Books like I'll Scream Later

This book has become a kind of Bible for those with hearing loss, certainly it has for me. Both authors share their own personal experiences with hearing loss, but this book is primarily a wonderful handbook for self-advocacy.

It is chock full of valuable information about how to navigate the hearing loss world; from the latest hearing technology to how to communicate more effectively in the world. I learned new things that I’ve now applied to my life.

I love movies, but unless they are foreign films with subtitles, I’ve always struggled to understand what is being said. But I discovered there are captioning devices that will download in real time what is being said. Just recently, I watched Barbie with a captioning device that fit into my seat’s cup holder. To my delight, I was able to glance down periodically and read all the dialogue. 

This is just one… show more.

I was so engrossed by this poignant memoir that I inhaled it one day. Hay describes how he lost all his hearing in his 20s due to a rare disease that causes tumors that required removal over many surgeries with major side effects and long and difficult rehabs. Honestly, I don’t know how he achieved all that he did while juggling a demanding job and three children.  

Delightfully woven throughout his account is a tale of his musical journey as he is determined to commit to memory the lyrics of his favorite songs while going deaf. I had fun learning about the music that informed his generation. I was also moved by the love between him and his devoted wife, Nora, who unfailingly stood beside him every step of the way.  

It is a poignant account of bravery and resilience as he works hard to live a life as normal… show more.

Holston, a journalist and musician, went to bed one night and woke up the next morning virtually completely deaf.

His book is a fascinating account of how he clawed his way back to the hearing world through various misdiagnoses, a failed cochlear implant, and finally, after extensive rehabilitative therapy, a successful cochlear implant. I learned so much about the pros and cons and risks of cochlear implants, and how they have improved greatly over the years.

I loved the way he communicates his profound frustrations and fears through this painful process with a self-deprecating humor that makes the book, despite its serious subject matter, an entertaining as well as educational read.

Bouton skillfully weaves her personal story of suddenly losing her hearing at age 35 with information about modern hearing technology. I so relate to her account of having to adjust to living with an invisible disability, the impact that her hearing loss had on her career, and the process she went through, from denial, depression, and finally to acceptance. I appreciate how transparent and genuine she is in her disclosure of how painful and difficult hearing loss can be.  

I’ve given this book to family members and friends, for it has many fabulous tips about how to assist those with hearing loss: speak as normally and articulately as possible, rephrase when the person says “what”, turn off the TV and background music, and certainly, don’t whisper in their ear. And, shouting won’t help!

Like many Irish women, my mother and grandmother were obsessed with movie star Grace Kelly (who became Princess Grace of Monaco in 1956) and passed on that fascination to me.

I have long thought that important public women of Irish America such as Jackie Kennedy and Grace have not been given due consideration in surveys of Irish America, which tend to emphasize public men. Therefore, I love the biography, High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, because it takes its glamorous subject seriously.

Spoto’s book goes beyond biographers’ usual emphasis on the glitter of Grace’s rise to princess to provide an intimate, respectful, and sympathetic portrait of the woman, the actor, the mother, the wife, and the very able representative of a small principality on the world stage.

Many assume that the Philadelphia-born Kelly was elite, but Spoto lays out that she was the granddaughter of a poor Mayo man… show more.

First of all, Nia Vardalos is just hilarious. She could write an Ikea assembly brochure and it would probably be side-splitting. But in the book, she tells about being a rising star (a great story on its own) who had it all – except a baby. After a grueling battle with infertility, she eventually came around to the idea of adoption, and started to learn more about the fost-adopt process of taking an older child who is unlikely to reunite with their original family. With great heart, she tells the roller-coaster story of bringing a 3-year-old with attachment challenges into her life—and the inevitable universality of motherhood. “Nothing prepared me for the life I would feel for my child. Nothing prepared me for how quickly it happened for me. And here’s what I just figure out now: no one is ever prepared. In a way, we’re all instant moms.” She’s… show more.

McClintick makes the Hollywood boardroom scandal that began with David Begelman’s forgery of Cliff Robertson’s name on a $10,000 check, into a compulsively readable account of power run amok amongst Hollywood-Wall Street executives. An expose of theft, cover-up, and blackmail, it is also a beautifully written, incisive portrait of men and women seduced by the glamor and power of Hollywood fame.

Anything to do with Jim Carrey, I’m in. In fact, when teachers would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d reply “Be Jim Carrey.” As a longtime fan, I was excited to learn that he would finally be charting his life in an autobiography. As it turns out, the book was mostly wild fiction. What’s so engaging about this book is how he blends real-life occurrences like his body of film work and relationship with Renee Zellweger with completely off-the-wall fantasy like mentor Rodney Dangerfield returning as a Rhino, Kelsey Grammar leading a cult, and Carrey struggling with his career as his entire essence goes virtual. It’s extremely experimental, but the inclusion of celebrities will leave you grinning.     

He is a fictionalized account of the comedian Stan Laurel's life. Being a massive fan of Laurel & Hardy, whose films remain irrepressibly funny to this day, and having read several factual books about Stan and his sidekick, it was a no-brainer to pick this up and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Whilst at times it feels like a ‘tick box’ situation regarding some of the events that an aficionado of Laurel would expect to be covered, at other times it provides an acute insight into the man behind the films. The similarity of the process on show here is so close to Blonde that a comparison is inevitable, and whilst he doesn’t provide the same emotional impact and is quite clinical in the telling, it nevertheless remains an important work in its own right and therefore is highly recommended.

LaSalle’s book made me fall in love with Pre-Code Hollywood despite having been in film and media studies for 20 years.

His in-depth study of many famous actresses during this era such as Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, and Jean Harlow, shows how freer women could be on screen for their life choices. 

The later chapters address the lasting impact of the Code era on the representation of women and their agency, even on contemporary movies. As he discusses it, the Code caused the decline of “socially responsive women’s pictures.”