Announcing the This Is My Brave Book Club!
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Have you heard the news? This Is My Brave has launched a monthly Book Club!
With the abundance of incredible books on the topic of mental illness and mental health, we wanted to celebrate some of our favorite reads with our This Is My Brave family.
“Reading was one way I found stories from individuals dealing with the exact same thing I was facing and reading their stories helped me to better understand my condition,” Jennifer Marshall shared. “Memoirs written by individuals living with bipolar disorder, like Kay Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind, taught me that it was possible to lead a fulfilling life despite this life-long diagnosis.”
Each month, This Is My Brave will select a book as the monthly pick, and it will be announced in our e-newsletter at the start of the month. If you’re not already subscribed, now is a great time to sign up to stay in the loop on what we’re reading![/vc_column_text][vc_button button_color=”accent” border_width=”0″ link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Feepurl.com%2Fc6VPir||target:%20_blank|”]Join our newsletter[/vc_button][vc_column_text]
For March we read The Collected Schizoprhenias by Esmé Weijung Wang. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The description from the book’s Amazon listing:
“An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalization to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang’s analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative. An essay collection of undeniable power, The Collected Schizophrenias dispels misconceptions and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood.”
Join us on Monday, April 22nd at 12pm EST when Executive Director Jennifer Marshall hosts a live author chat with Esmé Wang via Instagram! Simply visit our This Is My Brave Instagram account and click on our profile image to join the chat. You’ll be able to ask Esmé questions at the conclusion of the chat. We hope you’ll tune in!
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Our pick for April is Mark Lukach’s My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward.
In this book Mark takes the reader on the journey of the caretaker.
Mark and Giulia’s life together began as a storybook romance. They fell in love at 18, married at 24, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was 27, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that her loved ones were not safe.
Thoughts from Jennifer Marshall on this month’s selection:
“In reading My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward, I had a glimpse of what my family and husband must have gone through during the early stages of my illness. The research on symptoms and medications, navigating the system, figuring out how to best support me as I called my parents sobbing every day for a year. My family’s response to my depression seemed intuitive. My husband and parents were so supportive and patient with me as I struggled to understand what was happening to me. It must have hurt them to see me in such pain.
This was brought to light in Mark’s storytelling. He was able to so eloquently take the reader into the thoughts and emotions running through his mind as he watched his wife lose hers. I often think about how terrifying it must have been for Ben and my family to see me lose control of my thinking. To this day Ben has a hard time talking about it.
My guess is this book was as therapeutic and healing for Mark to write as participating in This Is My Brave has been to me and my storytellers. Each time we are able to unpack those complicated memories from our experiences with mental illness, we relieve the burden of holding onto those heavy secrets.”
We hope you enjoy our April pick as much as we did. Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement about Jenn’s Author Chat with Mark Lukach via our e-newsletter! #BraveBookClub[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
