Hooked on Books discussion

Members Starting the BR: Amanda and Kirsten
Challenge: Book Quest Adventures
Book: Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scanlon


Anyone is free to join in this Buddy Read! Happy Reading!

I can start this one whenever you want 😊

I started this one today. I dont think this has ever come up but I actually did one semester at an out of state school before having to move back closer to home because it was just not great for mental health to be away that young so I’m resonating with the author. Her story is obviously the more extreme end of the spectrum, but I think its very easy to feel alone when you’re so young.

Also the part about MPD and the “schizophrenia of women” is very interesting. It’s often blatant so far but I feel like there’s also a lot of subtle points about what it means to be a woman.

Just a lot of thought provoking for me early on. I think it’s interesting when she talks about how hard it was to grow up without social media as a young person since we always talk about how hard social media is on youth. When you’re lonely that instant connection can be so important but that is still a relatively new concept (even only including texts or cell phones and not social media).

I’m a 90s baby so I grew up as social media did and had never really thought this way

lol it’s not subtle. It’s very much about being a woman and how that’s shaped her.

I'm all done! My interest was really high at points and really low at others, but for no reason lol. I did like the exploration into feminism, motherhood, family, books, it was all really interesting. I actually don't read much classics so I didn't know a lot of the books she referenced but I already had wanted to read them.

I think sometimes it got a little anti-medicine, but I also think that's fair given her life

I have just started this--I lost all your notifications when you were reading or I'd have started sooner (I had to log out and log back in).

I am loving all the research she did with the memoir. Of course.

It's also resonating with me. I have major depressive disorder and though I've never been institutionalized, I have been pretty sick at times (and my postpartum depression was off the charts and what finally made me realize I'd been depressed for most of my life).

I also have a fascination with MPD.

I'm sorry I missed reading this with you!

That is okay! I'll come around as you read still.

I'm not going to lie, there were definitely a couple times where I was like "wait, isn't that how everyone feels" which made me realize it might be time to start seeing my therapist again.

❤️

The family therapy section is so interesting!

Also, I read The Lover and it profoundly affected me, too. The stuff about Kristeva and Duras is reminding me of grad school.

The short chapters sort of bug me.

I have finished--I had a colleague at the University of Calgary who also spent years in a mental institution in the UK (about my age, so about Scanlon's age) and I also thought it was wild that he'd been there so long, and assumed he must have been really sick. This book changed this perspective. And it was wild to think about how they'd been there as kind of a teaching hospital experience. (I'm trying not to use my usual go-tos of crazy or insane).

Seriously, the short chapters got to really bugging me, and I'm not sure why--maybe because it was so stream of consciousness, which is a style I hate.

I loved the way that all the narratives--her own, her friends, the famous mentally ill, the fictional--wove together. I am really glad I read this book. I was more surprised than I should have been (duh--crazy lit professor) that so much of it resonated.

I felt very similar! I think the short chapters allowed my mind to wander too much but overall I found that incredibly impactful.

Same--it was a 3.5 star book for me. I am glad I read it (gave you a shout-out in the review).

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