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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
Memory is so fickle, there's no such thing as a reliable narrator. Forget the pursuit of happiness, pursue the SELF.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Again the dilemma of reviewing an autobiographical book about something that had a devastating effect for the author: give it 5 stars for the amazing good the information is doing to others experiencing the same, or rate it based on the things I usually enjoy about nonfiction writing. So I compromised with 3 stars.
The book is about the craziness and dangers of misdiagnoses. It's about having your body turn against you, keeping you an unrexognizable captive to others who are bound to think you've just gone insane. Cahalan's experience is the most extreme case of an autoimmune disease I have heard of, yet facets of her symptoms and reactions are familiar to those of us dealing with more garden-variety types of autoimmune issues.
On the other hand, I found myself leafing through some pages because Cahalan's tone could change from highly personal and invested to thesaurus-assisted descriptions of scenes to super dry runs of factoids that seemed to be lifted straight out of Wikipedia. Or maybe we can go meta and say that the book is simply a metaphor for how the illness made her inconsistent in the ways she expressed herself...? If the topic itself had not been so interesting, I would have left this book unfinished due to what to me seemed like a very disjointed narration.
The book is about the craziness and dangers of misdiagnoses. It's about having your body turn against you, keeping you an unrexognizable captive to others who are bound to think you've just gone insane. Cahalan's experience is the most extreme case of an autoimmune disease I have heard of, yet facets of her symptoms and reactions are familiar to those of us dealing with more garden-variety types of autoimmune issues.
On the other hand, I found myself leafing through some pages because Cahalan's tone could change from highly personal and invested to thesaurus-assisted descriptions of scenes to super dry runs of factoids that seemed to be lifted straight out of Wikipedia. Or maybe we can go meta and say that the book is simply a metaphor for how the illness made her inconsistent in the ways she expressed herself...? If the topic itself had not been so interesting, I would have left this book unfinished due to what to me seemed like a very disjointed narration.
emotional
informative
medium-paced
As a reader, who reads fiction 99.99% of the time, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy reading Brain on Fire or would I get bored with it. Yet, when I started reading, I was captivated by her way of writing and the mystery of her story. Her story was emotionally moving, especially at one part that happened after she wrote the article about her time in the hospital and it brought forth many cases that were like hers. I couldn't believe that there were so many cases similar to hers and the fact that doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is a moving and courageous story that keeps you reading because of the mystery of her month long stay at the hospital and the unknown of her illness.
Reading this book has opened my mind to so many things and has made me want to read more memoirs. It was that good of a book.
Review also posted at Little Pieces of Books
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is a moving and courageous story that keeps you reading because of the mystery of her month long stay at the hospital and the unknown of her illness.
Reading this book has opened my mind to so many things and has made me want to read more memoirs. It was that good of a book.
Review also posted at Little Pieces of Books
This book was really interesting from start to finish. I appreciated the honesty of the author in explaining how she researched her own history and admitting that some areas are still unclear. I was afraid, at first, that the mystery illness was going to turn out to be some kind of plot twist, like an M. Night Shyamalan movie - the kind of thing you roll your eyes at a bit. (I'm not a Shyamalan fan.) But it was genuinely interesting and shone a light on an illness I had never heard of, one that needs more recognition.
My only gripe, and this is petty, I know, is that the audiobook version is narrated by the author instead of a professional narrator. This wouldn't be a problem, except that Cahalan didn't enunciate well, and I got a little annoyed about it. Minor gripe, yeah yeah yeah.
My only gripe, and this is petty, I know, is that the audiobook version is narrated by the author instead of a professional narrator. This wouldn't be a problem, except that Cahalan didn't enunciate well, and I got a little annoyed about it. Minor gripe, yeah yeah yeah.
Whew! This was so interesting. We literally know nothing about brains.
A quick and fascinating story.
Part One (Crazy), when things started to unravel, was magnetic. Part Two (The Clock), the author's hospitalization, was very good. Part Three (In Search of Lost Time), the author’s recovery, was generally very good but had some annoying moments that slowed the narrative.
The author has a nice straightforward writing style and did an excellent job of presenting medical and scientific jargon in clear and understandable ways. She struck the perfect balance of providing the right amount of information without overwhelming the reader. Also, the author wrote with commendable and refreshing honesty.
I was less enthused about the later passages involving her mother and father. Despite the author’s efforts to present them favorably they were simply unlikable. I can't fault the author for writing about them, because they were central to the story, but they were a drag nonetheless.
Part One (Crazy), when things started to unravel, was magnetic. Part Two (The Clock), the author's hospitalization, was very good. Part Three (In Search of Lost Time), the author’s recovery, was generally very good but had some annoying moments that slowed the narrative.
The author has a nice straightforward writing style and did an excellent job of presenting medical and scientific jargon in clear and understandable ways. She struck the perfect balance of providing the right amount of information without overwhelming the reader. Also, the author wrote with commendable and refreshing honesty.
I was less enthused about the later passages involving her mother and father. Despite the author’s efforts to present them favorably they were simply unlikable. I can't fault the author for writing about them, because they were central to the story, but they were a drag nonetheless.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced