Prozac Nation, by Elizabeth Wurtzel

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"Full of promise" is how anyone would have described Elizabeth Wurtzel at age ten, a bright-eyed little girl who painted, wrote stories, and excelled in every way. By twelve, she was cutting her legs in the girls' bathroom and listening to scratchy recordings of the Velvet Underground. 

College was marked by a series of breakdowns, suicide attempts, and hospitalizations before she was finally given Prozac in combination with other psychoactive drugs, all of which have worked sporadically as Elizabeth's mood swings rise and fall like the lines of a sad ballad.

This memoir, both harrowing and hilarious, gives voice to the high incidence of depression--especially among America's youth.

Prozac Nation is a collective cry for help, a generational status report on today's young people, who have come of age fully entrenched in the culture of divorce, economic instability, and AIDS. 

"This private world of loony bins and weird people which I always felt I occupied and hid in," writes Elizabeth, "had suddenly turned inside out so that it seemed like this was one big Prozac Nation, one big mess of malaise. Perhaps the next time half a million people gather for a protest march on the White House green it will not be for abortion rights or gay liberation, but because we're all so bummed out." 

Writing with a vengeance (Nirvana, Joni Mitchell, and Dorothy Parker all rolled into one), Elizabeth Wurtzel will not go gentle into that good night. She wants off medication, she wants a family, and most definitely, a life worth living.




My Thoughts Prior to Reading Prozac Nation
I don't understand why this book gets such low reviews.  I bet those reviewers have never suffered from Depression and think it's all made-up.

My Thoughts as I Started to Read
Oh, wow.  She GETS me.  I wish I had read this book twenty years ago.

My Thoughts Halfway Through
The title is Prozac Nation.  Where's all of the talk about Prozac itself?

My Thoughts as I Neared the End
Oh, for the love of all that's holy.  This woman is so full of herself.

My Thoughts after Finishing Prozac Nation
Elizabeth Wurtzel is so annoying!  No wonder there are so many neutral and negative reviews.  I can't believe I ever had this at the top of my TBR.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

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One of the best-known stories in American culture, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has stirred the imagination of young and old alike for over 100 years. Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway lends her voice to this uniquely American fairy tale.

Follow the adventures of young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto as they get swept away into the magical land of Oz , where they encounter characters and places you may remember from the movie--and several more that never made it to the big screen--on an unforgettable journey to the Emerald City.





I'm not a fan of Anne Hathaway, so I was a bit nervous about listening to this version.  But I got it free from Audible, so it wasn't going to be a huge deal if I hated it and flounced.

I'm truly impressed.  Hathaway did an amazing job with the narration.  I've never read the book before, but I love the movie, and I wanted to know what they cut out when they adapted the story.

I wouldn't say that the book is better, but it is different.  Did you know that the ruby slippers were originally silver?  Or that Glenda the Good Witch doesn't meet Dorothy until the end?  And there are little made-of-china people who live in Oz?  There's a plethora of new experiences!

Highly recommended.  I can't wait until my kids are older so we can read this as a family.

The Chocolate War (Chocolate War #1), by Robert Cormier

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Stunned by his mother's recent death and appalled by the way his father sleepwalks through life, Jerry Renault, a New England high school student, ponders the poster in his locker: Do I dare disturb the universe?

Part of his universe is Archie Costello, leader of a secret school society--the Virgils--and master of intimidation.  Archie himself is intimidated by a cool, ambitious teacher into having the Virgils spearhead the annual fund-raising event--a chocolate sale.  When Jerry refuses to be bullied into selling chocolates, he becomes a hero, but his defiance is a threat to Archie, the Virgils, and the school.  In the inevitable showdown, Archie's skill at intimidation turns Jerry from hero to outcast, to victim, leaving him alone and terribly vulnerable.




If I had read this book a few years ago, I would have scoffed at the idea of a group of kids excluding a single student.  But times have changed--or social media is allowing for more publicized accounts--and this book is highly relevant in today's culture.

Even though it's relevant, I didn't like it.  Teenagers who torment their fellow classmates.  Adults who turn a blind eye or encourage such actions.  Kids who don't stand up for their friends.

Throughout the book, I expected a certain outcome, and I'm disappointed in the one that was delivered instead.  Not that it's the wrong ending, but it's not what I wanted; it left me feeling like there was something missing.  There is a sequel, and maybe that answers some of my niggling questions, but I have no desire to read the second book.

Aesop's Fables, by Aesop

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Aesop (c620-560 BC), known only for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition a slave who was a contemporary of Croesus and Peisistratus in the mid-sixth century BC in ancient Greece. 

The various collections that go under the rubric Aesop's Fables are still taught as moral lessons and used as subjects for various entertainments, especially children's plays and cartoons. Most of what are known as Aesopic fables is a compilation of tales from various sources, many of which originated with authors who lived long before Aesop.  Aesop himself is said to have composed many fables, which were passed down by oral tradition.

Socrates was thought to have spent his time turning Aesop's fables into verse while he was in prison. Demetrius Phalereus, another Greek philosopher, made the first collection of these fables around 300 BC. This was later translated into Latin by Phaedrus, a slave himself, around 25 BC. The fables from these two collections were soon brought together and were eventually re-translated into Greek by Babrius around A. D. 230. 

Many additional fables were included, and the collection was in turn translated to Arabic and Hebrew, further enriched by additional fables from these cultures.




Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
Sour grapes. 
Honesty is the best policy.
Necessity is the mother of invention.


This is the first time I read more than one fable in a row.  A few items of note:

1. The stories themselves are really short.  Some are only a few lines long.  I thought they were much longer.
2. Aesop loved to write about wolves, sheep, foxes, horses, and other animals.  Whenever he spoke of cocks and asses*, I giggled like a child. 
3. The Librivox narrator did a fantastic job.  I can't imagine reading more than 300 fables--some of which are strikingly similar--hour after hour after hour.
4. It's pretty amazing how these lessons have stood the test of time.  Over 2,500 years later, they still ring true and are used all.the.time.  I can't imagine the quotes that will be used from our era in 2,500 years.  Too legit to quit?  I am not a crook?  I did not have sex with that woman?  

* Roosters and donkeys, people.  Get your minds out of the gutter.

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare

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Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires.

One of Shakespeare's darkest and most violent tragedies, Macbeth's struggle between his own ambition and his loyalty to the King is dramatically compelling.

As those he kills return to haunt him, Macbeth is plagued by the prophecy of three sinister witches and the power hungry desires of his wife.





Confession #1: Despite my love of theatre and the years I spent performing on stage, I've never actually read Macbeth (though I still wouldn't dare to say his name in any sort of theatrical venue). 
 
Confession #2: I won't listen to Shakespeare again.  I am a visual learner and his works are too difficult to decipher just by listening to the performance; I need to see or read the play in order to grasp its meaning.

Confession #3: I did not actually finish Macbeth.  Instead, I am going to read a recap and call it a day.

Confession #4: The entire time I was listening, I kept thinking forward to January 2014, when my BFF and I are flying to London for the weekend, just to see David Tennant in Richard II.

Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous

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January 24th - After you've had it, there isn't even life without drugs...

It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth -- and ultimately her life. 

Read her diary.   
Enter her world.
You will never forget her.

For thirty-five years, the acclaimed, bestselling first-person account of a teenage girl's harrowing decent into the nightmarish world of drugs has left an indelible mark on generations of teen readers. As powerful -- and as timely -- today as ever, Go Ask Alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction.




I knew going in that "Anonymous" didn't actually write the diary entries; that Beatrice Sparks misrepresented herself and the book's origin.  So I read it as a fictional novel.

There is NO way that a teenager speaks this way.  Even if I hadn't known that this wasn't a true story, that would have been a dead giveaway.

Maybe it was controversial and shocking for its time, but there are much better books published now.  If you want to read a compelling novel about drug abuse, try Ellen Hopkins' Crank trilogy, a fictionalized account of her daughter's experience.

Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen

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Jane Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two starkly different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. 

While Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm, her younger sister is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for a husband, but neither Elinor's reason nor Marianne's passion can lead them to perfect happiness-as Marianne falls for an unscrupulous rascal and Elinor becomes attached to a man who's already engaged. 

Startling secrets, unexpected twists, and heartless betrayals interrupt the marriage games that follow. Filled with satiric wit and subtle characterizations, Sense and Sensibility teaches that true love requires a balance of reason and emotion.




This has been on my TBR list since high school, but as there are always new books to read, I never thought I'd actually get around to this one.

Character-driven stories rarely intrigue me, but I'm glad I finally "read" (audiobook version) this book. My heart broke with the Dashwood sisters' hearts. I laughed at the ridiculousness of Mrs. Palmer. Swooned over Edward. Wanted to smack several characters at various points And am thankful that my marriage was not based on how much money I had or could gain (though I do tell my husband that I am his trophy wife and I married him for his money).

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles

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Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles’s crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.



The main character, Gene, was whiny and annoying. I'm not sure why this is a classic.

The narrator of the audiobook was very breathy, which was quite distracting. I kept waiting for him to take his next breath.