The Five Things You Must Discover Before You Die
The Five Things You Must Discover Before You Die
Heavy title. Buoying book. Go figure.
When Dr. John Izzo’s book, The Five Things You Must Discover Before You Die, came up as a suggestion for me to review and interview, it came with the phrase, “sounds like something you’d like, Jamie.”
Oh, really?
I don’t read those kinds of books. And I’m terrified of dying. Somebody’s messing with me. But I like a challenge. Heh. That which doesn’t kill me and all…
I didn’t expect to like it and I certainly didn’t expect to need it, but it came at a good time. I get the feeling nearly any time would be a good time for this book. It’s really very wonderful in concept and execution. Did I just say 'execution' in a review of a book about death? Oh dear. I get a pass, because it's really about life. It’s a comfortable, easy read that takes the cliché out of cliché by showing us five invaluable bits of wisdom as applied in the lives of over two hundred impressive and venerable men and women.
Dr. Izzo asked for nominations, from those on his international mailing list, for the one person who had influenced them as wise, as happy, as having found the secret to a sense of fulfillment in their life. Through questionnaire, this list was distilled down to the group that Dr. Izzo and his team interviewed in depth over the course of a year and a half.
What results is an amazingly useful look at what we’ll wish we’d known when – let’s not beat around the bush; Dr. Izzo doesn’t – when we die.
I got to speak to Dr. Izzo about the process of compiling this book, why the secrets aren’t secret, and why I’m now walking around with a few words on an index card in my pocket at all times.
Click here to listen... You may just want to buy the book. It couldn’t hurt, and it definitely won’t kill you.
Length- 32 minutes, 54 seconds
Certified safe for all GrimReaperPhobes.
To find out more, go to www.drjohnizzo.com
March 27, 2008
The Ditchdigger's Daughters
In my introduction of Dr. Yvonne Thornton, for our interview about her memoir, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, I gave this synopsis of the book:
It’s the story of five girls born into a black family as World War II came to a close and America looked to its next challenge: the Civil Rights movement. Donald and Tass Thornton loved each other and they loved their children. That’s it. He was a laborer and she was a housekeeper. But, as often is the case, what we do isn’t always the true measure of what we are. They saw a country on the verge of change. Through astounding dedication and love, they wrung more hours than there are to be had out of a mere mortal’s day and boosted their daughters to regional musical fame and to accomplishment and security via the highest achievements in education. They ended up with two doctors, a dentist, a court stenographer, a teacher, and a nurse. Yeah, I know that’s six, but the plan only got bigger as this family pulled together and sent strong, successful woman out into the world, one-by-one, until the nest emptied.
And, indeed, that is what happens in The Ditchdigger’s Daughters. But as we talked, I was no longer sure that was what the book is about.
This week in my own little corner of the world, I titled my work-in-progress, a novel that I hope to present to an agent soon. To do so without a title feels like the hallmark of a rank amateur, so I’ve been tearing my hair out in avoidance of such a fate. I kept milling over what happened in my story, but I realized that the ‘what’ may not be as important as the ‘why’. This is how I came to my title and also how I came to the conclusion, by something she said during the interview, that Dr. Thorton’s memoir is a parenting book. And it’s about parenting with a goal in mind, about parenting in hard times, and about parenting with the conviction that education trumps all. The book’s not been out of print in thirteen years and it’s never been more relevant.
They had a hard time, and a long road to run, in getting this book published. It was said that it didn’t have enough conflict. Rubbish. It’s fascinating and enthralling and inspirational. And the Pulitzer Board thought so too, enough to consider it for the top prize in literary achievement in 1995.
It’s a great book. Click below to hear us talk about it. And to learn more about Dr. Thorton, visit her website at www.doctorthornton.com.
Length- 40 minutes, 0 seconds
February 29, 2008
My interview with Terri Cheney went better than I’d even hoped.
First of all, I’m a writer. PsychJourney is populated with PhDs and brainiacs and mystics. I’m just a keyboard jockey. Like I told Terri, it’s not that I can’t appreciate a book on the merit of its information alone, but to get a memoir that reads worthy of the category ‘contemporary literature’, well, that was a treat I could maybe appreciate even more than the rest of the smartypants. I love words – the order they go in; the modifier chosen for its music; dependent clauses drawing us into a sentence with a tease; assonance, resonance, cadence, alliterati- oh. Okay. I should stop now. Anyway, it’s that sort of book. And it’s useful. And it’s human.
Ms. Terri Cheney
Manic: A Memoir is Terri Cheney’s eloquent purge of her struggle with bi-polar disorder. While hospitalized for severe depression, Terri stewed in frustration, watching all of the patients around her not getting better, not getting help, because they couldn’t say what was straining at their temples and battering at their skulls from the inside. They couldn’t communicate what it feels like. The pressure of self-imprisonment welled in her, too. Then she remembered that being a lawyer was her occupation, but there was a writer, by vocation, in her soul.
The book’s chapters have a randomness in their order and a richness to their description that not only gives voice to those so afflicted, but draws every reader in. You get the information that will demystify manic-depression, but even more importantly, you gain understanding, through the experience of the right words. It’s the next best (worse) thing to being there. And through information wed to experience,we get wisdom.
That’s the power of Terri Cheney’s book, Manic: A Memoir.
It’s one of the best pieces of autobiographical work I’ve ever read and it’s not just me. Manic: A Memoir has vaulted into The New York Times Bestseller list this very week. Terri graciously spoke with me for half an hour about the book, the bi-polar effect at work in the Entertainment Industry, and her upcoming projects. To hear us, click the play button below
Length-29 minutes, 6 seconds
For more information, visit www.terricheney.com
and these recommended sites:
www.dbsalliance.org (info and support for depression and bi-polar disorder)
www.nami.org (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
www.nimh.nih.gov (National Institute of Mental Health)
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