The Daughter of the Queen of Sheba

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Summary: Been There Done That
Review: I have lived this book. My mother is bipolar and living with her was an unbelievably difficult and sad experience. Jacki Lyden so beautifully chronicles the ups and downs of living with a mother who one day seems normal, and then can change to someone so unpredictable that as a child you lose all sense of yourself. Recovering from a childhood with a bipolar mother is not to be taken lightly, and Jacki Lyden gave me the inspiration to move forward and leave the demons of my past behind. An excellent book on living with someone you live who is mentally ill.

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Summary: Good start but looses itself midway through
Review: I listened to this book on tape and although I enjoyed the beginning and was looking forward to a good story I found myself dissappointed and a bit disinterested by the end. There is no question that Lyden lived overcame a traumatic childhood and it is interesting to read about it. But her conclusions seemed, well, inconclusive. In the end she waxes poetic but doesn't really make any clear point. She accepts her mother and misses her mothers manias and she repeats how content she is with her own life. It seemed more like she really didn't know how to synthesize her story and that she was trying to convince herself and the readers that she was "at peace" then it actually seemed true. At the end of the book Lyden still didn't seem to have the solid foundation which, sadly, her childhood failed to provide.

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Summary: would not recommend
Review: I trudged through 40 pages and basically determined that this whole family must be nuts and we read this for book group and everyone agreed this was not an easy book or an enjoyable one

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Summary: Extremely hard to get into...
Review: I'm somewhat new to the memoir/creative nonfiction genre. I was advised to read Lyden's book (as well as other titles) for a writing class I was taking. Some of the titles on the list were very engaging reads (Tobais Wolff's 'This Boy's Life' and Jo Ann Beard's 'The Boys of my Youth,' for example.) This was not. I couldn't even get through the first chapter. While I respect a writer for sharing something so personal, I found this writing to be extremely self-indulgent. Now there are those for whom this type of writing works. I am simply not part of that audience. I would have given this zero stars if I had that option. Don't waste your money.

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Summary: The words paint the picture...
Review: Jacki Lyden describes moments so vividly that you can picture the scent, the taste, or the vision that she is sensing. This book was especially moving to me, because I am from an Irish Catholic - broken family, with a mother and grandmother just as deranged as Jacki's duo. To sum it up, I felt as if I were reading my own story.

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Summary: Self-Help Book Striving to Be Memoir
Review: Jacki Lyden has attempted to capture what it was like to live with and endure the trials of a dysfunctional mother. While the situations evoke sympathy and empathy, they also bring forth pathos, similar to that caused by the Duke of Deception by Geoffrey Wolff. What parents the Duke and the Queen of Sheba make. This is a self-help book striving, apparently, to be memoir. The writing, while at times successful, is repetitive and irksome. How much complaining is a reader supposed to abide?

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Summary: An engaging read
Review: Jacki Lyden opens up a world new to me, quite fascinating. Couldn't put it down.I've read 6 books since the beginning of the year and this is the only one that was worth my time! Get it.

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Summary: Touching
Review: Jacki Lyden's book was touching and I found myself alternately laughing and feeling empathy for her, her mother and her sisters. There were, however, times when I couldn't follow her logic of including certain things in the book. But all in all it was an entertaining, if at times somber, story of the joy and sadness of living with someone who is bi-polar and the things you must sometimes do to keep your own sanity intact.

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Summary: A Look into the Upsy-Daisy Life of a Bipolar's Daughter
Review: Jacki Lyden's poignant memoir describes the turmoil in her life as the daughter of a bipolar mother. Some of the things that her mother does are quite humorous; but apathy makes you mortified - when you think of your own mother and how you would be torn between loving her and deserting her. I just finished this book and it was one of the best dealing with mental orders that I have ever experienced.

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Summary: Simply Awful
Review: Overwritten and self absorbed-every other sentence screaming "oh look at me and how cleverly I write". This book does not even try to engage the reader-simply awful.