Get a Life, Chloe Brown is a 2019 fiction romance novel by Black British author Talia Hibbert and published by Avon Romance. The novel is an #OwnVoices text, as Hibbert herself lives with fibromyalgia. Get a Life, Chloe Brown challenges conventional notions of the romance genre as it illustrates one experience of living with chronic illness and disability. The novel shows that those living with chronic illness and disability are deserving of loving relationships. The... Read Get a Life, Chloe Brown Summary

Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body (2011) is a memoir written by Martin Pistorius with Megan Lloyd Davies. The autobiography details Martin’s childhood misdiagnosis, a mistake that cost him years of his life where he could not communicate with anyone around him. Martin is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa, who at the age of 12 suddenly and mysteriously started losing all control of his muscles and... Read Ghost Boy Summary

The play Ghosts (1881) by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen chronicles the complicated relationship between Helen Alving and her son, Oswald. Ghosts documents a day in the life at the Alving estate as Helen prepares to open an orphanage in honor of her late husband. A three-act play, Ghosts explores the complex social issues of sexually transmitted infections, incest, and euthanasia—topics that made the play highly controversial when it was first produced.Ghosts followed the success of... Read Ghosts Summary

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990) is a memoir written by Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon turned politician, and coauthor Cecil Murphey. Born Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr., Carson served as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Donald Trump. The book explores how Carson’s gifts from God, his mother and older brother’s influence, and his faith in God and himself allowed him to escape the Detroit ghetto and become a... Read Gifted Hands Summary

Susanna Kaysen’s 1993, Girl, Interrupted, is a memoir that explores Kaysen’s time as a teenage psychiatric patient in McLean Hospital in the late 1960s. Kaysen explores the murky definitions of mental health and illness, as she recounters her experience of being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and makes compelling arguments about the subjective nature of personality, behavior, and disorder. Girl, Interrupted is a bestselling book and was adapted into the 1999 film starring Winona Ryder... Read Girl, Interrupted Summary

Goodbye, Vitamin is Asian American author Rachel Khong’s debut novel. Khong, whose grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease, explores how Alzheimer’s disease affects a family in this work of literary fiction. Written as a series of diary entries, Khong’s protagonist, Ruth Young, meditates on memory, forgiveness, and the challenges inherent in familial relationships as she navigates an adulthood that is not turning out as planned.Published in 2017, Goodbye, Vitamin received positive reviews and was named one of... Read Goodbye, Vitamin Summary

Lauren Fleshman’s 2023 memoir Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World recounts Fleshman’s own journey as a track and long-distance athlete and then as a coach. Fleshman explores the norm of male physiology dominating athletic practices and norms and the ways that this systemic sexism is damaging for female athletes, especially for athletes in sports that favor lean bodies and strenuous physical training. In doing so, Fleshman hopes to create an... Read Good for a Girl Summary

Good Morning, Monster is a work of nonfiction by the clinical psychologist Catherine Gildiner, in which she profiles five individuals who, Gildiner asserts, are “psychological heroes.” Gildiner has worked with each patient as their therapist, seeing each one for a period of four to five years, and uses their cases as studies for her book’s exploration of the human capacity for resilience and survival.Gildiner (born 1948) is a Canadian American clinical psychologist, therapist, and author... Read Good Morning, Monster Summary

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013) by Mary Roach is a work of contemporary popular science writing that explores the topic of human digestion. Roach, a bestselling science writer, is known for her ability to make complex scientific subjects accessible through humor and meticulous research. Building on the success of her previous works—like Stiff (2003), which examines human cadavers from a scientific perspective, and Packing for Mars (2010), which explores the psychological and physiological... Read Gulp Summary

Hamnet is a historical fiction novel published in 2020 by the Irish-British author Maggie O’Farrell. It fictionalizes the life of William Shakespeare’s family at the time of his son Hamnet’s death in 1596 and the writing of the play Hamlet around 1600. Hamnet won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, a prestigious literary award in the United Kingdom.Plot SummaryThe novel comprises two alternating narratives. The first begins with the events leading up to Hamnet’s death... Read Hamnet Summary

Handle with Care is a 2009 family and medical drama by Jodi Picoult. Like many of Picoult’s novels, Handle with Care explores controversial ethical dilemmas; this novel explores the legal concept of wrongful birth. The narrative focuses on Willow O’Keefe, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a condition that makes her bones fragile, meaning that she will experience hundreds of broken bones in her life. Following a particularly traumatic and embarrassing broken bone, Charlotte... Read Handle With Care Summary

American poet Jane Kenyon wrote “Having It Out with Melancholy” towards the end of her career. The poem originally appeared in the November 1992 issue of Poetry Magazine and then re-appeared in Constance (Graywolf Press, 1993), the last poetry collection published during her life.“Having It Out with Melancholy” is a long lyric poem broken into nine sections, weaving in and out of fragmented narrative moments, observations, and flights of fancy throughout the piece. With this format, Kenyon reveals how... Read Having It Out with Melancholy Summary

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family is a nonfiction work published in 2020 by journalist Robert Kolker, author of the 2013 bestseller Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery. Hidden Valley Road tells the story of the Galvins, an American family with 12 children, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Using the family as a lens, Kolker traces the history of schizophrenia research, from its early misunderstandings to the search for... Read Hidden Valley Road Summary

Holly (2023), a novel by prolific author Stephen King, is a standalone crime thriller featuring recurring character Holly Gibney, a private investigator who previously appeared in King’s Bill Hodges series, the 2018 novel The Outsider, and the 2020 novella collection If It Bleeds. In the novel, Holly, now working as a private investigator, takes on the case of a missing woman named Bonnie Dahl. As Holly narrows in on her unlikely murderers, King tackles themes... Read Holly Summary

Hot Milk (2016) is a novel written by South African and British author Deborah Levy. It follows Sofia Papastergiadis, who has been caring for her mother, Rose, through Rose’s hypochondria-driven illnesses. Sofia and Rose go to Almeria, Spain, to seek treatment from Dr. Gomez. While there, Sofia must confront her mother’s dependency on her and question what she wants in her own life. Levy explores themes of The Struggle for Independence, The Complexities of Sexual... Read Hot Milk Summary

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain is a 2017 book by Lisa Feldman Barrett, an American neuroscientist and professor. Based on her decades of research in brain function and emotion, Barrett argues that emotions aren’t universally felt or perceived but are instead constructed by the brain’s predictive thinking processes and based on previous experiences, external stimuli, bodily functions, and taught concepts. Her argument, which she calls the “theory of constructed emotion,”... Read How Emotions Are Made Summary

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger, with Gene Stone, is a work that explores the power of plant-based nutrition in preventing and reversing chronic diseases. Published in 2015, the book draws on Greger’s extensive medical background and expertise as a physician and public health advocate, along with his role as the founder of NutritionFacts.org. Through a comprehensive examination of scientific research, Greger makes a... Read How Not to Die Summary

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (2018) was written by Michael Pollan after curiosity and a personal desire to experience psychedelics for himself prompted exploration into psychedelic research. Pollan uses multiple forms of narrative to weave a story that’s part history, part memoir, part biomedical nonfiction, and part travelogue. The book follows the history of LSD and psilocybin as well as... Read How to Change Your Mind Summary

How to Keep House While Drowning (2022) is a self-help guide by KC Davis. In the book, Davis offers a compassionate and practical guide to managing household tasks and self-care, especially for those living with mental health conditions. She emphasizes the moral neutrality of care tasks and advocates for integrating mental wellness into daily routines.This guide uses the 2024 Penguin Books edition. Content Warning: The source text discusses mental health conditions (including depression and ADHD)... Read How to Keep House While Drowning Summary

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a self-help guide by Dale Carnegie. First published in 1948, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living established a benchmark for many subsequent self-help books on overcoming anxiety. The book outlines the adverse effects of anxiety on health and happiness and offers practical techniques to combat the habit of worrying. Throughout the text, the author advocates cultivating a positive mindset as a means of attaining inner peace... Read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living Summary