The Upside of Being Down by Jen Gotch

( ) Jen Gotch, the author, is the Chief Creative Officer of the retail company, ban.do. She has also faced many struggles with mental health throughout her life. One of the main concepts explored throughout this narrative is how her bipolar disorder and ADD has helped boost both her career and creativity. This novel is…

All The Things We Never Knew by Sheila Hamilton

( ) The author of this book is an extremely successful television reporter and radio show host. She writes this book while healing from her (separated) husband’s suicide. He suffered from bipolar II disorder, and the damage from his illness wreaks endless havoc on their family. Bipolar Disorder generally is accompanied by symptoms that go…

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

( ) What I love most about this book is that it doesn’t try to portray a biased angle on mental illness. Instead, it attempts to illustrate bipolar disorder in all its unique, individualistic, but also consequential glory. The main character is a teenage girl who hasn’t yet told her closest companions about her illness….

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

( ) This is a pretty unique book. I tried to listen to it a while back via audiobook but didn’t get very far because the main character was not relatable and frankly, annoyed me. But through a recommendation, I picked it up again. As you get farther in the book, more is revealed about…

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

(  ) Oh. My. God. I have not read such an amazingly entertaining book, maybe, ever?! I would give this two thumbs up if it wouldn’t mess up my rating system. It may be just that the author speaks my weird language, except even weirder. This is full of the most unusual sense of humor….

The Nix by Nathan Hill

(  ) Unfortunately, I’m sure part of the reason I am not giving this book a thumbs up is because I expected too much of it. There were raving reviews everywhere on the internet. It seems whenever a book describes the most common, modern symptoms of depression, everyone gets super excited. Okay, that is simplifying…

I’m Not Crazy, Just Bipolar by Wendy K. Williamson

() So this tale of struggling with bipolar disorder may not be as intense as some other memoirs, but it is still written beautifully. You can still feel the agony of what the illness caused to the author. Her illness brought her into bankruptcy and facilitated her into developing drug and alcohol addictions. She struggled with…

Voluntary Madness by Norah Vincent

() This book gives good insight into the differences of treatment and services provided in various mental health facilities in the U.S. Also, the author analyzes mental illness, hers included (depression), to exhaustion. Her writing is straight-forwarded and piercingly honest. This novel is interesting in that it can make us more aware of specifically how…

Manic by Terri Cheney

() This book does a good job of putting you front-and-center in the life of a manic depressive. The author was formerly a successful lawyer that had to fight and hide her shocking depressive and manic episodes. She was driven to uncontrollable behaviors such as eating raw cooking materials like flour and baking soda. In…