Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperment

This book by Kay Redfield Jamison (the same author who wrote "An Unquiet Mind"), has done a wonderful job writing this book. Not only is it written from a researchers point of view, it also has writings on manic-depressive illness by those who have the illness. Writers like Virginia Woolf and painters like Van Gogh, and the people that loved and cared for them.
It talks quite deeply about what every artist/writer who is diagnosed with manic-depressive illness asks: Will this affect my art? If I take this medication will I lose my inspiration?
These are very valid questions because if an artist is unable to paint, draw or a writer write, then what are they supposed to do? If that is your only way a truly expressing yourself, why do anything to jeopardize that?
Many artists refuse treatment because they feel that the highs and lows of the illness give their art "an edge". They see things they wouldn't otherwise have seen when they are high or low.
One thing it talks about is how the "highs" of manic-depressive illness can get an artist/writer started on a new project, but then the "lows" can give them the vision to "refine" what they had started in their manic phase.
This book also touches on how fatal this disease can be. Artists/writers have been known to commit suicide because of this illness. Virginia Woolf walked into a river and drowned herself. Lord Byron was kept in an asylum and he died from self-starvation. The list goes on.
Not many people are going to read a book like this unless they really have an interest in mental health, have a friend who has this illness, or has this illness themselves. It is my hope that friends/family/patients themselves will learn about this illness and that they have a broad support system. Tell only those you trust. And dont worry, it can be treated, but it may take a while.
Meanwhile, read some books about the disorder and get educated!

Libba Bray - The Sweet Far Thing

This is the final book in the Gemma Trilogy, and it's a somewhat surprising book. There's some things that you know are going to happen, but there are many surprises as well: Felicity, Kartik, Mrs. Nightwing, the Order, and the Rakshana to name a few. No one is spared in this book. People do get killed and others do sacrifice themselves.
I rather enjoyed this book, although the final battle at the end made me cry a bit. All in all, a good read. I recommend the entire series. (Which only covers a year in Gemma's life, but it is the most important one of her life.)

Libba Bray - A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels

"A Great and Terrible Beauty" and "Rebel Angels" by Libba Bray

Gemma lives in India with her family when her mother is mysteriously killed. After that Gemma is sent to a finishing school for girls called Spence Academy for Young Ladies. There she meets Ann, a shy scholarship student sent there to learn to be her cousins' governess, Felicity and Pippa, both sent to learn how to be proper ladies and graduate so they can have their "season".
Gemma soon discovers that she can enter a place called the Realms, where all is magical, but it has a few restrictions: dont eat the berries, dont cross into the Winterlands, and dont leave anyone behind.
Gemma also discovers that not everything is how it seems, and after some unfortunate events in the first book, "A Great and Terrible Beauty", Gemma starts to realize that with the magic loose she can no longer trust anything or anyone in the Realms until she finds the Temple and binds the magic.
They are very fast reads, and I'm currently working on the third of the series now.
There are many surprises in them as well as Gemmas inside humor and sarcasm.

The "Odds" Series and "Old Dogs Are The Best Dogs"

I read three of her books in the "Odds" series: Unseen Odds, which has ghost stories and pranks from the pioneer days, Against All Odds, which is stories of the pioneers when they were on their way to Utah and some stories about the first ones who settled here, and Oddly Enough, which is about the early days with some stories like the boy who tricked a mob so he could save the LDS missionaries, and the convict who saves a woman he finds out in the desert, and, one that I find especially funny, one about a woman who makes sweaters for her naked geese! You'll have to read that one to find out why they become naked, but it's funny in the end!

There's also another book, one I got for Christmas, called "Old Dogs Are The Best Dogs" by Gene Weingarten and photographs by Micheal S. Williamson. It's got portraits and a small one page paragraph about the dog who, in all the portraits/life sketches, is over ten years old. Ten years, for most breeds, especially large dogs, means that they are geriatric dogs. I actually own two geriatric dogs: Zues, a 14 year old (in January) basset hound/blue heeler mix, and Rikki, also will be 14 in April, (who is my baby girl!), who is a german shepard/border collie mix. I also have a 3 year old (in June) golden retriever/rottweiler/blue heeler mutt named Catcher. His mother was a pure blue heeler and his dad was a golden/rottie mix.
But unlike young dogs, older dogs have alot to teach us about aging gracefully, what really matters, and how to live in the moment without feeling like your missing something. You've never really known a dog until youve known him in his old age. They are truly inspiring creatures. I hope to never be without a dog, (or two or three), in my life.

I havent forgotten about this blog but...

I've been very busy with Christmas and stuff, so when I get some time I will write some reviews of several books I have read, if I can remember which ones I've read and which I haven't. (My memory isn't that good sometimes.)

Dances With Wolves by Micheal Blake

That is one amazing book! You need to read it!

Lt. Dunbar is stationed to an abandoned post on the frontier, by mistake perhaps, and what happens to him. He has a few initial run-ins with a Comanche band trying to steal his horse. He meets a white woman turned Comanche and after a while is accepted into their band. He slowly changes from a rigid military Lt. to a man that has a deep respect and desire to be with his new family, the roving comanche band. I love the ending and I wish that he had written a sequel! It probably wouldn't have been as good but hey, its a great book anyway.

I give it 8 stars out of 5. Great read!

Journey to the Center of the Earth and Dances with Wolves

Can I say that the ending was slightly dissappointing? I really liked this one until the last 50 pages or so. I'm not going to write a review about it this time.

I'm starting another book called Dances with Wolves by Micheal Blake. You may have heard of the movie with Kevin Costner playing Lt. Dunbar. So far its a great book! So much better than the movie, although the movie is great too. He is stationed at a post on the western frontier called Fort Sedgwick, but when he arrives, he finds it completely deserted. Not wanting to abandon his new post, he decides to stay and keep the fort in check until troops come. While he waits, he rebuilds parts of the fort, has a couple run in's with a group of roving Comanches, and has a wolf visiting him everyday whom he names "Two Socks". It's a great book and although the Comanches at first dub him "The Man Who Shines in the Sun", (he chased them away from the fort naked while doing laundry), they see him later "playing" with Two Socks and change his name to "Dances with Wolves". It's an awesome book that I highly recommend reading!