Conscious Reading: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

Bruce Perry's The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook is a book about brain development in traumatized children. In it, Perry walks us through some of his most challenging cases, and explains what he learned from each child. Captivated by the children's experiences, I couldn't put the book down. Perry took it a step further, however, by explaining the intricacies of the brain in a way that's accessible to the everyday reader, proving how trauma at a young age can affect brain development, and discussing what therapy worked for the children to allow them closure so that they could move forward. A fascinating read.

Conscious Reading: In Praise of Messy Lives

In Praise of Messy Lives is a collection of essays that ranges from Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign, to the trials and tribulations of parenting, to twitter wars, to the modern day woman's fascination with S&M as demonstrated by the success of 50 Shades of Grey. Noncohesiveness aside, Roiphe is undeniably a talented writer but while she makes strong arguments in many of her essays, her grating over-analyzation and holier than thou snootiness taint many of them. Take, for example, The Perfect Parent, where Roiphe describes what she considers over-involved parents and recalls with nostalgia the good old days when her mom would call up the stairs, "Did you do your homework yet?" instead of doing the Wuthering Heights assignment together. Instantly I remembered how hard I struggled with Moby Dick (still can't stand that book to this day, sorry, Herman), and how my mom would read one page and I'd read the next. We'd discuss it, battle through it together, and finish the damn assignment. Was my mom over-involved because she sat on the couch and read it with me? No. 

The essay goes on to inform us that "most of us do not raise our children amidst a sea of lovely and instructive wooden toys...and healthy organic snacks." Well that's too bad for your child, who is probably playing with plastic toys that are made with hazardous materials including lead, PVC, and mercury, and too bad for the environment being that plastics are not recyclable nor biodegradable. And too bad about those non-organic snacks which are loaded with GMO ingredients including sugar and corn- you know, the ones linked to inflammatory disease, the cause of a number of food allergies, and, later down the line, fertility problems.

"Can we, for a moment, flash back to the benign neglect of the late 1970s and '80s? To children helping themselves to three slices of cake, or ingesting secondhand smoke, or carrying cocktails to adults who were ever so slightly slurring their words."

*Crickets* Yeah, those were the days. 

Anyway, if you're willing to skip around a bit, and tolerate Roiphe's self-congratulatory insight, then check out the book. Otherwise, keep looking for something else.

Strange Piece of Paradise

In 1977, Yale students Terri Jentz and her roommate Shayna decided to set out on a cross-country bike trip. A few days into the trip, the two were camping in Cline Falls, Oregon when a man intentionally ran over their tent, got out of his truck, and attacked them with an axe. In the middle of the attack, without a word, he got back into his truck and drove off. Remarkably, both girls survived the attack. Terri remembers with pin-point accuracy every detail of that night. Shayna, however, due to the blows to the back of her head, remembers nothing. 

Years later, Terri realized their story had faded from the headlines, and no one was ever caught. In an effort to deal with the trauma, depression and rage she carried, and to seek justice, she decided to return to Oregon. 'Strange Piece of Paradise' follows Terri's journey back to the sleepy town, where she discovers that the crime was still fresh in people's minds even twenty years later.

I hesitated to blog about this book. It's graphic, raw and truly disturbing. It took me three weeks to get through it because I couldn't read it at night, and often would have to put it down for a break from the brutality. This book is not a feel good read by any means- I mean, could there really be a happy ending to a story as horrific as this? However, I feel it's a story that merits recommendation because it explores the different ways in which we deal with trauma, how fear can be an epidemic, and how one 15 minute event can affect the soul of a town so deeply. Equally important, it discusses violence toward women, drug and alcohol abuse, and victims' rights. A lot of heavy subject matter, yes, but I truly feel that being aware of these issues rather than ignoring what disturbs us is vital to progression.

Conscious Reading: How Doctors Think

The first sign something wasn't right​

Two summers ago I came down with a mysterious illness that started with some minor joint pain and over the course of eight months progressed to the point that I could barely walk. I also developed extreme light and noise sensitivity, ringing in my ears, insomnia, nightmares and a crippling, inexplicable sense of fear. I saw nine different doctors in eight months. After being told I had a stress fracture, a hand injury, Morton's neuroma, psoriatic arthritis and torn ligaments, I finally got a diagnosis of Lyme disease and started treatment. (Read in detail here, if you want.)

A teacher at Harvard Medical School and the chief of experimental medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Jerome Groopman puts into words what I had come away with from my experience trying to find a diagnosis in his book How Doctors Think. Using case histories and his experience as both a doctor and a patient, he explores habits of thinking, and how doctors may make major errors by relying too heavily on algorithms instead of thinking independently. (How true this was for me, when nearly every doctor I saw treated me for my primary complaint, instead of considering the idea that my other symptoms may be a part of the whole problem.) 

Recommended for anyone looking for a little more insight into the American healthcare system, what makes a great doctor and how we can help our doctors think independently about our cases. 

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PS- Other conscious reading books here.

In the Land of Invisible Women

After British-born doctor Qanta Ahmed is denied a visa to stay in the states, she accepts an exciting position at a Saudi hospital. A Muslim woman, she is both excited and intimidated by the Saudi culture she doesn't fully understand, and when she arrives in The Kingdom she realizes women in particular have a very specific (and sometimes confusing) role in society. In the Land of Invisible Women is Dr. Ahmed's journey into Saudi Arabia, an exotic land both modern and medieval ruled by faith and tradition.

I wanted to really love this book, but it simply wasn't cohesive to me. It started out with her flight over to Saudi Arabia and I figured it would continue as a story about her experience trying to get acclimated and understand her new environment. Instead, each chapter was a vignette about a different aspect of the Muslim faith, Saudi culture, or her experience with love/friendship while abroad. The content was interesting but it fell short for me because the book as a whole just didn't read well. 

Click below to buy through Amazon. 

Conscious Reading: Tales From The Yoga Studio

I'm sad to say I didn't much enjoy this book. It's a novel about a bunch of different yoga students who are all connected by this one LA studio. They sort of idolize the studio's owner, Lee, who is privately going through a mid-life crisis as her marriage falls apart.

While I liked the idea of the novel, I just felt like the book as a whole fell short in a lot of ways. As each chapter jumped around from yoga student to yoga student, I felt the character development was lacking and therefore never really felt much for any of them. The ending, which I won't give away, was predictable and felt very abrupt and last minute. So, maybe pass on this one unless you're looking for a beach read you don't have to think too much about.