The Books That Have Shaped Me: 'Girl in Pieces' SST Guest Post

Girl in Pieces

By Kathleen Glasgow

Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The thick glass of a mason jar cuts deep, and the pain washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you.

Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, Kathleen Glasgow will be discussing what books that shaped her as a person and a writer.

Please welcome, Kathleen Glasgow!

I wasn’t a big talker growing up. I began, as most writers do, as a reader. One of the very first books I love, love, loved was a book give to me by my aunt Susie called What Bobolino Knew (1971), by Anne Rockwell.  It’s about a young man who knows how to speak to animals, but not much else, which enrages his father. But Bobolino sticks to his guns and his special talent ends up saving an entire village. I still have this book and read it to my kids all the time. This book taught me that there is something special about all of us, even if other people don’t see it right away.

Books have always been my go-to for information on how to “be” in the world. The situation in Judy Blume’s book Blubber, about a group of girls and bullying, mirrored the exact situation I was going through at school at the time, and really helped me to keep it together. As a teen, I found myself falling into depression and I haunted libraries and used bookstores, trying desperately to find myself, or the version of myself that I wanted to be, on the shelves. I tore through The Bell Jar, The Catcher in the Rye, Go Ask Alice. I was also fascinated by music and Hollywood and I devoured biographies of The Doors, Woody Guthrie, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Seberg, and Jean Harlow. I probably know more than I should about the studio system in Hollywood from 1930-1960.  And about Jim Morrison’s particular proclivities. And I was also taking tiny steps into writing, mainly through poetry, because I was reading (and totally NOT understanding) Rimbaud. But then I found Anne Sexton and once you’ve discovered Anne, you simply can’t be the same girl. Ever.

But all of those subjects—music, Hollywood, sadness, poetry—made me the writer (and person) I am today. They befriended me. They helped me tend my wounds, inside and out. They healed me. They showed me paths to being the person I wanted to be, and they showed me how to be at peace with the person I am.   

I wrote Girl in Pieces to be the book-friend that someone can find, whenever, and where ever, they need it.

About the Author:

Kathleen Glasgow lives in Tucson, Arizona. She writes for the radio show The Writer's Almanac and can probably provide you with some interesting anecdotes about historical literary figures if you asked nicely. You can find out more about Kathleen by following her on Twitter @kathglasgow, Instagram @misskathleenglasgow (where she posts about sunsets, depression, spirit circles, and books) or her website: kathleenglasgowbooks.com.

If you or someone you know is struggling and needs help, please consider contacting:

Crisis Text Line: Text START to 741-741

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

To Write Love on Her Arms: https://twloha.com/find-help/local-resources/

National Runaway Hotline: 1-800-621-4000

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This was hosted by the Sunday Street Team. Check it out here!

Tomato Talks: Episode 3: Why I Sometimes Hate Reading Books About Mental Illness

Listen here!

Today I talked about mental illnesses and other personal-ish stuff.

This came about because of The Memory of Light which is about a girl who attempted suicide. I started to think about my feelings towards mental illness books. (Just saying, I use mental health books and mental illness books interchangeably. By this, I mean, books that have a character with a mental illness.)

So...mental illness books. 

They kinda are part of my life now. My best friend has depression. I have other friends with different mental illnesses. I only recently started learning about 'reality'. And that includes mental illnesses. And I'm still not sure the right term. (I use disorders and illnesses interchangeably.)

I began to think about this two years ago. I was carefree and innocent before that. I never thought about the real things that make the world go round and round.

But I don't particularly love them. I mean...I do love that they exist. If you have a mental illness, you can relate to a character with the same illness. You can feel for them, and they can be your strength. 

If there was a book about someone like me, I'd definitely love it. I'd read it and cherish it. Even if the writing style is awful...okay...not true. 

And why don't I like them at times?

I think too much about it. I think too much into it. I try to match myself up to these mental illnesses. Am I depressed? Do I have an anxiety disorder? What am I?

And I hate putting myself in a box. But I do it instinctively. Why? I have no clue. Why do we do anything?

I'm just trying to figure out who I am. 

Who is Wren? Who am I? 

And it's something I've been thinking about for two years.

And I think I might always be wondering the answer to the question we all want to know the answer to. 

And apologies for random typing sounds because I was looking up some facts.

And I overuse schizophrenia as an example...but it's not true. I'm just paranoid.

And I switch back and forth between agreeing and disagreeing. So...sorry.

And I kinda get dark at the end...sorry..

And sorry for apologizing so much...wait.

Stay With Me For 'Every Last Word'

Every Last Word

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone

Goodreads / Amazon

If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off. 

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

City of Words

A story about poetry and love and OCD and a loss of control. Has romance. Has an adorable guitar player and a group of Mean and Popular Girls. A narrator you'll feel for. Amazing poetry. Amazing friendships and relationships.

"I started to cry when I began to read this. I don't know why. I loved that Tamara Ireland Stone wrote about OCD. I feel like people make OCD into a cleaning thing when it isn't always true. It's about impulses more likely. (Not that I know the exact details.) I have a love of studying the mental disorders. It's kinda why I want to be a psychologist. Personal reasons actually. Not important here, though.

"If my school had a Poet's Corner, I'd be set. You know what, I'll make it. It's decided. I love Sam. Her poetry is meaningful. Poetry is just pouring your thoughts onto a page. It's therapeutic. And Caroline? I loved her shirts. Can someone please make shirts like Caroline's? I want them all! And the romance. It wasn't bad. A little rushed. I was lost at why they would want to date since there wasn't history or chemistry. But The Guy really changed Sam. And that's what I thought was good about him. And the friendships. I loved that. The MaP Girls(Mean and Popular Girls) annoyed me. I don't think I've ever met MaPs before. Seriously. And I'm in high school for goodness sake. And the things Sam's mom did for her? Best. Fictional. Mom. Ever. Overall, a thumbs up."

Be a Fan With 'Fans of the Impossible Life'

Fans of the Impossible Life

Author: Kate Scelsa 
Goodreads / Amazon

Ten months after her recurring depression landed her in the hospital, Mira is starting over at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to pretend that she could act like a functioning human this time, not a girl who can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby.

Jeremy is the painfully shy art nerd at Saint Francis who’s been in self-imposed isolation after an incident that ruined his last year of school. When he sees Sebby for the first time across the school lawn, it’s as if he’s been expecting him.

Sebby, Mira’s gay best friend, is a boy who seems to carry sunlight around with him like a backlit halo. Even as life in his foster home starts to take its toll, Sebby and Mira together craft a world of magic rituals and impromptu road trips, designed to fix the broken parts of their lives.

As Jeremy finds himself drawn into Sebby and Mira’s world, he begins to understand the secrets that they hide in order to protect themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.
A captivating and profound debut novel, Fans of the Impossible Life is a story about complicated love and the friendships that change you forever.

City of Fans: 

An amazing city with impossibly real characters, massive amounts of diversity, an art club, running away, thrift shopping, drugs, depression, gay people, and rituals to forget. Sadly, there is a hint of instalove. Written in three PoVs (first, second, and third.) Highly unforgettable. 

"Hey, did you read 'Fans of the Impossible Life' yet? Oh man. It's amazing! The characters seem real. There's a lot of diversity. The problems they go through seem like they can happen in every day life. And some really awesome rituals." 

I'm Just a Little Crazy: 'A Madness So Discreet'

A Madness So Discreet

Author Name  

Goodreads / Amazon

Grace Mae knows madness.
She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum.
When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.
In this beautifully twisted historical thriller, Mindy McGinnis, acclaimed author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust, explores the fine line between sanity and insanity, good and evil—and the madness that exists in all of us.

As a person who wants to be in clinical psychology, stories about mental illness/disorders always are different for me. Especially if I know someone with that disorder. It changes things for me. I look at the book differently.
So I walked into this book hoping. Hoping for an exposé about asylums. Hoping to learn something. I walked out of this book disappointed.

With Grace's story, you could see her descent into madness. My thoughts? Awesome. She really changed. She had less reaction, less care. Her emotions dulled. She didn't flinch near dead bodies or when she wielded a knife. Compared to her before-the-book, frilly, and floofy lifestyle, her asylum life was starkly different. It was horrifying. I knew that asylums were terrible places, but I didn't know about the specific treatments the patients went through. It was a blast from the past, a smack of reality. People can be horrifying sometimes. Humanity can be horrifying sometimes.
Sadly, her personality fell flat, though. She was dull and emotionless. I know that she was trying to be that, but it annoyed me to no end. Even Nell and Elizabeth had personalities. They were bubbly and full of life. What Grace went through was different, but she was still a teenage girl. She still had youth. I wanted her to act that way. To have a shred of hope. Because hope is all you need in the worst of times.

Her friendships were amazing. She found friendships in unlikely places. In the dark. In the light. I thought that was pretty cool. Friendship trumps romance any day in my book.
And her friends supported her. They laughed with her. They made her smile. They were the only people who could. With Elizabeth and Nell, Grace had life. I thought that was great. Friendships can change you. I know my friendships define who I am. The guys. The group. My best friends. These people are who I am.

The plot was lacking. Was it a mystery? Or a story about change? Or all of the above? I wanted to know. I wanted something definite. If the plot was a mystery, I wanted more clues. I wanted something to follow. If the plot was about change, I wanted the frilly lifestyle of Before. If it was all of the above, I wanted more details. I wanted more story. More depth.

Rating:

3/5

Review: 'Your Voice Is All I Hear' by Leah Scheier

Your Voice is All I Hear

Leah Scheier

Goodreads / Amazon

Everything about Jonah is unexpected. On the first day of school, he sits next to April, when he could have chosen to sit with the popular girl. He turns down an invitation to join the school team and declares he'd rather paint. He encourages April to develop her musical talent and shrugs off the bullies that torment them.

April isn't surprised to find herself falling for Jonah. The unexpected part is when he falls for her too.

But the giddy happiness of their first romance begins to fade when Jonah's unpredictability begins to take a darker turn. April understands that her boyfriend is haunted by a painful memory, but his sudden mood swings worry her. She can't explain his growing fear of cellphones, electric keyboards, and of sounds that no one else can hear. Still, no matter what happens, April is sure that she'll always stand by him.

Until Jonah finally breaks and is committed to a psychiatric ward.

Until schizophrenia changes everything.

Though everyone urges her to let him go, April stays true to Jonah. But as the boy she adores begins to disappear in front of her, she has to face her worst fear: that her love may not be enough to save him.

NOTE: I got this off NetGalley.

The Big Picture: 

Wow. Just...wow. I'm shocked. This book was surprisingly good.
The storytelling wasn't bad. It was an interesting way to show Jonah's disorder.
The characters were interesting. Their personalities and love of music. I liked the characters.
The instalove was annoying. I swear. They barely knew each other! But April and Jonah had chemistry. I could definitely see that.

The Dirty Details:

The storytelling wasn't bad. I liked that we saw things from one of Jonah's loved ones. I thought it was an interesting perspective. We didn't see his disorder first hand. We saw it through someone else's eyes. We saw his struggle, but April didn't know what was going on. His loved ones blamed themselves. They picked apart their memories to find the signs. They tried to help. They tried to understand. This book showed the other side of mental disorders. It showed the disorders from the eyes of a loved one. It was a new perspective.

The characters were interesting. I liked their personalities. The shy girl who isn't noticed. Her boyfriend the artistic and tormented guy. They were interesting. I did like the characters. They were barely noticed. They were the invisibles. I was, and still am, one of them. A moody girl. Bookish. Nerdy. You know, the works.

I thought the characters could have been my friends. Or me. Or anyone I know. They felt quite real.

The instalove was annoying, but the two characters Jonah and April truly did care for each other. I felt like they barely knew each other, though. They barely had any dates. The romance was quick and sudden. A few pages in and boom! Romance.

The two had a connection, though. I can't deny that. They had something special. And April definitely cared for Jonah. She stayed when others doubted him. She played his games. She would be with him forever. That's what he did to her. She was loyal and committed. She cared. And caring is important.

Rating:

4/5

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books That Celebrate Diversity/Diverse Characters

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Week's Topic:

Ten Books That Celebrate Diversity/Diverse Characters

What is diversity? It might seem like an easy answer, but it really isn't. There isn't one definition of diversity. Everyone defines it differently. 

This is We Need Diverse Books's definition: 

How we define diversity:

We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.

I personally think I read diverse books. I will read a LGBT book or a book about mental health. I'm an open-minded person. I think we need diverse books because our world is full of diversity. Books should reflect that. I see the need for diversity in books. 
Here is my top ten list of books that celebrate diversity. I read all these books in 2015.

LGBT 

Gay:

Transgender:

Intersex:

Race/Ethnicity:

Mental Health: