April 2018 #DiversifyYourBookshelf Suggestions — Mental Health

Hi all! For April, the plan was to read a book that involved the topic of mental health. The protagonist could be mentally ill, they could be someone treating mental health issues, or it could be non-fiction dealing with the subject.

My own choice was Em and the Big Hoom, a novel by Indian author Jerry Pinto. Em follows the turbulent and unconventional relationships between Imelda, a charming but difficult woman, and her family, especially as those relationships are affected by the euphoria and despondence of Em’s experiences with bipolar disorder. The novel is not chronological, and it doesn’t try to shy away from the pains that her son (the narrator) feels struggling with a desire for a less complicated relationship with his mother and a simultaneous desire to help her. I ended the month having cried, laughed, and pondered the feelings of isolation and connectedness that reading about the mind of another inspired.

Below are the other suggestions I received for possible April reads.

Norwegian Wood — Haruki Murakami

Imagine Me Gone — Adam Haslett

The Noonday Demon — Andrew Solomon

Prozac on the Couch — Jonathan Metzl

Psychiatry and the Business of Madness — Bonnie Burstow

Hallucinations — Oliver Sacks

Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease — Jonathan Metzl

DYING TO PLEASE YOU: Indigenous Suicide in Contemporary Canada — Andrea O. Smith, Roland David Chrisjohn, and Shaunessy M. McKay

Mad at School — Margaret Price

Madness Explained — Richard P. Bentall

Reasons to Stay Alive — Matt Haig

Happy reading!