Three remarkable female authors - Lisa Genova, Brianna Craft and Suleika Jaouad

“She’s bipolar. That word gets thrown around without a medical license all the time, mostly by boys to describe girls as crazy. It’s a derogatory dart meant to demean and dismiss its target.

This latest book from Lisa Genova is funny, stark, poignant, and at times very dark.

It is the journey of college freshman Maddy Banks as she receives a life altering diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
As Maddy swings in cycles between her manic state, to one of severe depression, and tries to find a balance with the support of her medication, her therapist and some close friends and family - the reader also learns how to tread the waters of mental illness with empathy and hope.
Like other books from Lisa Genova, this is a significant book with immense potential for contribution to the understanding of mental health challenges and the severity of bipolar disorder. 

Maddy struggles, sinks to the lowest points, but remains resolute, and stand-up comedy seems to be her coping mechanism. After months of trials and errors, failed attempts and humiliation at NYC comedy clubs, she does make her mark as a standup comedian even if it starts in small town Connecticut.
Lisa Genova strikes a beautiful balance between Maddy's conflicting worlds as an aspiring female stand-up comedian and the vulnerability of living with bipolar disorder.
A must read!

Brianna Craft signed my copy of her book with this note :

"Love is climate action!

Vote. Protest. Divest. "

Brianna Craft, climate researcher and author of ‘Everything that rises,’ is a fascinating person I had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with in one of her book launch events. This unique memoir is her insider’s view of the painstakingly slow, bureaucratic, and complex process of UN climate negotiation conferences, including the Paris Agreement signed in 2015.

Brianna Craft's book is a compelling narrative that takes the reader inside the climate negotiations at the UN conferences.   What makes the book relatable are the stories of her personal struggles at these conferences as an unpaid intern from Brown.  Working very late nights as all talks fail, learning to work with lead negotiators like Pa Ousman, even choosing the right dress to wear as a delegate are all real problems behind the scenes. 

As a researcher taking part in these negotiations - her most disappointing takeaway was the indifference of the countries that hold the power to the vulnerable countries impacted most by climate change. She works primarily with the Least Developed countries (LDCs), so much of her focus is on the inequities of environmental justice 

Brianna also navigates her own personal journey of alienation from her parents, especially her father as he continues gaslights and belittles her, even though a major illness and recovery.  

 “EVERYONE WHO IS born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick,” Susan Sontag wrote in Illness as Metaphor. “Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”

The impact of these lines is immense to the reader of "Between Two Kingdoms: A memoir of a Life Interrupted" by Suleika Jaouad.

It is an inevitable reality that those who are fortunate to be inhabiting the 'kingdom of the well' are terrified to face, but a 22-year-old Suleika was thrust into with her diagnosis of Leukemia. As she describes the harrowing treatment process and multiple near-death experiences with raw honesty, I felt overwhelmed and wanted to stop reading several times. But Jaouad's writing pulled me back, as she explored the emotional strain and bitterness of navigating the illness, her relationship with her devastated parents and her boyfriend Will who continued to support her despite the strain of being a caregiver.

In Part 2 of the book, Suleika navigates the reader through her recovery journey, which she realizes she is unprepared to face once she does not have to singularly focus on her survival. It is a long and arduous road, but she has her bright moments. Her column 'Life, Interrupted' on her cancer journey, started while she was in the worst phases of treatment, gains huge readership, is published weekly in the New York Times and she is featured on NPR and other prestigious media outlets. She eventually gains the strength and confidence to make a journey to India in remembrance of her friend Melissa, who was her closest confidant while going through treatment together. There are several tender moments as the acquaintances she made with other young patients in the hospital bloom into strong kinships. The book ends with a cross-country road trip Suleika makes with her dog, Oscar, where she makes stops to meet the readers of her column who wrote back to her sharing their own life altering experiences. These meetings do not bring closure, they almost feel like looking back to the trauma and a shared experience of reliving the grief and pain.

Suleika Jaouad's writing is very strong and takes the reader beyond her illness. It often is jarring and almost jolts the reader into an alternate reality. Lines like these will stay with a reader long after the book is finished:
“After you’ve had the ceiling cave in on you—whether through illness or some other catastrophe—you don’t assume structural stability. You must learn to live on fault lines.”