Books galore…interest in the life of others

Update: Patti, glorious OT student, also recommended this book:

You have enough to read,
but maybe during the next break definitely add “Where is the Mango Princess?” by Cathy Crimmins to your list.
It’s a caregivers experience with her husbands traumatic brain injury. It’s awesome, filled with facts, but also an incredible personal journey.
Oh and it mentions her experiences with OT…. that’s cool too : )

“Cookie Gimp” recommends:
*Rights of Inclusion by Munger and Engel. It’s an American book about narratives of disabled people
*No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a Civil Rights Movement by Joseph Shapiro *Handbook of Disability Studies by Albrecht, Seelman and Bury.
*Anne Finger’s Past Due, about her pregnancy as a disabled woman.

I leave tomorrow and will be gone 3 weeks in 3 different states. I've asked for blog material and have received a few pieces already. There might be quite a bit of off-topic stuff…just go read the archives for OT-related things. I'm not apologizing because this is a student journey blog and guess what, students get breaks!!  I'm busy packing and tying up loose ends today. I had breakfast with OTS Brooke at Brother Juniper's today (yum), and then I hit up the public library…my favorite is the 21-day HEALTH section. I just randomly skim titles until I find titles that look promising – I hate reading books with straight-forward facts – I love reading stories though that have those facts intertwined. I'm fascinated by all medical things and the lives of others. I got this many books (from my hands at my waist to my chin, like Gus the mouse on Cinderella), because I will be spending a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. I did the same thing in June. I can't wait to read some books for fun, FINALLY. I'm sure I'll end up picking up a few more books along the way – I didn't have a list with me to pick up some recommended books. The hardest part is accurately gauging how many books I can get through in a day of travel since books are HEAVY! 

1. “Special Siblings: Growing up with someone with a disability” by Mary McHugh
2. “Sound-Shadows of The New World” by Ved Mehta – about blindness
3. “Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness” by John Hull
4. “Wayne: An Abused Child's Story of Courage, Survival, and Hope – by Wayne Theodore
5. “Swim to Me” by Betsy Carter (my one random fiction pick)
6. “My Year Off: Recovering Life after a Stroke” by Robert McCrum
7. “Defending Andy: One Mother's Fight to Save her Son from Cancer and the Insurance industry” by Marilyn Azevedo
8. “I want to grow hair, I want to grow up, I want to go to Boise: Children Surviving Cancer” by Erma Bombeck
9. “I had brain surgery, what's your excuse?” by Suzy Becker
10. “Healing and Hope: Six Women from Betty Ford Center Share Journeys of Addiction and Recovery” by Betty Ford
11. “Heroes with a thousand faces – true stories of people w/ facial deformities and their quest for acceptance” by Laura Greenwald
12. “Rescuing Jeffrey” by Richard Galli – traumatic spinal cord injury story”
13. “The Camera My Mother Gave me” by Susanna Kaysen – sickness journey
14. “Dyspraxia: The Hidden Handicap” by Dr Amanda Kirby
15. “Miracle Birth Stories of Very Premature Babies” by Timothy Smith
16. “Playing for their Lives: Helping Troubled Children through Play Therapy” by Dorothy Singer
17. “Acquainted with the night: a parent's quest to understand depression and bipolar disorder in his children” by Paul Raeburn
18. “A handful of ashes” by Dr Victoria Greenleaf, on raising an antisocial child
19. “Chicken Soup for the Caregiver's Soul”