Books etc. I’ve Read

These pages are a list of books I have read around adoption as family.  Some books are obviously filtered by my personal experience for they likely appear to a more objective observer as having a rather thin connection to the world of adoption. I add no comment as we are individual in what we take from a book.  I do make some value judgment in that I pop an asterisk or more in front of the books more valuable to me personally, at the time of reading. Incidentally, fairly nearly 100% of the books are from where ever my current regional library was/is at the time of reading.

Legend: *  – useful

              **  – useful AND a good read

             ***-YES!

Topics:

Becoming Family: Russia, the process of adoption, memoirs and novels

Being Family: looking at being family in adoption, memoirs, novels and specific issues- anxiety, depression, addiction, FASD and homelessness

Becoming Family  

Russia

Out of Line: growing up soviet    Tina Grimberg   2007

**Secondhand Time: the last of the Soviets     Svetlana Alexievich    2016   

**The Girl from the Metropol Hotel: growing up in communist Russia    Ludmilla  Petrushevskaya    2006

*Mothers of Misery   David L. Ransel   1988    

And Now My Soul is Hardened:Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918 – 1930    Alan M. Ball    1994

The Last Man in Russia      Oliver Bullough      2013   

**Little Failure    Gary Shteyngart   2014   

The Future Is History: how totalitarianism reclaimed Russia      Masha Gessen    2017

The Possessed: adventures with Russian books and the people who read them     Elif Batuman 2010

Putin’s World: Russia against the West and with the rest    Angela Stent     2019

***In Putin’s Footsteps: searching for the soul of an empire across Russia’s eleven time zones    Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Talyer    2019

Lessons from the Edge: a memoir    Marie Yovanovitch    2022

Russka: the novel of Russia    Edward Rutherfurd    1991

The Return of Holy Russia: apocalyptic history, mystical awakening, and the struggle for the soul    Gary Lachman    2020

The Dissident: Alexey Navalny, profile of a political prisoner    David M. Herszenhorn    2023

The Counteroffensive’    The Atlantic    Anne Applebaum and Jeffrey Goldberg    June 2023

The Brothers Karamazov    Fyodor Dostoevsky   1879

I Love Russia: reporting from a lost country    Elena Kostyuchenko    2023

Mud and Stars: travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and other geniuses of the Golden Age    Sara Wheeler    2019

 

The Process of Adoption

***Lost and Found: the adoption experience    Betty Jean Lifton   1979 

***Journey of the Adopted Self: a quest for wholeness    Betty Jean Lifton     1994  

**Attaching in Adoption: practical tools for today’s parents    Deborah D. Gray   2002   

*Understanding Attachment: parenting, child care and emotional development     Jean Mercer   2006

*Thinking Critically about Child Development: examining myths and misunderstandings    Jean Mercer   2016

*Great Myths of Child Development   Stephen Hupp,  Jeremy Jewell   2015

***Born for Love: why empathy is essential – and endangered    Maia Szalavitz, Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.  2010

Adopting Older Children: a practical guide to adopting and parenting children over age four      Stephanie Bosco-Ruggiero, MA,  Gloria Russo Wassell, MS, LMHC,  Victor Groza, PhD    2014

A Legacy of Divorce    Judith Wallerstein   2000

Adopting Maternity: white women who adopt transracially or transnationally       Nora Rose Moosnick   2004

Attachment Processes in Couple and Family Therapy     Susan M Johnson, Valerie P. Wiflen, (eds.)    2005

Models of Clinical Intervention: attachment based family therapy for depressed adolescents    Guy S Diamond, PhD, Gary M. Diamond, PhD, Suzanne A. Levy, PhD   201

The Inner Life of Animals: love, grief, and compassion: surprising observations of a hidden world    Peter Wohllenben     2017

Uprooted:the shipment of poor children to Canada, 1867-1917    Roy Parker    2010

***Thicker Than Blood: adoptive parenting in the modern world     Marion Crook     2016

*High Five: a suburban adoption saga    Julia Ivanova    2013     video

Father Dreams    Julia Ivanova     2007     video

The Adoptive Parents’ Handbook: a guide to healing trauma and thriving with your foster or adopted child    Barbara Cummins Tantrum     2020

**Fostering Change: myth, meaning and magic bullets in attachment theory    Richard J. Delaney    2006

Family Bond: Adoption and the politics of parenting    Elizabeth Bartholet     1993

***China’s Hidden Children: abandonment, adoption, and the human costs of the one-child policy    Kay Ann Johnson    2016

***the Child Catchers: rescue, trafficking, and the new gospel of adoption    Kathryn Joyce    2013

**Ghosts of the Orphanage: a story of mysterious deaths, a conspiracy of silence, and a search for justice    Christine Kenneally    2023

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220817-the-twins-who-were-split-up-at-birth

***American Baby: a mother, a child, and the secret history of adoption    Gabrielle Glaser    2021

You’ll Forget This Ever Happened: secrets, shame, and adoption in the 1960s    Laura L. Engel    2022

Lesbian and Gay Foster Care and Adoption, 2nd ed.    Stephen Hicks and Janet McDermott    2018

Adoption & Prenatal Alcohol and Drug Exposure: research, policy, and practice    edited by Richard P Barth, Madelyn Freundlich, and David Brozinsky    2000

The Adoption Machine: the dark history of Ireland’s mother and baby homes and the inside story of how Tuam 800 became a global scandal    Paul Jude Redmond    2018

Hello, Sweet Baby: an adoption journey    Janeen Jackson and Brittanie Gaja    2023

 

Memoirs of Adoption

*The Mistress’s Daughter: a memoir    A.M. Homes   2007

*Blue Nights     Joan Didion   2011

Found: a memoir     Jennifer Lauck    2012

Philomena    (movie)   2013

Me, Myself, and Why   Jennifer Ouellette   2014

A long Way Home   Saroo Brierley   2013

Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading and Losing Myself in Books       Maureen Corrigan   2005

*Rescuing Julia Twice: a mother’s tale of Russian adoption and overcoming Reactive Attachment Disorder   Tina Traster   2014

“Flight of the Wendybird” Lynn Coady   from   Great Expectations: twenty-four true stories about childbirth     Dede Crane,  Lisa Moore(eds.)   2008

* Identical Strangers: a memoir of twins separated and reunited       Elyse Schein, Paula Bernstein    2007

*Three Identical Strangers                CNN documentary          February   2019

*All You Can Ever Know: a memoir        Nicole Chung      2018

Inheritance: a memoir of genealogy, paternity, and love    Dani Shapiro    2019

*Lucky Girl: a memoir    Mei-Ling  Hopgood       2009

*** Stolen From Our Embrace: the abduction of First Nations children and the restoration of Aboriginal communities Suzanne Fournier and Ernie Crey    1997

We Were Children    DVD    2012

Beautiful Scars: Steeltown secrets, Mohawk Skywalkers and the road home    Tom Wilson    2017

Before and After: the incredible real-life stories of orphans who survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society    Judy Christie & Lisa Wingate    2019

***The Girl Behind the Door: a father’s quest to understand his daughter’s suicide    John Brook    2016

These Are The Stories: memories of a 60s Scoop Survivor    Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith    2021

***Invisible Boy: a memoir of self-discovery    Harrison Mooney    2022

***Somewhere Sisters: a story of adoption, identity, and the meaning of family    Erika Hayasaki    2022

****Detachment: an adoption memoir    Maurice Mierau    2014

The Beauty of Living Twice    Sharon Stone     2021

Kisses for Katie: a story of relentless love and redemption    Katie Davis with Beth Clark    2011

Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other : in praise of adoption    Scott Simon    2010

make me a mother: a memoir    Susanne Antonetta     2014

Pulling the Chariot of the Sun     Shane McCrae    2023

Monstrous: a transracial adoption story    Sarah Myer    2023

The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: a speculative memoir of transracial adoption    Shannon Gibney    2023

Our Wish For You: a story about open adoption    Dano Moreno    2023

From Maybe To Forever: an adoption story    M.L.Gold and N.V. Fong   2020

Bitterroot: a Salish memoir of transracial adoption    Susan Devan Harness    2018

Hidden Daughter-Secret Sister: a story of adoption    Kim Mooney    2020

The Language of Blood: a memoir    Jane Jeong Trenka    2003

You’ll Forget This Ever Happened: secrets, shame, and adoption in the 1960s    Laura L Engel    2022

Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related: a memoir    Jenny Heijun wills    2019

 

Novels referencing Adoption

A Casual Vacancy    JK Rowling   2012

And the Mountains Echoed      K Hosseini   2013

Cider House Rules   John Irving   2000

The Cuckoos Calling      R Galbraith (JK Rowling)   2013

Before We Were Yours   Lisa Wingate   2017     

The Children Act   Ian McEwan    2014

Run    Ann Patchett    2007

Digging to America    Anne Tyler    2006

The Bean Trees    Barbara Kingsolver    1988

Little Men    Louisa May Alcott    1871

David Copperfield    Charles Dickens    1849-50

Oliver Twist    Charles Dickens    1837-39

Jane Eyre    Charlotte Bronte    1847

Eva Luna    Isabel Allende    1989

Daughter of Fortune    Isabel Allende    1999

And of course, All the Harry Potter books    JK Rowling

A Gentleman in Moscow    Amor Towles    2016

The Wind Knows My Name    Isabel Allende    2023

Being Family         

Hold On To Your Kids: why parents need to matter more than peers       Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D. , Gabor Mate, M.D.   2004

*When Parents Hurt: compassionate strategies when you and your grown children don’t get along    Joshua Coleman   2007

*Coyote Medicine: lessons from Native American healing   Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D.   1997

*Coyote Healing: miracles in native medicine   Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D   2003

**Coyote Wisdom: the power of story in healing      Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D.   2005

*Narrative Medicine: the use of history and story in the healing process    Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Ph.D.  2007

*Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story: the promise of narrative psychiatry      Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Ph.D.      2010

*Remapping Your Mind: the neuroscience of self-transformation through story    Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Ph.D.    2015

Extra Sensory: the science and pseudoscience of telepathy and other powers of the mind      Brain Clegg    2013  Included because maybe, just maybe, there are other ways to connect with my son’s mind.  With this I have read some fairly new age-ish  renditions of quantum physics, all in the hope that maybe, just maybe.

On the Move: a life    Oliver Sacks    2015

Consciousness Beyond Life: the science of the near-death experience    Pim Von Lommel   2010    Included because along with Joseph Campbell’s writings, it encourages my chosen belief that we are each on a journey

The Application of Impossible Things   Natalie Sudman   2012

***The Silence of Jesus: the authentic voice of the historical man   James Breech   1983   A perspective on the Good Samaritan and Prodigal Son

Myths to Live By   Joseph Campbell   1972

The Power of Myth   Joseph Campbell   1988

From Science to God: a physicist’s journey into the mystery of consciousness   Peter Russel    2000

Waking from Sleep: why awakening experiences occur and how to make them permanent   Steve Taylor    2010

Supersense: why we believe in the unbelievable   Bruce Hood    2009

Far from the Tree: parents, children and the search for identity    Andrew Solomon    2012

**Far from the Tree: how children and their parents learn to accept one another… our differences unite us  Young Adult edition    Andrew Solomon    2017

*The Brain’s Way of Healing: remarkable discoveries and recoveries from the frontiers of brain science    Norman Doidges     2007

The Idiot Brain: what your head is really up to   Dean Burnett    2016

My Stroke of Insight: a brain scientist’s personal journey      Jill Bolte Taylor   2006

The Male Brain: a breakthrough understanding of how men and boys think   Loann  Brizendine    2010

The Unmade Bed: the messy truth about men and women in the 21st century    Stephen Marche, with Sarah Fulford     2017

Hallucinations   Oliver Sacks     2012

*Thinking, Fast and Slow   Daniel Kahneman    2011

**Living in Limbo: families journeying toward understanding      Mavis Olesen, Ph.D.,  Dallas Williams     2003

“Why Do I Love These People?”: understanding, surviving, and creating your own family  Po Bronson    200

***Strangers Drowning: grappling with impossible idealism, drastic choices, and overpowering urge to help Larissa MacFarquhar 2015

The Deepest Well: healing the long-term effects of childhood adversity    Nadine Burke Harris, MD    2001

The Art of Memoir    Mary Karr    2015

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered    Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark    2019

Imagining Child Welfare in the Spirit of Reconciliation, Voices from the Prairies Ed.    Dorothy Badry, H. Monty Montgomery, Daniel Kikulwe, Marlyn Bennett, and Don Fuchs    2018

****The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog And Other Stories From A Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook: what traumatized children can teach us about Loss, Love, and Healing    Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. and Maia Szalavitz     2006

The Body    Bill Bryson    2019

Stumbling on Happiness    Daniel Gilbert    2006

***The Science of Evil: on empathy and the origins of cruelty    Simon Baron-Cohen    2011

***Zero Degrees of Empathy: a new theory of human cruelty and kindness    Simon Baron-Cohen    2011

The Age of Empathy: nature’s lessons for a kinder society    Frans De Waal    2009

Survival of the Friendliest: understanding our origins and rediscovering our common humanity    Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods    2020

**The Empathic Civilization: the race to global consciousness in a world in crisis    Jeremy Rifkin     2009

Daring Greatly: how the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead    Brene Brown     2012

***Nobody’s Normal: how culture created the stigma of mental illness    Roy Richard Grinker    2021

***Born for Love:why empathy is essential — and endangered    Bruce D. Perry  and Maia Szalavitz    2010

Pieces of Light: how the new science of memory illuminates the stories we tell about our pasts    Charles Fernyhough     2012

The Wrong Way to Save Your life: essays    Megan Stielstra    2017

**Epigenetics: the ultimate mystery of inheritance    Richard C. Francis    2011

**The Origins Of You: how childhood shapes later life    Jay Belsky, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E. Moffat, Richie Poulton    2020

Attached: the new science of adult attachment and how it can help you find-and keep-love    Amir Levine, M.D. and Rachel S.F. Heller, M.A.    2010

**Strangers to Ourselves: unsettled minds and the stories that make us    Rachel Aviv    2022

Think Again: the power of knowing what you don’t know    Adam Grant    2021

***The Myth of Normal:trauma, illness & healing in a toxic culture    Gabor Mate, MD with Daniel Mate    2022

What Kind Of Parent Am I?: self-surveys that reveal the impact of toxic stress and more     Dr. Nicole Letourneau    2018

****The Not Good Enough Mother    Sharon Lamb    2019

The Owner’s Manual To Terrible Parenting    Guy Delisle    2015

**Scientific Parenting:what science reveals about parenting influence    Dr. Nicole Letourneau with Justin Joschko    2013

**Act Natural: a cultural history of misadventures in parenting    Jennifer Traig    2019

Keys to Parenting the Adopted Child 2nd ed.    Kathy Lancaster, Ph.D    2009

The Family First Workbook: specific tools, strategies, and skills for creating a phenomenal family    Dr. Phil McGraw    2005

The Gene: an intimate history    Siddhartha Mukherjee   2017

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents    Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD    2016

Hunt, Gather, Parent: what ancient cultures can teach us about the lost art of raising happy, helpful little humans    Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD    2021

Fault Lines: fractured families and how to mend them    Karl Pillemer, PhD    2022

 

Memoirs of Being Family

***A Mother’s Reckoning: living in the aftermath of tragedy    Sue Klebold    2016

The Sum of Our Days    Isabelle Allende    2008

**Paula    Isabelle Allende    1994

Expecting Adam: a true story of birth, rebirth and everyday magic    Martha Beck    2000

***Swing Low: a life    Miriam Toews    2000

Jupiter’s Travels   Ted Simon    2005

Hillbilly Elegy: a memoir of a family and culture in crisis     J.D.  Vance     2016

Living with a Wild God: a nonbeliever’s search for the truth about everything        Barbara Ehrenreich       2014

Encountering Our Wild God: ways to experience his untamable presence every day    Kim Meeder    2018

Love Works Like This: moving from one kind of life to another     Lauren Slater    2014

The Rules Do Not Apply   Ariel Levy    2017

**Confessions of a Sociopath: a life spent hiding in plain sight      M.E. Thomas   2013

**Mamaskatch: a Cree coming of age    Darrel J. Mcleod    2001

**** The Master Plan: my journey from life in prison to a life of purpose     Chris Wilson with Bret Witter    2019

Everything You Ever Wanted    Jillian Lauren    2015

Building a Life Worth Living: a Memoir     Marsha M. Linehan     2020

Educated: a memoir    Tara Westover     2018

***Why Religion?: a personal story     Elaine Pagels     2018

Normal Family: on truth, love and how I met my 35 siblings    Chrysta Bilton    2022

Will    Will Smith with Mark Manson    2021

Laughing with the Trickster: on sex, death, and accordions    Tomson Highway    2022

Abandon Me: memoirs    Melissa Febos    2017

**Heartbreak: a personal and scientific journey    Florence Williams    2022

In Search of Stones: a pilgrimage of faith, reason and discovery    M.Scott Peck    1995

Running With Scissors: a memoir    Augusten Burroughs    2002

Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: a memoir of a kidnapping    Shane McCrae    2023

This is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire: a memoir    Nick Flynn     2020

Someone Has Led This Child To Believe    Regina Louise    2018

A Child Called “It”: one child’s courage to survive    Dave Pelzer     1995

While You Were Out: an intimate family portrait of mental illness in an era of silence    Meg Kissinger    2023

Splinters: another kind of love story    Leslie Jamison    2024 

 

Novels referencing Difficulties in Being Family

A Casual Vacancy   J.K. Rowling     2012

The Good House   Ann Leary      2013

Maya’s Notebook   Isabelle  Allende     2013

***All My Puny Sorrows      Miriam Toews     2015

***A Complicated Kindness     Miriam Toews      2005  

 A Nearly Normal Family    M.T. Edvardsson    2019 

The Alchemist: a graphic novel    Paulo Coelho    2010

***Fight Night    Miriam Toews    2021

 

Help for Bio-Psycho-Social Distress

****Hope and Help for Your Nerves   Dr. Claire Weekes     1969     Dealing with fear of the feelings that fear itself had aroused

How to Meditate: a guide to self-discovery    Laurence LeShan       1999

*Waking the Tiger: healing trauma     Peter Levine    1997

The Science of Yoga: the risks and rewards     William Broad    2012

Mindfulness for Beginners    Jon Kabat Zinn    2006

The Happiness Hypothesis: finding modern truth in ancient wisdom   Jonathan Haidt    2006

The Joy Diet: ten daily practices for a happier life    Martha Beck     2003

Steering by Starlight    Martha Beck   2008

Finding your Way in a Wild New World   Martha Beck   2012

***Full Catastrophe Living: using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness      Jon Kabat Zinn     1990

*Radical Acceptance: embracing your life with the heart of a Buddha    Tara Brach   2003

Freedom from Depression: a practical guide for the journey    James Gordon    2012

Loving What Is: four questions that can change your life    Byron Katie      2003

Anxious: using the brain to understand and treat fear and anxiety    J Ledoux    2015

Meditations for Fidgety Skeptics: a 10% happier how-to book   Dan Harris    2017

Rewire Your Anxious Brain: how to use the neuroscience of fear to end anxiety, panic, and worry    Catherine Pittman     2015

The Compass of Pleasure: how our brains make fatty food, orgasm, exercise, marijuana, generosity, vodka, learning and gambling feel so good       David J. Linden       2011

The Power of Acceptance: finding peace from anxiety and panic attacks    Judith Bemis       2008

The Mindful Way Through Anxiety: break free from chronic worry and reclaim your life     Susan M. Orsillo, Lizabeth Roemer,  Zindel V. Segal     2011   

Learning to Breathe: a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents to cultivate emotion regulation, attention, and performance    Patricia C. Broderick    2013

Seeking Serenity: the 10 new rules for health and happiness in the age of anxiety     Amanda Enayati     2015 

I Want to Change My Life: skills for anxiety, depression, addiction and life   Steven Melemis     2010

*Overcoming the Fear of Fear: how to reduce anxiety sensitivity   Sherry Stewart Ph.D., Steven Taylor, Ph.D. Margo Watt, Ph.D.    2007

**The Mind and the Brain: neuroplasticity and the power of mental force    Jeffrey Schwartz, Sharon Begley    2003

**You are Not Your Brain: the 4-step solution for changing bad habits, ending unhealthy thinking, and taking control of your life    Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. and Rebecca Gladding, M.D.      2011

**The Body Keeps the Score: brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma    Bessel A. van der Kolk   2014

**Learned Optimism: how to change your mind and your life   Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D.    2006

** Bright-Sided: how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America     Barbara Ehrenreich   2009    

The Power of Now: a guide to spiritual enlightenment   Eckhart Tolle     1999   Flipping through it now, lines I underlined are about the “letting go” concept that tends to befuddle me when I try to enact or live it.

Freud: inventor of the modern mind   Peter D. Kramer    2006

Antidote: happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking    Oliver Burkeman    2012

Yoga Therapy for Stress and Anxiety: create a personalized holistic plan to balance your life    Robert Butera,    Erin Byron    2015

Healing Developmental Trauma: how early trauma affects self-regulation, self-image and the capacity for relationship   Laurence Heller   Aline La Pierre      2012

**How God Changes Your Brain: breakthrough findings from a leading neuroscientist          Andrew Newberg,  Mark Robert Waldman    2009

What Happy Women Know: how new findings in positive psychology can change women’s lives for the better    Dan Baker, Ina Yalof    2007

The Sleep Revolution: transforming your life, one night at a time     Arianna Huffington      2016

Maybe You should Talk to Someone     Lori Gottlieb    2019

The Power of Kindness: why empathy is essential in everyday life   Brian Goldman, M.D.     2018

***Healing the Mind through the Power of Story: the promise of narrative psychiatry     Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D.    2010

The Healing Power of Mindfulness: a new way of being    Jon Kabat-Zinn    2018

***Lost Connections: uncovering the real causes of depression  –  and the unexpected solutions    Johann Hari    2018

The Story You Need To Tell: writing to heal from trauma, illness, or loss    Sandra Marinella    2017

**Pieces of Light: how the new science of memory illuminates the stories we tell about our pasts     Charles Fernyhough    2012

***The Science of Storytelling: why stories make us human and how to tell them better    Will Storr    2020

**Personality isn’t Permanent: break free from self-limiting beliefs and rewrite your story    Benjamin Hardy, PhD    2020

**Upside: the new science of post-traumatic growth    Jim Rendon    2015

**The Heretics/ The Unpersuadables: adventures with the enemies of science    Will Storr     2013/4

****Man’s Search for Meaning    Viktor E. Frankl     1946

*8 Keys To Safe Trauma Recovery: take-charge strategies to empower your healing    Babette Rothschild    2010

**Noonday Demon: an atlas of depression     Andrew Solomon    2015

The Righteous Mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion    Jonathan Haidt     2013

**How To Change Your Mind: what the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression and transcendence    Michael Pollan     2021

*What Happened to You: conversations on trauma, resilience and healing    Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey

Discomfortable: What is shame and how can we break its hold    A.J. Bond    2021

Shame: free yourself, find joy, and build true self-esteem    Joseph Burgo, Ph.D.    2018

Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy    Irvin D. Yalom    2012

Stumbling on Happiness        Daniel Gilbert    2007

Atlas of the Heart: mapping meaningful connection and the language of human experience    Brene Brown    2021

Group: how one therapist and a circle of strangers saved my life    Christie Tate    2020   

Habits of a Happy Brain: retrain your brain to boost your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Endorphin levels    Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD    2016

***A Cure for Darkness: the story of depression and how we treat it    Alex Riley    2021

*We All Have Parts: an illustrated guide to healing trauma with internal family systems    Colleen West     2021

**Internal Family Systems Therapy 2nd ed.    Richard C. Schwartz and Martha Sweezy    2020

*Complex PTSD: from surviving to thriving:a guide and map for recovering from childhood trauma    Pete Walker    2013

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking    Susan Cain    2012

*Dopamine Nation:finding balance in the age of indulgence     Anna Lembke, MD    2021

No Bad Parts: healing trauma & restoring wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model    Richard C. Schwartz, PhD.    2021

***Curing Stubborn Depression: emerging & breakthrough therapies for treatment-resistant depression    Paul B. Fitzgerald, PhD, MBBS     2023

Talking To Strangers: what we should know about the people we don’t know    Malcolm Gladwell     2019

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: a counterintuitive approach to living a good life    Mark Manson     2016

Everything is Fucked: a book about hope    Mark Manson     2019

The Improbability Principle: why coincidences, miracles, and rare events happen every day    David J. Hand    2014

Disentangling from Emotionally Immature People    Lindsay C Gibson, PsyD     2023

The Empathy Exams: essays    Leslie Jamison    2014

Retrain Your Brain: cognitive behavioural therapy in 7 weeks:a workbook for managing depression and anxiety     Seth J Gillihan, PhD.    2016

 

Memoirs dealing with Bio-Psycho-Social Distress

The Happiness Project: or why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun    Gretchen Rubin    2009

*Monkey Mind: a memoir of anxiety    Daniel Smith     2012

**My Age of Anxiety: fear, hope, dread and the search for peace of mind.     Scott Stossel    2014

*10% Happier: how I tamed the voice in my head, reduced stress without losing my edge, and found self-help that actually works     Dan Harris    2014

Learning to Breathe: my yearlong quest to bring calm to my life    Priscilla Warner    2011

Hi, Anxiety: life with a bad case of nerves    Kat Kinsman    2016

In Praise of Messy Lives: essays    Katie Roiphe    2012

**The Hope Circuit: a psychologist’s journey from helplessness to optimism     Martin E.P. Seligman    2018

Daring: my passages: a memoir   Gail Sheehy     2014

**Building a Life Worth Living: a memoir     Marsha M. Linehan     2020

**The Buddha and the Borderline: a memoir     Kiera Van Gelder      2010

**Group: how one therapist and a circle of strangers saved my life    Christie Tate    2020

**The Shapeless Unease    Samantha Harvey    2020

**Heartbreak: a personal and scientific journey    Florence Williams    2022

While You Were Out: an intimate family portrait of mental illness in an era of silence    Meg Kissinger    2023

If I Knew Then: finding wisdom in failure and power in aging    Jann Arden    202o

 

Dealing with Addictions

**What You Can Change… and What You Can’t: the complete guide to successful self-improvement     Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D.      2007

***The Biology of Desire: why addiction is not a disease     Marc Lewis, Ph.D.    2015

***Unbroken Brain: a revolutionary new way of understanding addiction      Maia Szalavitz    2016

Inner Paths to Outer Space: journeys to alien worlds through psychedelics and other spiritual technologies     Rick Strassman, M.D.  Slawek Wojtowicz, M.D.   Luis Eduardo Luna, Ph.D.  and Ede Frecka, M.D.  2008

**Drink: the intimate relationship between women and alcohol     Ann Dowsett Johnston     2013

***In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: close encounters with addiction      Gabor Mate M.D.    2012

Addiction and Grief: letting go of fear, anger and addiction    Barb Rogers     2011

Addiction as an Attachment Disorder: implications for group therapy   Philip J. Flores Ph.D.    2004

Helping the Addict You Love: the new effective program for getting the addict into treatment    Laurence M Westreich, M.D.     2007

**When the Body Says No: the cost of hidden stress     Gabor Mate, M.D.  2004

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous           Bill W.    1939

Co-dependent No More: how to stop controlling others and start caring for yourself     Melody Beattie   1989(paperback)

*The Sober Truth: debunking the bad science behind 12-step programs and the rehab industry    Lance Dodes    2014

Addicted: in the belly of the beast.    Lorna Crossier   Patrick Lane    2006

Desire: where sex meets addiction    Susan Cheevers     2008

Addiction: why can’t they just stop   John Hoffman and Susan Froemke,( ed.)    2007

*Arresting Hope: women taking action in prison health inside out       Ruth Elwood, Mo Korchinski, Lynn Fels , Carl Leggo    2014

Addict in the Family: stories of loss, hope, and recovery     Beverly Conyers   2003

**Fighting for Space: how a group of drug users transformed one city’s struggle with addiction   Travis Lupick    2017

**Blue Dreams: the science and story of the drugs that changed our minds   Lauren Slater    2018

Addiction Solution: treating our dependence on opioids and other drugs    Lloyd I. Sederer    2018

American Fix: inside the opioid addiction crisis and how to end it    Ryan Hampton   2018

Beyond Addictions: how science and kindness help people change    Jeffrey Foote      2014

An Army of Problem Solvers: reconciliation and the solutions economy      Shaun Loney    before 2017

***Firewater: how alcohol is killing my people (and yours) Howard R. Johnson 2016

***Never Enough: the neuroscience and experience of addiction     Judith Grisel     2019

Chasing the Scream: the first and last days of the war on drugs     Johann Hari    2015

The Least of Us: true tales of America and hope in the time of Fentanyl and Meth     Sam Quiones    2021

Drugs Without The Hot Air: minimizing the harms of legal and illegal drugs    David Nutt    2012

What Good is God?: in search of a faith that matters    Philip Yancey    2010

**Psyched: seven cutting-edge psychedelics changing the world    Amanda Siebert    2022

***The Urge: our history of addiction    Carl Erik Fisher    2022

**This Naked Mind: Nicotine: the science-based method to reclaim your health and take control easily    Annie Grace and William Porter    2022

**This Naked Mind: control alcohol: find freedom, discover happiness & change your life    Annie Grace    2018

The Globalization of Addiction: a study in poverty of the spirit    Bruce K Alexander    2008

The Recovery: intoxication and its aftermath    Leslie Jamison    2018

 

Memoirs Dealing with Addictions

Broken: my story of addiction and redemption    William Cope Moyers    2006

****Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: a neuroscientist examines his former life on drugs     Marc Lewis, Ph.D.    2011

Blackout : remembering things I drank to forget   Sarah Hepola    2015

***Addiction – A Mother’s Story: my son’s descent into addiction and where it took us     June Ariano-Jakes    2012

***Wasted: an alcoholic therapist’s fight for recovery in a flawed treatment system    Michael Pond and Maureen Palmer    2016

Dry: a memoir    Augusten Burroughs     2004

God if You are Not Up There I’m F*cked   Darrell Hammond    2011

**Beautiful Boy: a father’s journey through his son’s addiction     David Scheff      2007           

*Lit    Mary Karr    2009

Being Flynn     Nick Flynn    2010

Stoned Again: the high times and strange life of a drugs correspondent    Mike Sager   2015(paperback)

Life     Keith Richards    2010

**Drunk Mom: a memoir      Jowita Bydlowska            2013

**Mayhem: a memoir   Sigrid Rausing   2017

Love Works Like This: moving from one kind of life to another    Lauren Slater   2002

Ninety Days: a memoir of recovery     Bill Clegg    2012

**Tweak: growing up on methamphetamines    Nic Sheff    2008

**We All Fall Down    Nic Sheff    2011

*** Long Way Home    Cameron Douglas    2019

Inside Out: a memoir     Demi Moore    2019

**Love Warrior     Glennon Doyle Melton     2016

**if you love me: a mother’s journey through her daughter’s opioid addiction    Maureen Cavanagh     2018

***The Buddhist On Death Row: how one man found light in the darkest place    David Scheff    2020 

***Trejo: my life of crime, redemption, and Hollywood    Danny Trejo with Donal Logue     2021

**A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden: writing from prison    Stephen Reid     2012

**One Good Reason; a memoir of addiction and recovery, music and love    Sean McCann with Andrea Aragon    2020

**Original Sins: a memoir    Matt Rowland Hill    2022

**From the Ashes: my story of being Metis, homeless, and finding my way    Jesse Thistle    2019

**Hey, Good Luck Out There    Georgia Toews    2022

**So-Called Normal: a memoir of family, depression and resilience    Mark Henick    2021

**Stolen Life: the journey of a Cree woman    Yvonne Johnson and Rudy Wiebe    1998

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: a memoir    Matthew Perry    2022

***In My Own Moccasins: a memoir of resilience    Helen Knott    2019

Beautiful Things: a memoir    Hunter Biden    2021

***Hit So Hard: a memoir    Patty Schemel with Erin Hosier    2017

**North Wind Man    Clarence Cachagee and Seth Ratzlaff    2023

 

Neurodivergent/FAS/FASD

**Broken Cord: a family’s ongoing struggle with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome   Michael Dorris   1989

Beautiful Smiles, Gentle Spirits: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, a misunderstood problem    Margaret A. Michaud & Sacha K. Michaud    2003

Trying Differently Rather than Harder: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder   Diane Malbin, MSW    2002

The Oasis Guide to Asperger Syndrome: advice, support, insight, and inspiration      Patricia Romanowski Basue, Barbara L. Kirby      2005

FASD: unexpected journeys       FASD Network     2015

**Damaged Angels: a mother discovers the terrible cost of alcohol in pregnancy      Bonnie Buxton     2004

Living with FASD: a guide for parents         Sara Graefe      2004

***The Burning: parenting my son through adoption, FASD, and suicide    Ruth Spencer    2019

**The Illustrated Guide to Dyslexia and its Amazing People    Kate Power & Kathy Iwanczak Forsyth    2018

**Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities    Linda Siegel    2013

**Overcoming Dyslexia 2nd ed.     Sally Shaywitz, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D.

**The Mislabeled Child: how understanding your child’s unique learning style can open the door to success    Brock Eide, M.D. M.A, and Fernette Eide, M.D    2006

**Dyslexia, Learning, and the Brain    Roderick I. Nicholson and Angela J. Fawcett    2008

***The Power of DIFFERENT: the link between disorder and genius    Gail Saltz, M.D.    2017

A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD: embrace neurodiversity, live boldly and break through barriers    Sari Solden, MS and Michelle Frank, PsyD    2021

**Fish Don’t Climb Trees: a whole new look at Dyslexia    Sue Blyth Hall    2014

**The Gift of Dyslexia: why some of the smartest people can’t read … and how they can learn    Ronald D. Davis with Eldon M. Braun    2010

***Visual Thinking: the hidden gifts of people who think in pictures, patterns, and abstractions    Temple Grandin    2022

ADHD 2.0: new science and essential strategies for thriving with distraction-from childhood through adulthood    Edward M Hallowell, MD and John J Ratey, MD    2021

**Divergent Mind: thriving in a world that wasn’t designed for you    Jenara Nerenberg    2020

Parenting A Struggling Reader: a guide to diagnosing and finding help for your child’s reading difficulties    Susan L Hall  & Lousia C Moats, Ed.D    2002

***My Dyslexia    Philip Schultz    2011

NeuroTribes:the legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity    Steve Silberman    2015

The Mind’s Eye    Oliver Sacks    2010

Fantastic Antone Succeeds!: experiences in educating children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome    Edited by Judith Kleinfeld and Siobhan Westcott    1993

IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea   Stephen Murdoch    2007

Ungifted:intelligence redefined    Scott Barry Kaufman    2013

David and Goliath: underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants   Malcolm Gladwell   2009

*The Brain that Changes Itself: stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of neuroplasticity   Norman Doidges   2015

 

Homelessness

**Dirty Kids: chasing freedom with America’s Nomads     Chris Urquhart       2017

Mental Health & Addiction Interventions for Youth Experiencing Homelessness: practical strategies for front-line providers      Sean Kidd, Natasha Slesnick, Tyler Frederick, Jeff Karabanow, and Stephen Gaetz    2018

Street Stories: 100 years of homelessness in Vancouver      Michael Barnholden & Nancy Newman    2007

***The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness: an empathy-driven approach to solving problems, preventing conflict, and serving everyone    Ryan Dowd    2018

***San Fransicko: why progressives ruin cities    Michael Shellenberger    2021

The Glass Castle    Jeannette Walls    2005

Runaway: diary of a street kid    Evelyn Lau    2001

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people    Tracy Kidder    2023

Hit So Hard: a memoir    Patty Schemel    2017

A Knapsack Full of Dreams: memoirs of a street nurse    Cathy Crowe    2019

These are addresses to websites, documentaries, movies that I have found worthwhile to my interests.  I am only providing the link address, not activating them.

*Julia Ivanova’s documentary: From Russia, For Love

knowadoption.com/from-russia-for-love/youtube.com/watch?r=ZDQxy4r7ZLE

*Parents’ group for parents with children in trouble:       parentsforever.ca

*Parent activism for drug abuse:            https://www.facebook.com/MomsStopTheHarm/

*FASD group discussion:   faslink@googlegroups.com   acbr.com/FAS/faslink.htm

*Jewelry with a message of hope in the symbol of the Tree of Life:  www.facebook.com   GoldenEagleGifts

*The child trauma/resilience assessment:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean

The movie  Blue Bayou with Justin Chon

On Putin’s Blacklist  documentary  directed by Boris Ivanov

http://parentingandattachment.com

bcadoption.com/resources/articles/adoption-friendly-family-trees