nobody nowhere by donna williams- about williams' experience of growing up as autistic.

sickened by julie gregory- about the author's mother having munchausen's by proxy

one flew over the cuckoo's nest

ionce in a house on fire- andrea ashworth, about her childhood with an abusive stepfather

go to your local bookshop and ask where the misery memoirs are- there's going to be a lot more rehab, drugs, anorexia, etc stuff

thanks guys i've looked up summaries on most of these and they all sound great. i can't believe i've forgotten about one flew over the cuckoos nest..

the wasp factory by ian (iain?) banks

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this sort of reminds me of perfume, from what i read. it sounds really good.

wasted by myra something

the best eating disorder book that i've ever read. real, real emotional.

Will there really be a morning - biog by Frances Farmer

maybe no exactly the criteria, but we seem to have similar tastes and here ar some I have enjoyed

'Push' by sapphire
Probably the most depressing book I have ever read. About a girl who is abused by her father, gives birth to his retarded child and is struggling to get an education while pregnant with her fathers child again, ugh

'kelly & victor' by Niall Griffiths
drugs, obsession, violent sex, murder.

'chicken' by David Henry Sterry
his true story of male prostitution in hollywood

'name the baby' by Mark Cirino
it's been a few years since I read this but what I remember is abot his girlfriend commiting suicide then him drifiting off and goign back to his home town and discovering himself, something like that!

'my mother, madame edwarda, the dead man' by Georges Battaille
fucked up short stories abot incest and stuff

'the lawnmower celebrity' by Ban Hatch
ok, I was suprised when I read this, it cost 50p from one of those bargain bookstores where they sell books that can't be sold anywhere else because they are so crap, but I loved it! It's about a British kid who is obsessed with JD Salinger and cather in the rye, it is written in diary form and abot this kid trying to write his own book like salingers and is basicly a huge catcher in the rye rip off, but modern and british, and aware it's a rip off. Does that make sense? I loved it anyway, best 50p ever spent

Good recs, but just wanted to mention that I have Go Ask Alice and think it's a terrible bore. It's cheesy. I bought it knowing ahead of time what it was (ie, not real) but thinking it would still be a good read and it wasn't, to me. I think an obvious choice that has probably been mentioned (I have not read this far) is Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel or maybe her other book (More Now Again or whatever), and Girl, Interrupted.

edit- all mentioned already of course! There is another book I found on the display way back when I bought Girl, Interrupted called "The Unquiet Mind" or "An Unquiet Mind"- something like that. It's about bipolar illness. And, um...Anne Heche "Call Me Crazy", which I don't really like, but thought I would mention. These 2 are just merely ok...if that.

Oh crap! I forgot---have you read Sylvia Plath's Unabridged Journals? If you like The Bell Jar it's interesting to see all the parallels. You can easily see where she drew her material for TBJ.

i'll definitely have to pick that up. i've never heard of it before. thanks!

(to everyone else as well. these are great recommendations)

Also, not a book, but have you read the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman? It's available online I'm sure... that is a pretty good story. I am on a medication right now that is making me totally unable to form sentences , let me see if I can find where someone has summed up this story ...I am practically typing-while-intoxicated. On my way to bed. Hold on a sec...it's the mental ...I can;t find the word...the female narrator's mental state that is so wicked about this story. The way it is written is just like a really good picture of descent into madness. Let me see if I can link it, and find a better summary. will edit in a minute...

The story:
http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpa...htm#INSERT%203

Some thoughts:

In the time period in which Gilman lived "The ideal woman was not only assigned a social role that locked her into her home, but she was also expected to like it, to be cheerful and gay, smiling and good humored" (Lane, To Herland 109). The women who refused this role and chose a life of self-expression and freedom from the social constraints suffered ridicule and punishment from their peers. This is not unlike the repercussions that Gilman experienced throughout her lifetime from expressing her need for independence from the private sphere that she had been relegated to. Through her creation of "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote an autobiography of her emotional and psychological feelings of rejection from society as a free-thinking woman.
http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpa...Heroic%20Slave

(basically it's a story of a woman who is constrained by society and her doctor recommends she take a "rest", and the story details her mental reaction to this treatment and letting others tell her what to do...she basically goes mad under their "care"-- here is a good line from the story:
"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?"
so bascially she's treated as if she's not supposed to have her own thoughts and ideas and if she tries to go against the grain she is treated like she is mentally ill)..but it is REALLY wickedly written...it almost does make you kind of mad to read it, it draws you in..I felt like I was experiencing it the first time I read it.

I like this thread.

any more suggestions?

have you read any of them yet?
what do you think?

there are a lot of books in this thread i haven't yet read. as soon as i'm finished with middlesex im gonna try and get my hands on some.

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id like to recommend Naive. Super by Erlend Loe, orginally written in Norwegian and translated into English
its about a guy who drops out of college and sort of has a bit of a crisis, its a really nice easy to read book

"a piece of cake" by cupcake brown

i started reading the journals of sylvia plath but got side tracked with another book. i liked what i read so far though.