On books suggested in my social work classes

Well, folks, I’m back in school. Grad school has a lot of reading involved and I’m loving it. It’s also limited how much reading I can do for fun - all my reading is currently directed at learning more and becoming a better student and social worker. And there's a lot of reading in grad school. Like, a LOT. In light of this, here are some books that you can read that will help teach you about issues that social workers confront and issues in our world in general:

• All Souls: A Family from Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald
• Raising Blaze: A Mother and Son’s Long Strange Journey Through Autism by Debra Ginsberg
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• Breathe: A Memoir of Motherhood, Grief, and Family Conflict by Kelly Kittel
• Warrior Patient: A Memoir about Survival, Hope, and Laughter by Temple Emmet Williams
• The Life and Thought of Louis Lowy: Social Work Through the Holocaust by Lorrie Gardella
• Will to Live by Matthew Ames
• The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care by Nina Bernstein
• Two Small Footprints in Wet Sand: The Uplifting Story of a Mother’s Brave Quest to Save Her Daughter by Adriana Hunter and Anne-Dauphine Julliard

• Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann
• 30 Years of Silence by Elsie McGhee
• The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
• Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America by Paul Tough
• Coming Clean by Kimberly Ray Miller
• Not My Father’s Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming
• Saving Normal By Allen Frances
• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron
• An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
• Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Mayra Hornbacher
• Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
• The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman

• The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks
• The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography by Stephen Fry
• The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller
• Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America by Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas
• Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl by Stacy Pershall
• Not All Black Girls Know How to Eat: A Story of Bulimia by Stephanie Covington Armstrong
• My Body, My Enemy: My Thirteen Year Battles with Anorexia Nervosa by Claire Beeken
• Call Me Tuesday by Leigh Bryne
• It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell
• The Bully Society: School Shootings and the Crisis of Bullying in America’s Schools By Jessie Klein

• Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
• Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill and Lisa Pulitzer
• The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife by Marc Freedman
• Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler
• Shredding the Reptile: A Memoir by David Garcia
• Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter’s Memoir by Martha Settinius
• Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Couter
• Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray
• The Second Shift by Arlie Russell Hochschild
• I, Bipolar: A Southern Man’s Memoir by D.S. Black
• Don’t Look at Me In That Tone of Voice: Adventures of a Confused Sixties Childhood by Alex Cotton
• Raise Up a Child: Human Development in an African-American Family by Edith V.P. Hudley and Peggy J. Miller
• My Story by Elizabeth Smart
• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

• Girl in Need of a Tourniquet: Memoir of a Borderline Personality by Merri Lisa Johnson
• Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy by Rinku Sen
• The Buddha and the Borderline: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder through Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Buddhism, and Online Dating by Kieravan Gelder
• Not Our Kind of Girl: Unravelling the Myths of Black Teenage Motherhood by Elaine Bell Kaplan
• Out Came the Sun: Overcoming the Legacy of Mental Illness, Addiction, and Suicide in my Family by Mariel Hemmingway
• I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry by Susie Kelly
• Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago by Eric Klinenberg
• After Perfect: A Daughter’s Memoir by Christina McDowell
• Me, Myself, and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Person’s Experience with Schizophrenia by Kurt Snyder
• It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living by Dan Savage
• Get Me Out of Here: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder by Rachel Reiland

• The Dark Side of Innocence: Growing Up Bipolar by Terri Chaney
• Growing Up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps by Sarah McLanahan and Gary Sandefur
• Broken Glass: A Family’s Journey Through Mental Illness by Robert Hine
• Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia by Carolyn Spiro and Pamela Spiro Wagner
• Skin Game: A Memoir by Caroline Kettlewell

If this still isn’t enough reading material for you (or if you’re already a social worker who’s read everything on this list), check out this Goodreads list with more suggestions.

What books would you add to this list? Which of these books have you already read?