synnereads's reviews
438 reviews

What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella

hopeful inspiring reflective sad

3.5

A warm, honest and moving little slice-of-life novella, based on Sophie Kinsella's experiences with a serious illness. I wish her all the best❤️

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook by Bruce D. Perry

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4.75

Very enlightening and interesting read about what effect adverse experiences can have on children and their brain's development. 
Heartbreaking and hopeful stories of encounters with different children who have been through unimaginable things. Very moving to read about<3

The author was sometimes a little quick to assume causality (You can't know for sure whether "this" lead to "that" on an individual level), but this is just a minor grievance. He is clearly extremely knowledgeable when it comes to neuroscience and developmental psychology.

Det ordner sig by Signe Amtoft

adventurous hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing

3.0

En koselig reiseskildring fra Island, der danske Signe Amtoft utforsker naturen og menneskene på den forblåste øya i Atlanterhavet – en øy som tidligere var en dansk koloni. (Og, ja, de lærer fremdeles dansk på skolene der borte, mange år etter frigjøringen fra sin danske overmakt.)

Samtidig skildrer boka Amtofts indre reise på turen, for det er naturlig nok både en opplevelse og en prøvelse å skulle reise alene, spesielt når du er litt engstelig anlagt.

Jeg hørte på lydboka innlest av forfatteren selv, og det opplevdes på mange måter som å høre på en radiodokumentar – den hadde lydopptak og musikk og alt mulig (forfatteren jobber vanligvis som radiovert, så det gir jo mening).

Det var mange fine betraktninger i boka, og jeg lærte absolutt et par nye ting om Island, men boka sto allikevel ikke helt til forventningene mine. Jeg syns den bevegde seg for mye på overflaten, og gikk for lite i dybden. Den ble rett og slett litt for enkel, og noen av refleksjonene føltes litt naive og banale.
Jeg ville ha mer dyptpløyende analyser, skarpere betraktninger, og litt mer vidd og humor. Jeg syns heller ikke at forfatteren alltid klarte å løfte opp opplevelsene sine til å bli noe "mer" og allmenngyldig – og gjøre dem til noe som er interessant for andre enn venner og familie.

Det er mulig at forventningene mine kom litt i veien, for jeg hadde gledet meg til å lese boka ganske lenge. Boka viste seg kanskje bare å være noe litt annet enn det jeg trodde at den kom til å være.

Den ga meg i hvert fall litt behagelig og lettbeint selskap i eksamensperioden, så det skal den ha!

Er jeg på jorden som de sier?: en innsideberetning fra lukket avdeling by Marie Næss

dark hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Dette var sterk lesning. Det handler om et maktesløst behandlingsapparat og om en pasient som har det veldig vanskelig, men som ofte blir behandlet som om hun ER vanskelig. 
Det handler om de som vil hjelpe, men som ikke alltid får det til, og som til med kan gjøre mer skade enn nytte i forsøket.

Det er en mørk og intens beretning, men ikke uten glimt av lys eller håp. Den historien om da brannalarmen gikk, for eksempel – den gjorde dagen min mange hakk bedre:)

Det eneste som trakk litt ned for min del, var at boka noen ganger hadde litt vel høyt tempo, og at jeg syns den kunne dvelt litt mer ved noen personer og hendelser, for eksempel ved å reflektere og beskrive litt mer.
Men alt i alt en god og viktig bok.

Det var en gang en same by Maren Uthaug

Leste denne i august, men fikk ikke loggført den her før nå:)

Det var en lærerik, morsom og drøy liten tegneserie;)
Boka minnet meg på at samene har blitt utsatt for langt mer enn fornorskningen... :(

Lånte den forresten på Deichman!

Emily Wildes encyklopedi över älvornas liv by Heather Fawcett

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing

3.5

This book did exactly what I wanted it to do: it gave me some easy, enjoyable reading while preparing for my exams – something to look forward to while spending all day, every day in my beloved university library:) 

I found Emily's very matter-of-fact and straightforward way of being/writing diary entries, quite entertaining, especially when paired with Bambelby.
 (Bambelby was basically a walking red flag, haha. Anger issues✅️ Superficial charm✅️ Vanity✅️ Carelesness✅️) 

As you might have noticed, I read (listened to) the Swedish version of the book😁
 Considering Heather Fawcett's light-minded approach to the Nordics (Norway, Iceland, same, same🙃), I didn't exactly feel obliged to stick to the original😏 ...Ok, I'm actually just kidding. I listened to the Swedish audiobook because I wanted to read the book NOW, and the English audiobook on Libby had a line, while the Swedish one was available through one of my apps;) 
The perks of being Scandinavian!😎 (aka three languages for the price of one😏)

I didn't really mind her frivolous use of the Nordics for her imagined island. I interpreted it as a fantasy version of Iceland. Strangely enough, there were lots of mentions of forests, which is... odd. Has she ever been to Iceland?😅 

This book wasn't mind-blowing or extraordinary, but it was fun:)

The Unseen World by Liz Moore

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4.75

Oh, how I loved this book. The richness of it. How the different themes and topics were weaved in so seamlessly.
It feels like I know Ada and the other characters so well now.
Liz Moore impressed me with "The God of the Woods", but she might have impressed me even more with this one. 
I definitely have to read all of Liz Moore's books.

This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health: A journey into the heartland of psychiatry by Nathan Filer

adventurous emotional informative sad

3.5

This Book Did NOT Change My Mind About Mental Health.

UK books, what's up with these clickbaity, tabloid, honestly meaningless titles? I'm fed up with them. This book is about schizophrenia and psychosis, but the title doesn't exactly tell you that. There's no poetry to the tilte either, in my opinion. 
This is probably not the author's fault, but the title still made me annoyed with the book from the get-go👌

(Btw, I listened to the audiobook read by the author)

It didn't exactly ease my annoyance when the author started saying "so-called" before every psychiatric term, because of  "controversy", like this: "so-called schizophrenia", "so-called mental illness", and so on.

Do you know what's more controversial than the term mental illness!? Putting "so-called" in front of the term every time you say it!!!!
Do you want me to constantly question everything at a word-for-word level while reading? Because that is quite frankly exhausting!
And I was not satisfied with his surface-level explanation for including the so-calleds. A little more of an in-depth analysis of this controversy would have been nice.

One last criticism: even though I think it's extremely important to be critical about psychiatric drugs, I am still a little worried that the way it's portrayed here, people will become all "medication is bad" after reading this, which is also unfortunate. Despite all their downsides, we should keep in mind that psychiatric drugs are life-saving for many people.

Now that I've told you about all my dislikes, let's move on to the positives😁

Fortunately, my annoyance eventually lessened, and I was able to get invested in the poignant stories that made up around half of the book.
I found the story about the young boy with hebephrenic schizophrenia to be really enlightening (and heartbreaking), since I've never quite understood this subcategory of schizophrenia. It shows how extremely varied (heterogenous) schizophrenia can be as an illness.

I hope the mother of this boy is doing okay today❤️

Also, one of the other stories about a mother was quite unlike anything I've read about schizophrenia before. The fact that these children lived with their mother in that state of mind for such a long time, is almost unfathomable.

So, yeah, I guess it wasn't toooo bad🙃 A mixed bag, I'd say.

I dedicate all my stars to the people that shared stories from their lives in this book.

A little recommendation:
I prefer the book "You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here" over the book I'm currently reviewing. "You Don't..." is more realistic in its approach to psychiatry. And it's more personal – the author shares as much about himself as about the patients (which is only fair!). I highly recommend that book!

Stöld (lättläst) by Ann-Helén Laestadius

informative

I read this shortened, Swedish version of the original book to prepare for a book club meeting. I read the full-length Swedish novel about 8 months ago – which I very much enjoyed; however, I don't like rereading books, so I just needed to refresh my memory a little for the book discussion (I was the one making the discussion questions, haha) 😁😅
This shortened version was a good way to get reminded of the details of the story, but other than that, I didn't get much out of it. Definitely read the full-length novel instead!

Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers

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4.5

I adored this book! It's a hopeful and insightful novel centered around the discovery of a mysterious man called William, that has been shut up in his aunt's apartment for over two decades. Through the art therapist Helen, and through William's own POV, it is slowly revealed how William's life turned out the way it did. 

A central theme in the book is the idea of imprisonment: feeling trapped in an unhappy marriage, the loneliness of not being able to tell anyone about a secret relationship, or being on the outside of society for many years. 

If you want to read something that is intelligent and layered, but also warm and uplifting, I would highly recommend this book.

Btw: I disliked Gill from the very beginning. Don't trust people that are too charismatic😏
Also, as a student of clinical psychology, I have diagnosed all three sisters with paranoid personality disorder, haha😎🤓