Last week while digging through a pile of old books I came across a great mystery I'd read long ago called A Maiden's Grave by Jeffrey Deaver. It was about two kidnappers who held a school bus full of young girls and their teachers hostage in an abandoned meat factory. The twist; the captives turned out to be deaf. What the kidnappers didn't count on was the trouble they would encounter controlling their victims due to the deaf girls' ability to speak silently to each other in ASL when their captors weren't looking. Oh this was a GREAT read! Another fun book I enjoyed a couple years ago was, If You Could Hear What I See, written by deaf comedian Kathy Buckley about her childhood. Then I remembered an informative biography I read about Thomas Gallaudet way back when I was a kid called Gallaudet, Friend of the deaf. This was an old, old biography written for children published in 1964, but was really quite good, though I'm not even sure it's available anymore. Occasionally I pick up a great "deaf" read. Flipping through the pages of some of my favorite books gave me the idea it might be fun to compile a list of good reads about deaf/hard-of-hearing people, their culture and history.
So I've done just that. I have only read the top two on this list, but I plan to read the rest. If you know of a good book or biography involving a deaf character or a great "deaf" non-fiction read, send me the title and author, and I'll add it to my list. I plan to place this list on the right side of my blog too, and separate the books by genre.
1. A Maiden's Grave by Jeffrey Deaver
2. If You Could Hear What I See by Kathy Buckley
3. Silence is Golden: A Connor Westphal Mystery by Penny Warner
4. Deafening by Frances Itani
5. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
6. Through Deaf Eyes: A Photographic History Of An American Community
7. Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness On Martha's Vineyard by Nora Ellen Groce
8. In Silence: Growing Up Hearing In A Deaf World by Ruth Sidransky
9. The Tailor's Daughter by Janice Graham
10. Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby
11. MindField by John F Egbert
12. Talk Talk by T. Coraghessan Boyle
13. Deaf Women's Lives: Three Self- Portraits
14. She Doesn't Look Deaf by Corinne Cheatham
15. Deaf In Delhi by Madan Vasishta
If you know of a book, send the title to me, and I'll add it!
So I've done just that. I have only read the top two on this list, but I plan to read the rest. If you know of a good book or biography involving a deaf character or a great "deaf" non-fiction read, send me the title and author, and I'll add it to my list. I plan to place this list on the right side of my blog too, and separate the books by genre.
1. A Maiden's Grave by Jeffrey Deaver
2. If You Could Hear What I See by Kathy Buckley
3. Silence is Golden: A Connor Westphal Mystery by Penny Warner
4. Deafening by Frances Itani
5. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
6. Through Deaf Eyes: A Photographic History Of An American Community
7. Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness On Martha's Vineyard by Nora Ellen Groce
8. In Silence: Growing Up Hearing In A Deaf World by Ruth Sidransky
9. The Tailor's Daughter by Janice Graham
10. Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby
11. MindField by John F Egbert
12. Talk Talk by T. Coraghessan Boyle
13. Deaf Women's Lives: Three Self- Portraits
14. She Doesn't Look Deaf by Corinne Cheatham
15. Deaf In Delhi by Madan Vasishta
If you know of a book, send the title to me, and I'll add it!
4 comments:
I just finished reading, "What's that pig outdoors: a memoir of deafness" by Henry Kisor. Very well written, as Henry is a retired newspaper editor.
Cindy
I appreciate being including among these wonderful books, so when you get to number 10 on your list, please write to me and give me your feedback. Hurt Go Happy has won numerous awards but I've had no response from the deaf community. Thank you, Ginny Rorby
Cindy--Thanks for the recommendation! I'll add it to my list!
Kim :)
Ginny-- I'm not reading them in order. I listed them as they showed up on a search list of forty plus libraries from a local library system. You can see the list is somewhat random and I probably shouldn't have numbered them, because I haven't most of them yet. I just put one on hold and I'll read yours next after that. When I make the list to the side I'm going to clean it up and list by genre, then in author or call number order, which is how it should be. I don't feel right rating them. I'm not a literary reviewer, but I'll be sure to let you know what I think. Thaks so much for stopping by. Send me your blog address.
:0)Kim
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