In this memoir, Jacki Lyden describes growing up in Wisconsin with a mother who suffered from mental illness. During her episodes of manic-depression, her mother would become other people; sometimes she was the daughter of a mob boss or the wife of a Milwaukee brew master and other times she was the CEO of a home-decorating company. Then there were the times that her mother believed she was the Queen of Sheba. When she became the Queen of Sheba her mother would dress up in bed sheets and wear a More...

An amazing memoir of a daughter struggling with her mother's mental instability throughout much of her life. I have no idea who Jacki Lyden is, not having listened to NPR much in my life, but I was drawn into the story from the very beginning, with the first instance of the "Queen of Sheba," Lyden's mother's manic alter ego, appearing when Lyden was about twelve.

I have been watching warily for her ever since, but never so hard as when my mother slips off into the caverns where the past and pres

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I was attracted to this book after seeing the author on Oprah Winfrey. My reason for this attraction was deeply personal. I, too, have dealt with the challenges of living with a bipolar disorder. It is no walk in the park!

This is a beautiful and sensitively written story about a daughter's journey with her mother who suffers from manic depression. Despite the horrifying aspects of the illness with its inherent and dramatic unpredictability, the author manages to embrace her mother with love and More...

Jackie Lyden, yes the NPR reporter, tells all about growing up with an insane mother. One main theme is the refutation of the idea: "Lock the lunatics away, you think, and they will do no permanent damage to themselves or others." Sometimes it is not clear who is being damaged the sick or the ostensibly well. Jackie wants to understand and relate to her mother at the same time she fears that she may also become crazy in the future. Getting started in radio, shy and lacking confidence, Jackie pic More...

"I think of the lawless world I've known. I think of grenades like lanterns in the children's hands and the other lethal things they carry, half knowing. The armed hands of children do not surprise me in the least. Children are fierce, without nuance or hesitation. Children's hands hold grenades that are invisible to all but them."

"In the Kodak's flash, I froze in fascination. You could photograph the violet as it died in your hand. You could photograph a dream and have it. I would beg him to le More...

I remember loving this when I read it. I do believe it begins strong and disolves a bit in the end....but if you have lived with a mentally ill parent who just so happens to have believe in make believe, it makes you say "Ah, yes."

This is a difficult, almost painful book to read. Jacki Lyden's mother's mental illness is presented in glaring terms, with Jacki bearing much of the brunt of the responsibility to reign her mother in when the illness becomes too great. I did laugh once during the book, but it was at a very surreal moment with a body in a car. While I appreciate Lyden's honesty in relating not only the incidents of her mother's illness but of her own reactions and responses, it didn't make this book any easier t More...

Very poetic, fascinating and original descriptions, very intense, but not happy.
The author is an unusual person as is her mother and her grandmother; maybe her sisters are too, I couldn't tell, but I don't think so. Mabel the grandmother has a mouth on her that reminds, fondly, of one of my relatives (can't tell you which one). This is quoted from one of Mabel's letters to Jacki (the author):
"Dearest Jack,
Who are some of these people you're down there with? Jesus, they make my hair stand on end More...

I had to read this book for my class, Severely and Persistently Mentally Ill Clients. I liked it, although being that it was for class and I was on a deadline, I wasn't able to appreciate how descriptively verbose the author is. Her writing is poetic and beautiful, but sometimes it was a bit too much for me.

It is the story of her mother, who has Bipolar I Disorder, although a rare type in which she is almost constantly in a manic state. It is pretty astonishing how devastating the disease was o More...

this was an interesting book. i love non-fiction and any type of biographies. i cannot imagine being hte daughter to the mother in this book...what a strange life; not like glass castle by Jeanette Wells, but just strange. i am glad i read it, i don't think i read it again, but it was certainly worth the late nights reads :o)

Book #39 for 2011 - I had the hardest time reading this memoir written by a daughter of a manic depressive (bipolar) mother. I have read other books of the same variety (and enjoyed them) but this book really dragged me down into the pit of bipolar disorder. I also was not a big fan of the author's writing style.

Hmm, what to say about this book? I was working in Borders in Boston at the time it was released and I remember there being a bit of a fuss about it (all those NPR fanatics out there, you know). I think Jackie Lyden's writing style is fascinating--it's almost surreal at times. I mean that in the sense it's sort of poetic and feverish at the same time, and thus, somewhat fragmented, or fragmentary. So I enjoyed/admired that aspect of the book. Her story is probably not terribly new to anyone who More...

This book is often compared to the Liar's Club, but I don't really think it holds a candle to it. Another memoir about growing up with an unstable mother. The author spends a lot of time building up her mother into an almost mythical creature. As a result, there isn't as much introspection as I'd hoped.

Poetic, heart-wrenching memoir from the NPR reporter about her life--especially her relationship with her mother, a beautiful, energetic, driven woman who suffers from manic-depression. Like, The Glass Palace, this book made me feel like my life and my family were/are incredibly normal.

This memoir of living with a bi-polar mother was just too difficult to get through. I had read "The Glass Castle" earlier in the year and found that more to my liking. I didn't finish this book

It didn't really hold my interest, unfortunately. I preferred the first-person perspective of "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness" by Kay Redfield Jamison for insight on bipolar disorder.

The prose in Jacki Lyden's memoir was beautiful, but also circular and confusing -- much like I imagine it was like growing up with a bipolar mother in the 60s and 70s. I didn't learn that much about the illness itself, or really about Jacki herself. This memoir was about her mother and, to a lesser extent, her grandmother.

This book gives a startling insight what it is like to live with a mother who has bipolar 1 which used to be called manic depression. At times, it made me cry for the children.

The writing in this book is incredible. Jacki Lyden tells the story of her mother's mental illness with all of the rage, confusion, and love intact. Beautifully done.

Ohh did I ever love this book. Its a true story about growing up with a mother who is manic depressive. It told bravely and with humor by Jacki Lyden.

NPR correspondant writes a memoir of her life in Menomenee, WI and her mother's bi-polar illness. Very interesting with an entertaining writing style.

Lyden's prose tends toward the purple, but it doesn't diminish the power of her memoir. Tough, tender, funny, but always and ultimately heart-breaking. Even the "happy ending" (Mom finally starts taking Lithium and stabilizes) is tinged with sadness, testimony to the fact that with mental illness there are no easy answers.

This should be better than it is. Maybe I've read too many memoirs about family and mental illness, but this one is just boring.

I listen to the author on NPR, so I picked up this memoir that focuses on her mentally ill mother. At times the prose left me feeling a bit crazy myself, with metaphors that made no sense to me and sections where the present and the past seemed to be all mixed together.

I can't improve on Sue Hubbell's back cover blurb:

"Here is the story behind the rum-and-raisin radio voice -- a good story it is, and beautifully written, too."

See, that sentence is why Sue Hubbell is a writer, and I am not. I'd probably have come up with something crass like:

"A definite cut above your average 'mama was a fruitcake' memoir, by NPR's second-most mellifluous* female reporter".

*: obviously, nobody can compete with the incomparable Sylvia Poggioli.

The jacket cover on my copy of this More...

Amazing story of living with a mentally ill mother, by one of my favorite NPR reporters.

There were so many times I identified with what Lyden describes about her life.

Beautiful, gut-wrenching, exhausting, heartbreaking and always interesting.

Jackie Lyden is a foreign correspondent for NPR in America, so her memoir was written with such eloquence that is was almost poetic to read. The memoir probes into the haze of mental illness, revealing a story of isolation and suffering, on both her side, and her mothers. It also reveals the immense, lasting impact of relationships, and the importance of love in overcoming life's difficulties. Definately a must read, as it perfectly encapsulates the "mania" of bipolar disorder, while examining t More...

Helped me understand my growing up years.