The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Imagine this scenario:

It's 1936, you live with your Pa in the Kentucky mountains; Troublesome Creek to be exact. But you're colored. Not white, not black, but...blue.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek follows the story of Cussy Mary, better known as Bluet. She one of the last surviving members of her bloodline. Many years ago, living deep in the mountainside, desperate family members made their own family... if you get what I'm saying.

Bluet and her Pa both have what appears to be blue skin. Which means they don't get the same treatment as the white folks in town, but instead have to follow the same rules as the other colored folks. They get looked at as sickly, disgusting, not quite human. It's a hard life, but that doesn't stop Cussy Mary and her pa from living and working with everyone else. 

Bluet becomes a Pack Librarian for Troublesome Creek.

Pack librarians became essential when people in poor areas and off the beaten track, wanted some reading materials. Newspapers, magazines, scrapbooks, you name it, Bluet had it in her satchel. She would ride miles upon miles a week to deliver books to her patrons. They all called her Book Woman. But some of them still had to open their minds to a colored bringing them reading material. But over the course of a year, they come to love her. School children, young mothers, uptight fathers, they all wait patiently to see what the Book Woman has brought for them this week.

I absolutely loved this book.

I made a promise to myself to start reading more historical fiction this year, and I'm beyond glad I picked this up. It's a unique story, that I'm fairly certain hasn't been told before!

 

Looking for the rest of the series?

The Book Woman's Daughter

Life Inside My Mind

I personally think all books on mental health should be written in this format.

Life Inside My Mind is a collection of essays written by various authors who either have mental illnesses of their own or are close to people who do. Each author delves into what their struggles are and how they began helping themselves to a life they actually wanted and not one defined by their mental illness. Each author tackles a different mental health aspect, though some are repeated, their coping mechanisms and other things that specifically helped them differ from some of the other authors.

What I loved most about this was how raw, real, and groundbreaking this book is. There is such a stigma when it comes to mental illnesses. To quote Melissa Marr's essay, "How to Deal with Me... And My PTSD," "The fact that you read as far as that last sentence, that you read this essay, that you picked up this anthology tells me that we can go out in public without apology on my part or worry on yours. It says that you won't think me impossible if I say not this restaurant or ask you to walk a few blocks or maybe switch seats with me so I can stay here and talk to you. It says we can find a way to deal with my PTSD."

I think that is how we break the stigma. We begin understanding, we ask questions, we don't judge. If we can share our stories with the world, the world just might turn a little easier, especially knowing we aren't the only ones dealing with an illness.

Below I'll be sharing a few resources for those who may need them along with personal recommendations of mental health books and books with mentally ill characters.

Resources:

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)

Mental Health America

US Department of Health and Human Services

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or call 800-273-TALK (8255)

Looking for authors in this anthology?
Ellen Hopkins (Crank Trilogy + more)
Dan Wells (I Am Not a Serial Killer Series)
Cyn Balog (Unnatural Deeds)

Personal Recommendations:
John Green's Turtles All the Way Down (anxiety)
Brandon Novak's Dreamseller (addiction)
Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story (suicidal thoughts)
Demi Lovato's Staying Strong (addiction, self harm, eating disorders)
Nic Sheff's Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines (addiction)
JJ Johnson's Believarexic (eating disorders)
Flora Rheta Shreiber's Sybil (multiple personality disorder)
Jessica Pan's Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come (anxiety)
Jane Alvey Harris's Riven Trilogy (addiction, depression, PTSD)
Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (depression)

Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls (eating disorders, self harm)

Kathleen Glasgow's You'd Be Home Now (addiction) 

Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come

When I was a junior, my high school offered a poetry writing contest.I entered and didn't tell a soul. No one knew until it was announced over the loud speaker that I had won first place. Teachers, friends, classmates, my parents.... were SHOCKED.

The even bigger catch....

I had to read my poem (which also had a visual aspect) in front of the school board, along with all the other winners.

I wanted to throw up. I cried on the drive there. I was so thankful I included my visual aspect (I wrote my poem in the shape of a question mark and only included questions in the poem). Which they displayed on the big screen at the front of the room. I thought, "Good, people will be looking at that and not me."

I got up there, I read my poem, got off stage and asked my mom how I did and if you could tell my face was covered in bright red fire up there.... and her response?

"I didn't look at you because I thought it'd make you more nervous."

 LOL THANKS MOM.

But honestly, I'm glad I did it. I've given countless presentations since then and I think that was the first one that kicked me in the ass. That being said, Jessica Pan struggled with a lot of the same issues and she set out on a year of extroversion. She was determined to make her friends, better herself, and even got a few fun stories out of it.

Now I could never imagine doing some of the stuff she did, ex. see chapters "Everest or Stand Up Comedy" and "La-La-Land or Traveling Solo."

But I see a lot of myself in her and finally understand why I hate small talk...it's because I want the meat of what makes people tick. I want to know intimate details about their lives and understand who they were when they were living through it. I don't care how the weather is, I don't care that traffic was bad. I want to know WHY you love/hate this weather or what was really bothering you when that guy cut you off in traffic.

Her year of extroverting gave her a new sense of what it means to be an introvert.

She found a happy medium between the two and I think we could all use a little help finding that line.

Huge thank you to NetGalley, Andrew McNeels Publishing, and to Jessica Pan for providing me with a copy of Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come. 

I am so glad I found this book!

Hidden Bodies

I love how much Joe grows as a character in Hidden Bodies!

SPOILER ALERT:

He falls in love, again.

At the end of You, we briefly meet Amy Adam.

Using stolen credit cards in Joe's bookstore, she somehow manages to grab hold of his heart and yank it straight out of his chest. But he'll get his revenge and just add Amy to his CandaceBenjiPeachBeck list.

But first.....

He has to leave New York and move to LA.

Amy isn't even his first kill there, and trust me he kills a few people before he even finds her.

Regardless, Joe is far less creepy and sex crazed in this book. He actually falls in love with Love. He honestly falls in love with his LA lifestyle that he never expected to be a part of. He never wanted to make it in Hollywood, but it looks like that might be exactly what's happening.

Amy is literally an after-thought in his new life. He doesn't mind that she ripped him off, used him, stomped all over his heart.... because he's started a new life, a better life, and he's ready to put the past behind him.

Joe really matures in Hidden Bodies, I mean, as much as a sociopath can mature. But his character is just written SO MUCH BETTER. I gave You an awful review, but stuck it out for this one and I'm so glad I did.

Looking for the rest of the series?

You (You #1)

You Love Me (You #3)

For You and Only You (You #4)

Subliminal

I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. I'm also very surprised at how much it makes me miss being in college and sitting through psych class after psych class.
 

Personally, I was intrigued with the chapter, The Importance of Being Social.

It discusses things like how the brain reacts in certain situations, regardless of person. Most people have the same animalistic impulses that we see in most animals. This reminded me of the justice system.
 

We need social interaction to survive, we need human touch, we need conversation, we need to feel like we have some form of control over our lives. So when people are arrested, placed in a cell and stripped of their basic human rights, it makes sense for them to interact with other inmates like animals would. They form cliques, the offer/need protection, they find a sense of camaraderie just to survive on a day to day basis.
 

This was interesting for me to read because my field of study was psych and justice sciences. It was exciting to find information on a topic that I hadn't yet explored. I thoroughly enjoyed reading everything in this book. Leonard Mlodinow wrote this as an attempt to explain the unconscious mind and I believe that he kept everyone in mind while he wrote it. Even without any knowledge of neuroscience, anyone who is interested in the human mind, or behavior in general, will find this book easy to read and comprehend.

You

 

Well, I don't want to be that girl that says the show was better than be book, but honestly?

I'm kind of hoping the show is better.

So I decided I wasn't going to watch You on Netflix until after I read You and Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes. But I'm kind of unimpressed with this book and I don't exactly know why. So stay with me while I try to work this out.

I don't feel like I had any connection to these characters.

In the beginning, when Beck first walks into the bookstore and notices Joe, I kind of felt like I could be her. But then she just did a complete 180. But still, I tried to put myself in her shoes and she was just OBLIVIOUS to everything. Joe preyed on that, which is the basis of the book. He became infatuated with Beck. He had to know her every move, every word, every story. He needed to be near her. But even as he's stalking her, Beck is still doing weird shit and he's still loving it.

It was just odd the way everyone interacted and the way literally EVERYONE was so oblivious to their surroundings. They had zero regard for anyone other than themselves, which kind of makes sense given that they're all being stalked by Joe who preys on vulnerable people.

I just don't really know how I feel about this book.

I'm hoping Hidden Bodies brings me around to loving it.

I'm hoping the show holds my attention.

I just feel, eh about it.

Looking for the rest of the series?
Hidden Bodies (You #2)

You Love Me (You #3)

For You and Only You (You #4)

The Good Girls

THIS MUCH EXAGGERATED DRAMA MAKES ME SO GLAD I'M NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL ANYMORE.

Okay, so obviously I gave The Perfectionists a terrible review.

The Good Girls is slightly better, but still nothing to rave about.

The Good Girls picks up where The Perfectionists stops, people are still dying all around this group of girls. They continue to be brought in for questioning and begin questioning if they can trust each other. Each girl has to go through an individual pysch eval with Dr. Rose. That's where the drama flares to life. This felt less Pretty Little Liar-y than the first book. The characters had more background and depth than when they were first introduced. So that was a nice touch. 

However, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people use the words prison and jail interchangeably, which Sara Shepard did repeatedly throughout this book. (Sorry, I have a degree in Criminal Justice and it just drives me freaking crazy) I assumed Sara Shepard would do research on something she was including in one of her books, but noooooooo. She threw a (presumably) 17 year old kid in PRISON and then said the kids parents couldn't BOND HIM OUT. 

UPDATE: YOU CAN'T BE BONDED OUT OF PRISON.

Then to make it even more annoying, another (presumably) 17 year old kid GOES TO THE PRISON TO VISIT THIS KID WHO THEY HAVE NO RELATION TO AND WITHOUT PARENTS.

OH. and this kid was thrown in prison within a week of the supposed crime.

Like stop, no. That is not how any of that works.

As for the mental health side of the story, I was unimpressed. Again, very little research was put into this aspect of the story and I was incredibly disappointed.

Anyway, I'm starting the show this week.

Wish me luck!

Looking for the rest of the series?

The Perfectionists (The Perfectionists #1)

Looking for other YA books by Sara Shepard?

Ali's Pretty Little Lies (PLL prequel)

Looking for adult books by Sara Shepard?
The Heiresses

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