Featured Book Reviews

Speaking Your Truth: Courageous Stories from Inspiring Writers

Written by Storytellers Book Store
Monday, 04 October 2010
Reviewed by Jane K. Andrews Speaking Your Truth, subtitled Courageous Stories from Inspiring Women, compiled by Lisa Schultz and Andrea Constantine, and illustrated by Janice Earhart, is the kind of collection I could give as a gift to several female friends. They would appreciate the first person accounts of other women who have overcome economic and educational deprivation, as well as substance abuse, spousal abuse, and what seems to be an epidemic of dissatisfaction with well-paying, but soulless positions in corporate America. Most of the women contributing to this book are listed at the end of their offerings as healers, coaches, spiritual directors, or artists of some stripe. Just the kind of people you might guess would take the road less traveled and then establish themselves as landmarks in the MapQuest search for fulfillment and self-actualization. Janice Earhart’s drawings at the beginning of each chapter are jaunty and engaging. Our resident author Ginny Martin Fleming, who lives in Wake Forest wrote, “Royal Warrior Goddess.” This piece is about the author creating an inspiring image of a princess warrior goddess on a white plastic mask while she attended a women’s retreat. This mask symbolizes clarity, truth and compassion. We learn later on that Ginny suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia as a young mother. These diseases take their toll on their victims not only through insomnia, physical and mental pain, but also through social apathy. Usually the sufferer doesn’t look like she’s suffering, so many times, family and acquaintances might judge that the victim’s disease is “all in her head.” This only adds to the victim’s emotional pain. But through yoga, meditation, journaling and other healing practices Ginny was able to manage her condition. Ginny’s story is very personal yet universal. Through the details she recounts about her warrior goddess and the other trinkets, she reminded me of the many icons and do-dads I keep on my desk to help me create and write. Despite the title, “The Power of Positive Thinking”, I found the content of Ginny Brannon's story very inspiring. She reports life with her schizophrenic mother, being sexually molested, and the positive influence of her grandmother with a matter of fact understatement. She credits Norman Vincent Peale with her ability to look on the bright side and wring the best out of any situation, no matter how difficult. It seems to have worked well for her, and her experience resonates more effectively with a modern audience than anything by Dr. Peale. Ms. Brannon is a natural resources lawyer. The other account I found especially affecting was “Knowing My Roots and Planting My Trees.” Kelly M. Calton's meditation on how her small town, mid-western values inform her perception and practice in accounting, bookkeeping, and human resources seem genuine. She expresses a deep understanding of the trust and intimacy involved in dealing with other people's finances. Back to my female friends who might receive Speaking Your Truth from me for Christmas. For them, the example of women who can publicly own their recovery from various traumas, could provide just the nudge my friends have been waiting for. Somewhere in the six sections, ranging from “Self-Discovery” to “Faith and Spirituality”, to “Finding Your Own Path”, they will discover a familiar story with an empowered outcome. That story, I hope, and the authors and editors hope, will give the recipients the impetus to re-write their own stories with a happy ending. Speaking Your Truth Courageous Stories from Inspiring Women Compiled by Lisa Shultz and Andrea Constantine Illustrated by Janice Earhart ISBN: 978-0-615-37738-4 $19.95

An Unquiet Mind

Written by Drew Bridges

Wednesday, 03 March 2010

An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison

"It stands alone in the literature of manic-depression for its bravery, brilliance, and beauty." -- Oliver Sacks

The above quote sounds like the expected back cover copy marketing for a memoir, yet coming from someone as knowlegeable as Dr. Sacks the endorsement deserves attention. The reader who accepts this recommendation will be rewarded fully in all three categories.

Dr. Jamison gives us first a life story, describing the early signs of a future illness and following its progression within the stages of her successful career as a mental health professional, and through loving relationships. To reveal her struggles in this way is a gift not lightly offered, given the reality of stigma.

The brilliance and beauty of the book come in equal measure when she is explaining her thought processes during a psychotic state, albeit one that suggests the most fine experience of the artist in creating image and metaphor. In a chapter entitled Missing Saturn she writes "The intensity, glory and absolute assuredness of my mind's flight made it very difficult to believe, once I was better, that the illness was one I should give up."

Family, friends and professionals have often been puzzled at the depth of denial and the exent of refusal of people with bipolar illness to take medication to control bizarre and dysfunctional behaviors. But understood through Dr. Jamison's account, it is perhaps more puzzling that so many do act in a "medically sensible way."

Her descriptions of the lower end of the "pole" are equally memorable. She allows that depression "bleeds relationships... gives you the experience of how it must feel to be old and sick, to be dying; to be slow of mind; to be lacking in grace, polish and coordination; to be ugly; to have no belief in the possibilities of life.. " Not since William Styron's Darkness Visible have words been used so beautifully to describe something so dark.

The book ends with thoughtful sections about the implications of what we know about the genetics of the illness and other questions without easy answers. This work can be easily appreciated by professionals or by anyone seeking understanding of the experience of friends or family who suffer the disorder.

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