Book Reviews and Thoughts

[Pam]

As Alice Wong, editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century explains in her introduction:

[This] "is not Disability 101or a definitive "best of' list. You may be unfamiliar with some terms or uncomfortable with some ideas presented in this book - and that's a good thing! These stories do not seek to explain the meaning disability or to inspire or illicit empathy. Rather they show disabled people simply being, in our own words, by our own accounts."

We're curious as to what your learned and what made an impact on you?

Feel free to share your reviews below OR share thoughts from chapters that made you pause.

[Leland]

I think this book is great i loved it UPSers

[Molly]

I really enjoyed this book so much! It's very rare that I see someone like me represented in a book. I'm deafblind, so to read about two deafblind women sharing their experiences and views made me so happy. It was also fascinating to learn about so many other experiences and perspectives on disability.

[TinySalutations]

Molly wrote: "I really enjoyed this book so much! It's very rare that I see someone like me represented in a book. I'm deafblind, so to read about two deafblind women sharing their experiences and views made me ..."

I agree Molly, there is a lot to be said for just being represented in stories by authors with similar lived experiences. I feel the same. Haben Girma, one of the deafblind contributors in Disability Visibility, has recently written a memoir if you have not read it.

[TinySalutations]

I liked the essay by the Harriet Tubman Collective (pg 236) that addressed their concerns with the Black Lives Matters movement. It basically said 'You will not leave us behind and we are being very clear about it'. I love how bold it is. Also, I cried hard about what happened to Darnell Wicker (and Jeremy Woody earlier in the book, pg 59).

I connected with another more personally though. The "Imposter Syndrome and Parenting with a Disability" essay by Jessica Slice, because I never fit in with other moms (even other moms of disabled kids). My experience as a mom is just so different from every mom I have ever met that it's hard to join a conversation, let alone a playdate (have you ever seen an ADA playdate?). It's even difficult for disabled parents of non-disabled children to relate and non-disabled parents of disabled children to relate. When you are a disabled parent of a disabled kid (especially, different disabilities), it is a very isolating experience. I have never met someone with this same life experience in person.

[Vikrams]

good book