Quick Picks

I paid another visit to the library last week - yippee!! It was slightly frustrating in that I wasn't able to find what I was looking for at that branch - a couple of Hunter S Thompson's later writings. Next time I'll hit the main branch or pre-order what I'm after.

Woo-Hoo; the ones I did find are very different in who they deal with but they are both very good. I've just started into reading Moanin' At Midnight: The Life and Times Of Howlin' Wolf by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman for Pantheon Books. By the early going and scanning through I can tell it will be good. Must dig through the old record collection and find my copies of 'The London Sessions' - his performances with Jagger and Clapton et al.

The other one I got is a short autobiographic book which relates to a period in this province's history and it's treatment of psychiatric patients. What ultimately started as a patients rights issue eventually didn't serve them at all well; it has taken decades of activism and advocacy to turn the tide in their favour. The decision back in the 80's quickly turned many psych patient out to fend for themselves without proper follow up or referral and it created rooming house ghettos full of people who were unable to fend for themselves. Pat Capponi chronicles her experiences in Upstairs In The Crazy House: The Life Of A Phychiatric Survivor for Viking Canada. She describes her numerous hospitalizations and several months stay in one such rooming house. Pat eventually achieved enough personal health and well being that she was able to be a voice for those who were unable to speak on their own behalf. She served on a number of hospital and government advisory boards contributing to the drafting of legislation directly affecting the treatment of psychiatric patients. I'd like to follow up and read her succeeding books.