Sunday, March 27, 2011

Polio Books I Love

Mee, Charles. (1999). A Nearly Normal Life. A nice little book from a guy who had Polio when I did, I can relate to a lot of his story.

Nudelman, Dorothea, and David Willingham. (1994). Healing the Blues: Drug-Free Psychotherapy for Depression. One of the best books on surviving after Polio and dealing with depression wriiten by a Polio survivor and her therapist.

Flood Nichols, Janice. (2007). Twin Voices: A Memoir of Polio, the Forgotten Killer. Janice wrote this as a tribute to her twin brother. They both got Polio and he died while she lived. Fascinating story!

Smith, Jane S. (1990). Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine. The fascinating story of the Polio vaccine and Dr. Jonas Salk.

Alexander, Marc. (1980). The Dance Goes On: The Life and Art of Elizabeth Twistington Higgins. I enjoyed reading this story of a former ballerina, and her life after Polio as a painter of beautiful angels and ballerinas (using a mouth stick).

McLaughlin, Ann L. (1989). Lightning in July. This was the first book I read about someone else's Polio experience. I found connections to my experiences.

Rogers, Naomi. (1992). Dirt and Disease: Polio before FDR. Interesting and historic.

Kehret, Peg. (1996). Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio.
Written by a famous children's book author and Polio survivor. Good read for all ages!

Gould, Tony. (1995). A Summer Plague: Polio and Its Survivors. One of the first books to mention Post Polio Syndrome!

Black, Kathryn. (1996). In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History. Wonderful book written by the daughter of a woman who got Polio and was in an iron lung during the epidemics, and dealing with the death of her mother.

Presley, Gary (2008). Seven Wheelchairs: A Life beyond Polio. Memoir of polio survivor and ventilator user who I had the pleasure of meeting in 2010.

Some great Polio Books are out of print. Look for them at Amazon or the used book stores: http://addall.com

Lippman, Jr., Theo. The Squire of Warm Springs: FDR in Georgia 1924 to 1945.

Hawkins, Leonard C. & Milton Lomask. (1957). The Man in the Iron Lung: The Story of Frederick B. Snite.