Lonely by Emily White, Nothing like I've Ever Read

Lonely is a book written by Emily White that leads to a possible recognition of chronic loneliness as an altogether different condition. Inspired mostly by the authors own experience of    loneliness, this book is in part a  biography, a research paper, and a case study. I'll remember this as one my best reading experiences ever.

In this remarkable book Emily tells us that she must have born with a tendency for chronic loneliness, which was later triggered by some circumstantial factors. You can get an idea about what she went through mist if her life by reading this quote from the page before the contents page. It's like  a kind of prologue, but not exactly.     

".... pleas close your eyes.

You live in an apartment.   You are there alone. So far as your feelings go, you are entirely alone. You have no one to call, no one to talk to. There is no one sharing your life, no one at all. This is the way it is, this is the way it is going to be. If you were to go out, you would still be alone.

Pleas take note in your mind of how you feel.

Now open your eyes and write down what your feelings are.
 
                                                                                 Loneliness induction excersise
                                                                                                                                                                  Professor Robert Weiss


                                                                                                                                                                                                                       ......................................" 








Any way she doesn't just give up. She tries to understand her condition, reading a lot, talking to people with similar conditions, seeking professional help. The books contains lots of very interesting information of her experience along   the process. Actually it has been no easy task, and the determination and the courage she has shown is truly admirable. Here are some other quotes that would give you  a feel of the book. I really believe this is  a book that no one should miss.

"I've had periods of loneliness my whole life. Since research shows a genetic basis for loneliness,with some people being born with an ingrained tenancy toward the state, I now see these periods as natural, almost inevitable. Or, rather, I see them as inevitable from the perspective of the adult I've become. ..."


." .........When someone's lonely, says Chris Segrin, a behavioral scientist at the university of Arizona, " and they come in to see a psychiatrist or a psychologist, they tend to be diagnosed as depressed or socially anxious more often than not. In other words, there are comorbid conditions that seem to have diagnostic priority..............I think sometimes depression is secondary to loneliness, but when some one comes in, the psychiatrist says,'Oh your problem is you're depressed' "..........."

"......The problem with loneliness is that, compared to other motivators, it's not one that's readily satisfied. If you are hungry, it's hopefully easy to    find food. ..................But when you are lonely, other people-almost by definition-are not available. This means you can be left alone with  a keyed-up energy that you can't turn off. ........"


"There's more than  a hint of fate to my relationship with loneliness today. Even after years of researching the state, I still see it as something that will take me if it wishes......." 


Visit Emily's Blog

 







Related articles by Zemanta

• "I think it's this long-term, intense loneliness that many people don't understand." (althouse.blogspot.com)
• Sunshiney start to a mad week (thenowandthenotyet.blogspot.com)

Island Beneanth The Sea By Isabel Allende

Ever since I read Eva Luna , I was eagerly looking forward to read the other books by Isabel Allende.

When I got my hands on Island Beneath The Sea, I was very exited with anticipation, believing that a wonderful story was awaiting  me, and I wasn't disappointed. The novel was yet another example of Allende's remarkable gift of storytelling.

The plot starts in 1770, in the French colony of Saint Domingue, Which is Haiti now.

The main character of the story is Zarit\, mostly known as Tet\, a born slave girl who's mother was an African slave and the father a white sailer. Though destined to be a slave for life, Tet\ is determined to be a free woman one day, and gives all she has to make that dream come true. Despite all the unimaginable hardships that come on her way, she keeps pushing through towards her goal.

The book illustrates an era of history when the mankind was in a distinctive stage of its evolution. The era of colonialism and slavery. It's terrifying to realize the kind of mess made when a few nations went about colonizing the world, robbing native people in various countries of their resources and making them slaves, destroying indigenous knowledge, ultimately making things really horrible for themselves too.

This book tells us that the unity of people can bring any system down, and even a determined individual can make a difference.

Isabell Allende's Island Beneath The Sea is entertaining with a powerful plot with many dramatic events, inspirational with convincing illustrations of will power, educational with so many historical facts, and mysterious with indigenous African culture with its voodoo loa. However, the ending was totally disagreeable for me. Read the novel and you would know why. Comparing Eva Luna and Island Beneath The Sea, Eva Luna is my favorite, mostly because it was more enjoyable a story, but Island Beneath The Sea is far more informative and inspirational.

The Barbary Pirates by William Dietrich, a fast- paced novel with adventure, humor, and history

The Barbary Pirates is novel that is one of a series written by William Dietrich around the fictitious character Ethan Gage. It is written with some relevance to certain true historical incidents and characters as well. to I was a little confused as I just started this book because I had not read any previous books of the series and the language was a bit modern for a book telling a story set back in 1802. But as I kept reading everything came in to light and it was impossible for me to put the book down.

The main character, Ethan Gage, is as American who has a taste for adventure, treasure hunts, and women. Wherever he goes, he attracts trouble. The plot starts when he is given an assignment by Napoleon Bonaparte to find a legendary weapon called “the mirror of Archimedes”, a super-power weapon apparently originated in Atlantis and later used by Archimedes. Gage is accompanied by Georges Cuvier, William Smith, and Robert Fulton in his voyage from Paris to Venice, Thira and Tripoli, to hunt for the mirror, his lost love, and a son he did not know existed. The journey is full of adventure and danger with Gage's arch enemy Aroura Somerset, a clan called the Egyptian rite, and Barbary Pirates in pursuit, desperate to have the weapon for themselves.

I found The Barbary Pirates fantastic as a novel of adventure, thriller, and history, very fast paced and absolutely funny. The dialogs were hilarious, full of sarcasm towards Gage from others for his attraction to trouble.

There is a historical note at the end of the book that clarifies the historical incidents, places and people that the reader encounters in the book. I found it very informative. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope to get my hands on the other Ethan Gage adventures soon.

 

What's In A Word By Webb Garrison

This is a fascinating book that tells us how some of the most common English words and phrases were originated,the real story behind them. The book covers more than 350 everyday words and phrases, all presented in simple,easy- to- understand language. I'll quote some parts of the author's own introduction of the book below.

"Practically every word and phrase we use is an easy to swallow verbal capsule. They're often potent and complex, being the end result of centuries of use. I have been fascinated by etymology{the study of word origins and developments} since my youth."

"......................this book is written in the form of "short short stories"-abbreviated forms of the American short story in which O. Henry excelled. The vignettes included here are brief enough for bath room reading, and many of them include surprise endings almost, but not quite, in the fashion of Paul Harvey's tales."

As you read thorough this book, you learn not only how those words came in to use, but also the history and culture in America and England in different eras. Any body with an interest in linguistics, culture, or history will specially find this book a good read, but this book suits the average reader pretty well too. I would end this review with just another quotation,this one from the content of the book .

"Few expressions have a more ancient lineage " checkmate." Now synonymous with " to thwart" or "to frustrate," it was long restricted to the game of chess.

No one knows where chess originated or when. It was already old when early Arabs borrowed it from the Persians. Through Spanish traders it reached Europe in the eighth century. In taking up the new game, the West adopted some of the ancient terms connected with it.

One such term was shah{king}, designating the most important of the playing pieces. According to the rules of the game, when shah was trapped, defeat was inevitable. An Arab who maneuvered his opponent into a hopeless position would cry, shah mat ! {the king is dead} Passing through Spanish and French, this expression entered English as checkmate and came to name any stroke of victory."

The Reading Bug And How To Help Your Child To Catch It by Paul Jennings

As any other good habit, reading is best quired with an early start, right? Paul Jennings' tells all the parents how to help your child fall in love with books. Reading this book, I realized that my mother knew some of the things the author describes in this book by instinct.    

This book is not only informative, but also very enjoyable with lots of funny illustrates and dialogs, it can make you roar with laughter!

31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan

31 Bond Street is a novel inspired by a true incident that happened in New York in 1857.

The Starting point of the plot is when Dr. Harvey Burdell, a well known dentist  is found brutally murdered in his house,31 Bond Street, fingers are pointed at the house mistress, Emma Cunningham, a widow with two daughters who has leased a floor of the hose.

District attorney Abraham Oakey Hall Prosecutes Emma. If he succeeds in a conviction, his ambition to be the next mayer will be fulfilled. But the defense attorney Henry Clinton is determined to protect her.

From then on the plot doesn't flow in a straight line but rather presents itself as pieces of a puzzle,occurring at different times involving different people. The reader has to put the pieces together and make sense of what happens.

The story presents a certain portion of American history and politics, racism and slavery as well as economy in America back then. But most important of all is the way the book portraits the misery people put themselves in, being greedy, following false values, getting married with the sole purpose of improving one's social status and wealth.

The author has gone too much in detail to the back ground of the plot at certain points, making the book a little draggy at times. The end is a little awkward too, because the author has not related to it properly from the beginning.

Generally this book was a fairly good read, both entertaining and informative. Any one studying law would find this book interesting too.

HUSH by Kate White

This is a thriller/suspence novel that I found rather dissapointing. It's written around a woman who fleas a scene of homicide.
Lake Warren is a marcketing consusltant, currently working for a fertility clinic. Her husband Jack is filing a divorce, and worse, seems to be wanting the full custody of their two kids. So, Lake has been advised by her lawyer to "keep her nose clean", so as not to make things easy for Jack.
There is this Dr. Keaten, a consultant to same fertility clinic that Lake works for, who is very flirtacious towards her. She too is attracted. After a lustful night spent with him in his appartment, Lakes find him brutelly murdered.
She takes flight, not wanting to call the police, thinking it would affect her custody battle. She tries to act normal. But strange things happen around her. It's as if some trying to scare her. And worse yet, two police dettectives come breathing down her neck. So Lake is determined to direct the police towards who ever the real killer is, with out revealing her being in his appartment when Dr. Keaten got killed.
The plot as a whole is very inconvincing. The author has tried to insert some twists to it, but with hardly any success. Some of them just offer distractions. One other thing I cannot appriciate is the harsh, down right direct way the author expresses Lake's and Dr Kates Love making. It's surprising to expect from a lady author.