Description
Book SynopsisWith unflinching honesty and humor in the vein of Cheryl Strayed and David Sedaris but a raw tenderness all her own, Kate Landis chronicles the hardest parts of her young adulthood as well as her poignant journey to faith and community.
Kate Landis grew up in the American Baptist Church—the child of a music director and a deacon—until she left the church in her late teens after surviving major depression and a handful of suicide attempts. She became an activist, feminist, punk, and self-described rabble rouser. And through activism she found a spiritual community with justice at its core and a faith that could hold it all—her mental illness, her fire, her spunk, and all of her questions—a loving, stubborn grace.
Trade Review“Kate Landis’s memoir is an honest look at her experiences as a person with mental health problems and the story of how love of family and a spiritual community helped her to recover. Her story involves experiences of anxiety, suicidal depression, psychiatric hospitalizations, loss of friends, and addiction of a family member, but also the love and support of her family, friends, and church community. I think this book will give hope to others who may be suffering mentally but have not been able to admit it to others, or maybe even to themselves. It may encourage them to reach out for connection with a spiritual community.” —Barbara Meyers, author of Held: Showing Up for Each Other’s Mental Health
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. The Incomplete Castle
2. The Family Curse
3. Emma and Wilma
4. It’s All Jimmy Carter’s Fault
5. Choose Jesus . . . or Else
6. Sadness the Chimp and the Evil Katieo
7. Mad Dog the Angry Adolescent
8. Technicolor Romance
9. Psych Hospital, Version One
10. Off the Roof
11. Electric Hallelujah
12. Sharon Jumped
13. No Resurrection for Cool Girls
14. Great Jobs I Got Fired From
15. The Patriarchy Always Knocks Twice
16. Good Choices, Bad Reasons
17. Stealing Junk
18. Accidentally Stealing
19. Two Pink Lines
20. Big Sister God
21. Starting Single
22. Once Burned, Twice Shy
23. Fasten Your Theological Seatbelt
24. Like in Washington?
25. The Dalai Lama Says I’m Okay. My Niece Disagrees.
26. Refusing to Be Enemies
27. A Streetcar Named Dignity
28. Good Guys
29. Ferocious Love
30. Heaven Is a Place on Earth
31. Riding Horses to Heaven
32. Spiritual Safety Rails
33. But You’ll Die!
34. Jazz Hands for the Prodigal Son
Benediction
