Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker This book is written with an agenda, and I usually don’t like one-sided arguments, but in this case, the argument is one that I was already disposed to believe: namely, that taking mind-altering drugs does …
Category: Book Review
Feb 13
Book Review: The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl
The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl by Karen Burns Karen Burns, AKA “Working Girl” says she’s had 59 jobs in her life, and therefore she’s an expert at the working world. I kept expecting to see a septegenarian on the back cover, but apparently she counts each freelance assignment as a separate “job.” Still, she …
Jan 30
Book Review: Love, Honor, & Negotiate
Love, Honor and Negotiate: Making Your Marriage Work by Betty Carter I read a lot of self help books, but I haven’t read a lot of self help books on how to make one’s marriage work. The authors are Betty Carter, who has been a therapist for decades, and Joan Peters, who made it readable. …
Jan 25
Review: Crazy Like Us
Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters I read a lot of books about psychology and mental illness, but this book took what I already knew to a new level. It discusses four different illnesses in four different cultures: anorexia in Hong Kong, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, PTSD in Sri Lanka, …
Jan 14
Review: Wishful Drinking
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher This book is basically the written version of a stand-up comedy/memoir of Carrie Fisher. She talks about being the daughter of famous parents (Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) about having her parents’ marriage broken up by Liz Taylor (If you’re going to have a homewrecker destroy your marriage, why not …