Daniel's
story is reflective and circular in an ingenious and charming way and, overall, utterly
enchanting.
Daniel makes himself so vulnerable here—to the
seventh graders he is purportedly attempting to convince about the truth of his
stories and to us, the reader. The choice to tell his story (true to his own
memories) from the perspective of his childhood self makes that vulnerability
all the more acute.
I could not put the book down, and when it was over, I found
myself touched, a little shaken, and left with that magical feeling (often hard
to find today) of being more connected to life and the human race.
At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much.
But Khosrou's stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the sad, cement refugee…
Our mental
and physical health is affected by our unprocessed trauma in a way that our
current medical systems aren't prepared to address.
And nearly all of us have
experienced some form of trauma, not least because many aspects of our
societal and political systems have created situations that aren't
"normal" to the human psyche. Finding who to blame for the trauma is
not the author's point. Addressing it is. The author makes this broad-based,
impassioned plea based on his years of medical practice and his personal
experience.
This book is a treatise on the value of self-reflection, therapy, and having an
open-mindedness to holistic approaches in combination with traditional
medicine. It is a wake-up call for us all to learn more. I found myself ordering a
bunch of other books!
'It all starts with waking up... to what our bodies are expressing and our minds are suppressing'
Western countries invest billions in healthcare, yet mental illness and chronic diseases are on a seemingly unstoppable rise. Nearly 70% of Americans are now on prescription drugs. So what is 'normal' when it comes to health?
Over four decades of clinical experience, renowned physician and addiction expert Dr Gabor Mate has seen how health systems neglect the role that trauma exerts on our bodies and our minds. Medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how today's culture stresses our bodies, burdens…
The bumbling,
uptight, and just-going-through-the-motions Linus finds himself completely
changed when he learns the truth about his job. He finds himself opening up to
love and to finding purpose in his life.
In the most unlikely of ways, he
becomes a hero and the best version of himself. This book felt very
middle-grade to me—a genre not as hardened to life as adult fiction or even YA
can be—as it is full of lovable, eccentric characters and an endearing
hopefulness about the future and the possibilities for ourselves as people.
To
me, this is the best sort of book—it makes me determined to get out of bed in
the morning and do better.
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not…
Eleven-year-old Mira wishes everything could go back to the way it was before she changed schools and had to quit gymnastics, especially before Papa died. Now she spends her days cooking and cleaning for her stepsisters and Val-who she still won't call mom and still won't forgive for the terrible thing she did.
When a mysterious girl named Lyndame appears out of the woods wielding a powerful wand, she makes Mira an offer she can't refuse: she will grant Mira three wishes.
What if magic isn't just pretend after all? What if these wishes could fix everything? But in the quiet town of Between, Georgia, where secrets lurk and rumors swirl of strange creatures, nothing is as it seems, and everything comes at a price.
