The title and accompanying vignette were the only really good things about this book. I did love the little introductory story about porcupines getting cold and so they huddle for warmth, only to find that when they get too close to each other they prick each other with their quills and the pain of this causes them to move away from each other, only to get close again and then repeat the process.  As a metaphor for families in which we miss each other when we are apart, but upon coming together, hurt each other and thus retreat, I found it quite poignant.  Of course, the author did not make up that bit, but nevertheless the retelling of it touched my heart.  However, after that I found the book to be a set of pretentious reflections by a counselor counseling people she doesn't relate to and congratulating herself for eventually making connections and "getting them" / "helping them."  

Not recommended.
​
Click here to purchase this book and support My 50 Bookish Friends blog project.

This memoir was written by one of the co-authors of The Courage To Heal, which is perhaps the book that has impacted me the most in my life. Written in 1994 originally, I read this first in 1988 when it was first released and many of the passages framed how I think about child sex abuse.  That book is quite dated now, though sections of it are as relevant to survivors now as it was then.  The Burning Light of Two Stars is the story of the complex relationship between the author and her mother. That complexity is bound up in their experiences of child sex abuse, the mother's failure to protect her, and the work they did, although primarily the author did, to try to find a way to reconnect as adults, if not exactly to repair the relationship.  I found the read insightful and appreciated that it did not suggest that this approach is always or even often possible and that it did not shy away from the pain that reengaging in the relationship caused.  Highly dysfunctional families so often are portrayed in two-dimensional ways that I think harm survivors of abuse.  This book addressed her choice to remain engaged head on in a unique and powerful way.

Recommend.

Click here to purchase this book and support My 50 Bookish Friends blog project.