A Stroke of Luck: My Journey through a Traumatic Brain Injury by Aithal

 

I don't often read a book like this…about another person's journey through a health trauma…but I've read more than one of Aithal's books, and he has a very gentle, chatty and conversational style that engages you with whatever he writes.

Aithal is a survivor of a TBI that occurred some twenty odd years ago…it was severe, but his guardian angel kept him alive. However, the road to recovery was a very tough, uphill climb. It needed a half-full-glass mentality and a shedload of positivity. Fortunately, Aithal has all of that (along with a wonderfully supportive family and circle of friends) and two decades later is, mercifully, around to be able to share his experience.

The account is certainly a testament to his incredible determination, an appreciative nod to the medical assistance he received and a loving acknowledgement to his wife, who was his constant supporter and encourager.

A humble and inspiring memoir.

Just Keep Climbing by Barry Finlay

 

I don't often pick up books of this genre, which is really silly because every time, I'm glad I did. This is no exception.

I'm no stranger to Finlay: I've read and thoroughly enjoyed three of his novels, so I needed no persuasion at all to read this.

This is a collection of a handful or so people's life-changing challenges. The people are very diverse: age, circumstance, colour, nationality. The contrast to their diversity is their one commonality: they have a goal, or rather, a 'mountain to climb', a summit to reach, all of which require a great deal of strength (mental and physical) and gritty determination. (Full synopsis here)

Interesting and inspiring though they are, what I enjoyed just as much was the author's own mountain to climb: a literal one, as it happens! That and some background of his life, along with what steered him along the authorial path after a completely different career, are as fascinating as the stories of inspiration.

A truly wonderful read.

See Also:

Searching for Truth
The Burden of Darkness
The Guardians of Truth

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

 

I'm not sure whether this is humour cocooned in exasperation, despair and tragedy or the other way round. Either way, it's absolutely brilliant, and I was more than a bit gutted when I got to the end. I really wanted more.

Kay is as good a writer as he was a doctor. Whilst it must have been hard to turn his back on medicine (there's always a straw that breaks the camel's back), it's certainly to the advantage of us readers. His wit and his humour in his accounts of the motley crew of patients in his years in practice make for an exceptionally hilarious read. But never far from it is a dedicated, (largely unrewarded) and compassionate man and serves to remind us that all who work in the medical profession are, in fact, human beings just like the rest of us.

There's fun and laughs in this…but also an essential serious window into the world of the underfunded, overworked NHS and its simply wonderful staff.

The Girl Who Wanted to Belong by Angela Hart

It's hard to conceive that some children who have a seemingly complete family unit end up in foster care. But this is what happens to Lucy. Her father and three siblings were abandoned by her mother when she was four. One stepmother didn't work out, the next one is your quintessential wicked stepmother. Lucy is hard work, it's true: over-exuberant, temperamental…a bit of a wild child. But an absent mother and then two unpleasant stepmothers certainly don't help. After being dumped on two aunties, then a grandmother, none of whom can cope with her, foster carers Angela and Jonathan take her in.

This is Angela's true story…a foster carer for many years…of Lucy. An eye-opening account of the life of a foster carer, how they cope (are they saints?) with children of wide-ranging distress and trauma, red tape, the constraints they face, and in Lucy's case, unpleasant people. 

There wasn't anything wrong with Lucy that a stable, loving, understanding family unit couldn't have put right. But enter Wendy, stepmum number two and with her, the inevitability of Lucy's behavioural deterioration and fallout of rejection. Wendy is a piece of work, an evil piece of work. As for Dean, Lucy's dad, I have nothing but contempt for him. He's a limp rag who dances to Wendy's tune. Instead of putting his immediate family first, he let Wendy and her sultry daughter rule the roost. The names have obviously been changed, but if either of them read this book, they will know who they are, and I hope they hang their heads in shame. The poignancy and heartbreak are Lucy's eternal and profound love for her daddy and steadfast conviction that her foster care is minimally temporary. 

I don't often read non-fiction books, but Hart has a very engaging style to relate her foster-caring experiences: it's like reading a (very compelling) novel. It's tragic to remember it's all true. 

We do get to learn where and how Lucy ends up. It's a bumpy road, for sure…I won't spoil it, but let's just say, Angela did good! 

I now know just a teensy bit more about foster caring than I did before. One thing is certain, some foster carers are amazing: their patience, tolerance and unconditional love for their wards is truly awesome. 

Nina's Memento Mori by Mathias B Freese

'Memento mori.'  Latin for 'remember you must die.' Or a reminder that death is inevitable. An unusual title for a book. But the author is an unusual writer. His writing is deep, intellectual, expressive and very sincere. 

I was expecting a tribute to his tragically deceased wife, Nina. It was, yes, but it was also so, so much more. A wife for only a very very short time, a soulmate…two people who found each other quite late in life, both, I think, regretting they hadn't found each other sooner. Both have/had troubled and cruel pasts: pasts which moulded their futures. And this is part of what bonded them so deeply.  But aside from telling the reader why he loved Nina so much, he talks to us candidly about himself:  warts and all.

It's hard not to read this without equal amounts of sorrow and joy. Sorrow for their unfortunate experiences and joy for the blissful, but short, period of happiness they ultimately found. It's a book of candour, intimacy, honesty and baring of the soul.

Most authors' requests to read and review their books come with anticipated gratitude.  They hope you'll say yes and hope they'll get a five-star review.  However, I always feel it's the other way round:  I'm the one who is grateful to have been asked.  

This is a (short) book you feel extremely privileged to have been asked to read.

See Also:

This Möbius Strip of Ifs

I'm a Little Brain-dead by Kimberly Davis Basso

It doesn’t feel quite right to say this was hilarious. An account of a forty-four-year-young woman’s experience of a stroke shouldn’t be funny, should it? Shouldn’t it be sad, unfortunate, hopeful, informative, inspiring? Well, it’s all those things. But, BUT…Basso has a wicked, wicked sense of humour which she injects into this diary of her unpleasant experience. Hilarious yes, but you laugh WITH her, not at her.
 
I don’t read many books like this…so, not only to be persuaded but then actually enjoy them means they must be special.
 
Once you get over the shock of someone so young (a fact shared by pretty much all the medical staff who treated Basso) having a stroke, you sit very comfortably by Basso as she relates the months from her post-breakfast trauma and her journey through treatment and recovery.

She shrouds virtually the whole thing in a veil of comedy but puts her serious hat on at the end to spell out what such an event entails and what you can learn from it.

Basso writes very articulately, but at the same time, there's an endearing chattiness in her narrative, and you almost feel Basso is there beside you telling you all about it.  She's wonderfully witty...I'd love to meet her. This really was a pleasure to read.

Paloma's Dream by Paloma Rambana

I don’t normally read books like this…but something grabbed my attention when I was given the opportunity to read it. Paloma Rambana co-wrote and self-published a book about how she lobbied Floridian legislature for funds for blind and visually impaired youngsters. What I was smitten by was the fact that Paloma is twelve years old and was born with Peters Anomaly. Peters Anomaly is a rare eye condition in which the central part of the cornea (that’s the transparent front part of the eye) is hazy, thereby considerably reducing vision. Aware that the financial help for visually impaired children was seriously lacking, Paloma takes enormous strides (for someone so very young) to secure a million-dollar funding.

Being British, a lot of the processes, legal bodies, etc., were totally unfamiliar to me, but the purpose and the cause are shared by many countries. Typically, there are glaringly insufficient funds for children/adults with special needs. 

I hoped this wasn’t going to be a ‘aren’t I a wonderful person, dealing with my disability so valiantly’ kind of book. It’s the absolute opposite. Paloma is an intelligent, well-adjusted, non-self-pitying young girl who does her utmost to lead a normal life (and all credit to her parents and sister who never indulged her disability but helped her embrace it) and it has to be said, a very determined and courageous one.

This a seventy-nine page account written by a very charming girl who will go far.

A Gluten Free Taste of Turkey by Sibel Hodge

I found this a little uninspiring. There were no ‘vibrant and adventurous’ recipes promised by the author in her blurb. They’re pleasant enough, but there’s nothing there I haven’t seen before, with or without gluten. The author of the book is a writer of fiction (her books are extremely enjoyable), not a chef, so this is just a collection of recipes she’s compiled having had to cook for her coeliac husband. Living in the Turkish Republic of Cyprus (she has dual nationality) means, of course, she's very familiar  with the cuisine. 

I’ve bookmarked a dozen or so of the recipes, not because they’re particularly different (I’ve cooked moussaka a million times in one variation or another and have made just about every mutation of hummous), but because they’re in a place I know I can find them. I was very irritated that the measurements are in cups and not in grams or ounces like just about every other cookbook for the UK market. 

The photos are a little amateurish, but the book is best viewed in colour rather than on a Paperwhite Kindle. 

I’m afraid there are millions and millions of professionally produced cookbooks out there on just about every aspect of cooking and nutrition. This just doesn’t have a USP.

See Also:
Be Careful What You Wish For

Slicing the Hype by Michal Stawicki

I found this rather interesting. I read a lot of good books by indies, and it’s a simply a case of taking a chance on new and unfamiliar names. On many occasions, the cover and blurb belie the content. Sometimes, the content comes as a pleasant surprise. Sometimes, you have to persevere, after a sticky start, to get to a satisfactory The End. The point is, you never really know if a book is going to be good or bad. The weather is very changeable between those covers.

This book aims to help readers of non-fiction pick up genuine ebooks on their selected topics. It helps the reader filter out the real deal from the flotsam and jetsam clogging the biggest book store in the world.

Although focussed on non-fictional books, a good deal of the advice can be applied to fiction. Some authors may find some of the advice comes as no surprise, but I’m not an author, so the material, for me, was informative.

I was extremely impressed by the book’s presentation. English is not the author’s first language. Nonetheless, it’s clear, concise, well written and impeccably edited. If the indie books I read were even half as well edited, I’d be a very happy reader.

It’s only ninety pages long, so can be consumed in one short sitting. If it helps you choose just one genuine ebook, fiction or non-fiction, it’s worth that couple of hours.

Did You Read That Review by Amazon Reviewers

Novelists should be worried. Very, very worried. Amazon reviewers are clearly the best writers in the world!

This book is exactly what it says on the tin: a compilation of reviews of over a hundred items for sale on the Amazon website. Items that are on the more unusual side…select, even!

Amazon welcomes product reviews, for obvious reasons. And reviewers have obliged with gusto. Their creativity, imagination, eloquence and sense of humour know no bounds.

This compilation is absolutely hilarious. It would be remiss of me not to deliver a word of warning: do not read in public. The tremble of shoulders as you try to snigger quietly or the suppressed snorts of laughter are bound to have you being peered at with some very, very strange looks.

A very funny book, easy to dip into every now and again if you don’t want to read it in one go.

Life Memories by J. R. Hopkins

Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease are conditions we hope will never afflict our loved ones—more specifically, our more aged loved ones—or us. Either way, it causes a lot of stress and distress, in particular for the carers.

This author was one of those carers. She looked after her mother for the last two years of her life, when she was suffering from dementia. This was a serious commitment at a time when Hopkins had a number of other major worries in her life. Determined not to be beaten by what life was throwing at her, she sought to take a glass-half-full approach and squeezed some happy memories out of an unhappy situation, but very particularly from the time she spent with her mother.

She stresses that the experience can be tough, it can be frustrating, it can be exhausting, and it can be sad to watch someone you love change from being the person who looked after you to one who needs to be looked after BY you. BUT, it’s also about finding some humour, some happiness, some lightheartedness so that when you lose someone you love, you aren’t left with unwelcome memories.

This may not be a book you would pick up to read unless you were in a similar position or wanted to help someone the same situation. However, even if you aren’t, you can draw inspiration from the author’s strength of character in the face of some pretty unpleasant circumstances.

This account contains tender, poignant and sad moments, but don’t worry; there are many instances in which you find the corners of your mouth twitching into a smile.

This book is not only about how to care for someone with dementia, it’s also about looking on the bright side of life.

The C Card and Me by Ali Gilmore

Whether we like it or not, cancer affects one in two people at some stage in their lives. So, you’re in a queue at the Post Office or in the supermarket; the person in front of you, or the person behind you, or…you…will be the target of that deadliest of enemies. Of the world’s seven billion people (and growing), an estimated 3,5 billion will be affected. Quite sobering, isn’t it? So, it’s not surprising that one or two have put pen to paper to relate the experiences of how they have coped/are coping with the disease, or how they have helped others manage the disease, or how they have been affected by someone else near and very dear to them who suffered or are suffering from cancer. One thing you can be absolutely sure of is that each person who writes a book on the subject has a unique approach to the subject. 

The C Card and Me is not just another book about cancer: it’s a very down-to-earth, no-punches-pulled, witty, funny (yes, funny), how-to-cope ‘guide’...with all the ghastliness of everything that comes with the gruelling regime of chemotherapy. 

I always have trouble with books like this: how can I say I enjoyed it? Poor Ali was going to hell and back in varying degrees of yukkiness of stage IV cancer. So I need to make it clear that what I enjoyed was learning about this lady’s character: she’s a no-nonsense, balanced, intelligent, well-adjusted, articulate, and multi-talented person with a tremendous amount of sense of humour, and you can’t help feeling you’d love to meet her. She was the one out of two who pulled the short straw, but she’s a shining example of that overused cliché: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. 

This wasn’t just a book on how to cope with cancer: it was about a person with a huge personality who wasn’t to be beaten. It was inspirational. 

This was a very well-written account by a very courageous don't-mess-with-me, cancer! lady, who really ought to write a novel.  I sincerely hope that it will be something she adds to her already admirable talents as a photographer, singer/songwriter and musician.

Postcards from Mr Pish (Volume 4 - South and West Edition) by K. S. Brooks

How adorable was this little tome! History and geography were never my favourite subjects at school. But when you get snippets of historical and geographical facts in a book, taught to you by the cutest little terrier with one floppy ear and one very perky one, how can you fail to be interested?

This is No. 4 of Mr Pish’s adventures. He’s travelling through southern and western USA, stopping off at various places to take a few snapshots, absorb some fascinating facts and being kind enough to send us postcards. No, not to say ‘Wish you were here’ but to tell us how he’s getting on, what he’s seen and what he’s learnt.

It’s a delightful way to find out about the main highlights of the towns and countryside. The text is clear, concise and entertaining, exudes enthusiasm and is accompanied by some superb photos and a little map so that you know exactly where the little chap is.

Designed mainly as an educational learning tool for young children, the Mr Pish Postcard series cannot fail to capture the hearts, not just of those youngsters, but also oldies such as myself.

Utterly enchanting.

Grumpy Old Menopause by Carol E. Wyer

Any book by Carol Wyer comes with an unwritten guarantee:  it will be exceptionally good, it will be funny, it will be witty, it will be entertaining, and will always leave you wanting more.  Grumpy Old Menopause delivers on all counts, naturally.

Carol lays out, in her customary methodical manner, an alphabetical list of symptoms, chapter by chapter, some of which she herself has experienced (hilariously described).  She explains clearly what to expect, provides remedies, most of them utterly sensible, some of them homeopathic/alternative.  Best of all she suggests a whole boatload of activities to divert the mind and body from the alien that is menopause which invades the female of the species at a certain age. So if you’re suffering from brittle bones, bloating, or body odour, then beer, belly dancing, bungee jumping or bare back-riding might just be your succour.

But more importantly, throughout, she stresses the importance of laughter.  He who laughs...lasts, she says. And she is the mistress of providing merriment: her advice and anecdotes are peppered with jokes.  Some of them Christmas-cracker-type jokes (but funny), some of them corny (even funnier) and some of them really clever (very, very funny).

Carol entertains and brightens up your day.  She’s a tonic that should be bottled.

The High Sky of Winter's Shadows by W. Jack Savage

This was an a nice little diversion off the fiction road: a collection of short anecdotal essays on…just about everything. Experiences, thoughts, ideas, emotions, lessons learnt, relationships, school years. Anything that’s helped (or not) to build the character of a sixty-something-year-old. 

Savage, by his own admission has had a bit of a helter-skelter life as a hippie, an artist, writer, broadcaster, a husband and dad, a Vietnam veteran.

There are all sorts of musings: his memory is elephantine. If I could retain a nano-atom of what he can, I’d be happy. There are hints that he’s sometimes scraped through life by the skin of his teeth and hasn’t always liked himself. But he’s found a place and time in his life where he’s comfortable with who he is. Life has moulded him.

I wouldn’t say these essays are how-tos, but because of the sincerity and honesty in which they’re written, they’re very definitely interesting and thought-provoking. By the end, I felt as if I’d spent a cosy afternoon in a café, chatting to an old friend about the rights and wrongs of the world, people, and life in general.

Very refreshing.

The Wild Side of Alaska by Donna Morang

If you’ve read Big Backpack - Little World, you’ll know that very little fazes this plucky author. And when you read The Wild Side of Alaska, you will realise that her training to endure the harshest, strangest, or most elementary conditions started when she was a young woman.

Donna started shooting and hunting at a tender age, and her love for both became a passion. When she and her husband realised their dream of living in Alaska, her hobby became a necessity to eat and to protect herself. This young couple (later with a baby daughter) experienced isolation, survived with the barest of essentials, and came within a hair's breadth of becoming dinner themselves. Donna became resourceful, brave, tolerant, and patient. But she was also rewarded by some beautiful scenery, some stunning and touching acts of nature and being a keen angler too, some wonderful fishing.

Her experiences make compelling reading. When Donna laughs, cries, gets annoyed, exasperated or scared, frustrated, happy, exhilarated, you’re right there with her. Above all, your awe for her tough-cookieness simply grows. Being in the path of a very ticked-off grizzly bear or being submerged beneath a boat in cold, dark water, far from putting her off just make her go back for more. She just doesn’t stop amazing you.

Written with passion, sincerity, and humour and in a way that makes you think she's having a private chat just with you, you’ll love reading about Donna’s adventures as she fondly remembers the Alaska of forty years ago.

How Not to Murder Your Grumpy by Carol E. Wyer

Probably not the sort of How To book you would think of looking for, is it? This is a hugely entertaining, informative, interesting and fun book of all sorts of things you can suggest to your newly retired better half to keep him out of your hair, and possibly prevent him from becoming a train-spotting anorak and even more grumpy. This isn’t just an A to Z of weird and wonderful activities, it’s delightfully funny and witty, (written by a very lovely funny and witty lady), peppered with fascinating facts and figures and jokes. 

There aren’t just twenty-six pursuits to cajole your grumpy into: there are no less than 700. Anything from astronomy and antiques to juggling and jousting to yodelling and zorbing. I was almost tempted to keep this from my very own Grumpy and take up the hobbies myself. 

Even if you aren’t approaching those ‘senior’ years, this is a treasure trove of suggestions to keep anyone of any age out of mischief, fit and mentally active. 

A superb ‘handbook’ written in Carol’s inimitable style. An absolute gem.

Also by Carol:

Surfing in Stilettos

This Möbius Strip of Ifs by Mathias B Freese

I panicked a little when I started to read this: it was instantly evident that the writer is very intelligent, well read, extraordinarily articulate and profound (and I confess I don’t even understand the title). I feared this was going to be rather highbrow; would I ‘get’ it and how on earth was I going to be able to review it when the author is clearly a good deal more astute than I? What we have here is a collection of essays on various topics by a man who was once in therapy, then turned to the profession himself to become a therapist; topics or reflections which are of profound significance to the author either because of his antipathy towards or passion for them. And quite a jamboree: actors, America, his children, his parents, his youth, his pain and personal discontent, Krishnamurti, Kazantzakis, the Holocaust, Jews, Jefferson…

I have to be honest and confess that I haven’t heard of Krishnamurti and Kazantzakis, nor am I particularly motivated to research them, so references to them did go over my head just a tad. The author, however, is clearly an adherent. Nevertheless, I found Freese’s writing fascinating and awe-worthy. What I found a little strange, however, was that he describes himself as a ‘private person’, but I thought the essays were quite soul-baring, which perpetuated a mystery through the whole reading experience: for whom was he writing, himself or the reader? 

This is a book to be reread: there is a quality and depth to the writing which can’t be grasped instantly (but that may be my own inadequacy, of course). It is also one that can be ‘dipped’ into at intervals. I still haven’t been able to get it out of my head, and therefore, the author may be able to shout ‘Success!’.

Mr Bison's Journal by Edward Bison

I loved this.  It’s Bill Bryson meets Billy Connolly.

The author, Edward Bison, is a Brit who has been living in America for about ten years.  Although American-English has inevitably crept into his vocabulary, he certainly hasn’t lost his reins on his Britishness completely.  He takes a very wry and no-holds-barred look at anything from rewriting the odd fairy tale and American Airlines (one of my favourite anecdotes) to items people don’t need and bodily functions. The result is a very, very funny observational journal.

A word of warning or two, however…the language is…let's just call it meaty and quite ripe.  Some topics come under the not-for-the-dinner-table or ssshh-the-in-laws-are-here categories.  So anyone easily offended should take note.  Fortunately, I am not, or the loss would have been mine, but I have to say, Edward’s anecdotes just wouldn’t have been the same written in any other way. They are perfectly expressive just the way they are. Secondly, did I say it was very very funny?  It is, it’s hilarious, and my advice is not to read this in public.  Your attempts to smother your uncontrollable laughter will probably have bystanders reaching for their mobiles and calling for the men in white coats. 

I wish I had a pound for every time I said to myself ‘I must remember that one’ and turned each page eager and agog to discover what particular part of everyday life strikes this author’s cynical chords. 

Absolutely priceless.

Coral Reefs (Science and Nature for Young Readers) by Monika Mira

I needed no encouragement to read a third marine book by Monika Mira (see also Fun Fish Facts for Kids and Hawaii's Green Sea Turtles): this time, along with some spectacular photography, she tells us all about coral reefs. Along with the fascinating facts, she stresses the urgency of its preservation and how we can, with just a little thought, all help with this goal.

Monika’s books are aimed at teaching middle-school children about what goes on at the bottom of the sea. And she does it well. As with all her books, Coral Reefs is concise, but clear, and very informative. I certainly learnt a lot. So, I now know what a coral reef is, how it feeds, who lives on it (illustrated by stunning photos of the beautifully coloured fish and patterned molluscs), and its importance. Monika lays out the threats to the existence of coral reefs and then the simple environmental measures we can take to protect them. 

It’s always a pleasure to read and learn with Monika. Her books have a valuable place on the bookshelf.