Monday Morning Reading Check In

I received a complimentary copy of DANCING IN THE NARROWS by Anna Penenberg from She Writes Press.

Hello and happy toasty Monday! The weekend was HOT, though things ended on a slightly better weather note with at least a cool breeze kicking up. All I can say is thank goodness for AC! Kylee and I got out to spend Saturday evening with friends, playing in their yard for Kylee, a backyard dinner for the rest of us. Sunday brought a lack of sleep and more heat, but a lot of good reading!

DANCING IN THE NARROWS by Anna Penenberg was my main read yesterday and I’m looking forward to finishing it up today. This is a memoir about the author’s journey in dealing with her younger daughter’s chronic illness of Lyme disease. From initial struggles to get to a diagnosis to years of trying to find a treatment that would work, it is a harrowing journey and a powerful story.

I have dealt with chronic headaches and migraines since middle school and for a while during high school I had some additional issues with having episodes with tunnel vision and feeling like I was going to pass out. After countless tests and doctors would refused to believe what I had to tell them (one neurologist was so convinced that my symptoms were from drug use that she kicked my dad out of the room so I could admit to using when it was ‘just between us’), I never really got a diagnosis. Thankfully I did grow out of the additional issues.

I know what I had to deal with paled in comparison to what Anna and her daughter Dana had to deal with. Like Dana I had parents who knew me well enough to believe me over the doctors, but my experience and stories like this one really show the importance of advocacy to push for a decisive diagnosis and the best course of treatment. The frustration of chronic illness and the lack of a cure is coming through strongly through the pages of this memoir!

I will bring a full review once I’ve finished the book, but even with multiple distractions yesterday, this book has kept me hooked to flipping pages!

As the month is winding down, I don’t actually have too many current reads in progress:

AND NOW SHE’S GONE by Rachel Howzell Hall (thank you to Forge Books and Netgalley for the eARC) finds Grayson Sykes on her first independent case. Tasked with finding Isabel Lincoln who has been reported missing by her boyfriend along with his dog, Gray hears from Isabel that her departure is intentional and it is up to Gray to determine if she believes it and, if so, if she should really be tracking down a woman who wants to stay gone?

I suspect this is going to be another hot week (though hopefully not nearly so bad as last week’s misery)! Still I have made good progress on my August TBR with a week to go so I look forward to getting a jump start on some of the remaining Jar of TBR books I pulled most recently!

What are you starting off reading this week?