COVID-19 is possibly the world’s biggest mass-disabling event. This ambitious book gives a humanized view of chronic illness while offering a poignant reminder of the millions of people with long COVID. The collection is rich with living history from the stories, essays, and poems of 45 long haulers. Writer Mary Ladd, a one-time Anthony Bourdain collaborator, leads the team behind an accessible paperback, offering tales of persisting symptoms and navigating the healthcare system to poignant reflections on grief, loss, and hope. This anthology is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the long-term effects of COVID-19. * Featuring Andrew David King, Pato Hebert, Nina Storey, Emily Pinkerton, Morgan Stephens, Nikki Stewart, Sonya Huber, Ann E. Wallace, Alexis Misko, and others. * Uses a patient-centric, experiential literary approach that is brave and insightful. * A powerful testament to human resilience, strength, and solidarity. “Being part of the first-ever Long COVID Reader is significant because the pandemic was a first for the world, and our stories matter. This book is meaningful as it enables the forgotten Long COVID community to break their silence and contributes to the next phase of my healing journey." —Dr. Sabrina McQueen Johnson, wife, mother, and retired school principal. "Surviving COVID was a gift of new life. As a long hauler, I am reminded of that every day. The Long COVID Reader will be a gift that keeps on giving to others." —Steven Lewis, author, poet, a former mentor at Empire State College, and current Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute faculty. "I want to share my story so no other woman is made to believe her symptoms are all in her head. May our narratives provide solidarity for patients, information for caregivers and providers, and increased awareness and urgency for action from the masses." —Haley Nelson, age 19. She was athletic, academic, and animated before Long-COVID, ME/CFS, POTS, and small fiber neuropathy uprooted her life. Fans of The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, The Long Haul, and The Long COVID Survival Guide will love this book. This book is a must-read for * Anyone experiencing long COVID symptoms * Caregivers, family, friends, and anyone looking to understand long COVID * Medical professionals and researchers

The Wig Diaries is Mary Ladd's debut disrespectful cancer book. Delivered with bold gallows humor, it intimately address the gravity of cancer and invites the reader to bear witness to both the horror and the joke(s). Armed with creative sensibility, Ladd robs her diagnosis of its dour weightiness. Refusing to tiptoe around the gnarlier elements of treatment and recovery, the narrative is powerful in its unvarnished honesty and contagious lust for life exemplified by hilarious anecdotes. A uniquely fresh modern and black comedy take on cancer Covers and pokes fun at everything from diagnosis to treatment to medical bills Illustrated by San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Don Asmussen, who has cancer for the second time "I love this book."--Mary Roach, author of the books Grunt, Stiff, Spook, and Bonk "This looks like a hoot and a half. I want more."--Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), author of A Series of Unfortunate Events "Clear-eyed, fun, and reassuring, it's the perfect guide!"--Vanessa Hua, author of A River of Stars and Deceit and Other Possibilities Fans of F*ck Cancer, Cancer is Funny and Healing Through Humor will love this book This book is perfect for Anyone diagnosed with cancer or going through cancer treatment Well-meaning friends and family of anyone diagnosed with cancer Medical professionals who deal with cancer patients Mary Ladd's writing has appeared in Playboy, Time Magazine/Extra Crispy, Health, the San Francisco Chronicle, and in five anthologies, including Lit Starts: Writing Humor from Abrams and the best-selling 642 Things series. You may have seen her onstage at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, Breast Cancer Action, Bay Area Young Survivors (BAYS) and reading her first place essay for a Litquake contest. She is a Writers Grotto member who collaborated with Anthony Bourdain on his Bay Area episodes of No Reservations. Don Asmussen is the creator of Bad Reporter, a twice-weekly political comic strip in the San Francisco Chronicle that is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate and the author of Dog vs. Cat: A Nation Divided and The San Francisco Comic Strip Book of Big-Ass Mocha.

Here, with his remorseless eye for the truth, the bestselling author of Liar's Poker turns his sights on his own domestic world. The result is a wickedly enjoyable cautionary tale. Lewis reveals his own unique take on fatherhood, dealing with the big issues and challenges of new-found paternity: from discovering your three-year-old loves to swear to the ethics of taking your offspring gambling at the races, from the carnage of clothing and feeding to the inevitable tantrums - of both parent and child - and the gradual realization that, despite everything, he's becoming hooked. Home Game is probably the most brazenly honest and entertaining book about parenting ever written.

The first patient-to-patient guide for people living with Long COVID—with expert advice on getting diagnosed, dealing with symptoms, accessing resources and accommodations, and more. “The Long COVID Survival Guide aims to give people struggling with long COVID practical solutions and emotional support to manage their illness.”—NPR, It’s Been a Minute For people living with Long COVID, navigating the uncharted territory of this new chronic illness can be challenging. With over two hundred unique symptoms, and with doctors continuing to work toward a cure, people experiencing Long COVID are often left with more questions than answers. A support group in book form, The Long COVID Survival Guide is here to help. Twenty contributors—from award-winning journalists, neuroscientists, and patient-researchers to corporate strategists, activists, and artists—share their stories and insight on topics including: getting diagnosed finding a caregiver confronting medical racism and gaslighting navigating employment issues dealing with fatigue and brain fog caring for your mental health, and more. This vital resource provides the answers and reassurance you need, to take care of yourself and prepare for what comes next. Contributors: Karyn Bishof, JD Davids, Pato Hebert, Heather Hogan, Monique Jackson, Naina Khanna, Lisa McCorkell, Karla Monterroso, Dona Kim Murphey, Padma Priya, David Putrino, Yochai Re’em, Rachel Robles, Alison Sbrana, Chimére L. Smith, Letícia Soares, Morgan Stephens, and Terri L. Wilder

Making visible the real effects of Long Covid on people and their lives, this guide explores the issues of living with the condition, helping people to make sense of their experiences on the road to recovery. Rooted in the author's personal story of having Long Covid since April 2020, the book offers ideas from Narrative Therapy as a lens through which to address the emotional impact of Long Covid, and shares practical strategies for managing symptoms and regaining quality of life. Acknowledging that recovery is unpredictable, the book sheds light on the often invisible challenges faced by people living with chronic conditions, such as managing pacing and rest in a world that values productivity, the impact of illness on relationships, coping in the context of a pandemic, and negotiating day to day life when you are living between illness and wellness. Also drawing on the author's expertise as a Clinical Psychologist working in physical health, Breaking Free from Long Covid offers ideas for reconnecting with what matters most to you when illness threatens to take over your life.

The first practical, accessible self-help guide to managing symptoms of Long Covid More than 1 million people suffer from Long Covid in the UK (with 400,000 people suffering symptoms for over a year), and many more globally. Yet there is no clear guidance available to the general public, and lots of misinformation out there. This handbook cuts through the confusing advice. Written by the medical experts working with Long Covid patients at one of the first specialist clinics set up, it is filled with helpful case studies and was written with the involvement of real Long Covid sufferers. The focus is on self-management with a simple, consistent message about improving symptoms. Each chapter takes a different issue in turn and offers clear, friendly guidance on key areas such as breathlessness, psychological aspects, brain fog, fatigue, returning to exercise and returning to work.

Drawing on an ethnographic study of novel readers in Denmark and the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, this book provides a snapshot of a phenomenal moment in modern history. The ethnographic approach shows what no historical account of books published during the pandemic will be able to capture, namely the movement of readers between new purchases and books long kept in their collections. The book follows readers who have tuned into novels about plague, apocalypse, and racial violence, but also readers whose taste for older novels, and for re-reading novels they knew earlier in their lives, has grown. Alternating between chapters that analyse single texts that were popular (Albert Camus's The Plague, Ali Smith's Summer, Charlotte Brönte's Jane Eyre) and others that describe clusters of, for example, dystopian fiction and nature writing, this work brings out the diverse quality of the Covid-19 bookshelf. Time is of central importance to this study, both in terms of the time of lockdown and the temporality of reading itself within this wider disrupted sense of time. By exploring these varied experiences, this book investigates the larger question of how the consumption of novels depends on and shapes people's experience of non-work time, providing a specific lens through which to examine the phenomenology of reading more generally. This timely work also negotiates debates in the study of reading that distinguish theoretically between critical reading and reading for pleasure, between professional and lay reading. All sides of the sociological and literary debate must be brought to bear in understanding what readers tell us about what novels have meant to them in this complex historical moment.