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While you were out: An intimate family portrait of mental illness in an era of silence
By Meg Kissinger. 2023
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Journals and memoirs, Death and bereavement, Biography
Human-narrated audio
From award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illness, as well as an incisive…
exploration of the systems that failed them and a testament to the love that sustained them. Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger's family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard. But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding—a heavily medicated mother hospitalized for anxiety and depression, a manic father prone to violence, and children in the throes of bipolar disorder and depression, two of whom would take their own lives. Through it all, the Kissingers faced the world with their signature dark humor and the unspoken family rule: never talk about it. While You Were Out begins as the personal story of one family's struggles then opens outward, as Kissinger details how childhood tragedy catalyzed a journalism career focused on exposing our country's flawed mental health care. Combining the intimacy of memoir with the rigor of investigative reporting, the book explores the consequences of shame, the havoc of botched public policy, and the hope offered by new treatment strategies. Powerful, candid and filled with surprising humor, this is the story of one family's love and resilience in face of great loss
Sunshine
By Jarrett Krosoczka. 2023
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Medicine, Death and bereavement, Social issues
Human-narrated audio
The extraordinary - and extraordinarily powerful - follow-up to HEY, KIDDO. When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was in high school, he…
was part of a program that sent students to be counselors at a camp forseriously ill kids and their families. Going into, Jarrett was worried: Wouldn't it be depressing, to be around kids facing such aserious struggle? Wouldn't it be grim?But instead of the shadow of death, Jarrett found something else at Camp Sunshine: the hope and determination that gets peoplethrough the most troubled of times. Not only was he subject to some of the usual rituals that come with being a camp counselor(wilderness challenges, spooky campfire stories, an extremely stinky mascot costume), but he also got a chance to meet someextraordinary kids facing extraordinary circumstances. He learned about the captivity of illness, for sure . . . but he also learnedabout the freedom a safe space can bring.Now, in his follow-up to the National Book Award finalist Hey, Kiddo, Jarrett brings readers back to Camp Sunshine so we canmeet the campers and fellow counselors who changed the course of his life