Welcome to Litsy!

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are 🏃🏽‍♀️💬

This book teaches a lot about the struggles of mental health and caused a lot of self reflection, being a teenager in high school myself. It has definitely changed my perspective on the valued college dream. The only thing I didn‘t love was the author‘s constant pauses in the story to incorporate anecdotes of her own life, which although paralleled Maddy‘s story in some ways, overall took away from the tragedy.

This book wasn't what I had pegged it to be but boy did it make me pause and ponder so many things in my own life.

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. Tagged. Also like Friday Night Lights and Love, Zac.

2. Football (American) (Go Pats 🇺🇸) I also like the Olympics (winter more than summer), curling, & rugby.

I loved this heartbreaking true story of a college athlete who died by suicide in 2014. Personally I loved that the chapters detailing Maddy‘s life were intertwined with fact/research based chapters on depression, suicide, etc. along with chapters detailing the author‘s personal connections to Maddy‘s dark feelings. 10/10 definitely recommend

1. Tagged! :)
2. I started listening to books on Audible in 2020. Never did that before but I learned I enjoy my commute much more when I‘m listening to a book vs music!
3. “The Hunting Party” because it‘s the January book for a book club I joined 🥰

Good, well told accounting of a teen‘s struggle, and ultimate end to a short life of a college athlete. I cried several times but maybe because I have a daughter the same age away at college. Not sure the title is particularly accurate but that‘s minor. Probably every parent of a college kids should read this for awareness.

I got to hear Kate Fagan speak tonight. She was wonderful and has a great sense of humor. 🥰

This is a must read for parents with teenagers, athletes or not. While not necessarily entertaining, it was incredibly eye-opening . The struggle to transition from high school to college was surprising to me. The pressure these kids put on themselves is unbelievable.
“ One study found that an average high school student today likely deals with as much anxiety as did a psychiatric pastiest in the 1950s”

Quick read but sad story. Read for PD

A book all college students and parents should read.

Mandy was a typical nineteen-year-old, starting college, running track, posting pictures on Instagram. But this was all just the surface.

Behind those smiles, Mandy was breaking. Until one day, she tragically chose to end her life.

Very eye-opening, and Kate Fagan does an incredible job telling this story. My eyes continue to fill up just thinking about it.

This book broke me. I still think about it a good deal. I think what really gets to me is that Maddy had so much to live for, but wasn‘t able to reach out for help. We never know what inner demons others are battling.

#borntorun #marchintothe70s

Heartbreaking read 😢 Maddy has just started at a prestigious university running track but something starts to feel not right with her. She tries to tell family and friends but she can‘t explain it. She tries to quit track but her coach encourages her to stick with it for at least another semester. Not many days after this meeting with her coach and her mother she has taken her own life.👇

What a heartbreaking book. I am really glad that I finally picked it up. It's been on my "to read" list for a bit. As a parent raising a student athlete I found so much of this story applicable. The transition from high school to college, mental health issues, social media and our youth, there was so much food for thought.

This book keeps hitting home for me. I think I am just in the right stage of life, a parent to teens. I am doing a lot of reflecting on our parenting. Some areas we are doing really well but there are others I think we need to tweak.

I am raising a young athlete and this book is really making me think about how we parent him and his sports. This quote especially caught my attention.

I am having a hard time saying awake waiting for my son to get home from the high school football game! I am going to start a new book to see if it keeps me awake. This has been on my to read list for ages. I was excited when it went on sale a few days ago.

Some helpful information posted in this book that I thought would be good to share.

Sunny Sunday read on the deck is a stark contrast to the darkness that Maddy Holleran carried around inside herself. As a parent of two young people who are only a bit older than Maddy was when she took her own life, my heart is breaking into a million pieces.

Yay yay yay!!! I have been wanting to read this book for some time now and I woke up this morning to awesome news, I won a copy of GoodReads!!!!! I never win anything on there so this is soooo exciting!!! And the fact that it‘s a book I actually know and want is even better! What a great start to a Tuesday!!! I wanna know what books have you ever won from Goodreads?

This is just one of those books that makes you ask why? A young woman who seems to have everything, but is actually in such despair that she ends her own life. Everything #wasted. It‘s so hard to comprehend and the tragedy is all encompassing. My heart breaks for her family and friends. #getmovin

My favorite read of 2018 so far. Maddy spiraled out of control even as her many loved ones tried to reach out and help. Can't forget it.
Most looking forward to: Louise Penny's next book, Kingdom of the Blind. Love her; love the residents of Three Pines.
#GLGGiveaway @GripLitGrl

Currently reading....

Such a devastatingly sad book. I feel it is an important story, and needed to be told. We never truly know what others are going through in their lives, even the people who we feel we know best and love the most. Thank you @Reviewsbylola for letting me borrow your library book!

Talk about heavy. I was crying by page 50. Knowing that Maddy is going to take her own life made this difficult to get through, yet I read it in just a few hours. Couldn‘t put it down. Fagan did an excellent job of telling Maddy‘s story and showing how it‘s impossible to understand the struggle of others. Fagan did tend to over extrapolate on social media usage but it gave me a lot of food for thought.

Incredibly important story, even if you‘re not interested in college athletics.

The book opens your eyes to the way we raise children in the age of social media and the very private struggles of a young woman whose instagram feed reflects the opposite.

Last day of vacation. 😩 Not the last day of 1-clicking. 😬

This is one of my favorite reads of the year. It‘s sad, beautiful, and I can‘t stop thinking about it. Well worth the sale price today on kindle.

???? #BookClubPick #LibrarianLife

"As a runner, you‘re highly in tune with your body, and you know its highs and lows; you know your normal aches and pains, and you know when you should probably see the athletic trainer. Learning the highs and lows of your mind is much harder....
When it came to Madison‘s troubles, they both felt they had one commodity in abundance: time." ?

Quiet at work= Readying my bookclub book, very insightful.

Two more good ones!!

A well-written, empathetically written, biography about Madison Holleran and reportage about the rising rate of suicide/depression in student athletes. Fagan expanded her original article "Split Image" into an investigation about perfection, depression, social media, athletics "mind set", college transition, and suicide. She includes interviews and work she has done with other students and a discussion about how to talk about suicide in the media.

This book. 💔 It chronicles the struggles and untimely death of Madison Holleran: the challenges of adjusting from high school to college, the difficulty of being a college athlete, and depression. It also has some powerful things to say about the schism between the curated life we portray online versus real life. My heart is heavy and I'll be thinking about Maddy for a long time.

Apparently I'm in the mood to read about running. Two new books to choose from. Deciding between the two is hard for me tonight.

This in-depth look at a teenage athlete's descent into depression and her eventual suicide is definitely eye-opening. Although I was impressed with the amount of research done, I was sort of taken out of the story by the author inserting her own experiences into the book. It seems like Maddy and her intense pain deserved a book solely on her story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33296283?source=ebfg_sms

This is a good book but so heartbreaking. Kate Fagan expands on an article she wrote about Penn athlete Maddy Holleran. Maddy's life was perfect if you saw her Instagram feed or looked at her accomplishments. Maddy was depressed and struggled in her transition to college. She was a star student and athlete in high school and put enormous pressure on herself when she got to Penn. Sadly, she committed suicide in 2014.👇🏻

#CurrentlyReading this book based on Madison Holleran, too soon gone from this world. It's so easy, especially in today's society of carefully curated Instagram and Tumblr posts to look like you have everything together when you're drowning inside. #arc