[bksvol-discuss] Re: Coming to My senses
- From: "Tiffany H. Jessen" <tjessen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 10:21:14 -0400
One library in my county has this book. Unfortunately my library can't seem
to tell if it is available. If it is however, I have just requested it to
be delivered to my library through the inner-library loaning system. I
should find out further about it within the next day.
Tiff
tjessen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shelley L. Rhodes" <rhod3021@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 12:03 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Coming to My senses
> Maybe someone could find this for the collection. I know I would like to
> read it.
>
>
> "COMING TO MY SENSES:" A BOOK REVIEW
> by Abigail L. Johnson
>
> When you've been able to see all your life, losing your vision to
> age-related macular degeneration can be devastating. Some elderly people
are
> reluctant
> to admit they have poor vision and so do not seek the help they need. In
> some cases, well-meaning relatives attempt to remove their visually
impaired
> loved
> ones from their own homes and place them in assisted living facilities or
> nursing homes where they will be safe. Such is the case for Addie Marsh,
the
> main character in Pam Rice's novel "Coming to My Senses." When I read this
> book, I found it so inspiring and true to life that I would like to share
my
> experience of the book and its author with others.
>
> Pam Rice lives in Beulah, Colo. and is a rehabilitation teacher for the
> state division of vocational rehabilitation. She teaches adults who are
> visually
> impaired. A graduate of the University of Southern Colorado, she has
always
> wanted to write and, according to a recent article in "The Pueblo
> Chieftain,"
> she actually sold a story in 1976 to a teen magazine. But marriage,
family,
> and a job got in the way of her earlier ambitions. Finally, in 1997, when
> her
> children were grown, she began work on "Coming to My Senses," a novel
> inspired by her work with people who are visually impaired. After several
> years of
> writing and editing, the book was finally published in 2002 by Five Star,
a
> subsidiary of the Thorndike publishing empire. The book is available on
> cassette
> from the Colorado State Library's talking book program and can be accessed
> by local talking book libraries.
>
> In Rice's novel, Addie, a woman in her mid-seventies, is losing her vision
> to macular degeneration. She lives alone in a rural mountain village in
> Colorado.
> Her son Joe and his family live in a town about 30 miles away. As the
story
> begins, Joe is trying unsuccessfully to convince his mother she needs to
> move
> to an assisted living facility. When he arrives at his mother's cabin
> unexpectedly, he finds her fast asleep in a rocker on her porch and stew
> burning
> on the stove because she had the heat on too high.
>
> As the story unfolds, Addie gradually comes to terms with her visual
> impairment. Her close friend and physician encourages her to join a
support
> group where
> she makes new friends. When the group's facilitator, a rehabilitation
> teacher, offers to help Addie learn daily living and mobility skills, she
> hesitates
> at first. But after a fall gives her a concussion, she becomes convinced
> that she needs this kind of help. Addie has the appliances in her home
> marked
> with tactile labels, learns orientation and mobility skills, and starts
> learning braille as well. Eventually, she convinces Joe she is perfectly
> capable
> of living independently in the isolated mountain cabin where she has lived
> for years.
>
> There are several subplots to this story. First of all, the story of
Addie's
> struggle to come to terms with her visual impairment is intermingled with
> flashbacks
> from Addie's past. Addie and her sister, orphaned as small children, were
> raised by a rich uncle in Denver. Addie married her first husband just
> before
> World War II and he was soon sent overseas after she became pregnant with
> her first son. He was killed in action soon after the child's birth.
Addie's
> second husband was an Army buddy of her first husband; Joe was born soon
> after they married. She and her family eventually ended up in the little
> cabin
> in the mountains where the novel is set.
>
> As Addie slowly adjusts to her visual impairment, she befriends a teenage
> girl who moves in with her so-called husband in the cabin next door to
> Addie's.
> She also befriends a gentleman who moves into an old lumber camp across
the
> lake from her. This gentleman is a loner at first, but by the end of the
> book,
> Addie has managed to draw him out. All of these subplots make "Coming to
My
> Senses" a delightful book to read.
>
> Being visually impaired myself and working with senior citizens who are
> visually impaired, I found "Coming to My Senses" very realistic. Addie and
> the other
> participants in her support group are like several of the elderly people I
> have met in the support groups I have facilitated. In fact, Pam Rice's
> portrayal
> of visual impairment convinced me that she herself is visually impaired.
> When I mentioned this to a friend in Colorado who participated in one of
the
> support
> groups she used to facilitate, and who recommended the book to me, he
said,
> "I hope she's not visually impaired. She's driven me to some of our
> meetings!"
>
> I realize now that Pam Rice is one of those sighted people who really
> understands visual impairment and I recommend her book to anyone
interested
> in learning
> more about visual impairment and reading an uplifting story at the same
> time.
> Shelley L. Rhodes and Judson, guiding golden
> rhod3021@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> "One glance at a book and you hear
> the voice of another person, perhaps
> someone dead for 1,000 years. To
> read is to voyage through time"
>
> ~ Carl Sagan
>
>
>
>
Other related posts:
