In Your Head: Mental Health Books
Alt title: Let's explore mental health with owls! #134
Omg, hi! You’re actually here! Even though that subject line makes it sound like this is going to be such a downer of a newsletter! (It is not! Or, at least, *I* don’t think so but, as the therapists say, “why judge it?”)
Annnnyway, the millennials are bringing us many good things including Taylor Swift* and sustained voting urgency, but also the trends of everything being queer AND everyone openly discussing mental health.
And today we’re talking about the latter. Not only does it seem that everyone is freely talking about their therapist and their meds in real life, it’s also streamed onto the popular pages in a way that is quite rampant, not to mention refreshing and honest. Memoirs about addiction have paved the way for memoirs about bipolar disorder. The Bell Jar walked so rom-coms with depressed main characters could run. Neurodivergent characters walk amongst us normally, without it having to be a Very Special Blossom episode! It’s a new literary day and I’m here for it.
Read on for fiction and non-fiction selections about mental health, books with characters actively dealing with their mental health, characters *not* actively dealing with their mental health but just representing themselves on the page in a way that helps everyone be seen. I don’t know anything about anything, but I do think that once we can talk about it, we’re on the path to … if not healing, then peace. It’s pretty powerful, no?
And lest you be worried, you know your friend Kerry - first and foremost, they’re all good *books*. Enjoy!
P.S. To me, “Grey Street” by Dave Matthews Band is the best song about depression.
Non-Fiction & Memoirs
Burn Rate is about startup company Bonobos founder Andy Dunn’s experience with bipolar disorder. It is extremely candid, both in his description of his mental states and in his accountability for what went wrong in his life and in his business. I don’t think it’s the absolute best startup book but it’s vulnerable and brave. A good, fast read.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is written by a therapist about some of her clients, about her own therapy journey, and how we make sense of the large and small traumas that happen to us. How we put up so many of our own roadblocks, and how much we’re all connected. And also - it’s very warm and witty! I liked this a lot.
Group is the opposite track, where a self-critical, high achieving lawyer finds herself in intense group therapy with a therapist who insists that deep group therapy will change her life. In some ways I myself felt part of the group, where I would find myself wanting to roll my own eyes at the narrator as many of her group mates did, but I think that’s part of the device in how we engage with each others’ stuff to unpack our own. Alternately funny, emotional, triggering. Interesting!
And because I keep it real around here - everyone and their mother’s therapist tells you to read The Body Keeps the Score. But unless you’re really into the psychology and physiology of trauma, you’re gonna want to skip this because it is a slog, honey. Even the author said he was shocked that anyone read it outside of doctoral students.
Summary: traumatic stress stays in the body physically and you have to process it to release it but you can, and can change its impact on your brain and body. There you go, you don’t have to read it but now you can reference the concept knowingly at cocktail parties.
Fiction
Cassandra in Reverse follows a woman who loses her job and her boyfriend in one day, then discovers her ability to turn back time. She goes back in time again and again, determined to change the past and change herself to get what she always wanted. But it’s really about autism, and also grief. Told in a charming, quirky time-traveling way!
Also don’t forget The Maid, with a neurodivergent main character housemaid sleuth.
Really Good, Actually is like if Bridget Jones got divorced (wait, did that actually happen in the books?) and grappled with the depression, delusional thinking, and alienation that brings. Funny, well-written, with a great lens on how we can empathize with the main character’s deep suffering while also acknowledge how self-centered that can be for those around them. I’ve quoted some of the therapy scenes many, many times.
Another book about depression and mental health is First Time for Everything, where Danny Scudds has dreamt about escaping his small town and his parents’ fish-and-chip shop, but after five years in London, he’s struggling with early adulthood, his queer identity, and all the issues he’s been repressing, not to mention that his roommates have kicked him out and his boyfriend is cheating on him. Sounds dreary but actually is a pretty fun and colorful tale, with a delightful cast of characters.
Lastly, The Do-Over is a rom-com in which hard-charging entrepreneur Lily Li is about to land her dream job when she finds out she never actually graduated college. At age 30, she’s forced to go back for her last semester, where she runs into her ex (now a TA). But in and amongst this meet cute, Lily also manages her anxiety disorder and panic attacks.
Listen. If you’re just looking for a great rom-com, there are better ones out there. This is cute but forgettable. But if you’re interested in how the character manages her mental health, how her friends and loved ones engage with her about it, and how her Asian parents are a factor in her own self-perception - you might like this!
Hmm. I’m realizing that all of these choices are kind of “feel-good mental health” Reese’s Pick kind of books. If you want a little more grit, read Queenie, All This Could Be Different or Everything I Never Told You for more sobering characters with depression, and how our families and our identities make us feel like we can’t express ourselves or seek help.
Apparently you all want to talk about:
Is the Lessons in Chemistry miniseries on AppleTV+TubeMax. I take it as an immense compliment that many people have messaged me to say how much they love it (“they did it just right!”) or dislike it (“they cast Six Thirty all wrong!”)
I have not watched it, but please share with the class - do we need to watch Lessons in Chemistry?
(You do need to read it, here’s why, unless you don’t like light books in which case definitely skip this one.)
Doctor’s Notes:
All links this week go to Skylight Books in Los Angeles, which I weirdly have never been to but is open until 10 PM every day! Remember, when it comes to holiday gifts, you can do better than order books on Amazon. You HAVE TIME.
If this long-winded screed on mental health ain’t your bag, no worries! Check out the archive for other genres, come back next week for something new, or - best option - leave a comment and tell me what you do want to hear about!
Have you shared this newsletter with a friend? If so - THANK YOU. If not - maybe consider it so that I can make my side hustle my - front hustle?
*I have watched this comedian’s take on Taylor Swift at least 20 times this week. It is now my entire personality.