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NEVER GIVE UP

Name: NEVER GIVE UP
ISBN: 978-1-4787-5914-0

HOW DETERMINATION AND GOD GAVE ME A BETTER LOOK AT LIFE

‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 19, 2015

An often compelling story of tribulation and recovery.

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Maher finds faith and inner strength in her battle against mental and physical illness in this inspirational memoir.

The author’s father died when she was 3 years old, and she was raised by her bipolar mother. Later, she spent time in foster care, during which she says she was physically and sexually abused; she also started cutting herself at a young age. After she was kicked out of her house on her 18th birthday, she joined the Air Force, but had to be hospitalized after a suicide attempt. She was diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD, and soon afterward, she writes, she was shot by a police officer, charged with attempted murder, and jailed for six months—all before she was 22. A later suicide attempt landed her in an intensive care unit, paralyzed due to lesions on her spinal cord. After weeks of assessment, she was given an American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale score: “an A, only on this test A meant total paralysis,” she writes. Without helpful family members, a place to live, or sufficient medical treatment, Maher fought to maintain as much mobility and independence as possible. She writes that she was aided in her struggle by a newfound faith in God and her tenacity to survive in a world (and body) that seemed to want her dead. Maher’s prose is simple and direct, though sometimes flecked with typos and awkward syntax. She also sometimes leaves out pieces of information, which confuses the timeline and obscures the causes of some events. Even so, her story is so engaging, and her attitude so absent of self-pity, that readers will quickly forgive the prose’s lack of polish. Maher’s faith in God is strong, but her discussions of it don’t occupy much space in the text. Overall, the book is less a call to religion than it is an ode to determination and the transformative power that it can have on a person’s life.

An often compelling story of tribulation and recovery.

Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4787-5914-0

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Outskirts

Review Posted Online: March 11, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
Your New Beginning

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ENERGY INSIDE VALSIN'S CHOICES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHITE OUT

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.