Review 647: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Instead of writing some notes about the books I’ve read recently I went and read another one. Okay, this one is short, a novella, and better read around Halloween perhaps.

I won’t say much about this as so many others have done a great job, better than I could do…but one thing. I generally knew of the story going in, so the mystery of who was Mr. Hyde was already known. Yet I had the thought that this could be viewed as someone who becomes a meth addict, or drug addict of the chemical manufactured type.

Dr. Jekyll mixes up these chemicals, a white powder and some special salts, and he is transformed. In the story he is described as physically changed. There are some drugs where addicts become quite physically changed in appearance as well, thin, smaller, faces disfigured, and their personality changes as well, generally not for the better. Yet they do not usually go back to their old self, or perhaps only once they stop using, more or less. Perhaps not a perfect comparison but a thought of some similarities of today.

Happy to have finally read this classic. It's easily read in a day.

Review 629: Ludes

Ludes by Ben Stein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is completely different than what I thought it may be. Many, many years ago I picked this up at a used book library sale, during a brief moment when I thought I’d like to be a psychologist someday. I believed this book was a psychological case study, something academic. No, it is not that.

This is a non-fiction account of a friend of Ben Stein's descent into drug addiction. Stein, who used to host a game show called “Win Ben Stein’s Money” and has appeared in films and such. He’s a writer as well, starting with the Nixon presidency. This book takes place shortly after the political writing ended and now in 1976 he’s writing for The Wall Street Journal, mostly cultural type pieces. Ironically he was the only one with any graduate work in economics on the editorial staff, yet he’s the one not writing the economic pieces.

Stein writes about his friend Lenny Brown, from their first meeting at The Wall Street Journal where Lenny tried to sell him on a financial real estate tax shelter deal on a cold call. For some reason the two clicked and they become friends. The book is a slightly autobiographical, but primarily a profile of his friend and his demise into becoming addicted to quaaludes, or ludes. Yet even here it takes a very good portion, about 40 percent of the book, before Lenny takes his first pill.

We learn all about Lenny’s life of selling and not quite making it, then he gets his break and is hired this guy Max in Los Angeles. Finally Lenny is living the life he always thought he deserved. Eventually Stein makes his way to Los Angeles too, now working with production companies.

The book is non-fiction, but all names have been changed, except Ben Stein’s and one other that is noted in the book. Yet it is written like fiction, recanting conversations and other minute details. Stein mentions how he knows these things, but there are moments when some of this must be fictionalized for the sake of the story and flow.

It's quite readable and quick, but a bit unusual really. I expect this is something that has become a bit obscure.

Review 616: A Gorgeous Excitement

A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe a beach read?

Summer 1986, in New York City. Nina Jacobs, is working various temp jobs before starting college, and hopes to lose her virginity before leaving.

This place of New York City almost becomes a character. Nina meets a new friend in Central Park and they hit it off right away, and she introduces her to cocaine, for a gorgeous excitement. Nina is also dealing with her mentally ill mother, unwanted sexual attention, such as the smarmy hugs the doorman always gives, and yet hoping to snag Gardner as her first. Plus, what's going on with her childhood friends, not feeling so friendly towards her lately.

There is a lot going on in the novel, which kept it interesting.

Short notes here, perhaps more later....

Review 593: Notes to Myself

Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hugh Prather decided to be a writer, while his wife supported them on her teaching salary. Back in the late 60’s this may have been an usual set-up. After a few years he wasn’t getting very far, so he gleaned statements from his journal and the result was this book

They are mostly notes of helping him become a better person. They can be philosophical, or help you think about ways to approach life. It's not quite self-help. I feel like my description here is faulty.

The book has a lot of white space. The notes can be a sentence or two, often longer to a paragraph or more. In-between there is a small graphic of two leaves, at least in my copy of the book.
This book did well for him and these notes became very popular in the 1970s. It started him on a series of a similar theme.

I bought a used copy of the book when I was in my early-twenties and read about half of the book. I liked it at the time, thought it was profound. Not sure why I didn’t finish, but I always wanted to return to it.

Now many years later, I’m trying to get to some of these older books. Started over and read through in a couple of days, and, well it was okay. Didn’t find it amazing or anything. Perhaps the book was more profound while young or the intervening years I’ve lived more. Not sure.

I expect this may be one of those books that when it finds you at the right time it very good, but if not it’s just okay.

Review 591: The Strange Case of Jane O.

The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is a psychological case of Jane O. The book uses the view point of the psychiatrist, Dr. Henry Bryd, and Jane, as letters to her baby son. Jane has perfect memory, except in a couple of cases and lost time.

Jane goes to Dr. Bryd because she had a day of lost memory, she didn’t know where she was or what happened and this was very unusual for her. The book tries to piece together what's going on as she has more of these "fugue states".

This does become an interesting case.

I had a strong interest in psychology when I was younger, which was why this book appealed to me for reading. It’s interesting how reading tastes or interests change through the years. In any case, this book is set up like a psychological case, which added to the appeal.

Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 572: Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was a slightly tough book to get through, as it entails reading about a teenage boy succumbing to schizophrenia. Caden’s reality becomes mixed up with hallucinations or something that makes sense to him for what is going on.

When he becomes hospitalized it is that environment that becomes like a ship. They are cruising the waters and talk about going down into a deep trench at times.

There are many chapters, over 150, which are usually quite short. They switch between what is going on in Caden’s life and other times what is going on in his head. The book starts with him going to high school, hanging out with his friends, but the chapters about the boat are there early on as well. The timeline isn’t quite straightforward.

Neal Shusterman’s own son has been diagnosed with mental illness and this book was written to help understand what it is like to be the one dealing with the illness. His son also contributed drawings that are sprinkled throughout the book.

Review 517: Shred Sisters

Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

This is a family novel about trying to live with a family member with mental health issues. It’s also about the younger sister trying to cope with having an older sister Olivia, or Ollie, take the parents attention. Amy Shred is four years younger, and gets bullied at school. She doesn’t have friends, but instead she is the perfect student. Amy does better after she convinced her parents to send her to a private school for high school. By now, Ollie is spending her first stint in a mental hospital, avoiding jail for stealing a fur coat and silver spoon worth $60,000.

The story is told through Amy, first in their youth, then young adult days going into her thirties. Days before she leaves for college her parent announce their divorce. By this time Ollie was running around somewhere in the country. The all make a pact to call one or another if she turns up. The dad has money and makes more excuses for Ollie’s behavior, so that is who she turns to the most. He doesn't tell the others, usually.

The book plainly shows how difficult it is for the family members to cope with someone with a mental illness, particularly if there isn’t a medication that helps. Or maybe there is a medication, but they don’t like taking it. And each person is affected in a different way.

Review 461: When You Finish Saving the World

When You Finish Saving the World by Jesse Eisenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This short audio book is a character study of a small family: father, son, mother. The format is with audio tapes, and in different time periods, so for the father, Nathan, we have the present providing tapes to a therapist. Rachel feels that Nathan isn’t properly bonding with their newborn son. Nathan is trying to get more in touch with his feelings, and it sounded to me like he may be on the autism spectrum. Maybe that was unintentional by the author?

The son, Ziggy, is the second section, and in the future. It’s 2032 and he has counseling sessions for hitting someone who made a derogatory remark about another. His sessions require him to talk, without any prompts to a psychology bot. The future is vastly different (it’s idealized and maybe more like 2050?).

Then the last section is Rachel, which is in the past during her first year of college sending audio tapes to her boyfriend who joined the army just after the September 11 attacks. We already know he dies, so that does add poignancy to this section.

The title refers more to Rachel than the other characters, although she attributes that to her boyfriend; though overall, this “saving the world” is somewhat subtle. During the different tapes we see the different sides to the characters, at least for the first two sections. With Rachel we see her embarking on her changing understanding of the world through her classes, such as the manipulation in advertising.

The psychology aspect to the book is to just let someone talk about anything, just stream of consciousness, and will heal thyself. (works for some) One reason why journaling is good therapy? Anyway, I found the book was okay, not spectacular or anything, and was happy it was on the short side of length.

Review 450: Ripe

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This book takes place in 2020, the early months of the year, with Cassie as our main character. She’s a year in after college graduation working with a tech start-up company. She had to move to San Francisco and found a friend by their mutual dislike of the city.

Cassie’s job and bosses have unreasonable expectations, not only long hours but taking workshops and working on special (illegal) projects on the weekends. As we get close to the pandemic starting the company states they do not believe in working from home.

Then there’s this black hole that follows Cassie since she was little. It’s obviously depression and anxiety, which grows or diminishes according to situations.

We see her interact with friends she doesn't particularly like, a boyfriend who already has a girlfriend, and parents who tell her she can never come back home. No wonder she is depressed. It's not a joyful read, but there is humor, dark satirical humor.

Brief Review: 353 Time Out of Joint

Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Not a very long book. This is about a man who seems to be going insane. But then we find out yes, he is a lunatic. And his perceptions, asking what is real or not....oh so classic Philip K Dick.

Brief Review 332: Just One Look

Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The last portion of the book turned this around for me and I quite enjoyed the ending.

 An almost unreliable narrator in major stalker territory.

A quick read.

Read July 01-02, 2022

Review 315: Bittersweet

Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m in the middle on this book. On one hand I enjoyed listening to Susan Cain’s narration and exploration of this topic, but on the other hand it got a little too deep into self-help and spirituality than I expected. It felt there was more Cain could do to delve deep into this topic without resorting to telling us readers how we can do this or that, such as meditative practices. The book had much more of a memoir aspect than expected as well, explaining how this topic is something she has thought about for much of her life.

Despite the expectations being different I did not dislike the book. Her narration really did pull the book forward. I listened at first for a couple of hours and was a little thrown by what was going on. Then I returned a week later and listened to the rest fairly quickly, accepting what the book now was.

I connected more to the material when she discussed her own personal life, and her experience in doing research for the book. She attended several workshop types and a conference, RAADfest on life extension. How longevity and living forever fits in with bittersweet has to do with accepting, or not, the inevitability of death.

I expect this book will be more polarizing and less successful than her book on introversion, but the topics do seem related. And if you enjoyed Quiet, you may find something here to connect to as well.

Review 225: Double Blind

Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



Not a light read here. Although short, there are large passages with dense rabbit-hole wanderings into neuroscience, biology and other wild ideas mainly put forth by a drug induced mania.

We have several characters: Hunter being a venture capitalist with a penchant for drugs; a couple of friends Olivia and Lucy being reunited in England after Lucy starts working for Hunter. Olivia and Francis just started a love affair. Lucy soon discovers there’s a tumor lodged in her brain. Olivia’s dad works with schizophrenics and the two start working on a project based on the illness and genetics and nurture. We also get one of the patient's story with his neurodivergent thought patterns.

There are many themes in the book and none well developed or resolved, just many huge ideas thrown in and on occasion info dumped into the text of the book. Yet it is held together by the relationships of these people that become more intertwined as the book continues.

Odd enough, I do wish the book had more pages to it, as then the author may have helped some of these themes become more developed or to some conclusions. Although I do get the sense that was the point, to end early and leave it all in the air. This may not satisfy many readers, but some may revel in the complexity.



Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 218: Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz

Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Here we have two women poets who came of age in the 1950s. They struggled to be writers while juggling married life and children. This was during a time of that expectations for a woman was solely as a mother or wife. Plath and Sexton rebelled and pushed against the conventions of the day. Unfortunately the two also struggled with mental illness.

This biography of Plath and Sexton compares the lives of the two friends, mostly in a chronological manner. Each chapter took on a subject such as “Early Days”, “Mothering” and “Mental Illness”. It would talk about Sexton then Plath or the other way around. While they were friends, meeting in Boston in a writing course, they didn’t always live near each other as Plath moved to England with Ted Hughes.

One aspect of the book I appreciated was how the Crowther made points on why these two women are important for today. They were trailblazers as women writers and are still relevant. Today women still are not on equal footing with men; although there are a multitude of women authors and poets, men are still regarded more highly than their female counterparts, such as with their books reviewed more often. Crowther points out that when men write autobiographies words often used to describe them include brilliant and sensitive, while the same type of book by women are described as confessional and overemotional. While there is progress it is still not equal.

The format and material worked well for me. I certainly will look upon their poems with new insight and understanding.


Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 191: At the Edge of the Haight

At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Having visited San Francisco countless number of times over the years (I call it my favorite city in California) I’ve seen the homeless youth that congregate in the Haight-Ashbury area, near massive Golden Gate park. I’ve always wondered what brought them here, what were their stories? And here is one book attempting to answer that question as fictional characters of Maddy Donaldo and her friends, and her dog Root. Root is definitely a character!

While this book is fiction it had truth. The descriptions of the area are accurate, and while reading you feel the cold that Maddy and her friends do. You feel the sleep deprivation and hope that this night, this one time, she can get a full night’s rest. Yet how can you sleep when the cops will rouse you before 4am and cite you or arrest for sleeping in the park? And shelters aren’t much better with everyone crammed into open rooms, the noise and smells. Yet some of these people chose this life, and many, most, do not.

I quickly read this book, ripped through the pages. While the murder aspect gave the book a bit of a plot, it isn’t like a formula mystery or thriller, it’s more of the backdrop.

I liked how Maddy was portrayed, she didn’t seem to know things herself, but was open enough to start to question things, and acted as she needed to. Maddy lived life on her terms, not her friends, not her “boyfriend”, or as anyone else would tell her.

Certainly there are many more stories about the lives people are living outside on the streets. I’m happy to see this book, applaud the author for this topic and hope she writes another book, with other characters or continue the journey of Maddy and her friends.

Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 136: Untethered

Untethered by Julie Lawson Timmer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was a slow build up. Around the half-way point it really started to take off, but even some of the characterization of the main character, Char, was hard to get a grasp on until closer to the end. There was a lot of “talking” between characters, like a full page from one character until the other spoke, not sure I’ve seen that before. Anyway, these long passages sometimes didn’t feel natural, and they hid the true feelings for some characters.

Not sure I liked the way the book came to a close, well the last chapter was fine, just what came shortly before. No spoilers here, so it’s slightly difficult to describe. I’m sure many will be okay with it, I just wanted more.

This is a decent book, not overwhelming or anything. There was a new look, for me, at how step-parents and step-families may behave. That alone was worth the read.


I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.

Review 126: Hidden Valley Road

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book held interest for me in that there is some mental illness in my family. I’ve always understood that genetics played the biggest part of this, with some aspects of nurture, or environment. With this book, there is two aspects, one being a family of twelve children, where half develop mental illness, schizophrenia. The other aspect of the book is the history of how the medical field has approached this illness, with treatments and research in combating the illness.

The weaving of these two facets together into the story was well done, a good strategy. Overall the book is linear, but not entirely. We’d go through some years, then backtrack, then go forward, and backtrack again. For example, several times a drug for treatment was named, Thorazine, then in a later chapter we find out how this drug was developed. This overall jumping around of the timeline, particularly in the first parts of the book made it somewhat confusing at times. If it could have remained strictly linear I believe the book would have flowed better.

The book is highly readable; the language doesn’t dip into medical jargon or language that is incomprehensible. It is hard not to feel empathy for this family, with not only dealing with way too many children, but to have so many become mentally ill. And the experiences the younger children went through became that much more traumatic as less parental time would be devoted to them. There were so many different problems, issues, traumas for the younger children growing up, that in itself may cause mental illness.

Perhaps one of the most promising outcomes, particularly in research is in how treatment has improved in recent years. There is a focus on prevention and early intervention in ways that was not possible when this family was growing. One research in particular is promising is the discovery of choline during pregnancy may likely have an effect on a developing fetus; where lack of choline makes for a higher incidence of developing schizophrenia. A long term study is underway, with results likely to be in the forthcoming years. The best cure is one that stops the illness before it starts.


Thanks to DoubleDay Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 117: Iphigenia Murphy

Iphigenia Murphy by Sara Hosey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Being 15 you don’t seem to have a lot of options. Yet the main character here, Iphigenia Murphy decides to change things. Her home life is full of abuse. If she isn’t ignored she’s being hurt in many different forms. Iphignia, or Iffy, has a plan and carries it out. She leaves to go look for her mother, her drug addicted, mentally ill, homeless mother that is likely living in Forest Park. So Iffy buys a tent, sleeping bad, food and other supplies and goes to live in the park as well, to find her mother.

Along the way Iffy meets other people and creates a new, weird life living in this park. No it isn’t safe, and she gets a benefactor who is worried about her and the dog Iffy adopts.

The time line in the book isn’t long, although three months in the life of a teenager is longer than it would be for me. Living in a tent in a park would definitely make it longer.

The people Iffy meet are other people who have problems as well. They have a fast bond and quickly trust each other. Perhaps this is what it’s like when you’re homeless, or seemingly without anyone else who cares about you.

Iphignia definitely had a hard life, but she changed it, actively figured out a way to change it, albeit in an unusual way. She is a strong young woman that grows stronger during the book.

The writing is decent. It felt like the book was stumbling a little in the beginning, but by the time Iffy was staying in the park for a while it picked up and the book read better.

This book feels like it may be for young adult, but it also is a troubling book. Then again sometimes teens are facing tough situations.



Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 86: The Story Hour

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a unique book. The story was told by alternating points-of-view, with the main one being an Indian immigrant, Lakshmi, who at first is portrayed as stupid, and her command of English awful. Lakshmi's sections are then written in a way that is difficult to read, using words like "leaf" instead of "leave" and other odd words or phrasing. I knew this was not going to be a book I could read if the whole book was written in this manner. It wasn't and reading of that broken style did get easier. Yet...

there is something about the writing style that I did not like. It is not just this author, but many others, use an omniscient point of view with an abandon, and it diminishes a story. For example, in this book we are kept to two main characters Lakshmi and Maggie, a psychologist who helps Lakshmi. Nearly the entire book is just their perspectives, then near the end we get other character's point of view, very briefly and only once or twice. It feels a little like cheating on the author's part.

Overall the story was curious enough, there were some wild tales told by Lakshmi and she, and others, had significant changes in their character. There wasn't quite enough for Maggie's side in her growth, and for being a psychologist not enough insight. The way Maggie is portrayed in doing her psychology was completely in correct, even if she didn't blur lines. Her character is hard to believe, I know it's fiction!

The book was good enough, not spectacular, yet it had aspects that made it worth the time to read. A mild recommendation.



I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.

Review 33: A Woman on the Edge of Time

A Woman on the Edge of Time: A Son Investigates His Trailblazing Mother’s Young Suicide by Jeremy Gavron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While this book is of a very private matter, a man searching to know about his mother who committed suicide when he was 4 years old, there are implications that extend out to the larger world.

Hannah Gavron was only 29 and killed herself with a gas oven, similar to a couple other women writers around that time, and oddly only blocks away from where Sylvia Plath killed herself. Although it isn't brought up in the book, one wonders if she had read about Plath and decided to follow suit.

Hannah also had children, the author was only 4 years old. She was finishing a doctorate degree in sociology and her thesis was turned into a book that was published, hitting the shelves shortly after her death. The book The Captive Wife: Conflicts of Housebound Mothers was significant for women and changing society, particularly in Britain. Perhaps not as well known as the earlier book published by Betty Friedan with The Feminine Mystique, but adding to the conversation of women stuck at home with little to no options with outside work. Perhaps this was why Hannah chose to end her life?

There are many reasons offered in the book, and perhaps it was not one specific, but the combination of them, piling up to where she thought there was no other option. Although there was also the idea put out that it was a ploy that went on too long. Don't want to give anything away, but it was mentioned early that Hannah had been having an affair with a gay man and there had been an argument. Was this the result of that trouble?

As mentioned in the beginning this is a very personal story. The author tells us each step along the way of trying to find out about his mother, and ultimately to understand why she did that last fatal step. At times it feels like an invasion reading this, but clearly the author has put it out there for everyone to read. Jeremy Gavron is a writer, and author of several novels, this is what he does, he writes. It is hard not to feel regret that Jeremy didn't know his mother better and also to feel a sense of loss for everyone. What would she have gone on to do? She was on the cusp of a career that could have done so much more for women.

This is a fascinating book, but ultimately fills you with the sense of loss.