Coma Books

I found this book very interesting. I could relate to the overworked supermom thing and her collapse carried a good message. I saw Mary Kay speak in person and she was riveting. I was hoping the book would also be riveting, but I would have to say "interesting" instead, if only because of some repetition and a lot of talk about how much everyone loves her and thinks she's beautiful when she's in a coma. I understand that this felt wonderful to her, but it's one dimensional and got a little tiresome. Definitely worth a read though. I feel bad not being able to say "5 stars" because I really like her and she's a talented writer.

A witty, honest account of a women's journey to the edge and back.

Too many commitments, too many responsibilities and not enough self assessment on her physical and emotional needs, leads Mary Kay into a 9 day coma.

Her family and friend's love and support during these days and Mary Kay's determination to live makes this story heartwarming and real.

A must read for all women facing the "Super Mom " syndrome.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It is a honest story of the unknown life of someone in a coma. What goes on when you think there is nothing going on inside of a loved one experiencing life in a coma...His message is....*I am alive in here!!!! Talk to me! I can hear your! I am coming back....

Also and not secondary to the fact the he is undergoing the struggle with saving his life with not one miraculous liver transplant but THREE!

He shares the emotional, physical and sometimes spiritual experiences with what it is life to go through a life changing, saving, liver transplant experience....

A must read for anyone preparing for transplant or anyone who's loved one is in a coma.....

Thank you Dr Darling for sharing.......

Nancy

I read this book 2 years before a friend of mine suffered a lack of oxygen to the brain. He had been in a coma for a week and the doctor said he would be a vegetable if he woke up. I used the methods Mindell indicated in his book that enable a person to communicate with a coma victim. My friend woke up that night, and steadily made progress. This book gave me the tools to psychically and physically reach him. My gratitude to Mr. Mindell is enormous. Amy Mindell has also published a book on coma which is perhaps more easy to read than this one. The only critique I have of Arnold Miindell's book is that it dwells far more on end=of=life comas than beginning-again-of life comas.

Through Black Spruce was chosen as the winner of this year's Giller Prize, the top Canadian book award. The panel of 3 that chose it included Margaret Attwood and Colm Toibin (IMPAC Award winner). I hoped this meant I was in safe hands with the recommendation.

I had nothing to worry about. I found Boyden to be an excellent storyteller.

Annie, a young Cree woman from very far northern Ontario (look Moosonee up on the map) has returned to her home town to escape recent events. She gets into the habit of visiting her coma ridden uncle at the hospital for several hours each night.

At this point two story lines emerge. Every second chapter is narrated by Annie as she relates her recent experiences to her uncle. She wonders if he can hear her.

Every other chapter is narrated by Uncle Will as we discover the sequence of events that lead to his current state.

Both storylines are very different and both are compelling. It is difficult to decide which one I liked better. The stories are fluid and both action packed.

Annie, who has lived near Moosonee all her life goes to Toronto with a friend for a vacation with the hope of finding information about her missing sister, Suzanne. Annie and her family are very concerned that Suzanne has met an untimely end. Suzanne is very beautiful and they know from magazines that she has done high fashion modelling. She left Moosonee with an unsavoury character and has certainly gotten into some osrt of trouble.

Annie becomes obsessed with finding her sister and ends up becoming entwined in the world of high fashion and drugs. She also does some modelling and becomes very involved with a world of privilege in Montreal and New York.

Uncle Will's story revolves around his conflict with a local drug dealer named Marius. Marius believes Will has informed on him to the police. Will is terrorized by Marius and must learn to fight back.

Ultimately the story lines intersect and events come to a head.

This is a very quick and fast moving read and I found it to be consistently entertaining. I definitely recommend it.

This is an anthology which investigates the psychological needs of women of color in the US in detail. Most of the contributors are women of color themselves, but there is one contribution by a man. The chapters are divided into regional groups (Latinas, Native Americans, Jamaican women), psychological strategies (feminism, psychopharmacology, and integrationist theory), and special populations (professional women, lesbians, mixed-race women). The articles are long and detailed. The non-psychologist may be scared off, but should try to forge ahead in completing the book. The authors sometimes quote old sources; I'm not sure if this is their being thorough or signifying that little source work exists. The authors often quote other contributors to the volume; I'm not sure if this is the decision of the editors or if this signifies that the authors are the best experts in these areas. I found the theory portion of the book to be the most tiresome. However, the whole book is a good review of the literature and does a good job in pointing to the further scholarship that needs to be done. The book carefully states that women of color would be better off having women of color as their therapists, yet it also faces that reality that most of its readers will be white female therapists who "want to be helpful." I would recommend this anthology seriously to all psychotherapists and any readers interested in womanist/mujerista research.

I really wanted to like this book. I have liked several of Chuck's other offerings but this one was not up to par with what he is capable of. About 50 pages into this book, had I not been trapped on a plane, I would have rolled down my window and sent it on its merry way. Perhaps a passing squirrel or moose would like to kill a few hours reading about a pathetic lady that only gets more pathetic as the pages very slowly pass by. Perhaps a passing bear would like something conveniently sized to wipe his omnivoric buttox with. My time would been better served reading government documents on proper disposal of printer toner.

My brother turned me on the chuck books a few years ago. He sent me his entire collection at the time. It had included this book, but I had forgoten since he had insisted I return them all as soon as I was finished.( He lives in Virginia, I'm in Texas). Anyhow I ended up ordering Diary and reading it again. It seemed familiar, but I kept reading to refresh my memory on how it all turned out. I have to say it was even better the second time arround. The peverse fairytale thats included in this story seems to be so originial and Misty Marie is a true Herione in her own right. I love that Chuck always has a surprise twist. I pride my self in guessing whats going to happen next in film and books, but its just not possible with a Chuck book. Diary is my fav. I only wish I lived in a place where I could see the film Choke based on one of his other great books.

To think I paid full price for this piece of tripe at a bookstore and worse I also bought his book " Haunted " which I have yet to read, as I'm half afraid I would see more full price down the drain instead of the saving from Amazon .

If my library will take them that's where they will be donated ...let's hope they don't revoke my library card . perhaps a prison donation would be better ...reading inmates may sign up for a full frontal lobotomy after perusing these .

I had been verbally spanked on here in the past by saying I enjoy paying so little for new and used books on Amazon and not patronizing all retail book stores !!!!! , And after thinking it over I decide to be a good citizen and spend half my book spending in retail stores...well I feel like a fool who bought a used car lemon and knew it before hand.

As bad as I'll feel if more and more book stores close due to Amazon and sites like it selling cheaper , I am not rich and am homebound most of the time and books are my one enjoyment instead of watching T.V. all day like the living dead that too many seniors do. Next stop ...I'll just use my Library for all my reading matter & interests which covers many, many subjects as well as fiction. Any extra $$ I have I'll donate to charity and just tell friends and family to get me gift cert to Amazon for b'days /christmas .

Save your money ....this is pulp fiction at it's worse. I think ole " Chuck Palahniuk " is on something & it " aint " vitamins.

Palahniuk's brutally honest look at the suffering of his creative protagonist is haunting and grips you right away. If you've grown up in a small beach town, you understand the love-hate relationship between locals and tourists. If you're an artist, you'll understand it even more. Palahniuk uses this as his backdrop and ultimately his driver for this compelling story of what one woman must do to escape her fate. The results surely do bring the house down in the final conclusion. I won't spoil it by giving too much away, but the ending is as surprising as it is satisfactory.

This review is mostly a counter argument for some of the other reviews I've read for this work. I think the people who read Palahniuk for the gut wrenchingly horrifying and morbidly twisted, yet incredibly imaginative plot lines will be somewhat disappointed with this novel. It's not the most visceral of his works. Then again, a lot of people criticize him for focusing too much on just grossing people out, but claim that his books have no substance. So, this book will definitely prove those people wrong.

I see how people could feel that this story falls considerably short of what they expect from Palahniuk. And short isn't the right word, because that has negative connotations. Maybe it falls to the right, or to the left, or maybe even higher than people's expectations (if you look in the right places). Usually his stories leave your head spinning with their absolute insanity, whereas this one kind of just leaves you humming to yourself and thinking it's all a little absurd, but not even that interesting. On the surface that is.

If you look at the story more metaphorically, and look at what the events that are taking place say about society, love, life it actually is quite interesting. If you have a familiarity with the works of Plato I think you will have fun with this book. He is referenced by name several times, but people who know his work will recognize tons of his ideas worked in. I found it intriguing the way ideas that have been around for thousands of years were worked into modern times and proved to be relevant and socially significant for the present day.

I think this book merely doesn't cater as well to thrill-seekers as much as, say, Choke or Haunted, which is definitely a huge part of Palhniuk's audience. I still think this is a pretty good book, though. It has a lot to say about humanity's conception of immortality, and the things we are willing to sacrifice to obtain it, as well as modern value systems.

I feel unable to put in words everything that is going on in this novel, especially without using examples and giving major spoilers but I think a lot of the negative reviews cater to a specific kind of Palahniuk fan, but there are still plenty of others that would love this book and find it really brilliant.

I was trying to select a book for my high school English class and I asked the librarian what a good book to choose was and she suggested Douglas Coupland and pointed me to this novel. A little aside here, it turns out she taught Coupland in English back when he was a young lad at Sentinel High School in West Vancouver (which is where the novel is set).

Also, since I'm from West Vancouver a lot of the setting was very close to home with references to shops and streets that I know so well. It's always sentimental like that I suppose.

Now onto the main plot. I really enjoyed the idea of having a someone go into a coma for 18 years (it's been about a year since I read it) and then awakening and suddenly having all her friends gone through the rest of the teens and 20s without her. Having a loss of that time would be heartbreaking to anyone. The changes that her friends go through are interesting a bit quirky and I enjoyed that. So why the 3 stars you may ask? Well it occurs about 2/3s of the way through the book just after Karen wakes up. Wow. I didn't like that at all. It was such a great story up until that point that I couldn't believe what I was reading. I can take a bit of bizzaro in my reading but this just destroyed it for me. I've since read more Coupland and I think this might not have been the best book of his to start off with reading.

I really, really wanted to like this book...and it came so close to winning me over. Unfortuantely, the last quarter of the book falls apart so quickly and so badly, that it ruins whatever good experience I had with the first three quarters.

The story is really interesting, and a quick read, throughout most of the book. Then, once the Supernatural Twist occurs, it just goes downhill. From there, Coupland spends FOREVER getting to the end, and he just rambles for several chapters until he gets to the letdown that is the ending. That letdown could've come about five chapters earlier, too, since one of the characters actually warns of it...again and again and again. "I've got something to tell these people", is what he essentially says, then spends five chapters getting around to saying it.

...And, when this "bombshell" is dropped, it's boring. Plenty of people on this site have given the ending away, so I won't do that. Suffice to say, it's simplistic, it's preachy, and it isn't remotely groundbreaking. In fact, it isn't even interesting. It's just pretentious, which is a shame because so much of the book was so interesting.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just spirals out of control near the end. It seemed thrown together, and ruined a book that would've easily gotten three or four stars from me had it not lost itself in the final act.

On December 15th 1979, on the night after they first make love, Richard's girlfriend Karen goes into a coma. She wakes up 20 years later, mentally undamaged, to find her friends relatively unchanged (they seem t have just grown into their own expectations of themselves) and that she and Richard have a teenage daughter.
And just as she starts to recover, the rest of the world falls apart.

Yes, you do have to suspend disbelief, but it's worth it.

This is an unusual, original book with a unique storyline and an interesting (if somewhat clichéd) cast of characters who are searching for their meaning of life.

This Stephen Kingesque story follows a group of friends who live on Rabbit Street in Vancouver, BC as they grow from their senior year in high school to their mid-thirties. Jarrod, or rather his ghost, narrates the first chapter. He was the jock, the football player who balled all the hot chicks, then one day he falls sick, shortly after he dies of leukemia. He was sixteen. The following year, Richard and Karen are on the slopes. The live next door to each other, have been friends since they were children and Karen wants Richard, wants to lose her virginity this night, right now, in the dark, in the snow.

Afterwards, she gives him a letter to give back to her tomorrow, unless for some reason, he can't, then he's to read it. Later they meet up with other friends from their street, Hamilton, the guy who always looks for the easy way, Pam the girl who will become a famous model and cover girl, Wendy who will become a doctor. They're supposed to go to a party where they're going to meet the last member of their troupe, Linus who will become an electrician before he becomes a seeker.

Karen who has been dieting like there is no tomorrow, because she wants to get into a size five bathing for her upcoming Hawaiian vacation, takes two Valium before drinking two week drinks. Then she falls into a coma. In the hospital Richard reads the letter. She predicted her coma and asks Richard to wait for her. And he does, for seventeen years. Even though she's pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl, Karen remains in the coma.

When she comes to she's thirty-four, frail, but lucid. She predicts the end of the world as we know it. And then everybody on the planet, except her five friends from the block and her daughter, who is now seventeen, dies.

And if that's not enough to suck you in, I don't know what is. Mr. Coupland's writing is lyrical, magical and captivating. His message is frightening, even though he gives his characters hope. This is a must read. I don't know why it took me so long to find it.

Having now read "Life After God," "Microserfs" and "Girlfriend in a Coma" back-to-back-to-back, it's obvious that Coupland had a mortal terror of the emptiness and faithlessness of the '90s culture. This is the scariest, creepiest and oddest display of that fear.

The novel starts off in the late '70s when 17-year-old Karen loses her virginity on a skiing trip to boyfriend Richard and soon falls into a coma. Richard already lost one young friend to cancer (a jock named Jared, who acts as our narrator in the beginning and end of the book) and his girlfriend's tragic disappearing act is something he never truly gets over. The first section of the book shows us Richard and his friends -- sarcastic Hamilton, model Pam, lonely Wendy, smart but aloof Linus -- numbly trek into adulthood. They battle addictions, they question life, they marry -- and they all end up back in their old Canadian neighborhood.

Karen awakes two decades later to a world she finds disturbing -- empty, mindless worker drones simply existing. No free time, no fun, no leisure. While technology has grown stronger, she feels like the world has become emotionally cold and disconnected.

The frail, emaciated Karen reenters the life of her friends -- she gets to meet her daughter for the first time (she was impregnated by Richard on that night) -- and she also has visions of a coming apocalypse.

The apocalypse eventually arrives. The world "goes to sleep" -- people around the world simply pass out and die wherever they are. The aftermath is a world gone quiet. Streets filled with rotting corpses. Animals running wild in the street. The stink of death everywhere. Coupland has never been better than when he describes the horror of this plague. I think it may be the best writing he's ever done.

The friends and Megan (Richard and Karen's daughter) are the last people left on earth. Like all humans, they adapt to their situation. They watch videos and eat canned food.

At this point the three sections are like references to Stephen King -- "The Body" (a.k.a. "Stand by Me"), "It," and "The Stand."

Then things get "It's a Wonderful Life" as Jared rejoins the picture.

But the book goes deeper than that. In fact, before Coupland brings on his metaphor for our lack of beliefs and emotional remoteness, his book is quite sharp and effective in rendering the lives of his characters. Unlike in his previous novel, "Microserfs," where I often found it hard to identify with his characters, here I felt like I knew each one intimately. Some of their more cliche drug and drinking addictions are the point. Sometimes we're so lonely or angry or bitter that we don't know what to do but go to the cliche of drinking and drugs.

As horrifyingly real as the apocalypse is -- you can practically smell it -- I think Coupland's judgement is a wee too harsh. I think too much faith is just as bad as no faith at all. And I think religion (which is Coupland's major concern, it would seem) can be used too much to cover the reality of your problems.

Maybe my reaction is a bit of a "I resemble that condemnation" defense, but I don't think Coupland had to take the novel so far off the tracks, and I'm not really crazy about where the whole thing ends up (though the tone of the last section -- which is loose and blase -- will have you laughing).

But all flaws aside, this is an original, entertaining and powerful novel from a very talented author.

Fantastic writing, interesting concept (initially), but Eco doesn't deliver. The first half works; the second half is tedious and boring. If Eco wants to catalog every work he has read, perhaps he should sign up with GoodReads. Ugh.

This is my first encounter with Eco's work, and it may possibly be my last.

The premise of the novel was promising - a sixty-year-old man (Yambo) wakes up from a coma having lost all of his memory except for all the books he has ever read. Eco also served up some delightful prose in the first few pages, presenting in vivid contrast the richness of our hero's cultural memory vis-a-vis the depressing poverty of his personal memory. The stage was set for a narrative with a good plot and a healthy blend of introspection.

The rest of the novel, however, presented a plot I felt was far too shallow and introspection that went a tad too deep. While there were certain hints on possible plot twists arising from Yambo's re-discovery of his love life, the plot thinned out by the middle of the novel and suffered increasingly under the strain of Yambo's (and Eco's) excessive self-absorption and also fascination with the like of sixty-year-old Italian comics, most of which I found difficult to relate to. It was really Eco's stroll down his own literary memory lane - a journey I found increasingly tedious as I progressed through the novel.

Two-stars for good prose, but nothing more. An ultimately unsatisfying read, probably best reserved only for Eco's die-hard fans.

Umberto Eco is one of my favorite contemporary authors and his newest novel did not disappoint me. Although it is his first novel dealing with modern times and not as imaginative as The Island of the Day Before or Baudolino, it is still Eco at his best. Great narrative, interesting and clever plot, and lot of information about the past, this time near past, make this novel enjoyable reading. Perhaps even easier reading than some of his previous works, that need a lot of concentration to throughly follow.

Not one of Eco's best. sometimes quite engaging, other times eco goes to some other plane. Definitely for the die-hard Eco fan.

but the second third is tediously repetitive unless you're fascinated by fifty year old Italian comics, and the last third is little more than 150 pages of cud chewing. Kind of like that guy I met in a pub the other day whose self-absorbed prattle was entertaining for the first five minutes. If you want to read a really semiotic novel check out Darkmans by the very wonderful Nicola Barker.

Dennis Coupland's Miss Wyoming was not at all what I expected, but it was well worth the wild read. Part social commentary on the cult of celebrity and part gonzo Hollywood buddy book, this is a fun story that has some very poignant moments. From the aging movie producer in recovery to the crazy mom of the former child beauty queen, the characters are well-drawn.

The locations lack detail and panache, but the real story here is the people. This book leaves you wanting just a little bit more.

Whatever Miss Wyoming is--a publishing-quota filler, a bout of writer's block, evidence of exhaustion (the man is prolific)--the writing is not representative of the writer.
Why's it stink? Well, mostly because it's just lazy, and ill-conceived. Coupland spends these 311 pages taking aim at the easiest target, Hollywood phonies, filling Miss Wyoming with insufferably obnoxious characters and their tirades of referential dialogue. Normally in his books, this character/type is the exception, a trivial anomaly who's mostly there to mock. Here, though, they're the rule, and there's not one tolerable character because of it. Even the two "heroes" are tossed off, lame approximations of outsider underdogs. The writing is weak too, bereft of Coupland's usual incisive wit and shrewd perception, instead given to sassiness and stupid similes. The book at times even verges on self-parody (Chapter Four), where the prose is so stereotypically rote it could have been spat out from a machine, or a beginning college creative writer.
Anyway, Douglas Coupland is a great author. Almost all of his other work is gold-plated gold. This is his dud. All authors have them; so be it. Read literally any other of his works.

If you are addicted to reading the tabloids then you'll love this book. If you're looking for depth, and intellectual stimulation stay away!

I hated it, then I was indifferent, then I briefly liked it, now I'm indifferent. I think I agree with the other posters who said the characters were not well developed. It's one of those works where you shouldn't think too much; otherwise you'll spoil it for yourself and the author. At the end of the day, if a novel brings me to Amazon to read other reviews, it must deserve at least 3 stars.

Would you be seriously interesting in knowing who Miss Wyoming is? No.
So why read this book?

Regretfully, "Silent Witness" depicts how someone with Mark Fuhrman's reputation comes to a tragic scene after the FACT....just to make a BUCK!

If you sincerely want to learn more about the Terri Schiavo case..save your money on this one....and....read some of the other books published that show the indisputable documentation and facts.

I picked this book up since I knew it dealt with the ethical issues surrounding Terri's death and maybe I would learn more about what happened to her. This book was monumental in triggering a deep interest in her case. Mark raises some good questions about the events surrounding her collapse and the resulting controversy. I would strongly encourage anyone interested in Terri's life and the travesty that happened to read this book.

This was perhaps one of the most poorly written books that I have ever read. The author notes that he published the book before the autopsy was done and even makes a pseudo attempt at being unbiased... all in the end to seal the deal and Call Mike Schiavo a liar and a murderer in a very convoluted and indirect way..
Fact mark Furhman is a detective not a forensics expert
Fact she had lab values not consistent with life. Fact Mark Furhman is not a medical doctor. Fact this book was poorly written repetitive and took three hours of my life that I cannot get back to read...

To paraphrase this book's author, "This case isn't about the right to die peacefully, or about euthanasia." Retired detective Fuhrman takes the position that this case is about a man wanting to free himself from a marriage, and doing so at any cost as long as someone else is making payment.

I have two criticisms of Mr. Fuhrman's work. First, it should not have been written before the autopsy results for Terri Schiavo became available. They would, I believe, have altered some of his assumptions and therefore some of his conclusions. Second, he repeats material not once but several times; not for emphasis, but (in my opinion) to extend the word count sufficiently to make it book length, and publishable as such. With those things said, though, I found myself thinking about the Schiavo tragedy from different angles than before I read Mr. Fuhrman's book. Like a good detective, he accepts nothing at face value; and his understanding of human nature, at its best as well as at its worst, illuminates much that never made sense to me before.

Worth reading, although the repetition makes even this sad yet riveting story bog down at times.

Mark Fuhrman's book is very good. He does a very good investigation into Terri's collapse; an investigation that should have done on the night of her collapse and later when the Schindler's filed numerous police investigation inquires.

While the book came out before the autopsy results of Terri Schiavo, the book still provides some distrubing questions.

The autopsy did little to give clout on Fuhrman's conclusions and suspicions.

Regarding, Terri Schiavo autopsy:

In reading Furhman's book please bare in mind that autopsy results come with several caveats that bear noticing:

1. Terri's collapse remains a mystery to this day. Terri did not have a heart attack.

2. Michael Schiavo was the only one there.

3. It is highly unlikely that Terri had Bulima.

4. The issue of the potassium inbalance is also highly suspect.

5. Michael Schiavo is on the record of giving at least 3 different conflicting accounts of Terri's collapse. The following things remain in conflict to this day:

Did Michael have argument the day before she collapsed? - Conflicted.

What time Michael came home that night is conflicted.

Was Terri awake when Michael arrived home? Conflicted.

What made Michael wake up and why did he wake up? Conflicted.

What position did Michael find Terri in? Conflicted.

Who did Michael call? Conflicted.

Did Michael hold Terri? Conflicted.

Was Terri breathing? Conflicted.

All of these things are conflicted from the various depos, testimonies, and accounts given by Michael Schiavo.

There are also still unanswered quesitons:

What was significance of the vomit found near Terri. (It was later determined to be from the cats; Who determined that?)

6. Experts have stated that it possible for Terri to been inflicted trauma without leaving any detectable evidence. And if such evidence did in fact exist, it is possible the EMTs life saving measures done to Terri could have compromised that evidence.

7. Perhaps that most important caveat of the autopsy is the ME's final statment:

That most of medical records regarding Terri Schiavo are missing and have been lost.

For this reason, the case remains open to this day waiting additional medical information that could shed some light on Terri's collapse.

The issue of missing medical records was key question of concern during the litigation of Terri's Law that was never really answered.