Reading Challenge Wrap-up: Mental Illness Advocacy Reading Challenge 2012

As you all know, the one reading challenge I host is the Mental Illlness Advocacy (MIA) Reading Challenge.  Since we’re into the last week of the year, I’d like to post the 2012 wrap-up.

This year, I read 8 books that count for the challenge, successfully achieving the Aware level.

The books I read and reviewed for the challenge, along with what mental illness they covered, in 2012 were:

1. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
   PTSD
   4 out of 5 stars
2. The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
   Mental Retardation
   4 out of 5 stars
3. Barefoot Season by Susan Mallery
   PTSD
   4 out of 5 stars
4. Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia by Megan Warin
   Anorexia
   4 out of 5 stars
5. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
   Depression
   4 out of 5 stars
6. Haunted by Glen Cadigan
   PTSD
   3 out of 5 stars
7. January First: A Child’s Descent into Madness and Her Father’s Struggle to Save Her by Michael Schofield
   Schizophrenia
   4 out of 5 stars
8. Germline by T. C. McCarthy
   Addictive Disorders
   4 out of 5 stars

The books I read covered genres from scifi to thriller to memoir to academic nonfiction to historic fiction.  I’m also a bit surprised to note in retrospect that all but one of these books received four stars from me.  Clearly the books I chose to read for the challenge were almost entirely a good match for me.  It’s no surprise to me that I enjoy running this challenge so much then.

The most unique book for the challenge was The Sparrow.  The scifi plot of first contact with aliens was a very unique wrapping for a book dealing so strongly with mental illness.  Most challenging was Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia, which was my first foray into university-level Anthropology.  Something I’d like to see more of is more memoirs by parents of children with a mental illness, like January First: A Child’s Descent into Madness and Her Father’s Struggle to Save Her.  That was an interesting, new perspective for me.  I think I’d also like to read more schizophrenia books next year, as well as books that challenge the gender norms perceived of in certain mental illnesses, such as the idea that eating disorders are female or that alcoholism is male.

If you participated in the challenge this year, please feel free to either comment with your list of reads or a link to a wrap-up post.  I’d love to see what we all successfully read this year!

And if the MIA Reading Challenge sounds like a good match for you, head on over to the challenge’s main page to sign up for the 2013 iteration!

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