Doon, by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon

Let me tell you about an adorable little series of teen romance novels published through Zondervan by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon.

Genre: Teen romance / Fairy Tale

Reason for Reading: The publisher, Zondervan, provided a copy of Destined for Doon in exchange for an honest review.

The first book in the series is Doon.

Summary: For Veronica’s entire life other people have walked all over her and abandoned her. When a recent break-up leads to Veronica hallucinating a handsome Scottish boy, she’s half convinced she’s crazy…but as she continues to see flashes of him, she realizes it is her destiny to cross over the Brig ‘O Doon in Scotland and meet her destined. MacKenna, her best friend, has other plans for herself and Veronica, though.

Review: This was a sweet teen romance for people who are fans of fairy-tale endings. It had a nice combination of adventure (saving an imperiled kingdom from a nasty witch, while dodging angry mobs) and angsty teen romance. It was fun to watch how close Veronica and MacKenna were, despite their differences in personality. They each had strengths and weaknesses, making them a fantastic team. This is a story just as much about friendship as it is about romance.

Destined for Doon ● Authors: Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon

Zondervan ● September 2, 2014 ● ISBN: 9780310742333

Hardcover/$17.99 U.S. ● Ages 15+

The second book in the series is Destined for Doon

Summary: Unlike Veronica, MacKenna didn’t have a fairy-tale ending in the first book. She chose a difficult path, and one that didn’t make her as happy as she’d wished. But when MacKenna is given a chance to redeem herself (as well as save the imperiled kingdom of Doon from zombies), she snatches it up. But can she redeem the mistakes of her past?

Review: For me, this book seemed faster-paced than the first one. It picked up a few months after the first one left off, and instead of focusing mainly on Veronica’s relationship with Jamie, it focused on Mackenna and Duncan. One thing I liked about this continuation is that (unlike many teen romance series) the problems that must be overcome in the second book are not simply continuations of problems from the first book. Mackenna and Duncan, as a couple, are so different to Veronica and Jamie. Again, this story is a nice combination of adventure and angsty teen love.

And, of course, the moment you were all waiting for – this is where I give a free copy of Destined for Doon to one lucky winner. This offer is for a hardcover copy of the book, and it’s good for anyone within the US.

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Carey Corpe: Carey Corp lives in the metropolitan Midwest with her loveable yet out-of-control family. Carey wrote her first book at the age of seven, and currently begins each morning consuming copious amounts of coffee while weaving stories that capture her exhaustive imagination. She harbors a voracious passion (in no consistent order) for mohawks, Italy, musical theater, chocolate, and Jane Austen. Carey’s debut novel for teens, The Halo Chronicles: The Guardian, earned her national recognition as 2010 Golden Heart finalist for best young adult fiction and was featured at the 2012 RT Booklovers Convention in Chicago in YA Alley.

Lorie Langdon: Lorie Langdon has wanted to write her own novels since she was a wee girl reading every Judy Blume book she could get her hands on. So a few years ago, she left her thriving corporate career to satisfy the voices in her head. Now as a full-time author and stay-at-home mom, she spends her summers editing poolside while dodging automatic water-gun fire, and the rest of the year tucked into her cozy office, Havanese puppy by her side, working to translate her effusive imagination into the written word and continue to build the young-adult-focused blog, HonestlyYA. Read more at HonestlyYA.com.

Why I’d switch places with Emma

This week’s Feature and Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, asks us to write about characters we’d like to trade places with. This was a really hard question for me, because the books I love the most tend to be about people that have problems galore. Hermione Granger? No thank-you. Don’t want to battle Voldemort. I have my own demons to battle.

After a while, I realized the character I’d most like to switch places with is Emma from Jane Austen’s novel of that name. Reason? Clearly I’d be better at handling Emma’s problems than Emma. 😉 Of course, I also have 15 years on her…and maybe if I grew up all spoiled and rich I would be just as stubborn as Emma. Emma is so sensible but misapplies her sense so gratuitously – and Mr. Knightly loves her anyway – that’s what makes me want to change places with Emma. Although this isn’t my favorite Austen novel, and Mr. Knightly isn’t quite as romantic as Colonel Brandon (from Sense and Sensibility), Emma is my pick. 🙂 You can see my review of Emma here.

The last two weeks on Resistance is Futile

Coming next week at Resistance is Futile

Anybody who’s been reading my blog for a while will know that I have an upcoming event to raise awareness and personal education about suicide and mental illness. The stigma for these two issues is very high in our culture, and that means that many people who are feeling suicidal have no one to talk to about their problems. Many people who kill themselves could have been saved if only our culture didn’t frown upon expressing so-called weaknesses. Many people who could have been treated for mental illness before cascading to rock bottom are left floundering with no one to talk to. Educate yourself and others about mental illness and suicide in order to fight this dangerous stigma!

My upcoming event is one small way to educate yourself. You can read a book or watch a film / show that educates you on mental illness. Mention it on your blog / goodreads / other place, and provide the link to the review in my comments section. I’ll collect them all and make a tab of this year’s selections, so that you can see what everyone else has been reading. 🙂

Destined for Doon, by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon will be released on September 2nd, and I’ll be hosting a giveaway of this sweet little teen romance. My review and author spotlight goes up on September 2nd.

The last two weeks on Resistance is Futile

Watched this movie with my nephew and my friend for her birthday.
This movie was surprisingly fantastic. I hadn’t expected them to be able to keep so close to the story of the book and yet have it adapt to screen so well. I am SO happy that I went to it. Even my 10-year-old nephew loved it, though it seems to be aimed at a slightly older audience.

I volunteered 28 hours at the crisis hotline

Had an orientation for my new job 🙂

I read the August 8 issue of New Scientist. I was most struck by the article about the “big beasts” – bears, lynx, and wolves – returning to Europe. It included a sweet story about one collared wolf that walked from the Balkans in Eastern Europe, over alps 6 meters deep in snow, to Italy. The story actually brought a little tear to my eye, so I must have been in an emotional state of mind. The article also discussed the social / environmental implications of the large animals returning to Europe.

As mentioned in my post yesterday about fears and vulnerability, I was at the hospital for a good chunk of the last week. But hopefully I’m doing better now!

While I was in the hospital, my wonderful BFF gave me two books. One of them was this adorable and hilarious Japanimation comic. It gave me (and a few of the other patients) some needed laughs. 🙂

While locked up I also enjoyed a game of cribbage with a couple fellow detainees (er…patients).

They also taught me how to play Rummy.

And we watched the Vikings berserk the Chiefs for a 30 to 12 score.

Upon sweet release, I celebrated by taking my nephew to see Guardians of the Galaxy – yes, I wanted to see baby Groot dance on the big screen again. 🙂 I can do that over and over! We are Groot! My nephew, sadly, claimed that he liked Ninja Turtles better. 😦

I also celebrated by having my FIRST pumpkin spice latte of the season! Yum!

And yesterday, I got flowers for the first time in over a decade.
That makes the hospital stay worth it, right? 😉

I FINALLY got to play the game Pandemic for the fist time, thanks to someone I met in the hospital. So perhaps that made the hospital stay worthwhile as well. 🙂

Newly Acquired

Bought this at Goodwill. It will go well with my mental illness theme the next couple of months, though I don’t know if I’ll have time to read it, since I have so much else going on. *sigh*

This book was also given to me by my BFF while I was in the hospital.

Daily Deal sale at Audible

Audiobook from the library. Thought it would fit in really nicely with my mental illness theme. Since I had to return A Beautiful Mind, by Sylvia Nasar before finishing it, I’ll read this for now.

Vulnerability – My deepest fear

As usual this week I am combining my Life of a Blogger (by Novel Heartbeat) post with my Friendship Friday (by Create with Joy). This week’s topic is fears.

Some fears are easy to discuss, and some are harder to discuss. It depends a lot on what your fears are. For instance, I have a fear of making myself vulnerable. So stating my fears actually goes against one of my deepest fears. However, I’ve been working on this specific fear, so this post will be a good opportunity to test out my new mad skilz at being vulnerable.

The Scream
Artist: Edvard Munch
(who theoretically had bipolar)

One of the things that has been making me feel vulnerable lately is my recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this diagnosis, it used to be called manic-depressive disorder. I’m diagnosed with type 2, which means I’ve only been “hypomanic” and not “fully manic.” Hypomania increased my irritability, irrationality, and impulsivity while (on a happier note) making me feel that I couldn’t be wrong, that I had the ability to climb the highest mountains and take on the world. I lost several people I considered friends during that period. And that still makes me feel abandoned and vulnerable. (Though, I have to admit, the online community is SO amazingly supportive, and I’m very thankful for you guys. You’re all rockstars!)

With the spirit of fighting my fears, I will admit that the reason my blog has been a bit quiet last week is because I was in the psych ward of the hospital. (My doctor was unfortunately not as handsome as the one above.) I was really angry at my psychiatric NP for putting me there, because I didn’t feel that I was in crisis at that time. But now that I’m out, I realize that he was trying to make sure I was stabilized and ready for my new job, which starts on the 2nd of September. He was being forward thinking, and I was very unappreciative. I guess I’ll have to thank him later.

I hadn’t originally planned on writing about my mental illness on this post – nor had I planned to mention that I’d been hospitalized in my upcoming weekly update. But when I was searching stock photos for a nice illustration of fear, I found the one above. It seemed fitting, somehow. Before I can change (and therefore master my new job), I need to admit to myself that I actually am in crisis. And to admit that, I need to make myself vulnerable.

The picture I wanted to choose for this post is the one above – with the spooky religious images. I’d already been having a bit of a faith crisis before I was diagnosed with bipolar, but the diagnosis put my faith into a tailspin. What if…I thought…what if all this time that I thought I was being inspired or called by God, all those feelings of “rightness” and euphoria were just figments of a hypomanic mind? That is the most terrifying feeling I’ve ever experienced. The foundation of my faith was no longer stable. I’d say on the Richter scale this faithquake was about a 6.5. Most of my faith is still there, but I’m walking around all wobbly. There were a lot of things I felt that God had called me to do – writing is among them. I started writing this blog because I felt that God wanted me to write, and a blog would be a good place to practice both writing and marketing. Now I wonder…what do I blog for? If I give up on my faith, do I stop blogging?

Anyway, putting my vulnerability and faith aside, my own diagnosis of mental illness is a fantastic segue to plug my upcoming Suicide and Mental Illness Theme Read. Don’t forget to stop by my blog in September and October to see what people are reading and watching for this event. I’ll also be having a couple of giveaways. You’re welcome to jump in and participate at any point in time…all you need to do is read or watch something that educates you on suicide or mental illness. It can even be something that’s an accurate portrayal of mental illness – just tell us why you think it’s not. 🙂 I have a list of suggestions for both books and movies.

The Week at Resistance is Futile

Well, the Suicide and Mental Illness Awareness Theme Read hosted here at Resistance is Futile is coming upon me really quickly, and I still haven’t written a post with suggestions. So I decided I would throw in some links for you to check out. 🙂

Popular Mental Illness books (Goodreads list) – Several of the books on this list I have already read or are on my TBR mountain.

11 of the most Realistic Portrayals of Mental Illness in Novels – This is a pretty interesting article with some good suggestions. And don’t miss the embedded list of 20 Greatest Memoirs of Mental Illness.

Mental Illness in Fiction (Wikipedia) – This interesting list includes some much older books as well as some unexpected inclusions (LOTR? – Ok, yeah, I guess Golem was mentally ill, but…it DOES make kind of a fun list, though. And you can feel free to be )

Contemporary YA books featuring mental illness – What is a list of books without YA these days? 😉

NAMI Blog: The Top 10 Movies about Mental Illness – This is a really good list (should be, coming from NAMI). I’ve seen 6 of them. 🙂

10 Gripping Films about Mental Illness – This list seems pretty good, as well.

10 Best Portrayals of Mental Illness in Modern Movies – This list, I suspect, is more about the acting than about psychology. From I totally agree with the assessment of great acting on this list!

This week in Futile Resistance World…

My friend and I watched another two storyarcs of the William Hartnell years for Doctor Who. We’ve made it a good way through Hartnell’s years, and we have decided to move ON to the second doctor. 🙂 YAY!

This week I volunteered 20 hours at the text center

I watched Elysium – which turned out to be a rather philosophical movie with liberal leanings. The whole, everybody-deserves-to-have-medical-care lean. 😉 I found the movie rather sad because the problems portrayed were SO easily translated to problems we’re seeing in today’s world. I know that’s the point of dystopias. But it still made me sad that we should have to question whether a human being deserves to be denied medical treatment just because he was born in the wrong part of the world. 😦

I watched this movie with my nephew. I didn’t think it was fantastic, but my nephew LOVED it. 🙂 Then again, I’m not a purist, so I’m not particularly concerned about the differences between the original movies and this movie…I just found the humor sort of stupid and the turtles were really ugly to look at. So. Meh.

Other posts on Resistance is Futile…

My blog has been really slow lately, but here’s a little something if you’re following my “epic poem” about Facing my demons.

Newly Acquired


Thought I would review the TV show Monk for my Suicide and Mental Illness Awareness theme. This seemed a nice accompaniment, especially since I love the Pop Culture and Philosophy series. Bought this one on my Nook.

This is the first book in a series. I was asked to do a blog tour for the second book in the series, so I’m reading this one first. Got it in hardcover from the library.

ARC provided by publisher
Blog tour and giveaway on 9/4

ARC provided by publisher
Blog tour and giveaway on 10/7

I hope to read this book during September and October’s Suicide and Mental Illness Theme Read. Purchased it in paperback.

Bought this in paperback

Storm Thief, by Chris Wooding

The Storm Thief, by Chris Wooding

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia, Science Fiction, Ages 11-14

Reason for Reading: This was my bookclub book for this month.

Summary: The island city of Orokos has been trapped in isolation for so long that the idea of a “world outside Orokos” had become a dream for only the naive and the fanatics. There is nothing outside of Orokos, and Orokos is nothing but city, ghetto, and the ruling Protectorate. Chaos storms wreak havoc upon Orokos and its inhabitants – picking people up and dropping them elsewhere; crippling some people while giving life to others. Even eyeshadow isn’t too small to be overlooked by the probability storms.

When Rail and Moa make a snap decision to hide an expensive artifact from their Thief Mistress, they must flee with an assassin hot on their trail. While running, they come across a golem, Vago, who’d been misplaced by a probability storm before he had any idea of who he was, where he was from, or why he was made. Where can these refugees go when the Protectorate rules with an iron fist – keeping ghetto-folk away from the city? Their path is simply a series of coincidences strung together…leading, where?

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. The characters were simple enough to flow well in a book for young teens, but each character had an interesting mixture of strengths and weaknesses. My favorite character was Vago, the Golem, whose process of self-discovery throughout the story made him intriguing.

I loved the philosophical underpinnings of this story. It reminded us that the random power of entropy will always win. It always destroys what we have worked to build. Entropy is a non-stoppable machine. So why do we continue fighting it? Why do we continue dreaming of that “other world” when we have so much evidence that it doesn’t exist? Why do we clutch hopefully to mere coincidences and use them to fuel our dreams?

Slight spoilerish material
This is a book about hope as well as one about chaos. One character, who was “fanatically” willing to risk the lives of her people in pursuit of a seemingly impossible dream said: “We can stay here with our dreams just out of reach, or we can risk everything to reach them.” Even after having finished the book, I’m still not certain which was the right thing to do – was it better for her people to risk everything in pursuit of their dreams? Or was it foolish? Is it better to keep yourself safe by being cynically aware of the brutality of the world, or is it better to hope, dream, or love?

To me, the lasting message of the book is: your life might be nothing more than a series of coincidences that are out of your control, but how you respond to the world defines who you are – and YOU decide how you respond. I’m not sure whether I agree with this philosophy or not. Lately, I’ve had a bit of a faith crisis – which makes the life-is-a-random-string-of-coincidences theory sound rather rational. But I know what everyone expects me to say is that God is in control, it’s not a string of coincidences. 😉

The Week at Resistance is Futile

Don’t forget to sign up for my Suicide and Mental Illness Theme Read, coming up in September and October. 🙂 I know I keep saying this, but soon I will post a some lists of books, shows, and movies for suggestions – but the rule is, if YOU think your review fits the theme, then it does. 🙂 Even if your review is mostly to say “this is a novel completely misrepresents mental illness.”

This week in Futile Resistance world…

Did anyone else watch Guardians of the Galaxy this week? It was HILARIOUS. I loved it!

And when I took the online quiz, it turns out I am Groot. Yeah. That’s awesome.

I reviewed Rin Chupeco’s spooky new YA book The Girl From the Well, (the giveaway is open through the end of the month, you can still sign up!) I also posted the trailer for the book, if you’re interested.

I went to a Frozen-themed birthday party for my friend’s three-year-old. That was a lot of fun. (Happy Birthday Lucy!)

A friend and I watched TWO storyarcs from the Doctor Who (The William Hartnell years).

My friend and I are really struggling with keeping our interest in William Hartnell’s doctor. So far, he’s nosy, tactless, condescending, and self-absorbed. Plus, the overall theme fits the old British imperialism (white man’s burden, and all that jazz). That is in stark contrast to the deeper philosophical message of the modern doctors where his purpose is to protect others’ cultures. And where even there is even depth in the Dalek’s plan of universal extermination. I can’t wait until we move on to the second doctor! Hopefully he’ll be more tolerable.

Well, I accepted a new job coming up in September, which pays double what I was making at unnamed-bookstore-chain-which-I-am-not-allowed-to-blog-about-because-Big-Nanny (BN for short)-might-be-watching. It’s not QUITE where I want to be, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction and introduces some interesting opportunities for growth within the company. This week I got my background and drug test, both of which I passed. 🙂

This week I volunteered for 8 hours as a crisis counselor for a texting crisis line for teens. I encourage everybody who has a lot of empathy for people in crisis to volunteer at a crisis hotline. The suicide CPR training is superb. You won’t regret the time spent!

I finally caught up on my Grimm! In fact, I think this is the first time in the history of me that I’ve been caught up on a TV show that is still running. I can’t wait until Season 4 premieres in October!

Perused some interesting articles in this week’s Economist. I was mainly interested in learning that the state of Britan’s prisons is pretty similar to the state of those in the US. Which is sad. 😦

I got this free e-comic book from Marvel after buying the giganto fountain drink at Subway. In it, the Guardians fight a war to protect Earth. Ironman joins the fight, but he’s not as cool as the Guardians, based upon his ability to remain conscious. This comic was 20 pages of amusement. I guess that’s really good for the price. 🙂

Other posts on Resistance is Futile this week

I added two new stanzas to Facing my Demons

And I posted about My Favorite Childhood Memory

Newly Acquired…

This is my post for Stacking the Shelves (hosted by Tynga’s Reviews), the Sunday Post (hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer), Sunday Salon, and Mailbox Monday.

Favorite Childhood Memories

This week’s Life of a Blogger, hosted by Novel Heartbeat asks us to relate our best childhood memories. I find this a really interesting topic. Memories are slippery little buggers, they never stay the same with time. I know you might THINK your memories are absolute – I frequently fall into that trap – but they do change. They change EVERY time you relive them. But here is my earliest memory – sorry, I couldn’t come up with anything from fetus-hood for you Scientologists out there.

When I was an toddler, I used to crawl out of my crib. I only have one memory of doing it: I had just, with ninja stealth and agility, escaped my prison. Immediately, I heard my mother’s footsteps coming down the hall. I slid silently under the crib wondering fretfully: how does she always know…HOW does she ALWAYS know? (Answer: Clearly my mom is a Ninja Master in disguise.)

One day when I was around 4 or 5, I asked my parents how they always knew whenever I crawled out of the crib. They looked at me in utter astonishment. They had a hard time believing that I actually remembered such an innocuous event. But I DID remember. Now, of course, I’m an adult, and I only remember remembering the incident. But I can learn a couple of things from this memory: 1) Toddlers think before they’re old enough to talk, 2) even though most of us have no real memories from before the age of 4ish, kids that age can remember things earlier than that.

Feel free to comment on YOUR most interesting childhood memory below!

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In addition to posting this on Life of a Blogger, it is also my Friendship Friday post, hosted by Create With Joy; and my Feature and Follow Friday post, hosted by Allison Can Read and Parajunkee’s View.

Girl from the Well, by Rin Chupeco

The Girl from the Well, by Rin Chupeco

Genre: Teen Horror / Suspense

Reason for Reading: This book was provided by the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: Tarquin (Tark) Halloway has been haunted his entire life. With a mentally ill mother and a caring father who works too much, he feels he has no one to talk to about the strange lady that slinks through mirrors and makes Tark do terrible things. But when he meets a roaming spirit, Okiku, they both begin to remember what it is to be human. With the help from Tark’s cousin Callie, Okiku and Tark must rid himself of his haunting.

My Thoughts: Let me tell you, if I had read this book when I was 14, I would have been sleeping with the lights on for weeks. The spookiness / imagery is reminiscent of Japanese horror films that The Grudge (Ju-On: The Grudge) and The Ring (Ringu) were based on. (Have you seen the originals? Not the American remakes. Watch the real thing. Darn spooky! That’s what The Girl From the Well is like.) Same evil-ghost-child-with-long-creepy-hair-staring-at-you-in-crazy-fast-did-that-actually-just-happen-flashes feel to it.

Part of Rin Chupeco’s spooky genius is her narration style. The story is narrated from the POV of the ghost, Okiku. Often, it reads like a 3rd person omniscient narrative, because Okiku mostly observes rather than acting. I often forgot I was reading a first person POV, and then suddenly Okiku would say something in the first person, and it was like she had just appeared out of nowhere. Like a ghost. Spooky. And then, sometimes Okiku would describe herself in the third person – a description of a ghost as Callie or Tark would have seen. This gave Okiku’s character a sense of otherness. She felt inhuman. Ineffable.

Overall, I think this was an fantastic book, and I look forward to reading more of Chupeco’s works. I miss the old days when ghosts were ghosts and monsters were monsters. I applaud Chupeco’s work as one more for the #reclaimhorror team. (Ok, I just made that hashtag up, so technically she’s the first on the team. But it’s all good.)

Rin Chupeco: Despite uncanny resemblances to Japanese revenants, Rin Chupeco has always maintained her sense of humor. Raised in Manila, Philippines, she keeps four pets: a dog, two birds, and a husband. She’s been a technical writer and travel blogger, but now makes things up for a living. The Girl from the Well is her debut novel. Connect with Rin at www.rinchupeco.com.

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Weekend Update – Blogging in the Twin Cities

This week’s Feature and Follow Friday asks its participants to tell our readers a little bit about our neighborhoods. I have lived in several states, mostly in the mid-west, and Minnesota is my favorite by far. It’s a fantastic combination of urban hipster, historic city, and wilderness. Above is a picture of Downtown Minneapolis, prominently featuring the stadium-formerly-known-as-the-Metrodome (home of the “president,” Richard Starkey, in The Postman). Below is a photo of our State Capitol building in Saint Paul.

Minnesota can also be rather artsy, and one of the iconic Minnesotan sculptures is Spoonbridge & Cherry. That’s the Minneapolis skyline in the background.

Rochester, Minnesota was the home of the Mayo brothers, who founded the Mayo Clinic. Its skyline is below:

But, of course, my favorite part of Minnesota, by far, is the North Shore on Lake Superior. Hundreds of miles of breathtaking shoreline with campsites and hiking galore.

Life of a Blogger – Favorite Outings

I’ve just discovered a new meme Life of a Blogger, which seems a great way to get to know other book bloggers in a more personal way. This week’s theme, favorite outings, fits in really well with my already-established MN theme. My fondest memory of going on a trip as a child is when dad took my sister and me on a canoe/backpacking trip to the Boundary Waters in MN. I remember how beautiful it was. And how adventuresome I felt! Having more experience with backpacking now than I did as a 10-year-old, I can only imagine how tired my poor dad was canoeing alone in the wilderness with two children.

And now for an update on Rachel B and her blog!
(Yes, I just spoke about myself in the third person. Deal with it.)

This month (well, really, this past year) has been quite rough here in Rachel B. world. I’ve been on the long haul trying to battle depression without any medical aid. Finally, I broke down and tried out anti-depressants, and they made me feel GREAT! In fact, a little too great. And then I went “crazy.” Turns out, I’m bipolar. And bipolar people flip manic when they take anti-depressants. I’d just never experienced that before, so I didn’t know how to deal with it. But now that we know what it is, I think we’re finally getting it under control. I’d like to take this moment to give a hearty thanks to all of my supporters out there (both in the real-world and in the cyber-world) who stuck by me through my hard times. And for those of you who abandoned me…well, you’re not reading this, are you? YOUR LOSS. HA!

Ok, sorry, just had to stick my tongue out just a little.

My main point is, mental illness is poorly understood and greatly stigmatized in American culture. (I assume in many other cultures, too, but I don’t want to generalize too much.) We need this stigma to stop. It’s the people who speak out about their illnesses that get the support that they need, and it’s the people who are abandoned and stigmatized that often end up losing their sense of who they are…We need to end the stigma!

I’ve been doing my part to end the stigma by organizing a Suicide and Mental Illness Awareness Theme in September and October. You can sign up on the post, or just jump in at the last minute. It’s all good. I’ll have some giveaways and some guest bloggers (still looking for people, so if you have something you’d like to share on the subject, just let me know!). In the following week, I’ll post a list of books / movies just to give you ideas. But this is very informal. If you think your book, essay, documentary, movie, etc. fits the theme, it counts! Write a review and send me the link. Reviews on Goodreads, blogs, or any sort of public post will work. I’ll post a list of the reviews as I collect them, so everyone can see what other people are doing.

Other than that, my blog has been sadly inactive, other than occasional poetry posts – Facing My Demons.

Recent Acquisitions

This week, I have acquired only one new book, and it was the Free Friday book on the Nook: