Books for World Mental Health Day

NONFICTION

Released: June 1, 1993

GIRL, INTERRUPTED

by Susanna Kaysen

"For Kaysen, writing well has been the best revenge."

When Kaysen was 18, in 1967, she was admitted to McLean Psychiatric Hospital outside Boston, where she would spend the next 18 months. Read full book review >

FICTION

Released: March 1, 2006

HALFWAY HOUSE

by Katherine Noel

"Graceful and quietly assured."

A New Hampshire family is transformed by mental illness in Noel's first novel. Read full book review >

NONFICTION

Released: Sept. 1, 2008

HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE: A MEMOIR

by Michael Greenberg

"Bears enlightening and articulate witness to the sheer force of an oft-misunderstood disease."

Times Literary Supplement columnist Greenberg chronicles his 15-year-old daughter Sally's manic breakdown in vivid yet surprisingly detached prose. Read full book review >

FICTION

Released: Jan. 1, 2009

STILL ALICE

by Lisa Genova

"Worthy, benign and readable, but not always lifelike."

First novel efficiently showcases the experience of developing early-onset Alzheimer's. Read full book review >

Cover art for THE DARK SIDE OF INNOCENCE

NONFICTION

Released: March 1, 2011

THE DARK SIDE OF INNOCENCE: GROWING UP BIPOLAR

by Terri Cheney

"A compelling coming-of-age follow-up to Manic."

Cheney (Manic: A Memoir, 2008) writes with brutal honesty about her tumultuous childhood trapped in the clutches of the "Black Beast"--her metaphor for the out-of-control emotional states she now recognizes as early-childhood bipolar disorder. Read full book review >

FICTION

Released: July 1, 2011

TURN OF MIND

by Alice LaPlante

"A haunting story masterfully told."

LaPlante's literary novel explores uncharted territory, imagining herself into a mind, one slipping, fading, spinning away from her protagonist, a woman who may have murdered her best friend. Dr. Jennifer White lives in the dark, shadowy forest of forgetfulness. Read full book review >

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Books for World Mental Health Day