Welcome to Litsy!

#currentlyreading and trying to film bits for a vlog.

#vlog #porochistakhakpour #sick #memoir #medicalmemoir

Good but not great. Good gracious she had alot going on. I wanted her to get more in depth about her Lyme.

Book 50

This is Porochista‘s journey to a Lyme Disease diagnosis. The book is sectioned into the many moves she‘s made - LA, NYC, Baltimore, rural PA, Leipzig, and Santa Fe. But she also discusses how her relationships with her parents and various men have invalided or helped her illness. And of course she talks about the (familiar to us with chronic illness) bouncing among doctors and healers and the incumbent frustrations. Definitely recommend! ⬇️

Jumping (spinning 😉) on board! I put in four of my nightstand books. #indecisivemonday

Thank you to whoever posted about this first!

A memoir about chronic illness while I‘m going through an active phase of my chronic illness? I think so. We‘ll see if this works for me. #bookmail

I also got some new floating shelves in the mail...wonder why I need them...🤔😂

#memoirgals @Cinfhen

A book club read. I found this to be told and written well. Sometimes a story makes you grateful for the life you have. This is one of those times. Sadly many of these stories about health issues don't have a tidy ending, because the issues are ongoing. Also sad are how many ways the health care system can fail you. I look forward to chatting about this one in book club.

Our next book club pick.

Book 1- Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour #Deweys24hourreadathon #Deweyapril 📚

he first 80% of the book is Porochita‘s life in her teenage years until her thirties. She dates, drinks, and does a lot of drugs. She doesn‘t ever feel quite right. She‘s always sick. A doctor mentions Lyme disease but she never pursued it. It goes from her being sick to better multiple times. Finally, she meets some friends that insist she needed to get help. The last 40 pages were 5 star for me, you just have to get there. 4/5.

This book is beautiful and haunting. The author‘s candor is amazing as is her perspective on herself and on her illness.

This book is raw and revelatory and a great way to lose track of time on your lunch break

"Sick" is not trying to be anything other than the truth. I really appreciated this window into the day to day experience of someone with a chronic illness & how the intersections of identity influence whether our pain is believed. It took my mom over 11 tries to get diagnosed with lupus & not "it's all in your head." This book is such a necessary mirror to many unspoken cruelties of being chronically sick in this country & I'm so grateful for it.

Really a frustrating, upsetting read. I have nothing but admiration for Khakpour, who is not living an easy existence. I thank her for sharing with us.

An apt read as I recover from hysterectomy and continue on my journey with endometriosis and fibromyalgia. Still adjusting to the words that finally explain so much.
#womenspain #sickness #chronicpain #hysterectomy #recovery

Having a great audiobook improves my life so much! I have more energy for exercising, cleaning, and running errands so I can listen! (I am enjoying SICK more than I thought I would. Memoirs make great audiobooks and the narrator does a great job.) #memoir #medical #audiobook

The author details her harrowing experience trying to find an solution to chronic illness. Along the way she moves all over and dates a bunch of folks. This is the way young single women live, yet she finds few answers in her hunt for wellness, love, and career. The book is heartbreaking. Some parts are nearly interminable, and I‘ll bet that‘s just how she felt. Lyme disease is no joke.

Full review at www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2018

1. Benji (and then we adopted a dog who looked a lot like the movie‘s MC)
2. French Fries - shoestring preferably
3. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Long story ... not listening to music right now (hopefully only temporarily)
4. Sick is a book about a young woman finding her way in life amidst a mysterious chronic illness
5. You bet I will! 💙

#friyayintro @jesshowbooks

I am interested in the stories of people with chronic illness b/c I know nothing about medicine/health but I have many health care professionals and one medical intuitive (with a chronic illness) in my family and the debates are heavy.
I was excited to read this but ultimately felt it was more a memoir about being sick and feeling displaced by illness than a book about dealing with Lyme and medical care. Not a bad book just not what I was hoping.

Library hold for this just came in ... away I go! I‘m expecting it to be a rough read, since I‘ve been through some intense Lyme treatment myself. I‘ve read the comments about her messy relationships being more prominent than her illness. Hoping i don‘t feel that way...

#nonfiction #memoir #chroniclyme #lymedisease #lymie #spoonie #chronicillness

I found this book fascinating, frustrating, beautiful, and unbelievable. The author shows so many facets of living with a chronic illness while owning her own unreliability and lack of clarity. While I was tempted at times to put the book down, I always found the writing too captivating to abandon.

The more I think about it, the more remarkable I think this book is. So much of what we expect from a memoir, especially a memoir about illness, is narratives of healing and personal growth, tied up with a bow. But throughout SICK, Khakpour undercuts that narrative, offering no neat closures, no tidy resolutions. She demands to be seen as nothing more or less than herself. I don‘t think I‘ve ever read anything like this before.

Slightly more about the author's trainwreck relationships than actual health issues...

Alright, let‘s do this.

Phenomenal book, phenomenal cake. Khakpour takes the reader through years of mystery illnesses, addiction and desperation, and while there‘s not quite a happily ever after, there is resolution. Her honesty and candor are incredible.

So it is WAY too hot out to get the truck/trailer packed up without almost passing out. Taking lots of breaks to read a few pages and cool down. Although this book is going to make me even more paranoid about bugs than I already am 😕 #bugissues #stayaway #tickchecksareessential

It may have rained all weekend, but it's sunny now and this is the perfect end to a Tuesday...book, comfy chair, and a fire #naturetherapy #readingoutdoors

This memoir of illness reads like a mystery novel. I was eager for the diagnosis, but curiously horrified at the author‘s descent into addiction and unhealth. I have taken care of chronic disease sufferers in the hospital and have always deemed it best to listen to them. Yes, they can be demanding and particular patients, but they are the ones living in their bodies and know what works for them. This is a very personal memoir.

I reviewed this kickass memoir for the Minneapolis Star Tribune!

Read it.

#riotgrams Day 10 - a book that deserves more readers! Everyone, go out and buy or borrow from your library @pchza memoir Sick, that just released on June 5. A wonderfully crafted work that lays out in detail how she has survived as both a person who feels/is displaced within the world and as a person with severe chronic illness. Beautiful writing, beautiful story beautiful person.

The discussion yesterday between Susannah Cahalan & Porochista Khakpour was so good/sad/informative that it went on for double the amount of time they usually go on for— but it was well worth my sticking around. Porochista went years without a diagnosis, & even with a Lyme diagnosis in hand doctors wouldn‘t believe her or not treat her for the symptoms she came to them for, and it‘s such an unfortunate reality for so many women seeking treatment.

This informative Memoir came out yesterday! 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
#memoir #sickmemoir #porochistakhakpour #lymedisease #newrelease #booklover #review

excited to start this one - have been hearing such great things + love the cover

🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 Thank You @HarperPerennial for sending me this ARC. Out June 5th!
A journey of illness that reads more like a detective novel. Porochista has late-stage lyme disease, but it took years for her to get this diagnosis. She felt sick for most of her life. Her body always working against her. Brave, honest, and informative. A book that needed to be written. More people need to be aware of this at times debilitating to deadly disease.

Thank to Harper Perennial for sending me this ARC. Out June 2018. Looking forward to reading it!!
A story about survival, pain, and transformation, Sick is a candid, illuminating narrative of hope and uncertainty, boldly examining the deep impact of illness on one woman's life.
#memoir #bookworm #booklover #bookish

A finely wrought memoir of Khakpour‘s battle with Lyme disease and, more broadly, how the early trauma and displacement of her childhood intertwines and muddies the challenge of “putting a name” to the cause of her symptoms. A personal fascination, was the revelation that Khakpour and I are almost exactly the same age - she has lived so much more life than I, I would have referred her to as one of the “older girls” had we been at the same school.