What books would you suggest for ME/CFS patients/ clinicians/ researchers?

[Hope123]

I'm helping to organize a book table for the 2014 IACFS/ME Conference. Because well-known physician and 3-time NY Times best-selling author Dr. Abraham Verghese will be speaking, San Francisco's local bookstore chain Books Inc. has agreed to host a book table at the meeting. Basically, it will be a convenient way to buy books at the meeting with a percentage of sales being donated to IACFS/ME.

Their staff will help select books but I thought patients could also come up with suggestions and the staff could also pick from those.

SO, what books do you think would be of interest?

I'm being broad here. Books can range from fiction by authors affected by ME/CFS (Elizabeth Tova Baily, Laura Hillenbrand, e.g.) to books about ME/CFS, ME/CFS-related issues (fibromyalgia, gluten-free cookbooks), to general books about coping with a chronic illness. Also books about yoga, meditation etc. Books can be aimed at patients, clinicians, family members, etc.

 

[Little Bluestem]

Suggestions anyone?

 

[alex3619]

http://www.amazon.com/Oslers-Web-Labyrinth-Syndrome-Epidemic/dp/051770353X

http://www.amazon.com/Authors-our-own-misfortune-explanations/dp/1479253952

Not ME related, and I haven't read it, but probably worth considering: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Social-Change-Leonard-Jason/dp/0199841853

 

[Hope123]

Thanks for the bump, Bluestem and the comment alex.

 

[heapsreal]

Reviving the broken marionette.

 

[Little Bluestem]

I think Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit is an excellent book. It is much more that a ‘horse story’, but gives a view of the lives of the people of that era.

 

[taniaaust1]

A couple of books which tell ME as it is

1/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (A comprehensive Guide to symptoms, treatmetns and solving the practical problems of CFS by Gregg Charles Fisher (this author has ME himself and his book is about him and his wife who both developed ME and shares things they tried and went throu with it)

2/ Shattered Life with M.E by Lynn Mitchell .. the author is a dr who has ME herself.. (it tells about ME and interviews about 23 different people with ME on their experiences on how they feel about various things around it eg illness without a diagnoses, family and friends, how bad can it get, telling it how it is, how couples cope, coping with ME, facing the future etc I like some of the descriptions in this book .. its a great book for helping another to understand this illness better.
here's a part of someone describing their worst

"My mind was blurred like mince. I was cognitively challenged and couldnt think straight, I was struggling to remember simple things like my own name, my flatmate's name, where I had to drive to get to work or whatever. My mind was just a complete blur. My limbs were very, very weak. That's what I remember more then anything, barely being able to stand.

The analogy I have is like a newly-born calf or lamb, really struggling to find my feet. I remember fever, a sort of low-grade fever. I remember waking every night in this horrible sweat with a high temperature and lots of achiness in my muscles. Also for the first time in my life there was s high pitched whining in my ears, tinnitus. It felt well beyond flu. It felt more severe then any infection I have ever had in my life."
.......


Another book I like as a severe ME person.. is called "the sound of a wild snail eatting" its about a bedbound person (dont know what illness the person had but they were bedbound for a long time and she ended up finding joy in a snail). Its a great book