Mark Vonnegut

A Memoir of Insanity

The Eden Express

The son of Kurt Vonnegut picks up where his previous memoir--The Eden Express, in which he discussed the onset of his schizophrenia-- left off, chronicling his battles with alcoholism, his calling to practice medicine, another psychotic break, marriage and fatherhood and the passing of his father.

A Memoir

Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So

Susan Orlean

Kim Barnes

Paul Lisicky

M. J. Fievre

M. Evelina Galang

Jan Becker

Lori Jakiela

Dan Wakefield

Tabitha Blankenbiller

Elizabeth Dalton

Rebecca Cook

Elmaz Abinader

Christine Butterworth-McDermott

Andrea Askowitz

Lisbeth Davidow

Dinty Moore

Russell Reece

Sliver of Stone magazine presents its first volume of collected nonfiction. From the mouth of a Seattle whale to a Nordstrom's swimsuit department, from an Idaho fundamentalist church to a fathomless Florida lake, the fifteen stories in ALL THAT GLITTERS recount lives and identities unsettled by impending doom. Also included are four remarkable interviews with award-winning nonfiction writers, including Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin."Fresh, fierce, and enlightening, All That Glitters is a find. The talented nonfiction writers in this collection invite us along on the complicated, sometimes scary, but irresistible pursuit of truth." (Lynne Barrett, author of Magpies and The Secret Names of Women)

A Sliver of Stone Nonfiction Anthology

All That Glitters

Reflections from a life lived in medicine. Pediatrician Mark Vonnegut has spent forty years treating children for coughs, fevers, ear infections, and sometimes more serious complaints. In that time he has seen the American medical system change in ways he couldn't have imagined as a medical student--some of them good, others not so good. But what hasn't changed is his commitment to his young patients, whose stories fill the pages of this book. There's Anna Maria, a little girl with an incurable case of bone cancer; Adeline, who has a syndrome so rare none of Vonnegut's fellow doctors have seen it before; Marlowe, whose life-threatening anemia is cured by his just-born baby brother. Whether recounting the cases that have stuck with him or detailing larger changes in medicine--the privatization of health care, innovations in cancer treatment, the rise of anti-vaxxers and HMOs--Vonnegut is a personable guide through what is often seen as an impersonal system, and his stories sparkle with humanity, candor, and wry wisdom. ("In pediatrics, and most medical care," he says, "if the doctor can just shut up and listen long enough, the patient will give him the diagnosis. Unfortunately, there's not a procedure code or template for how to shut up.") Vonnegut doesn't pull any punches in his criticisms of the medical-industrial complex, but The Heart of Caring isn't a diatribe. It's the story of a life lived in medicine, with all the heartbreak, hope, and everyday heroism that entails.

A Life in Pediatrics

The Heart of Caring

More than thirty years after the publication of his acclaimed memoir The Eden Express, Mark Vonnegut continues his story in this searingly funny, iconoclastic account of coping with mental illness, finding his calling, and learning that willpower isn't nearly enough. Here is Mark's life childhood as the son of a struggling writer, as well as the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital. At the late age of twenty-eight and after nineteen rejections, he is finally accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gains purpose, a life, and some control over his condition. There are the manic episodes, during which he felt burdened with saving the world, juxtaposed against the real-world responsibilities of running a pediatric practice. Ultimately a tribute to the small, daily, and positive parts of a life interrupted by bipolar disorder,Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So is a wise, unsentimental, and inspiring book that will resonate with generations of readers.

Mark A. Changizi

A radically new perspective on human vision is emerging. Groundbreaking research by evolutionary scientist and neurobiologist Mark Changizi is driving a revolution in our understanding of human vision. In asking why we see the way we do, Changizi overturns existing beliefs and provides new answers to age-old questions. Why do our eyes face forward? While binocular vision was helpful to our primate ancestors, its importance for 3-D vision is exaggerated. Squirrels jump from branch to branch just fine with sideways-facing eyes and many athletes, including Hockey Hall of Famer Frank McGee, play with only one eye. HINT: We evolved in a highly leafy environment. Why do we see in color, when most other mammals do not? Its not because it helped our ancestors find ripe fruit. Our color vision has evolved to be extremely sensitive to specific sets of color changes. HINT: Primates with color vision, like us, are the only ones who have areas of bare skin. Why do we see optical illusions? Its not the result of glitches in our visual system. Optical illusions can be traced back to the same specific property of vision. HINT: We are able to catch a ball coming at us much more effectively than we should given the speed at which our brains process visual input. Why do we absorb information so readily by reading? Its not because weve evolved to read; evolutionarily, reading and writing are recent developments. HINT: Language is designed to exploit skills weve refined over tens of millions of years. In The Vision Revolution, Changizi details the conclusions of his innovative fieldwork and their mind-blowing implications for our understanding not just of human vision, but of the way we interact with the world in which we live.

How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew about Human Vision (Large Print 16pt)

The Vision Revolution

Mark Vonnegut

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