Literature Reviews

Noah was interested recently in reading the book Twilight, which a friend of his raved about. I felt a bit uneasy when I saw it was a 500 page hardbound book, and the cover depicts a woman's hands holding a tempting-looking apple. The Mommy alarms were going off.

So I set about finding book reviews. I was hoping to find something along the lines of www.pluggedinonline.com for movies. I only found a few things, but what I did find helped make my decision that Noah is not going to be reading this book for now.

Here are a few sites if you find yourself in this same predicament:

TeenLit Review
Common Sense Media

Mrs. Ann Radcliffe and The Romance of the Forest

If you have read Jane Austen's Emma, you may recall that Emma's protege Miss Smith had requested her love-interest Mr. Martin to read a book called The Romance of the Forest. It peaked my interested to assume that if this was a real book, then Ms. Austen would certainly have read it and, for some reason, included it in her novel. I was able to get the book from a Mobius search through our library system. I am thoroughly enjoying it!! Here are two quotes that I particularly liked:

To discover depravity in those whom we have loved is one of the most exquisite tortures of a virtuous mind, and the conviction is often rejected before it is finally admitted.

An unexpected discovery of vice in those whom we have admired inclines us to extend our censure of the individual to the species; we henceforth contemn appearances and too hastily conclude that no person can be trusted.

Romance of the Forest was written by Mrs. Ann Radcliffe in 1791. On doing further research, I found that Jane Austen also includes specific details from it when writing the fifth chapter of Volume 2 of Northanger Abbey. In addition, another of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, The Mysteries of Udolpho, plays a prominent role in Northanger Abbey.

Mrs. Radcliffe was known as the pioneer of the gothic novel. She is said to have influenced such writers as:
Jane Austen
William Makepeace Thackeray
Sir Walter Scott
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Percy Blysshe Shelley
John Keats
Lord Byron
Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit
Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (my favorite novel)
Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Oval Portrait (drew from Udolpho and mentions Radcliffe by name
Henry James's short story The Turn of the Screw

The Romance of the Forest is available as an e-text here.
Here is an interesting bio if you'd like to learn more about Ann Radcliffe.

The Mood Cure

I am reading a book titled The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions--Todayby Julia Ross, M.A. This is one of several books I've been reading to try to find natural cures to depression. I appreciate Ms. Ross for recognizing that the term "depression" encompasses too large a category to fit everyone's circumstance.

Chapter Two includes a four-part mood-type questionnaire that breaks down the four most common mood imbalances, helping to identify your particular mood imbalance. Subsequent chapters are devoted to each of the four mood imbalances and include what your body may be lacking and specifics on how to correct it with nutrition and supplements. Each chapter is fairly detailed--but easy reading--on just how the body functions and how the food and supplements impact mood.

I also appreciate that Ms. Ross recognizes that mood imbalances can be genetic; however, that does not mean change is impossible. It is a matter of finding how your particular body is imbalanced, and taking steps to change it.

The four most common mood imbalances are described as:

Lifting the Dark Cloud: Eliminating the Depression and Anxiety caused by inadequate serotonin.

Blasting the Blahs: Rebuilding your energy, motivation, and capacity to focus.

All Stressed Out: How to recover from adrenal overload

Too Sensitive to Life's Pain? How to amplify your own comforting endorphins.

The book also offers practical help identifying bad-mood foods, setting up a master plan, good-mood recipes, and putting together a mood repair program. The five bad-mood foods are identified as: Sweets, White Flour, Wheat, Bad Fats, and Soy.

She also offers "Tool Kits" with further information on how to find practitioners and get the right type of testing, supplements, etc.; thyroid, adrenal, and sex hormone testing and rebalancing; and a food craving tool kit. Yes, she claims there are supplements you can take to even-out your blood sugar and stop the starch and sugar cravings!! However, I have found that I do not have near the food cravings after having cut diet soda and sugary foods from my diet.

I would highly recommend The Mood Cureand The Brain Chemistry Dietif you are struggling with any type of mood disorders.

The Brain Chemistry Diet

I am currently reading The Brain Chemistry Diet : The Personalized Prescription for Balancing Mood, Relieving Stress, and Conquering Depression, Based on Your Personality Profile. I believe it's been republished as The Brain Chemistry Plan. It is fascinating reading, the premise being that we all fit somewhat into six psychological types depending on our brain chemistry. There is a test to take in the book to determine which type you fit in to. The test is also here if you're interested to see which type you are.

For each type, a suggested diet and nutritional supplements are suggested, as well as other ways to optimize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses of that type. I was surprised when the test classified me as a Dreamer, with Guardian being a very close second. I would have chosen Guardian had I just looked at the list. I didn't want to be a Dreamer. But as I continued to read the Dreamer chapter, some things did begin to make sense. The Dreamer "in trouble" can become schizophrenic. I do not feel I've ever been even close to that kind of trouble; I have never heard voices and I do not retreat to an alternate world, but I do often berate myself for what I perceive as selfishness, which turns out to be part of my nature to be very inward focused. I find these things fascinating.

Dr. Lesser explains that all neurons in our central nervous system, including the brain, are activated and deactivated by neurotransmitters. He goes on to say that:

While there's only one way for the message to get through - via a neurotransmitter [in the synapse or gap] between neurons - there are [many] ways for the message not to get through:

• There is not enough of the neurotransmitter to do the job - signals within the neuron are unable to release it into the synapse.
• Oversensitive neurons release too much of the neurotransmitter, swamping and depleting the system.
• Reuptake of the neurotransmitter is poor, so there isn't enough to respond to the next signal.
• Too much of the neurotransmitter is broken down and the message can't be completed; nothing is left for the next signal.
• Another molecule blocks the receptor, and the neurotransmitter cannot connect.
• Inadequate or insufficient receptors, present on the receiving neuron, prevent reception of the neurotransmitter.

The disproportionate opportunities for failure, rather than success, make it that much more crucial that our brains get a constant supply of the correct neurotransmitters, and the raw materials for making them, in order to keep working smoothly. By and large, neurotransmitters become inactive once they've delivered a message... Though they exist throughout the body, they cannot move into the brain from outside it ... Instead, they are made ... in the brain, where and when they are needed... Your body will make only what it needs, from available materials...

Neurotransmitters are made from amino acids (the building blocks of all proteins), which we get from the food we eat. Poor diet, then, can leave us without the ability to make the chemical messengers necessary for healthy brain function...(pp.18-20)

This all makes more sense to me than ambiguous claims and long lists of "bad things that might happen to you if you eat too much sugar." The diets he suggests are really just healthy diets that any doctor would suggest, with only slight variations. However, he does assert that most of the people he treats are malnourished due to the typical American diet that is so devoid of real nutrition, vitamins, and minerals. He suggests what we've all heard if we've done any type of nutritional research--avoid all whites: flour, sugar, rice, and pasta.

I'm on Day Two of no sugar and no Diet Pepsi. It hasn't been terribly difficult, but I'm still in "high motivation phase;" I haven't faced a crisis, which is when I seek consolation in food, or a special event (like the weekend), when I celebrate with food. My attitude and mood have been better, but the sun has also been shining and the days longer and warmer. My mood plummeted this evening as it began to rain and as I went to a ladies Bible study. Sounds odd, I know, but for a person as shy as I am, going to a group Bible study is extremely exhausting and intimidating. I make myself do it to grow.

Being shy and socially ill at ease is part of the Dreamer trait. Vincent van Gogh is the example given in the book of a Dreamer. I found that very interesting because I love van Gogh's work. My Mom and I visited the Vincent van Gogh museum in Amsterdam last April. It was a huge treat. As I looked at his paintings--his real paintings--I felt such a kinship, like he was speaking to me and I understood. So to read that in this book was surprising, confirming, maybe even alarming? He was obviously a tortured soul, a Dreamer in trouble. Could it have been his poverty and poor diet that contributed to his mental illness? Very interesting (and sad) to think how his life could have been different with proper nutrition.

So, take the test. What type are you?