Henry's Demons


Book Description

Narrated by both Henry Cockburn and his father Patrick, this is the extraordinary story of the eight years since Henry's descent into schizophrenia- years he has spent almost entirely in hospitals- and his family's struggle to help him recover.




Henry's Demons


Book Description

On a cold February day two months after his twentieth birthday, Henry Cockburn waded into the Newhaven estuary outside Brighton, England, and nearly drowned. Voices, he said, had urged him to do it. Nearly halfway around the world in Afghanistan, journalist Patrick Cockburn learned from his wife, Jan, that his son had suffered a breakdown and had been admitted to a hospital. Ten days later, Henry was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Narrated by both Patrick and Henry, this is the extraordinary story of the eight years since Henry’s descent into schizophrenia—years he has spent almost entirely in hospitals—and his family’s struggle to help him recover. With remarkable frankness, Patrick writes of Henry’s transformation from art student to mental patient and of the agonizing and difficult task of helping his son get well. Any hope of recovery lies in medication, yet Henry, who does not believe he is ill, secretly stops taking it and frequently runs away. Hopeful periods of stability are followed by frightening disappearances, then relapses that bleed into one another, until at last there is the promise of real improvement. In Henry’s own raw, beautiful chapters, he describes his psychosis from the inside. He vividly relates what it is like to hear trees and bushes speaking to him, voices compelling him to wander the countryside or live in the streets, the loneliness of life within hospital walls, harrowing “polka dot days” that incapacitate him, and finally, his steps towards recovery. Patrick’s and Henry’s parallel stories reveal the complex intersections of sanity, madness, and identity; the vagaries of mental illness and its treatment; and a family’s steadfast response to a bewildering condition. Haunting, intimate, and profoundly moving, their unique narrative will resonate with every parent and anyone who has been touched by mental illness.




Henry's Demons


Book Description

On a cold February day two months after his 20th birthday, Henry Cockburn waded into the Newhaven estuary outside Brighton and tried to swim across, almost drowning in the process. The trees, he said, had told him to do it. Nearly halfway around the world, in Kabul, Afghanistan, journalist Patrick Cockburn learned that Henry, his son, had been admitted to a hospital mental ward and appeared to be suffering a mental breakdown. Ten days later, Henry was officially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Thus begins Patrick and Henry's extraordinary account of Henry's steep descent into mental illness and of Patrick's journey towards understanding the changes it has wrought. With remarkable candour, Patrick writes of the seven years since, years Henry has spent almost entirely in mental hospitals. Schizophrenics are at high risk for suicide, and Patrick and his wife live in constant fear for Henry's life. Patrick also provides a fascinating glimpse into the conflicted history of schizophrenia's diagnosis and treatment and shows how little we still know about this debilitating condition. The book also includes Henry's own account of his experiences. In these raw and eerily beautiful chapters written from the hospital, he tells of the visions and voices that urge him on and of the sense that he has discovered something magical and profound. Together, Patrick's and Henry's stories create one of the most nuanced and revealing portraits of mental illness ever written, and a stirring memoir of family, parenthood, and the courage it takes to persevere and emerge, at last, whole.




Battling and Beating the Demons of Dental Assisting


Book Description

Every dental assistant faces challenges every day in his or her job. After coaching dental assistants around the country for more than a decade, Kevin Henry has compiled some of the biggest challenges he has heard and witnessed, as well as some ways to conquer them, in Battling and Beating the Demons of Dental Assisting. Whether you're a dental assisting student, new assistant, or assistant who has been in the industry for years, this book can help you not only overcome your daily struggles but open your eyes to new career possibilities. If you are serious about your career-and enjoy a spot of humor along the way-then this book is for you.




Henry's Sisters


Book Description

An emergency homecoming forces three sisters to deal with issues they’d rather ignore in this touching novel by the author of All About Evie. Ever since the Bommarito sisters were little girls, their mother, River, has written them a letter on pink paper when she has something especially important to impart. This time, the message is urgent—River requires open-heart surgery, and Isabelle and her sisters are needed at home to run the family bakery and care for their brother and ailing grandmother. Isabelle has worked hard to leave Trillium River, Oregon, behind as she travels the globe taking award-winning photographs. Still, she and her sisters, Cecilia, an outspoken kindergarten teacher, and Janie, a bestselling author, share a deep, loving bond. And all of them adore their brother, Henry, whose disabilities haven’t stopped him from helping at the bakery and bringing good cheer to everyone in town. But going home again forces open the secrets and hurts the Bommaritos would rather keep tightly closed—Isabelle’s fleeting relationships, Janie’s obsessive compulsive disorder, and Cecilia’s plans to get even with her cheating ex-husband. Now, working together, Isabelle and her sisters begin to find answers to questions they never knew existed, unexpected ways to salve their childhood wounds, and the courage to grasp surprising new chances at happiness. As irresistible as one of the Bommaritos’ giant cupcakes, Henry’s Sisters is a novel about family and forgiveness, mothers and daughters—and gaining the wisdom to look ahead while still holding onto everything that matters most. “This finely pitched family melodrama is balanced with enough gallows humor and idiosyncratic characters to make it positively irresistible.” —Publishers Weekly




First Time for Everything


Book Description

A “big-hearted” (The Daily Beast), “LOL-worthy” (Cosmopolitan) debut about a down-on-his-luck gay man working out how he fits into the world, making up for lost time, and opening himself up to life’s possibilities “Part of a new wave of authors releasing uplifting queer literature that casts its characters as the heroes of their lives . . . crammed with blossoming romances and glittery escapism.”—The Guardian Danny Scudd is absolutely fine. He always dreamed of escaping the small-town life of his parents’ fish-and-chip shop, moving to London, and becoming a journalist. And, after five years in the city, his career isn’t exactly awful, and his relationship with pretentious Tobbs isn’t exactly unfulfilling. Certainly his limited-edition Dolly Parton vinyls and many (maybe too many) house plants are hitting the spot. But his world is flipped upside down when a visit to the local clinic reveals that Tobbs might not have been exactly faithful. In fact, Tobbs claims they were never operating under the “heteronormative paradigm” of monogamy to begin with. Oh, and Danny’s flatmates are unceremoniously evicting him because they want to start a family. It’s all going quite well. Newly single and with nowhere to live, Danny is forced to move in with his best friend, Jacob, a flamboyant nonbinary artist whom he’s known since childhood, and their eccentric group of friends living in an East London “commune.” What follows is a colorful voyage of discovery through modern queer life, dating, work, and lots of therapy—all places Danny has always been too afraid to fully explore. Upon realizing just how little he knows about himself and his sexuality, he careens from one questionable decision (and man) to another, relying on his inscrutable new therapist and housemates to help him face the demons he’s spent his entire life trying to repress. Is he really fine, after all?




The Demon of Writing


Book Description

Since the middle of the eighteenth century, political thinkers of all kinds — radical and reactionary, professional and amateur — have been complaining about “bureaucracy.” But what, exactly, is all this complaining about? The Demon of Writing is a critical history and theory of one of the most ubiquitous, least understood forms of media: paperwork. States rely on records to tax and spend, protect and serve, discipline and punish. But time and again this paperwork proves to be unreliable. Examining episodes from the story of a clerk who lost his job and then his mind in the French Revolution to Roland Barthes’s brief stint as a university administrator, the book reveals the powers, failures, and even pleasures of paperwork. Many of its complexities, the book argues, have been obscured by the comic-paranoid style that characterizes so many of our criticisms of bureaucracy. At the same time, the book outlines a new theory of what Marx called the “bureaucratic medium.” Returning first to Marx, then to Freud, The Demon of Writing argues that this theory of paperwork must be attentive to both praxis and parapraxis.




Girl Stories


Book Description

A collection of comics about the ins and outs of being a girl on the verge of adolescence, many of which appeared originally on the website gurl.com.




The Boy Who Killed Demons


Book Description

A barbarian-turned-Roman-warrior leads an army against Persian invaders in this bestselling, epic historical adventure series opener. A.D. 255: The Roman Imperium is stretched to the breaking point, its authority and might challenged throughout the territories and along every border. One man is sent to marshal the defenses of a lonely city and to shore up the crumbling walls of a once indomitable symbol of Roman power, a man whose very name means war, a man called Ballista. So unfolds an epic drama—a story of empire, heroes, treachery, courage, and most of all, of brutal, bloody warfare. Praise for Fire in the East “In this blood and guts tale of ancient warfare, Oxford lecturer Sidebottom introduces readers to Marcus Clodius Bastilla, a third-century warrior who has risen through the ranks of the Roman army to achieve citizenship and the honorific of Dux Ripea. . . . How the brave and resourceful former barbarian defends himself from forces both within and without the city walls forms the spine of this action-packed and detail-rich narrative. This novel of sharp swords and blunt wit should find an appreciative audience among bloodthirsty battle boys of all ages.” —Publishers Weekly




Horrid Henry and the Demon Dinner Lady


Book Description

Early Readers are stepping stones from picture books to reading books. A blue Early Reader is perfect for sharing and reading together. A red Early Reader is the next step on your reading journey. Horrid Henry is furious! No way will Greasy Greta, the dinner lady, snatch his delicious sweets and crisps again. He tries hiding his food. He tries eating his desserts secretly. But it is no use. So Horrid Henry starts to plan his revenge...