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Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts

Sunday, May 29, 2011

We All Fall Down by Nic Sheff

We All Fall Down: Living with AddictionFrom Goodreads:
In his bestselling memoir Tweak, Nic Sheff took readers on an emotionally gripping roller-coaster ride through his days as a crystal meth and heroin addict. Now in this powerful follow-up about his continued efforts to stay clean, Nic writes candidly about eye-opening stays at rehab centers, devastating relapses, and hard-won realizations about what it means to be a young person living with addiction.
Nic Sheff and his father, David Sheff, captured a nation of readers with their bestselling memoirs Tweak and Beautiful Boy. Those books explore teen drug addiction from two different points of view: a son's and a father's. Nic currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
 This book is a candid telling of what Nic Sheff did to try and stay sober. The hard road he took and about who helped and who became co-dependants with him. I was curious about this world as I kid to my mother that I would be the world's worst addict. I hate taking pills, even those that help me like my migraine medication. Personally, I hate that feeling of being out of control or being controlled by a substance, so this world is foreign to me. Yes, I have actually met addicts, even gone to school with some. The destruction I witness was one of an outsider but I could still see the path of destruction addiction wrought, just like a tornado. Now, I am sensitive to those that have lost to the recent tornadoes, but I have seen that same haunting look in loved ones who were left behind, hence the parallel.

This book opens the doors to what it might be like as an addict. We hear Nic's addict speak, justifications to others and especially himself as he knows the road he is on will lead back to addiction. We see programs that just didn't work for him. This part actually upset me. It seemed to me that the individual was ignored and that confusing messages were being played at the center he was trying to get sober. It actually made him a better con artist rather than gave him building blocks to work on to stay in sobriety. The counsellor's ego and their ill equipped programs were more important than getting at root problems and making sure there was nothing more chemically related going on within his brain. And as he points out 12 step programs aren't for everyone. However, what is great about Nic, is that he didn't like the 12 step program but still got use out of it. He found a sober community in which he could relate. So, only in that aspect, albeit an important one, he found solace in that program. 

This book is slated for the YA crowd. I think that is important and it makes sense. It is a book that may relate to those just starting on their addiction journey. Perhaps they will find something that speaks to an at risk group and instead of turning to drugs, they can seek out better ways to mature normally instead of stunting their emotional growth. For example, addicts often feel that they are too sensitive for the world. Perhaps that is true, but it is also more true that they do not have the proper coping skills to deal with these strong emotions. So, by saying that I feel this is also important one for parents to read this as well, so they can have a grasp at what may be going on, get help themselves, and direct behavior appropriately without freaking out. 

I give this book 3 stars. It is a hard book to read because you see him going down the same path over and over. However, that is the beauty in the book as well. It is a warning for kids to find out who they really are and find a community to support them even if their family doesn't. You can't do that numb.

I received this book from the publisher and no compensation for my review was given.

Monday, May 16, 2011

In Stitches by Anthony Youn, MD

In StitchesFrom Goodreads:

Scrubs meets David Sedaris in this hilarious fish-out-of-water memoir about a young Korean-American nerd turned renowned plastic surgeon. 
Dr. Tony Youn grew up one of two Asian-American kids in a small town where diversity was uncommon. Too tall and too thin, he wore thick Coke-bottle glasses, braces, Hannibal Lecter headgear, and had a protruding jaw that one day began to grow, expanding to an unthinkable, monstrous size. After high school graduation, while other seniors partied at the beach or explored Europe, Youn lay strapped in an oral surgeon’s chair where he underwent a life-changing jaw reconstruction. Ironically, it was this brutal makeover that led him to his life’s calling, and he continued on to endure the four horrific, hilarious, sex-starved, and tension-filled years that eventually earned him an M.D. Offering a window into a side of medicine that most people never see, Youn shares his bumpy journey from a shy, skinny, awkward nerd into a renowned and successful plastic surgeon.  
Now, Youn is the media’s go-to plastic surgeon. He appears regularly on The Rachael Ray Show, and his blog, Celebrity Cosmetic Surgery, is widely read and the most popular blog by a plastic surgeon in the country. But it was a long road to success, and In Stitches recounts Dr. Youn’s misfit adolescence and his four tumultuous years in medical school with striking wit, heart, and humility.  
For anyone who has ever experienced the awkward teenage years, who has struggled to find his or her way in college, who has been worried that their “calling” would never come, who wants to believe that their doctor really cares, or is just ready for a read that will make you laugh and cry at the same time, this book is for you.
Ever wonder why your doctor became... well, a doctor? This is a memoir of Tony Youn, MD and how and why he became a doctor of plastic surgery. He starts the memoir at 2 days old where his father, a "baby doctor" declares that he will become a doctor as well. Even though his mother admonishes him to at least wait until the second week of life to declare his son's profession, she knows that his father will not be denied. So, Tony grows up with the knowledge that he will be a doctor no matter what since he is loathe to disappoint his father. As he grows he also feels awkward as a teen and has his real first brush with what corrective surgery can do for a person. The person is Tony and he has his overgrown jaw broken twice so he could look more normal. The mantra of teenage-dom.

Of course we follow him though college and finally to his residency. Along the way we see epiphanies in which he finds that he really does want to be a doctor and why. This is also where the humor for me really picks up. When a disfigured child is brought into the NICU he is fascinated with how the plastic surgeon thinks and what he believes he can change for the child. This starts Tony on his way to becoming the surgeon he wants to be. It also becomes very surreal in some ways because of all the different doctors and administrators he encounters.

I give this book 3 1/2 stars. If you ever thought of becoming a doctor... or like me... knows someone who wants to be one (she will get this book from me), I think this is a great memoir to give them. I think they will connect to it even more than I did.

I was given this book from the publisher, Simon & Schuster and no compensation for my review was given.