SLP Book Club: Where Is The Mango Princess? A Journey Back From Brain Injury

I joined a book club.  This is the second book club I have ever been in.  I was in a meet-in-person-every-month book club a few years ago.  There were many aspects I enjoyed.  I really liked being exposed to different books/authors/genres I would not have otherwise read.  A bit of trivia about me: I love to read, but I have a terrible time finding books to read.  Well, children's books I find easily.  Too easily.  With "adult" books I tend to be really picky if I am trying to choose for myself just for the sake of having something to read.  Which means I tend to pleasure read in spurts.  So I loved that I was being pushed outside of my comfort zone.  It became a bit stressful for me, though, so I eventually dropped out.  But I have missed elements of the book club experience.

Fast forward to the end of 2014.  I randomly saw a post on Facebook.  A speech-language pathologist posted asking for suggestions of books related to our field.  Fiction, nonfiction, children's, adult - all was fair game as long as it related somehow to the field of speech-language pathology.  The response she got was tremendous.  I have three full notebook pages listing all of the books recommended by other SLPs!  And from that was born an online SLP Book Club.  Which to me seems the ideal scenario for giving this book club thing another try.  We read our first book this month [affiliate link]:  Where Is The Mango Princess?  A Journey Back From Brain Injury by Cathy Crimmins.  I am looking forward to our online discussion.

This nonfiction book is one wife's recounting of her family's journey following a freak accident that left her husband with a traumatic brain injury.  It was a quick read, but brutally honest and at times crass.  And if you are sensitive to cursing, let's just say a reality of brain injury is often a huge increase in swearing.  I love that Cathy didn't hold back.  She told it like she experienced, and felt, it.  And because of that, I feel like I came away with a better understanding of what it is like on her side.  It was also heartbreaking (especially to read about their daughter's experience through it all), infuriating (oh, the American insurance industry), and fascinating (what the brain can do!).

I recommend it.

Disclosure: I purchased the book and received no compensation for this post.  The opinions are all mine.  This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.