8 Comments
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stacie's avatar

Jake brought me a copy of The Ladies Handbook a few years back when it was still all pain and no answers and I was hitting a wall of exhaustion and frustration - it hit so hard - such a good book

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Molly Freedenberg's avatar

RIGHT? And ugh, THAT WALL.

I read it when I was like 2 years into my new diagnosis, housebound, mostly bedbound, still deep in trying to figure it all out and how to live like that. I found the section on the Heroine's Journey especially powerful.

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Sarah Ramey / Wolf Larsen's avatar

WAY TO MAKE A GIRL CRY. Love you. Thank you.

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Molly Freedenberg's avatar

Oh good. Making you cry is always our goal.

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Kira Stoops's avatar

The year A Ladies Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness came out was the year I got to stop endlessly trying to explain my existence to the people who cared about me. I assigned reading. My sweet friends/family/partner at the time hooved it down. Things changed for me when people really got it.

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Molly Freedenberg's avatar

Omggg i LOVE THAT for you. I actually tried to get people to read it for that purpose, but I'm not sure anyone did. Then again, I don't know if I actually reached out to anyone directly and said "please read this, it would mean a lot to me." I posted multiple times about it, and how if someone read it for me I would cry, and I might've even sent links to people, but I was shy about just straight out asking (partly I'm sure because I was afraid of the disappointment if they said no, or said yes and then didn't do it - yay trauma responses!). But it's always on my list for people who ask what they can do to understand a spoonie. And I'm emotionally stronger now, so maybe I'll start asking directly.

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Kira Stoops's avatar

Yes! I just asked. The narrator is great, which really helped for my peeps who love audiobooks!

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Molly Freedenberg's avatar

So smart. Direct communication. Who knew? And great to know about the narrator. That’s one of the last books I read with my actual eyeballs.

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