angst of the teen lead. As I said, many things ring true and are likely related to the author’s own experiences. A book with irritating mental health elements: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. But that’s because there is a special place in my heart for undiagnosed PTSD.

My soapbox bit: Yes, mental illness has biological components. For many illnesses, symptoms are just as well, if not better, managed through behavioral interventions and lifestyle changes. We have an unhealthy reverence for medications in this country and a belief that medication will cure mental illness. This belief can be dangerous. It’s also important to note that “False Shifts” aren’t all bad. Don’t “should” yourself out of appreciating them.

 

Also. I obviously won't be seeing this movie. I don't do that.