reading, watching, listening

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Here is a round up of things I’ve been enjoying lately. I’m always looking for new suggestions, so if you have anything you’d recommend, please let me know. A friend of mine last week said he thinks he has watched every single show on Netflix this last year, which is what it feels sometimes when you’re scrolling through the feed trying to find something good!

Webinars

Dr. Laurie Mischley does extensive research on PD and food. I try to watch anything I can with her and always take away a little new nugget of information. This webinar was presented by APDA a few weeks ago. The theme is Neglected Clinic Topics: things your PD provider should be talking to you about but probably isn’t.

The Science of How the Body Heals Itself with Dr. William Li- Interesting talk about how our diet can impact and help heal itself. I enjoyed how he gave insights on specific foods and impacts on different illnesses. If you enjoy it, at the end he talks about his new book, which I have just reserved at my library.

TV Shows

Behind Her Eyes (Netflix)- This British six part series was brilliant. The story starts out as the usual mystery thriller sort of premise and keeps turning into something different. I won’t share the plot with you because the less you know about before watching, the better. Super interesting to the very last line in the series. Side note, the wife in the series “Adele” is singer Bono’s daughter. Yes I am getting old.

Lupin (Netflix) - This is based on a French book series of the gentleman thief Arsene Lupin by Maurice Leblanc. It’s a light take on a James Bond sort of show but much more fun. Omar Sy who plays Lupin is fantastic. It’s in French so be sure to turn the language to French on your Netflix settings and then read the English subtitles. I didn’t know you could do that until after I watched a few episodes, which were dubbed in English, which is so weird to watch.

For All Mankind (AppleTV) - When Marc first suggested this, I thought ugh, another astronaut show. But this one is really good. It takes a few episodes, but with each episode, the suspense of how things are going to turn out builds. Based on the astronauts and their families from the early Apollo missions, it mixes real life and fictional events so you don’t know whats going to happen next.

Books

The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi - Kendra has a popular podcast where she gives her take on how to life hacks that I enjoy. They are practical things like how to clean your bathroom or kitchen, different household routines, batch cooking, etc., that if you are a self improvement junkie like me enjoys. Her motto is to be a genius about the things that matter to you and lazy about the things that don’t. Her style is warm and casual and with small children, is flexible in her approach.

The Best of Me by David Sedaris - This fabulously funny book is a compilation of stories and essays from David’s twenty-five year+ career of writing about his life. He has a unique way of capturing the humor, the heartache, the depth and silliness of different moments in his life. You must listen to the audio version because his voice lends so much of the story. I’ve read many of his books and I couldn’t tell you from which book I read different stories. It’s not a knock on his books but the opposite. They are all wonderful and are a continuation of his genre creating style of writing.

Podcasts

Everything is Fine - It’s a chat show for women over 40. The hosts Tally & Kim talk about all things that most women over 40 are experiencing in their lives. They have interesting guests who share their perspectives of how their lives have grown and changed over time. One of my favorite episodes was when they had Stacy London as a guest. Stacy was the host of the hugely popular TV show What Not to Wear, and shares her challenges after the show ended. It’s honest and insightful.

Don’t Ask Tig - Tig Notaro is a hilarious comedian who has this deadpan, sort of Bob Newhart style of humor that makes me crack up. She and a guest give advice and answers to questions that people write in. You’ll find me most Saturday mornings giggling while I garden and listen to the show.

Enjoy your weekend ;)

No Time Like the Future

No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox

I just finished reading MJF’s newest book. This is his third best seller, his others being Lucky Man and Always Looking Up. Each one is a memoir and shares the next chapter in his life with Parkinson’s. One of the things I liked most about his book is that it details his perspective and experiences now that he has had PD for almost thirty years.

The last couple of years have been challenging for him with spinal surgery and a broken arm, and he details how the experience has changed his outlook and made him think about his mortality. A broken arm may not seem so difficult in the scheme of injuries, but for someone with a chronic illness it can present many more challenges. He is great at describing his feelings about what its like to depend on others for simple day to day tasks because physically he can’t manage them, and how it can feel demoralizing or embarrassing, but he keeps it in perspective and always adds his signature humor.

I laughed and teared up. What brought tears to my eyes the most were the moments where he reflects on how his disease has impacted his family. I think that is one of the most emotionally difficult things for people with a chronic illness, is the impact on those around them.

Being in his twenties when he was diagnosed and newly married with a small child, and then having three more children after his diagnosis, amazes me. The extra challenges of having Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease and raising a family must be tremendous. He is the first one to admit he could have never done it, without his wife Tracy Pollan, who is the lead in his incredible support system.

I really enjoyed this book and recommend it. The common thread throughout all of his books is gratitude, appreciation and being hopeful for the future. His advocacy of Parkinson’s and willingness to go public has propelled public awareness like no other. I’ll leave you with a quote from another famous person from our tribe.

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe” ~Muhammad Ali

New Parkinson's Book

Good Morning, just sitting down with a cup of mint tea and thought I’d tell you about a new book I just finished called Ending Parkinson’s Disease: A Prescription for Action by Ray Dorsey MD, Todd Sherer PhD, Michael Okun MD, & Bastiaan Bloem PhD, MD. The authors are four leading PD experts so you may have read some of their other work. The book is very straight forward and lays out a basic history of PD, Prevention, Advocacy, Care, & Treatment.

What really stood out to me though is the idea that Parkinson’s could be a man made pandemic and that harmful chemicals in our food and our environment is likely some of the cause. I have read bits and pieces of this idea before but never with this much clarity as to specific concerns and how we can address them moving forward. With the rise of PD cases in the last twenty-five years, the book sets a sense of urgency without being over alarming which can make it easily dismissed. It also gives information on how to advocate with legislators from banning certain chemicals to making treatment drugs more available to more people. It’s definitely worth reading.

How are you holding up? Just when we thought there was some light at the end of the tunnel, this resurgence of Covid-19 has pushed things back again in many areas. How do we get a do over for 2020? I’m trying to continue taking a few minutes of gratitude throughout my day and take pleasure in things both big and small. Last night we had some neighbors over for a pau hana. A pau hana in Hawaii is a casual get together after work to relax and socialize. It’s a beverage and pupu, before you head home for dinner. But the best pau hana’s are the ones where you end up staying and talking, and the pupu’s replace dinner, and that’s just what happened. I think we were all starved for connection and ended up having such a fun time.

Off to start my day. Summer is in full gear and it is hot as you know what here. Have a good one! xo

what i'm reading

Have you had a good month with reading? I have, but lately if I read in the afternoon after lunch, it makes me very drowsy. I’m in the middle of The Whisper Man by Alex North. Scary thrillers have never been a genre I read before, but I heard good things about it from the Currently Reading Podcast so I thought I’d give it a try and I’m really enjoying it so far.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

Arthur Pepper is a recent widower and after finding a gold charm bracelet in his wife’s possessions that he has never seen before, it takes him on a life changing odyssey through London, Paris, and India. It’s a charming, easy read that I enjoyed.


Hell Bent: One Man’s Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob by Jason Ryan

This book was interesting to me because it’s set here where I grew up. Chuck Marsland was the city Prosecutor whose son was killed by alleged mobsters in the 1970’s in Honolulu. It’s full of descriptions of local law enforcement, politicians, and alleged mobsters that were names we heard frequently growing up, and how they are all intertwined. It’s an interesting deep dive into the case and the influence of the mob on the local society.


The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Anna Fox lives alone in her home. She is unable to leave her house. So she watches classic movies, plays online chess, and spy’s on her neighbors. One night as she is watching the new neighbors across the way, she sees the wife stabbed and bleeding through a window. But no one believes her. It’s a psychological thriller and I kept wanting to read more to find out what happened. It’s sort of twist on the movie Rear Window.


French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising, Happy, Healthy Eaters by Karen Le Billon

Wow that title is a mouthful. I randomly saw this at the library and picked it up out of curiosity. I don’t have small children but in the vein of “French Women Don’t Get Fat” I’m always interested in food and eating customs. The most interesting part to me was the concept of no children’s menus or food, and less snacking so that kids are more hungry at meal time and therefore willing to try different foods. You may not agree with everything but it was an interesting read.


Me by Elton John

His warm and humble stories from childhood through his life challenges including drug addiction, to his fulfilling life now with a husband and children. He has met and been friends with many interesting celebrities along the way. I listened to the audio book while I painted my bedroom and really enjoyed it.

Happy Reading. xo kai




Favorite Books of 2019

This year has been a super enjoyable year of reading for me. Although there are always more on my to read list than I can get through, a few things help me keep my reading in a positive direction. One is that I put down a book if I’m not enjoying it. There are too many good books out there waiting. Sometimes I also have a slow burn book, which is a book that I read very slowly. Sort of in the background while I’m reading other books. This is helpful when you have a book that may take more thinking, or can be a more complicated book than you feel like reading all the time. I read a few pages at a time and it can take me months to finish it.

Here are a few of my favorite books this year. I try to use the library and the library book sale as my main source of books, so many times getting the newest releases are difficult, but I’ve found over the years that it’s actually a plus. Sometimes new books are over hyped, so by the time I get to them, the reviews are more balanced. I’ve added a short review from other sources as I’m terrible at writing reviews, they all end up sounding the same. Happy Reading!

Non-Fiction

Non Fiction

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan - Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography. Included in President Obama’s 2016 Summer Reading List. “Reading this guy on the subject of waves and water is like reading Hemingway on bullfighting; William Burroughs on controlled substances; Updike on adultery. . . . a coming-of-age story, seen through the gloss resin coat of a surfboard.”—Sports Illustrated

I.M.: A Memoir by Isaac Mizrahi - “Heart-rending…[an] honest rendering of how the underdog Mizrahi, whose self-image and livelihood are alternately crushed and affirmed, moves through the many creative phases of his life.” ―The Washington Post

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover - “Tara Westover is living proof that some people are flat-out, boots-always-laced-up indomitable. Her new book, Educated, is a heartbreaking, heartwarming, best-in-years memoir about striding beyond the limitations of birth and environment into a better life. . . . ★★★★ out of four.”—USA Today

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro - “As compulsively readable as a mystery novel, while exploring the deeper mysteries of identity and family and truth itself... a story told with great insight and honesty and heart.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Catch & Kill by Ronan Farrow - "At the heart of every great noir is a conspiracy of evil that imbues the initial crime uncovered by the hero with a weightier resonance than was immediately obvious. So it goes with Catch and Kill."―Elizabeth Bruenig, The Washington Post

She Said by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey - "An instant classic of investigative journalism...‘All the President’s Men’ for the Me Too era." — Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur - “Exquisite and harrowing . . . [WILD GAME] is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting.” —New York Times Book Review

Wild by Cheryl Strayed - “Pretty much obliterated me. I was reduced, during the book’s final third, to puddle-eyed cretinism. . . . As loose and sexy and dark as an early Lucinda Williams song. It’s got a punk spirit and makes an earthy and American sound. . . . The cumulative welling up I experienced during Wild was partly a response to that too infrequent sight: that of a writer finding her voice, and sustaining it, right in front of your eyes.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

Fiction

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey - “Part mystery, part meditation on memory, part Dickensian revelation of how apparent charity may hurt its recipients, this is altogether brilliant.” -Booklist

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz - From the New York Times bestselling author of Moriarty and Trigger Mortis, this fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - "If you're looking for a summer novel, this is it. Beautifully written, a story of a Russian aristocrat trapped in Moscow during the tumult of the 1930s. It brims with intelligence, erudition, and insight, an old-fashioned novel in the best sense of the term." —Fareed Zakaria, "Global Public Square," CNN

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer & Annie Barrows - “A jewel . . . Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends.”—People

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - “Patchett’s splendid novel is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of obsession and forgiveness, what people acquire, keep, lose or give away, and what they leave behind.” - Publishers Weekly

The Mother in Law by Sally Hepworth - "Behold: the book that'll make your subway ride an actual enjoyable experience! This suspenseful thriller is impossible to put down." ―Cosmo

The Passengers by John Marrs - “A fast-paced thriller that offers a discourse on morality and ethics…Marrs excels at thrilling readers by creating a real sense of tension and delivering a believable, harsh criticism of modern society through this dark and entertaining story. Driving…will never feel quite the same.”—LA Times

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell - “O’Farrell has done it again. . . . There is a deliciousness to this novel, a warmth and readability that render it unputdownable and will surely make it a hit.” —The Guardian (London)

summer PD book read

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If you’re looking for a summer read, how about a book about Parkinson’s. We share many similarities from the disease itself but all have different paths and journeys, and it’s so touching to read others experiences. I laughed, cried, was inspired and learned a lot of helpful information, and I hope you will too.

Lucky Man: A Memoir, Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future - Michael J. Fox - We all know MJF and all the incredible work he has done for the PD community. All three of these books are great to listen to as audiobooks as he narrates them with his familiar sincerity and humor and how he still sees his as a charmed life.

Perseverance: The Seven Skills You Need to Survive, Thrive, and Accomplish More Than You Ever Imagined - Tim Hague - Tim shares the story of his life, from his challenging childhood, to life with PD and how his time being on the first season of the show The Amazing Race Canada with his son, has dramatically changed his life.

Parkinson’s Diva - Maria De Leon, MD - Maria has been a caregiver, a Neurologist, and also has PD, so she has a very unique perspective. Her book is a terrific mix of medical information wrapped up in fun and personal stories. Maria is also writing a new book and I can’t wait for it to come out and if you missed it, here is a link to the interview I did with her.

Every Victory Counts - Davis Phinney Foundation - This is an excellent manual with lots of good information for both PWP and caregivers. You can download the ebook for free, or your can also receive a printed copy until they run out.

Here are the books on my to be read list. Have you read any of these or do you have any good books about Parkinson’s that you can share?

favorite books of the year

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i not only enjoy reading but love to read or listen to what others are reading. it seems that for every book i read, i add another dozen to my “to be read” list. hey but that’s half the fun. i love listening to the what should i read next podcast and anne bogel finished 200 books this year! wow. but no matter if i read 1 or 200, my only requirement is that i enjoy the book. if i start reading and i’m not able to get into it, i stop. sometimes it just doesn’t fit the time in your life, so don’t stress it. there are too many other books out there to read.

here are the books i’ve read this year. i’ve enjoyed all of them since i completed them but i’ve put a star next to the ones that i enjoyed the most. let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you thought of them or give me some of your recommendations because of course i need to add more books to my tbr list!

Non Fiction:

dominick dunne: a life in several acts - robert hofler

the curated closet - anuschka rees

*audrey at home - luca dotti = this is a beautiful love letter from a son to a mother with her family recipes. audrey seemed like such a gracious person.

johnny carson - henry bushkin

*blue zones - dan buettner = describes the lifestyle and health habits of areas in the world where people live the longest.

the purple diaries: mary astor and the most sensational hollywood scandal of the 1930’s - joseph egan

it’s all relative: adventures up and down the worlds family tree - a.j. jacobs

epic tomatoes - craig & sara lehoullier

bunny mellon, the life of an american style legend - meryl gordon

*living in a foreign language - michael tucker = you may remember him in the tv show la law but his love of italy just oozes out in this light hearted and charming book.

the hygge life - gunnar karl gislason

garden home - p. allen smith

soulful simplicity - courtney carver

the total book of houseplants - russell c. mott

secret gardens of hollywood - erica lennard

*why not me? - mindy kaling = listen to this on audio as mindy is so funny and disarming.

how to be well - frank lipman

*me talk pretty one day - david sedaris = anything by david sedaris is good, especially on audio because he has such a distinct voice. they’re usually funny or touching essays about his life.

let’s explore diabetes - david sedaris

the stranger in the woods - michael finkel

the murder room - michael capuzzo

the blue zones of happiness - dan buettner

a fine romance - candice bergen

calypso - david sedaris

i’ll be gone in the dark - michelle mcnamara

the art of southern charm - patricia altschul

is everyone hanging out without me? - mindy kaling

*perseverance - tim hague = had to throw one in for the fellow parkies. tim talks about his journey with pd and how being on the tv show the amazing race changed his life. his story is so positive and inspirational.

*the gifts of imperfection - brene brown = this was my favorite non fiction book this year. the title says it all!

wallis in love - andrew morton

*bad blood - john carreyrou = fascinating real life story about the rise and fall of elizabeth holmes and her billion dollar company theranos. i hear they are making a movie version but read the book first.

paris in the fifties - stanley karnow

american kingpin - nick bilton

*killers of the flower moon - david grann = real life story of the osage indian nation in oklahoma in the 1902’s. their vast wealth made them a target of an intricate plan of murder.

american fire - monica hesse

this is marketing - seth godin

Fiction:

*maude - donna foley mabry

the swans of fifth avenue - melanie benjamin

*charlie & the chocolate factory - roald dahl = i don’t usually read children’s books but i saw this at the library and it was a childhood favorite of mine so i picked it up to see if it holds up. it totally does.

the bette davis club - jane lotter

*still life - louise penny = this is the first of a mystery series and ended up reading three of them this year. these were my favorite fiction books this year.

*a fatal grace - louise penny = these get even better the more i read.

major pettigrew’s last stand - helen simonson

*rebecca - daphne du marier = this is a classic for a reason. after you read the book, watch the movie with laurence olivier and joan fontaine.

her royal spyness - rhys bowen

gone girl - gillian flynn

a royal pain - rhys bowen

the dead wake - erik larson

beneath a scarlet sky - mark sullivan

the no. 1 ladies detective agency - alexander mccall smith

*a tree grows in brooklyn - betty smith = a beautiful novel about the coming of age of a young woman in brooklyn in the 1920’s. voted one of the best 100 books by the great american read and rightly so.

emma - jane austin

royal flush - rhys bowen

*a rule against murder - louise penny = by now you see this is the 3rd louise penny book i read this year. by this book you really start investing in the characters inspector gamache and the others in three pines.

the mysterious affair at styles - agatha christie

*rules of civility - amor towles = i think i just like books set in new york in the early 1900’s.

royal blood - rhys bowen

tears of the giraffe - alexander mccall smith

the cruelest month - louise penny

the secret adversary - agatha christie

~ happy reading!