Task 24: Read a Book with a Main Character Who Has a Mental Illness

[Amanda]

Travis wrote: "Jodie wrote: "Would a main character with dementia count as im not sure if its classed as a mental disorder"

Illness, isn't it?"

I would count this. I'm a mental health professional and we work with individuals with autism. Autism is also included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or the DSM) that we use to diagnose people. :)

[Patty]

Bonnie wrote: "Patty wrote: "Would "Best Boy" by Eli Gottlieb count?

"Sent to a “therapeutic community” for autism at the age of eleven, Todd Aaron, now in his fifties, is the “Old Fox” of Payton LivingCenter. ..."


That's what I thought.

[Mary Sue]

Just finished The Bell Jar for this task. I loved it!

[Lara]

CBC just posted a list of books re mental illness for Mental Illness Awareness Week 2016 https://twitter.com/cbcbooks/status/7...

[Jessica]

Leslie Ann wrote: "I was going to read something from South America, either Delirium or I, the Supreme; the latter could probably double as a book about politics.

But I'm already commi..."

Where'd You Go Bernadette was an absolutely fantastic read. I gobbled it right up when I read it a few years ago.

[Sandra]

Lara wrote: "CBC just posted a list of books re mental illness for Mental Illness Awareness Week 2016 https://twitter.com/cbcbooks/status/7..."

I just read This is Happy which is on the list. Novelist Camilla Gibb's memoir about her experience with depression and recovery while a grad student in the UK, and again after her wife leaves her... really good, made me cry.

[Jessica]

Another that I've had on my bookshelf for quite some time that I will be able to use for the challenge - Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock.

[Valene]

Currently reading Unwell By Leslie Lipton. It's about a girl that has anorexia and depression.

[Celina]

I'm reading All Dogs Are Blue. It's a semiautobiographical novel about a Brazilian man with schizophrenia who lives on a psych ward in Rio de Janeiro with his friends Baudelaire and Rimbaud. Pretty good so far.

[Trina]

I am going to finally get around to reading She's Come Undone for this one. Oprah has been telling me to read this for years.

[Erin]

Mary Sue wrote: "Just finished The Bell Jar for this task. I loved it!"

That's the same one that I read, and I loved it, but it broke my heart, too. I felt a strong connection with that book.

[Theresa]

Nadine wrote: "I read The Incarnations by Susan Barker for this challenge."

I just finished this book about 2 weeks ago. I'm curious about what you found as the mental illness aspect. I didn't perceive any mental illness while I was reading it but after I finished I began to rethink things to consider whether what I had been thinking of as cultural beliefs around reincarnation might be something more. I'd love to be able to mark another challenge item complete so I'm really interested in your thoughts.

[[deleted user]]

Bonnie wrote: "Travis wrote: "Jodie wrote: "Would a main character with dementia count as im not sure if its classed as a mental disorder"

Illness, isn't it?"

Dementia, whatever its genesis, is a neurological s..."

Thank you i wont use it then ill see if it fits for any of the other challenges instead thank you.

[Nadine in California]

Theresa wrote: "Nadine wrote: "I read The Incarnations by Susan Barker for this challenge."

I just finished this book about 2 weeks ago. I'm curious about what you found as th..."

My memory of the book isn't real sharp but I think that Wang and his mother suffer some severe mental breakdowns - not to mention the "soul mate" (I don't want to give any spoilers away). It's always a question whether the incarnations are real or the product of schizophrenia. Mental illness isn't an explicit subject in the book (although Wang does spend some time in a mental hospital) but I felt like mental deterioration was everywhere, in every reincarnation.

[Liz]

Book wrote: "I'm intrigued by the description of Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman and I've picked that for this one."

I read this book, and it is fantastic. It's one of my favorites so far this year, and I found myself recommending it to a lot of people.

[Tina]

[Katie]

I wanted to cross this over with the challenge to read a play, since a play where the main character has a mental illness sounded very interesting. So a friend of mine directed me to The Boys Next Door, which turned out to be quite an interesting read.
The characters were really enjoyable, and there is even a film version to watch afterwards.

[Doc.]

I read The Bell Jar and thought it was incredible. Hope to read Plath's poems, too, this year.

[Leslie (updates on SG)]

Katie wrote: "I wanted to cross this over with the challenge to read a play, since a play where the main character has a mental illness sounded very interesting.

If you're interested in another play, you can try Equus, which was also adapted into a movie.

[Matthew]

People keep asking if their books contain characters with mental illness. This seems like a good resource to answer that:

http://www.triadmentalhealth.org/what...

Hope it helps.

[Erica]

I read Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned". Lena Dunham discusses (briefly) her struggles with OCD, in addition to other essays from her life.

[Amelia]

Would you count Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am? The main character suffers a traumatic brain injury as when he wakes from a coma he has to relearn everything. The book is very short on details, but it seems like there might be some depression, PTSD, memory loss and inability to articulate thoughts.

[Bea]

Amelia wrote: "Would you count Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am? The main character suffers a traumatic brain injury as when he wakes from a coma he has to relearn everything. The book is very short on details, but it seems like there might be some depression, PTSD, memory loss and inability to articulate thoughts.
"

Hard to say. Coma, TBI, memory loss and inability to articulate thoughts are NOT mental illnesses. They are directly related to medical conditions.

PTSD and depression are mental illnesses. However, here is the question: Are they the main issues for the person's problems or is the TBI? I would vote for the TBI.

[Doc.]

Amelia wrote: "Would you count Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am? The main character suffers a traumatic brain injury as when he wakes from a coma he has to relearn everything. The book is very sh..."

Hi Amelia, except for PTSD and depression, that is a neurological illness, not a psychiatric one. Depression is usually a given with TBI and memory loss, so I don't think mental illness will be front and centre in that book.

[Teresa]

I had a TBI, in my case, a stroke. It's not a mental illness.

[Amelia]

Thanks everyone, I wasn't sure since he was showing signs of but it wasn't the main cause. It wasn't that great a book anyway.

[Viv]

I've just read The Vegetarian which would certainly count for this task. It's only 180 odd pages but packs such a punch. It was the winner of the International Booker Prize.

[Jo]

Viv wrote: "I've just read The Vegetarian which would certainly count for this task. It's only 180 odd pages but packs such a punch. It was the winner of the International Booker Prize."

I read that recently and loved it, as much as you can love something like that book. Didn't occur to me to use it for this task but of course it could... which means I've doubled up, as I read All the Bright Places for it.

[Abigail]

I just finished book:Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things|23848559] by Jenny Lawson and it was hands down one of the best books I have ever read. Her outlook on mental illness is empowering and uplifting while still being realistic about how much it can really, really suck at times. I highly recommend it.[

[Trina]

How about Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow?

[Jaime]

I read Running with Scissors. I liked it but then I read some articles where the family disputes some of the stories that Augusten Burroughs wrote about. I'm a bit torn. I can see why the family would dispute the stories but can also believe that Burroughs exaggerated or pieced several stories together to make them funny.

Only reason it matters to me is that I read it as a nonfiction novel. A real memoir.

[Paloma]

Would The Marriage Plot qualify for this task??

[Monica]

Just finished The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Affecting book that stays with you. Highly recommend. Also using this for my decade your were born task.

[Robin P]

Paloma wrote: "Would The Marriage Plot qualify for this task??"

I think so, the one young man definitely fits.

[Bonnie G.]

Robin wrote: "Paloma wrote: "Would The Marriage Plot qualify for this task??"

I think so, the one young man definitely fits."

I absolutely agree. I read it a long time ago, but if my recollection is correct its a dominant theme.

[Paloma]

Thanks Bonnie and Robin! :)

[Sara No H]

I've been REALLY wanting to read The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic.

I'm not sure if it would count for this task though!

[Megan]

I just finished Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things and really enjoyed it. I also read Jenny Lawson's first book (Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir), which I suppose fits the criteria for this category since she talks about her depression and anxiety in it too. However, I loved reading that one so much that I decided it was a bonus read for me for 2016! Plus, reading both led me to discover a new author whose writings I intend to keep reading! :)

[Nikki]

I went with Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella for this one, which deals with anxiety and agoraphobia. It's YA, if anyone needs a quick read for this task.

[Mindy]

I read "The Yellow Wallpaper" for this one. Even though it's fiction, it's a sad reminder of how we can sometimes allow other people to convince us that things are not as we see them.

[Bonnie G.]

Carolyn wrote: "I'm listening to A Mother's Reckoning, interesting so far. Best book on Columbine is Columbine by Dave Cullen. He explores all the things we get wrong after one of these tragedies. We like to make ..."

What a wonderful book! An excellent account of the signs of depression people often miss. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carolyn]

A Mother's Reckoning was hard to read but a powerful book. Dave Cullen's book is great too. We get so much wrong at the stressful time of a tragedy. He's the go-to guy (sadly) when these mass shootings happen. I always try to remember his book and know much of what we learn right away may turn out to be wrong...

[Bobby]

I read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The protagonist is not mentally ill — she comes across as the most well-adjusted character in the story — but one of the main characters is a World War I veteran who suffers from what is called “shell-shock” in the novel and today is referred by the much more clinical term “post-traumatic stress disorder,”or PTSD. The author’s own life-long struggles with bipolar disorder lend a sense of authenticity to her descriptions of mental illness.

[Cate]

I'm thinking of reading Madness in Civilization by Andrew Scull. not sure if it counts since, as a history, it probably won't have a main character. Any thoughts?

[Bianca]

i have just finished 'we used to be kings' by Stewart Foster. it is fiction.

[Ashley]

Would The Professor and the Madman or Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness and Family Secrets count?

[Tracy]

I have a recommendation for you guys. Definitely read the book Sybil. It's amazing.

[quietprofanity]

I read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen because I thought one of the lead characters having dementia would mean it qualified, but since apparently this isn't actually mental illness, I'm still counting it because another character is suspected to have depression. Whatever, it's December and the book sucked, anyway. (Read my review here.

[Coco]

I read Thirteen Reasons Why because it had been on my TBR shelf for a long time. I thought it was an interesting read and take, but overall the story felt rushed and forced to me. I just felt like the depth of the story was lacking and had so much more potential. I enjoyed this category though, and wouldn't mind seeing a similar topic next year.

[Jenny]

If anyone is still looking at this thread..... I am a late-comer to the read harder challenge and am tackling 2015-2017 book lists. Do you think If I Wake counts?