52 Fights - a Newlyweds Confession by Jennifer Jeanne Patterson
Despite the candy colored cover and subversive sounding title, this book is a well-balanced, thoughtful look at the first year of marriage. Jennifer Patterson manages to talk about her new marriage without falling into the trap of using the book to advance her own viewpoint over that of her husband Matt. The book is organized into essay/chapters with a quote at the beginning of each. Although the format began to seem somewhat formulaic, it held my attention to the last page.
The Day the Voices Stopped - a memoir of madness and hope by Ken Steele
This is a bravely honest memoir of one man's struggle with Schizophenia beginning with the appearance of
auditory hallucinations at age 14.
Ken Steele was abandoned to the mental health system by his family at the age of 18. As part of his illness he was constantly urged by the voices to kill himself.
This memoir is also a nerve-wracking description of a life in turn saved and destroyed by contact with the mental health
system.The credit ultimately belongs to Mr. Steele who's voices were suddenly stopped after 32 years by the antipsychotic drug
Risperdal. In an amazing show of strength and courage, Ken Steele became a leading advocate for the mentally ill. Among his triumphs were the creation of a voter registration
program for the metally ill which registered 28,000 voters in New York City. He also published New York City Voices - a consumer journal for mental health advocacy
and was the editor for The Reporter the monthly newsletter of the National Alliace for the Mentally Ill. The Day the Voices Stopped was published posthumously. The author died "peacefully in his own bed" in 2000.
Stolen Lives - Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by – Malika Oufkir
On the edge of womanhood, Malika Oufkir, the daughter of the king of Morocco’s closest aide,
was imprisoned along with her mother and siblings. The king believed her father to be responsible for a plot to assassinate him.
This memoir takes place mostly in prison but is rich with real and imagined stories.
It is a memoir full of horror and anger but also striking clarity of voice. The tragedy of her 20 lost years is evident in the psychology of the book making it
compelling and tragic as well as incredibly vital.