Crazy Women: My Top Ten Books
I don’t know if anyone is as interested in reading about mental illness as I am, but I felt the need to make a list of my own top ten favorite books of madness. A book only gets interest from me if I can find something in common with the book, and mental illness just so happens to be something I can identify with. All of these books, with the exception of one, are non-fiction.
10. Little Lost Angel by Michael Quinlan
—-The main reason this book is at number 10 is because I wasn’t sure if it qualified for the category or not. It is a ‘true crime’ book, that actually took place near my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The book is about 4 teenage girls who kidnap another teenage girl and do horrible, unspeakable things to her. I won’t say any more about this book because I don’t want to ruin it for those who do want to read it. It’s a very sad book.
9. Courtney Love: The Real Story by Poppy Z. Brite and Courtney Love
—-I won’t deny that I absolutely adore some things about Courtney Love. I love her confidence. But after reading this book, I see that she has overcome a lot of the odds she has faced in her life. Given she is pretty crazy, her book is very well written and you get an exact idea of what her life is like.
8. An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
—-This book is written about a mental illness that I share with the author. It’s about bipolar disorder and the author’s struggles with it. She has also written a book called Touched By Fire about creative people with bipolar disorder, such as Jimi Hendrix. I have yet to read that one!
7. Cut by Patricia McCormick
—-This is the only book on my countdown that is fiction. I chose this to be the only fictional account on the countdown because it is so realistic in the feelings that the main character, Callie, experiences. I can identify with Callie because her problem, that makes her a ‘crazy woman’ so to speak, is that she is a self-injurer; a cutter to be exact. I consider myself to be a recovering cutter, so the feeling she feels, I have felt before. It is a beautifully written novel.
6. You Remind Me of You by Eireann Corrigan
—-You Remind Me of You is a collection of narrative poems written by a girl who is recovering from her own eating disorders in a hospital, as well as her watching her boyfriend recover from a suicide attempt. The poems are shockingly beautiful, as is the imagery and the strong voice that the author has.
5. Sickened by Julie Gregory
—-Sickened is a memoir of someone else’s sickness, rather than the author’s. This book is about the author’s mother, who has Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, which is a factitious disorder characterized by a person, often a caregiver, who induces illness on another, such as a mother inducing illness in a child. The person inducing the illness is often looking for attention. Julie Gregory was the child who illness was induced on. This book is very well written and the imagery of it all is fantastic. You really start to feel bad for this poor child.
4. Wasted by Marya Hornbacher
—-I love this book! I recieved it as a Christmas present in 2006 and it is an amazing book. This book chronicles Marya Hornbacher’s descent into eating disorders, most notably anorexia and bulimia. She tells this story as if she tells it everyday, the familiarity of her voice is fascinating. She wrote this book at the age of 21, after battling with eating disorders for 14 years! This book has been translated into 14 different languages and has sold over a million copies in the United States alone.
3. Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel
—-I read this book when I was 13 years old and I haven’t lost interest in it since. This book deals with a ton of ‘crazy’ behaviors, such as drug abuse and self harm. I love the way this story is told, and the details are so vivid.
2. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
—-An awesome movie but an even greater book! This book is the story of Susanna Kaysen, who overdoses on asprin in the 1960’s. She is sent to live in a mental institution, and this book is basically the journals and ideas of her life there. It is very easy to read, which is one thing I love about it. It comes in short chapters, which is great for those of you with short attention spans like me!
1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
—-My favorite book. Ever. This book is written as if it is fictional, but it really does chronicle Sylvia Plath’s 20th year. Sylvia Plath was primarily a poet, but this book has a sort of poetic beat to it. Esther Greenwood is the main character, who also represents Sylvia Plath.
