Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

> FAQ Home
> Tag: mental illness

Each Unhappy Family is Unhappy in Its Own Way

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

by Leave a Comment

Bingo category: Rep Don and Mimi Galvin had twelve children, ten boys and two girls. Six of their sons were diagnosed with schizophrenia. In Hidden Valley Road, Robert Kolker tells the Galvins’ story, as well as exploring the history of schizophrenia research and treatment, and its current state. The resulting book is fascinating and incredibly depressing. The story mostly centers on the two daughters, Margaret and Lindsay, who are also the two youngest children in the family. It’s clear that Kolker primarily spoke to these […]

Borderline Personality Disorder Unpacked

Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking your life back when someone you care about has borderline personality disorder by Paul T Mason and Randi Kreger

by 2 Comments

This is a tough book to review, but I’ll try my best. If you know, or suspect, someone in your life is suffering from BPD (and rest assured – they are truly suffering and in pain) and you perform a random google search seeking help, you’ll get billions of hits. Factsheets, support groups, horror-stories…. A significant portion of the internet is devoted to BPD because it is such a nefarious condition/disease/illness (I am not a mental health advocate or professional, so apologies if I’m using […]

‘Because nobody should have to feel like a pointless little weirdo alone’

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

by Leave a Comment

The long-awaited follow-up to Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half dropped last month, and I think everyone’s first reaction was not so much ‘Oh, new book!’ but a mixture of deep concern and relief. Solutions and Other Problems had been originally slated for what I believe was a 2016 release, but there was nothing but radio silence as the year came and went. And the next few years as well. Allie’s blog hadn’t had a new entry since 2013 or so, and posting had been […]

things that go “scoff” in the night

Bunny by Mona Awad

by Leave a Comment

This book was praised to high-heavens, thus giving me high hopes. It is all over “best of” lists, there are tons of snarky little quips in write-ups, and the paperback features pull-quotes from Margaret Atwood and Karen Russell. I was ready to be ruined by this book… but. …it fell flat, as so many pumped-up things often do. Samantha, an unreliable narrator if ever there was one, is a post-grad MFA fellow at Warren College, a told-but-not-shown sPoOoOoKy college somewhere in New England. There’s some […]

Allie’s not dead! She’s back and she gave us this wonderful book and she’s ok (sort of)

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

by 2 Comments

Back in 2013, Allie Brosh published Hyperbole and a Half named after the blog she kept (and has finally updated with a new post!). I pre-ordered the last book and bought it as a Christmas present for pretty much every single person my husband and I knew that year (now our own copy seems to have mysteriously gone missing – which distresses me). Allie’s blog (we are clearly on first-name basis, and would be great friends if we ever met) and her book meant a lot to me, […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo