Saving Each Other: A Mother-Daughter Love Story
by Victoria Jackson, Ali Guthy  

– I love mother daughter stories as well as stories about people fighting against all odds.  Saving Each Other is both of this and more as well. Every time a child is sick, even if it is something as small as the flu, parents do their best to help their child recover and wish they can protect their child from all future illnesses. Learning your child has a chronic disease for which there is no known cure – that is surely devastating for any parent. 
Victoria and Ali both tell the story of the struggles, the changes NMO brought to their lives – from their viewpoints. Their accounts touched me as I could relate with how Victoria ‘gulped down buckets of science relentlessly to get to the bottom of NMO’ and be amazed with how Ali maintains a sunny outlook and with all that is happening to her worry about the fact that her mother is not taking care of herself. 
In waging a mother’s war to protect her child against the incurable, Victoria, along with her husband Bill and with Ali, founded the Guthy Jackson Charitable Foundation which has helped put this disease on the map, helped provide research for causes and cures for this and other similar auto-immune diseases.  I am amazed at how they created this foundation so it could benefit many others and made this personal struggle into something so much more – something that helped them and others.
Their telling of the story will help any  parent who is out there facing something similar to know they are not alone, that ‘when we love from a place that’s so deep and so powerful, we can transcend’ (in Victoria’s words from the book). This book teaches us that we can defy the odds, we can indeed – with sheer will, with love, and with the sheer power of passion and persistence – overcome.  

If I have to sum this book up in one word, I would pick – Inspiring! 
100 percent of all proceeds from this book directly support scientific and clinical research for NMO.

Rating: B+

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from FSB Associates for a honest review. 

For ABC Wednesday’s letter of the week B, I continue with women authors:

Enid Blyton:
I grew up reading Enid Blyton as a kid. Endearing characters like Mr.Pink
Whistle, naughty Binkle and Flip, the wonderful creatures of the Faraway Tree,
fairies and more as well as Elizabeth Jane (from the Naughtiest Girl series),
all her mystery/adventure series(Famous Fives, Secret Sevens, Five Find outers
and more), and so many more. Some of my favorite books to read and read again
as a kid were Enid Blytons’.

I remember my very first Enid Blyton
– ‘Rag, Tag and Bobtail’.  I looked for
that book during my recent visit back home but looks like it got lost during
our many moves over the years.  I did
bring back a few other old beloved Enid Blytons back with me – ‘The Adventures
of Binkle and Flip’, ‘The Children of Cherry Tree Farm’, and ‘The Secret
Mountain’. I also bought, at my favorite book store in Bangalore, books from
the Naughtiest Girl series.

The world Enid Blyton created for me
through her books, was always magical, be it about magical creatures, or other
boys and girls on adventures.  I dreamt
of my very own magical trees, chairs, and grand adventures and was rapidly
falling in love.. with reading. This first love of mine has lasted so long and
am confident will stay for years to come! 

And today, I am passing on this love
of reading and Enid Blyton to my little ones..

One of my loved Blyton quotes:

“I wonder where you got that idea from? I mean, the idea
that it’s feeble to change your mind once it’s made up. That’s a wrong idea,
you know. Make up your mind about things, by all means – but if something
happens to show that you are wrong, then it is feeble not to change your mind,
Elizabeth. Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and
say so, if they see they have been wrong in their ideas.”
― Enid Blyton, The Naughtiest Girl in the School

Frances
Hodgson Burnett – The Secret Garden brings back wonderful memories for me.
I loved this book and read it many times over – this book was a gift from a
family friend and I am guessing I must have been about 7 when I got the book
–  a surprise because there was no
special reason or occasion – but just because I loved reading.  The book still is at my parent’s home in
Bangalore and I have read other versions of the book since as well as watched a
few movie versions. The memory of the joy of the first time I read it is still
somewhere inside me and never fails to brin a smile to my face – so thank you,
Frances Hodgson Burnett for the Secret Garden, and ‘The Little Princess’ as
well. 

One of my favorite Burnett quotes:

“At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing
can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be
done–then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries
ago.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Other honorable ‘B’ mentions for me – the Bronte sisters of
course(loved Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights is something I am rereading this
year), Pearl S Buck(The Good Earth was a book I really enjoyed reading), Rupa
Bajwa (her ‘The
Sari Shop’ tugged at my heartstrings), and Anjali Banerjee(I read two books
by her – Invisible Lives and Looking
for Bapu – both so different and both wonderful)

For Three Word Wednesday (brag, icy, polite), here are two – a haiku and a poem ‘Bragging Rights’

For Wondrous Words Wednesday,from books I have been reading: