Frank Carlson Library

"CHICAGO, SOMETIME-- Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings. For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially...

Growing up, Bryce, Beatriz, and Santiago were inseparable, but after the dissolution of their friendship and Bryce's suicide, Beatriz and Santiago attempt to reconcile and navigate love, mental illness, and forgiveness.

Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore, and he's sort of got a boyfriend, even if he's kind of mean and only wants to meet up in secret. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He's heard a little about Charlie - the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months - but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him. That...

"Neely's monsters don't always follow her rules, so when the little girl under her bed, the man in her closet, and the disembodied voice that shadows her every move become louder, she knows she's in trouble. With a history of mental illness in her family, and the suicide of her older brother heavy on her mind, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can't follow--the caverns. There she can find peace. There she can pretend...

Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. A sweet and charming coming-of-age story that explores friendship, love, and coming out. Charlie and Nick's relationship has been going really well, and Charlie thinks he's ready to say those three little words: I love you. Nick feels the same way, but he's got a lot on his mind -- especially the thought of coming out to his dad and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder. As a new...

"As late summer 1951 descends on Elmira, New York, Myra Larkin, thirteen, the oldest child of a large Catholic family, meets a young man she believes to be Mickey Mantle. He chats her up at a local diner and gives her a ride home. The matter consumes her until later that night, when a triple homicide occurs just down the street, opening a specter of violence that will haunt the Larkins for half a century. As the siblings leave home and fan across...

Emmett Rensin shares a portrait of what it's like to live with schizoaffective disorder of the bipolar type as well as a critique of America's mental health culture. Going beyond pure memoir, Rensin reflects on the uncertain "science" of diagnosis, the nature of art about and by the insane, political activism, and the history of madness, from the asylum to the academy.

Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore, and he's sort of got a boyfriend, even if he's kind of mean and only wants to meet up in secret. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He's heard a little about Charlie--the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months--but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him. That...

When sixteen-year-old Lily Larkin's older sister, Alice, begins to struggle with her mental health, Lily attempts to keep everything together and perfect, despite her own growing anxiety. Three months ago Lily found her older sister Alice hurting herself. She has been desperately trying to keep things together, for herself and for her family. But now Alice is coming home from her treatment program and it is becoming harder for Lily to ignore her...