#TopFive Books About…. #MentalIllness That I Want To Read

So far, I have been a little behind, but starting again in February with Amanda at Devouring Books and the Top 5 books I want… posts.

I don’t know 5 people to tag so am winging it, and giving props back to the original poster *see link below for Amanda’s post and her 5 tagged bloggers, all have amazing choices!), but if you would like to create your own post,I would be thrilled to see it!

These are the current February Top 5 subjects, they definitely have got me thinking, how about you?

• 2/1/20 — Dystopian Books
• 2/8/20 — Mental Illness
• 2/15/20 — Books about Mermaids
• 2/22/20 — Books about Spies
• 2/29/20 — Books inspired by Mythology

These following 5 books mean a great deal to me, I haven’t read some in quite a while, and I realise that at least one might be considered as problematic today.

But I stand by these choices, they are again eclectic, decades spanning and speak to me about mental health in a way that is timeless.

In reading them, I realised that quite a few of the issues I was going through were not unique to me, I was not alone and there was a cold comfort in discovering this. The other books, especially those about provision of mental health services, make me shake with anger. There is precious little differenc between ‘Cukkoo’s Nest’ and ‘No One Cares’-this is , in the main, down to the continuing lack of funding into mental health issues, widespread denial of how prevalant they are, and a lack being able to speak openly about our struggles.

In the UK, 1:4 people have a diagnosable mental health issue which impacts on their daily life.

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 35.

We need to do so much better!

1) ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey

A classic. A stone cold classic which I will defend to the end. Simple as that. First read it at 15 after watching the film, and it has been making me cry and turning me inside out ever since.

Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electric shock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy – the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates.

His struggle is seen through the eyes of Chief Bromden( the first person narrator of the book) a seemingly mute half-Indian patient who understands McMurphy’s heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them imprisoned.

Ken Kesey’s extraordinary first novel is an exuberant, ribald and devastatingly honest portrayal of the boundaries between sanity and madness.

2) Once In A House On Fire’ by Andrea Ashworth

Andrea Ashworth’s father died when she was five leaving her, her three-year-old sister and mother to fend for themselves. A succession of stepfathers, some violent and an itinerant life of poverty were her lot but reading was her escape route out of misery.

‘One of the most extraordinary stories you will ever read of the triumph of the human spirit’ Daily Mail

An incredible and extraordinarily powerful memoir, I absolutely recommend this book, unreservedly.

It is not easily forgotten, it’s a book I read in my late teens and still recommend decades later.

3) ‘Wasted’ by Marya Hornbacher

Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death?

Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be “normal,” Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia—until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever.

A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman’s travels to reality’s darker side—and her decision to find her way back on her own terms

A hard hitting and difficult book to read, this is one of the most honest insights into eating disorders that I have ever read.

4) No One Cares About The Crazy People’ by Ron Powers

New York Times-bestselling author Ron Powers offers a searching, richly researched narrative of the social history of mental illness in America paired with the deeply personal story of his two sons’ battles with schizophrenia.

From the centuries of torture of “lunatiks” at Bedlam Asylum to the infamous eugenics era to the follies of the anti-psychiatry movement to the current landscape in which too many families struggle alone to manage afflicted love ones, Powers limns our fears and myths about mental illness and the fractured public policies that have resulted.

Braided with that history is the moving story of Powers’s beloved son Kevin–spirited, endearing, and gifted–who triumphed even while suffering from schizophrenia until finally he did not, and the story of his courageous surviving son Dean, who is also schizophrenic.

A blend of history, biography, memoir, and current affairs ending with a consideration of where we might go from here, this is a thought-provoking look at a dreaded illness that has long been misunderstood.

I have this on audiobook, via Audible, and it’s something I have been steeling myself to experience as I can’t imagine it’s an easy listen.

5) ‘Prozac Nation’ by Elizabeth Wurtzel

A book which has only become more relevant in passing years, and in the advent of Elizabeth’s recent death, this is one of the original and best books on modern mental health.

A harrowing story of breakdowns, suicide attempts, drug therapy, and an eventual journey back to living, this poignant and often hilarious book gives voice to the high incidence of depression among America’s youth.

A collective cry for help from a generation who have come of age entrenched in the culture of divorce, economic instability, and AIDS, here is the intensely personal story of a young girl full of promise, whose mood swings have risen and fallen like the lines of a sad ballad.

And as an added bonus 6 th book, I have chosen…..

‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier!

Ghosts, love , and mental illness go hand in hand in this gothic classic which I can’t help but squeeze in at the end of this post.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…

Working as a paid companion to a bitter elderly lady, the timid heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life is bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. Whisked from Monte Carlo to Manderley, Maxim’s isolated Cornish estate, the friendless young bride begins to realise she barely knows her husband at all. And in every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca.

Rebecca is the haunting story of a woman consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

Hope you enjoyed this post, if you have any books on the topic of mental illness that you’d like to share, drop me a line and let me know!

Here is the link to Amanda’s original post,go check her and her fellow bloggers out-

Amanda @DevouringBooks-https://devouringbooks2017.wordpress.com/2020/02/09/top-5-books-about-mental-illness-i-want-to-read/

Nen&Jen @ Nen & Jen –https://nenandjen.com/2020/02/08/top-5-sat-books-with-mental-illness-rep/

Lili @ Lili’s Blissful Pages-https://lilisblissfulpages.wordpress.com/2020/02/08/5-unforgetable-mental-illness-reps-in-young-adult/

Dini @ Dinipandareads-https://dinipandareads.home.blog/2020/02/08/top-5-saturday-mental-illness-rep/

Louise @ Foxes And Fairytales- https://foxesfairytale.wordpress.com/2020/02/08/top-5-books-featuring-mental-illness/

Michael @ Book Lover’s Sanctuary-https://bookloverssanctuary.com/2020/02/08/top-five-saturday-mental-illness/