Happy 2024! I was pleased to meet my reading goals of reading at least 80 books and closed out 2023 reading 105 books. My goal for 2024 is to read 85 books- push myself a bit more than last year. I don’t want to say I will read two books a week because sometimes I go through phases when I’m just not in the mood, or I’m busy, but I know I can do at least 85. Especially when I throw in lots of graphic novels and children’s books that are quick and satisfying.
My first read of 2024 was While You Were Out. I don’t remember how this was recommended to me, but it was quite prescient to read it around the holiday season when I spend a lot of, often reluctant time with my family. This is the autobiographical story of the Kissinger family, a lively Catholic bunch with eight kids who grew up in the Chicago burbs in the 70s. Birth control was frowned upon by the church and mom had a really difficult time managing a large brood, to the point where she took off sometimes, which Meg and her siblings later found out included hospitalization. Both parents struggled with alcohol. Nearly all the children struggled with some mental health issue in high school or college, and unfortunately, two of the siblings suicided.
Meg writes with deep compassion and candor about her family and the book is incredibly moving, as over the course of years they continue to struggle to understand and cope. The last third of the book addresses the systematic errors in American healthcare that do a disservice to all those who struggle to get help with mental health. She writes with heart, grief, some righteous anger and a desire to understand. It is a well-written portrait of a family’s journey through the pain of mental illness literally from the cradle to the grave.
Lazy Reader Jane 