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Centre for Equitable Library Access
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The best minds: A story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions

By Jonathan Rosen. 2023

DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Psychology, True crime, Journals and memoirs
Human-narrated audio

"Brave and nuanced…an act of tremendous compassion and a literary triumph." — The New York Times "Immensely emotional and unforgettably…

haunting." — Wall Street Journal One of The Washington Post ’s 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction Acclaimed author Jonathan Rosen’s haunting investigation of the forces that led his closest childhood friend, Michael Laudor, from the heights of brilliant promise to the forensic psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved. A story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand—and fail to understand—mental illness. When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of college professors, the boys were best friends and keen competitors, and, when they both got into Yale University, seemed set to join the American meritocratic elite. Michael blazed through college in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. But all wasn’t as it seemed. One day, Jonathan received the call: Michael had suffered a serious psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Michael was still in the hospital when he learned he'd been accepted to Yale Law School, and still battling delusions when he decided to trade his halfway house for the top law school in the country. He not only managed to graduate, but after his extraordinary story was featured in The New York Times , sold a memoir for a large sum. Ron Howard bought film rights, completing the dream for Michael and his tirelessly supportive girlfriend Carrie. But then Michael, in the grip of an unshakeable paranoid fantasy, stabbed Carrie to death with a kitchen knife and became a front-page story of an entirely different sort. The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen's brilliant and heartbreaking account of an American tragedy. It is a story about the bonds of family, friendship, and community; the promise of intellectual achievement; and the lure of utopian solutions. Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, at times almost unbearably sad, The Best Minds is an extreme version of a story that is tragically familiar to all too many. In the hands of a writer of Jonathan Rosen's gifts and dedication, its significance will echo widely

The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise

By Pico Iyer. 2023

Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Health and medicine, Religion, Spirituality
Synthetic audio, Automated braille

From &“one of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time&” (Brain Pickings): a journey through competing ideas of paradise…

to see how we can live more peacefully in an ever more divided and distracted world. &“Nothing less than a guided tour of the human soul…A masterpiece.&” — #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert &“Immersive and profound…. Iyer matches penetrating insights with some of the most transportive prose around. This further burnishes Iyer&’s reputation as one of the best.&” — starred Publishers WeeklyParadise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it&’s in our midst—or just across the ocean—if only we can find eyes to see it. Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama&’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so many seeming paradises turn into warzones? And does paradise exist only in the afterworld – or can it be found in the here and now? For almost fifty years Iyer has been roaming the world, mixing a global soul&’s delight in observing cultures with a pilgrim&’s readiness to be transformed. In this culminating work, he brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives.

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions

By Jonathan Rosen. 2023

Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Journals and memoirs, Psychology, True crime
Synthetic audio, Automated braille

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST •  Named a Top 10 Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street…

Journal, The Atlantic, Slate, and PeopleOne of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2023&“Brave and nuanced . . . an act of tremendous compassion and a literary triumph.&” —The New York Times&“Immensely emotional and unforgettably haunting.&” —The Wall Street JournalAcclaimed author Jonathan Rosen&’s haunting investigation of the forces that led his closest childhood friend, Michael Laudor, from the heights of brilliant promise to the forensic psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved. A story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion, The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand—and fail to understand—mental illness.When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of college professors, the boys were best friends and keen competitors, and, when they both got into Yale University, seemed set to join the American meritocratic elite.   Michael blazed through college in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. But all wasn&’t as it seemed. One day, Jonathan received the call: Michael had suffered a serious psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.   Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Michael was still battling delu­sions when he traded his halfway house for Yale Law School. Featured in The New York Times as a role model genius, he sold a memoir, with film rights to Ron Howard. But then Michael, in the grip of an unshakeable paranoid fantasy, stabbed his girlfriend Carrie to death and became a front-page story of an entirely different sort.   Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen&’s magnificent and heartbreaking account of good intentions and tragic outcomes whose significance will echo widely.

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