Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all three books are titles from my ‘I’m waiting for…’ list.
The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison
Summary: Sometimes the story of recovery can be every bit as electrifying as the train wreck itself. Jamison examines her own and others’ stories within the context of the ‘recovery movement’.
I’m thinking: Yes – Jamison writes so well.
Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought by Lily Bailey
Summary: Convinced she was ‘bad’, Bailey was obsessed by thoughts that she had killed someone or spread untold disease. This is her exhausting, all-consuming story about life consumed by obsessive compulsive disorder.
I’m thinking: Yes – the opening chapter on imaginary friends is superb.
You All Grow Up and Leave Me by Piper Weiss
Summary: Piper Weiss was fourteen when her private tennis coach, Gary Wilensky, killed himself after a failed attempt to kidnap one of his teenage students. Piper had been thrilled to be one of “Gary’s Girls” but in the aftermath of his death, authorities discovered the extent of his predatory plans.
I’m thinking: Yes – a line in the preface stood out. Weiss writes that the memoir is based on interviews, written records and her own memory, “…which occupies the same organ responsible for emotional responses and intervention.” Interesting.
sorry but none of these would grab me – I suppose largely because I have no clue who these people are….They all sound a bit grim too
Yes, I think they sound grim too.
I am tired of grim.
You will need to have a supply of brightly coloured popcorn on hand and some nice champagne to make sure they don’t depress you.
I’m sure I’ll be over addiction memoirs at some stage…
I won’t say which one, but at one of the bookshops I went to today, a customer said she was tired of all the addiction and mental illness memoirs, and the bookseller chimed in with a comment that it was a common complaint from customers and they were not buying them.
Coloured popcorn?? Does that exist? I’ve come across various flavours recently like salt and vinegar (yuk)
I came across the Jamison one because I’ve read some of her other books – The Empathy Exams (a collections of essays around the topic of empathy) was brilliant and so thought-provoking. It’s a book I still think about years after reading it.
The OCD one… what can I say other than I’m fascinated by OCD and have read a few books about it over the years.
None of these appeal unfortunately – but your reviews once you’ve read them may convince me otherwise!
Hmm, intriguing, because they sound more up-beat than misery memoirs – don’t like those. I recently read ‘Findings’ by Kathleen Jamie, and loved it, so maybe I’ll look out for your three as well.
I’d been contemplating The Recovering. I think I’ll be reading that one eventually too.