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Announcement: Mental Illness Advocacy Reading Challenge 2014
I am pleased to announce that I will again by hosting the Mental Illness Advocacy (MIA) Reading Challenge for 2014!
History and Goal of the Challenge:
I started the MIA Reading Challenge in December 2010 in an effort to raise awareness, knowledge, and acceptance of mental illness. Reading, both fiction and nonfiction, is an excellent way to broaden one’s horizons and expose one to new ideas and ways of thinking and being. Many reading challenges already exist in the book blogging community to address racism, sexism, and homophobia, but I could not find any to address the stigma faced by those suffering from mental illness. In spite of mental illnesses being recognized by the scientific community as diseases just like physical ones, many still think those suffering from one are at fault for their own suffering. I hope reading and reviewing books featuring characters struggling to deal with mental illness, whether their own or another person’s, will help remove the stigma faced on a daily basis by those with a mental illness. They already have to struggle with an illness; they shouldn’t have to face a stigma too.
What books count?
Any book, fiction or nonfiction, that is either about mental illness or features characters or real people with a mental illness counts for the challenge. However, the book must not demonize people with mental illnesses.
So, for example, the movie Fatal Attraction, which features a character with Borderline Personality Disorder, would not count since she is demonized in the movie. However, Girl Interrupted, which also features a character with Borderline Personality Disorder, would count since that character is presented as a three-dimensional person with good and bad traits.
If you’re having trouble coming up with books to read for the challenge, check out the list of recommended reads that I maintain on the challenge’s main page.
Challenge Levels:
Acquainted–4 books
Aware–8 books
Advocate–12 books
How do I participate?
Sign up by filling out the sign up form! I will post a list of all 2014’s participants on the challenge’s main page.
Feel free to grab the badge on this announcement to feature on your blogs. You can also join the GoodReads Group if you want.
Please make an announcement post on your blog about your participation to help spread the word.
Leave links to your reviews throughout 2014 by commenting with them on the challenge’s main page.
And that’s it!
Thanks, and I hope you’ll consider participating!
Announcement: 2012 Reading Project!
I decided I won’t make you guys wait as long as I originally said to find out what my 2012 project is going to be. I made the reading list, the button, and created the page, so why not announce it now and get participation commitments going?
So! The Opinions of a Wolf hosted 2012 reading project is…..*drum-roll*
Woo! *Applause*
The gist of it is, I am concerned and downright fed up with the state of health in America. Congress just declared pizza a vegetable! It is time we took the power over our own health out of the hands of the government, society, the FDA, hospitals, and put it back where it belongs. With us! To this end, using my librarian and book blogger skills, I carefully selected 12 nonfiction titles to read addressing a variety of topics from how your diet can prevent and reverse heart disease to how the food industry manipulates science to how to avoid processed foods. It’s a great list that I’m really excited to explore!!
The third Saturday of every month will be dedicated to a discussion (hosted by me) of the book of the month. In addition, I will do my best to also review one healthy cookbook or fitness book each month, and I invite you to do so as well!
You’ve got a month to get yourself signed up, spread the word, and gather the first couple of books on the list. You don’t have to have a blog to participate, but it would be awesome if you at least had a LibraryThing or GoodReads account to help create the buzz this information needs.
Just head on over to the dedicated Diet for a New America Reading Project 2012 page and leave a comment noting your intent to participate and a link to either your blog post announcing your participation or to your account on LibraryThing or GoodReads.
I’m super-excited for this project and hope you all are too!!