Early Impressions on, "The Monster and the Mirror," and Thoughts on, "Hope by Terry Fox," Too!

I haven't had a ton of free time lately between sick kiddos, teaching a college class virtually, and life itself. That can make it hard to read a full-fledged book at times. That said, I was offered a review copy of, "The Monster and the Mirror," a bit ago and it sounded fascinating. Written by K. J. Aiello, it is a bit of a memoir and a bit of a reflection on the power of popular culture/piece of cultural criticism, discussing how mental illness impacted both the author and how it is reflected in mass media (e.g. with it generally treated as something villainous or as a punishment). I'm earlier-on in the book, but really digging what I've read so far!

K. J. Aiello has some extremely wise points about how most popular culture is terrible at how it portays mental illness as something monstrous and scary. There aren't that many tales where a hero happens to have a mental illness of some sort, after all. These observations come from Aiello telling a very personal story of their own childhood and their own life with mental illness that wasn't understood very well until they were older. This is not a book for those who can't handle some difficult stuff--Aiello has a lot to share and I thank them for being willing to dig deep and expose hard times for us to observe and learn from. I look forward to reading more of, 'The Monster and the Mirror," as it is fascinating!

5 out of 5 stars (from what I've read so far).

On a side note, I was at first actually sent the wrong book to review by the publisher. I received, "Hope by Terry Fox," which was crafted/edited by Barbara Adhiya. It is about a man named Terry Fox who had his right leg amputated above the knee at age 18 due to cancer and in the interest of raising money to cure the disease began doing fundraising runs all across Canada. The book features tons of informational interviews, pictures, maps, and such that Adhiya acquired from a bunch of people from Terry's life (he passed in 1981). Since his passing over 850 million has been raised via the Marathon of Hope he founded. It's a fascinating story I was not familiar with and would encourage people to check out, "Hope," as it is an intriguing true tale!

5 out of 5 stars.