Illness Fiction

Rumor has linked Queen Elizabeth I to her master of the horse, Robin Dudley. As gossip would have it, only his ailing wife, Amy, prevents marriage between Dudley and the Queen. To quell the idle tongues at court, the Queen dispatches Ursula Blanchard to tend to the sick woman's needs. But not even Ursula can prevent the "accident" that takes Amy's life. Did she fall or was she pushed? Was Ursula a pawn of Dudley and the Queen?

A History of the Present Illness takes listeners into overlooked lives in the neighborhoods, hospitals, and nursing homes of San Francisco, offering a deeply humane and incisive portrait of health and illness in American today....In the tradition of Oliver Sacks and Abraham Verghese, Aronson's writing is based on personal experience and addresses topics of current social relevance. Masterfully told, A History of the Present Illness explores the role of stories in medicine and creates a world pulsating with life, speaking truths about what makes us human.

See, as fast as the human race is evolving, we still haven’t discovered a more efficient way to help our brains relax and achieve a calmer mental state than good ole storytelling. A well-told story takes your mind off plans, worries, and recapitulations, providing a safety net beneath your brain, like the pillow under your skull.

Even under the most normal circumstances, high school can be a painful and confusing time. Unfortunately, Lilianna’s circumstances are anything but normal. Only a few people know what caused her sudden change from model student to the withdrawn pessimist she has become, but her situation isn’t about to get any better. When people begin coming down with a quick-spreading illness that doctors are unable to treat, Lil’s worst fears are realized.

When Maisie gets into a terrible accident, her face is partially destroyed. She's lucky enough to get a face transplant - but how do you live your life when you can't even recognize yourself anymore? She was a runner, a girlfriend, a good student...a normal girl. Now all that has changed. As Maisie discovers how much her looks did - and didn't - shape her relationship to the world, she has to redefine her own identity and figure out what "lucky" really means.

Emotiva, irónica y afilada. Una novela teñida de humor y de tragedia que habla de nuestra capacidad para soñar incluso en las circunstancias más difíciles. A Hazel y a Gus les gustaría tener vidas más corrientes. Algunos dirían que no han nacido con estrella, que su mundo es injusto. Hazel y Gus son solo adolescentes, pero si algo les ha enseñado el cáncer que ambos padecen es que no hay tiempo para lamentaciones, porque, nos guste o no, solo existe el hoy y el ahora.

Les hôpitaux n'ont plus aucun secret pour Sissi, atteinte d'une grave maladie du cœur depuis son enfance. Cloîtrée entre ces murs aseptisés, l'ennui la ronge. Elle ne peut compter que sur son golden retriever pour lui remonter le moral et la distraire. Jusqu'à l'arrivée de Jameson... Jameson est amené à l'hôpital après un énième combat de boxe illégale. Il se retrouve à devoir partager la chambre de Sissi. Et cette colocation forcée leur déplait dès leur première rencontre. Ils se détestent instantanément.

This is the story of 17-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was 12. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time - a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins. Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the Earth.

World-renowned pianist Gloria Banderas is at the height of her career when a curious ailment forces her to cancel a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. The same day, she befriends one of the many free-spirited artists inhabiting the warren of apartments above the theater. With her career and marriage at a standstill, Gloria moves into an empty studio and convalesces among the poets, photographers, and dancers who eke out a living with total dedication to their art. As a return to her old routine beckons, Gloria must decide which parts of her life are worth fighting for.

Tiene que decidirse: su familia y Nueva York, su novio y su amor por la música clásica. Pero entonces, ocurre un accidente. Ya nada será como antes. Y solo le queda una decisión: vivir o morir.

Join Sam the Sleepy Sheep and friends in this charming, magical bedtime story, which is also a completely natural, safe, and fun way to get children to go to sleep. The authors, Rory Z Fulcher and Dr. Kate Beaven-Marks, designed the story of Sam the Sleepy Sheep, so that it is easy-to-understand for children (and parents) of all ages.

After a hard-fought battle in the heart, Progen has defeated the agents of the entity that wants to destroy the body he is determined to control. It was a temporary defeat, however, as the entity retreated up into the body’s brain, safely entrenched behind the blood-brain barrier that is preventing the dungeon crystal from accessing the coveted home base of the central nervous system. As he further establishes his control over the different systems that he can access, a grievous wound to the body creates a problem that could spell the end of his objective.

Under the rule of the Isle’s Voice, the people of Aeris suffer from a jarring divide between the wealthy and impoverished. The Isle’s Voice controls the distribution of immersia, a magic that keeps bloodthirsty monsters known as the vayle away from Aeris’s people. Laborers slave to do the jobs allotted to them, while privileged families remain in control. When young Aselle Attete, a laborer in the great city of Aurora, hears a mysterious song in the desert that surrounds her city, a series of events unfolds that proves there is hope of salvaging Aeris.

Sixteen-year-old Whisper, who has a cleft palate, lives in an encampment with three other young rejects and their caregiver, Nathanael. They are outcasts from a society (in the not-too-distant future) that kills or abandons anyone with a physical or mental disability. Whisper’s mother visits once a year. When she dies, she leaves Whisper a violin, which Nathanael teaches her to play. Whisper’s father comes to claim her, and she becomes his house slave, her disfigurement hidden by a black veil.

Do you have trouble unwinding after a stressful day? Do you lie down at night and spend hours trying to get to sleep? But, it feels like you just can't stop thinking about what you forgot to do today, what you could've done better, what you need to get done tomorrow, or what happens if something unexpected happens. Your brain keeps on going even though you desperately want to rest. Even worse, it feels like you are focused on negative things. And all you want is rest. You want to shut your brain down!

This groundbreaking anthology presents 40 narratives, both nonfiction and fiction, that together capture the impact and complexity of Alzheimer’s and other dementias on patients, as well as their caregivers and family. Deeply personal, recounting the wrenching course of a disease that kills a loved one twice - first they forget who they are, and then the body succumbs - these stories also show how witnessing the disease and caring for someone with it can be powerfully transformative, calling forth amazing strength and grace.

Ash boards a Greyhound bus heading to the place where Bly was last seen: Snowflake, Arizona. Six thousand feet up in the wide red desert, Ash meets Mona, her dog, her goat, and her neighbors, and finds stepbrother Bly, too. In their ramshackle homes, the walls lined with tinfoil, almost all the residents of Snowflake are sick. But this isn’t any ordinary sickness: the chemicals and technologies of modern life are poisoning them.

Ve el mundo de otra manera. Te presentamos a Ginny Moon. Es la típica adolescente, toca la flauta en la banda de la escuela, practica baloncesto semanalmente, y lee poemas de Robert Frost en la clase de inglés.

Pero Ginny es autista. Y lo que es importante para ella puede parecer un poco… diferente: comienza cada día con nueve uvas exactas como desayuno, su muñeca llamada Michael Jackson y la elaboración de un plan secreto de escapar.

The End of Miracles is a twisting, haunting story about the drastic consequences of a frustrated obsession. A woman with a complex past wants nothing more than to become a mother, but struggles with infertility and miscarriage. She is temporarily comforted by a wish-fulfilling false pregnancy, but when reality inevitably dashes that fantasy, she falls into a depression so deep she must be hospitalized.

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste. Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves - which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant. (It doesn’t hurt that her instructor, Kai, is seriously good-looking.)