Book Reviews

Love Made of Heart by Teresa LeYung Ryan

Love Made of Heart by Teresa LeYung Ryan is excellent. I read it in two sittings. Dinner could wait. I had to find out what would happen to Ruby Lin. Teresa uses her novel to advocate compassion for mental illness and to help survivors of family violence find their own voices. Teresa’s writing is evocative and from the heart. . . she reaches deep and succeeds with her genuine and authentic voice. I want to read Love Made of Heart again. Yes, it’s that good. From the inside flap of the book jacket:  “Twenty-seven-year-old Ruby Lin has what many women envy: a beautiful apartment in one of San Francisco’s best neighborhoods, a busy social life, and a coveted position as manager of special events for the tony St. Mark hotel. But it’s Ruby’s personal life that’s become unmanageable ever since the day her mothers’ emotional breakdown forced Ruby to hospitalize…

Guest Bloggers

Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan

Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan What do I have to be depressed about? I am blessed with friends, writing colleagues, housemates, spouse, family members, coworkers, a half-time day job, health insurance, my intellectual properties . . .  and what friends call a sense of humor.  But I don’t feel like laughing in my condition, maybe later. I may have inherited the depression gene (or genes) from my loving mother. While I sympathized with my mother’s illness (my novel Love Made of Heart was inspired by her), it would take experiencing the illness myself before I could gain empathy. Poor health of the physical nature (especially with overt symptoms) alerts us to seek help; poor health of the mental nature (especially the first occurrence) usually has no clear signals. Depression snuck up on me, in my forties. The symptoms didn’t look like my mom’s. I had…