Remind Me

Coral Hetherington -- Night Table Recommendations

My family always considered reading a favourite pastime. My father enjoyed James Gray and my mother loved Pearl S. Buck. Growing up I read all the books in my parent's and grandmother's library and what ever I could get my hands on from Leacock to Shakespeare, Spillane to Dickens. Looking at my night table I can tell you my taste in literature remains varied; Citizen of the World, the Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau: Volume One by John English, a collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle including The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, I Used to be Coloured but Now, I'm Black by June Harris, Dancing Backwards by Sharon Carstairs and Tom Higgins and 'ripped from the television screen', Heat Wave and Naked Heat by (?) "Richard Castle".

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When we discovered my son had dyslexia I read everything I could find on the subject to better understand what it was and how I could, as a parent advocate for his needs. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf was particularly informative. If you spend any time learning about dyslexia you will invariably come across a very long list of famous, accomplished people that have the condition. Celebrities often seem to live a charmed life, enjoying fame and fortune but disability knows no social or economic boundaries. I always made a point of telling my son about these successful people, whether they have dyslexia or some other disability because I thought in their story was an important message about conquering adversity.

It was this principle that drew me to Changing My Mind by Margaret Trudeau and Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox.

There is an old adage that states one should never judge a book by its cover. At the risk of mixing the subject of the metaphor, looking at the photo of Margaret Trudeau on the cover of Changing My Mind you can most certainly form an opinion. She is a beautiful woman who appears happy, relaxed, and confident. That is surely the woman she is now and perhaps, would always have been had her bi-polar condition been diagnosed and treated forty or more years ago.

In a candid recounting of her often very public, manic behaviour along with her secretive, devastating depression we are cordially invited into her life. Could anyone that young (she was twenty-two when she became the Prime Minister's wife) in addition to being undiagnosed bi-polar fill that role with grace? Unlikely.

Throughout the book there are many examples of the one role she did love, being a mom; cooking, being with her kids and family, time spent at the cottage. With each of her pregnancies and the resulting shift in hormones came relief from her symptoms. But the sudden and tragic death of her son Michel and then the death of Pierre were too much for her to endure. With her mood swings in rapid flux she was descending a slippery slope to suicide. Although her admittance to Royal Ottawa Hospital was not voluntary, and very frightening, it may very well have saved her life. At the very least she got the help she so desperately needed.

As a follow up to his bio Lucky Man Michael J. Fox fills in the last ten years with Always Looking Up, The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist.

The book is divided into four sections, work, politics, faith and family. His description of his morning routine and how his film and television appearances work around the symptoms of his Parkinson's is told in such a humorous way you forget that he is talking about such a devastating disease. His success in creating his Foundation for Parkinson's Research and the role he has played as a political activist are testimony to his dedication for the cause. This book is exactly what you would expect from Michael, one of our newest Order of Canada recipients. He is humble, frank, witty, optimistic, poignant and truly inspirational.

As a postscript: My sister, the librarian at Strathmillan School never gave up on my son and routinely gave him books for his birthday or Christmas. Several years ago she gave him Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, and the light went on! Reading for pleasure, a major accomplishment for a dyslexic, is now one of his favourite pastimes. Recently my son wanted me to read Jurassic Park and The Lost World. I did and must admit I enjoyed them immensely. So I gave him my copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, which he read and now lists as his all time favourite. One really does not have to go very far for inspiration!

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Coral Hetherington was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba where she still currently resides. The idea of Gus the Wrong-Way Goose was inspired by her youngest son Sean, his struggle with Dyslexia and his ability to "find his own way". She conceived the story back in 1994 with the hopes that one day her oldest son, Eric, would illustrate it for her.

Coral launched Gus the Wrong-Way Goose at our Grant Park store in April of this year, and we are pleased to announce that Gus... is now on its second printing.