Mental Health
![Rebecca Schiller - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B07DDF49YT.jpg)
A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention: A Memoir of Coming Home to My Neurodivergent Mind
As propulsive as Brain on Fire and as poetically candid as The Collected Schizophrenias, one woman's quest for the truth of her neurodivergent mind
It should have been Rebecca Schiller's dream come true: moving her young family to the English countryside to raise goats and coax their own fruit and vegetables from the land. But, as she writes: The summer of striding out toward a life of open fields and sacks of corn, I brought a confused black hole of something pernicious but not yet acknowledged along for the ride.
Rebecca's health begins to crumble, with bewildering symptoms: frequent falls, uncontrollable rages, and mysterious lapses in memory. As she fights to be seen by a succession of specialists, her fledgling homestead-and her family-hang by increasingly tenuous threads. And when her diagnosis finally comes, it is utterly unexpected: severe ADHD.
In her scramble for answers, Rebecca's consciousness alternately sears with pinpoint focus and spirals with connections. Childhood memories resurface with new meaning, and her daily life entwines with the history of intrepid women who tended this land before her. Her family weathers their growing pains where generations of acorns have fallen to rise again as trees, where ancient wolves and lynx once stalked the shadows.
Written in unsparing, luminous prose, this is an all-absorbing memoir of one woman's newfound neurodivergence-and a clarion call to overturn the narrative that says minds are either normal and good or different and broken.
Publisher's Note: A different version of this book has been published under the title Earthed in the United Kingdom.
It should have been Rebecca Schiller's dream come true: moving her young family to the English countryside to raise goats and coax their own fruit and vegetables from the land. But, as she writes: The summer of striding out toward a life of open fields and sacks of corn, I brought a confused black hole of something pernicious but not yet acknowledged along for the ride.
Rebecca's health begins to crumble, with bewildering symptoms: frequent falls, uncontrollable rages, and mysterious lapses in memory. As she fights to be seen by a succession of specialists, her fledgling homestead-and her family-hang by increasingly tenuous threads. And when her diagnosis finally comes, it is utterly unexpected: severe ADHD.
In her scramble for answers, Rebecca's consciousness alternately sears with pinpoint focus and spirals with connections. Childhood memories resurface with new meaning, and her daily life entwines with the history of intrepid women who tended this land before her. Her family weathers their growing pains where generations of acorns have fallen to rise again as trees, where ancient wolves and lynx once stalked the shadows.
Written in unsparing, luminous prose, this is an all-absorbing memoir of one woman's newfound neurodivergence-and a clarion call to overturn the narrative that says minds are either normal and good or different and broken.
Publisher's Note: A different version of this book has been published under the title Earthed in the United Kingdom.
Editorial Reviews
"Don't miss A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention. . . . [this memoir] provides a window into what it must be like to have her brain: exhausting, yes, but also compelling as we follow Schiller's journey of self-discovery."-Minneapolis Star Tribune
"In this exquisite and probing narrative, Schiller candidly charts her experience with ADHD while embarking on a quest to live off the land. . . . Schiller refuses to let the ADHD label end her self-inquiry, instead using it to explore the wonders that arise from being different. By eschewing tidy resolutions, Schiller's work offers a complex look into a beautiful mind."-Publishers Weekly
"A courageous and luminously written memoir."-The Bookseller
"A beautiful memoir of a scattered mind and how it can find peace in the soil. Rebecca Schiller's gaze is unflinching and full of truth. So many readers will find themselves in these pages."-Katherine May, author of the New York Times‒bestselling Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Uncertain Times
"With gorgeous language and tremendous courage, Rebecca Schiller draws us headlong into her world, where culturally wrought versions of normalcy lose all meaning-a mysterious, feral place where beauty and struggle intertwine. This book radiates an essential lesson: The mingling of mind, body, and land always forms a complex prism of joy, hope, and home."-Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Rooted and Mozart's Starling
"A beautiful, wide-open, and vulnerable book, investigating the deepest, most perplexing contours of both a mind and the natural landscape."-Kristen Radtke, author of Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
"With frank curiosity and searing honesty, Rebecca Schiller explores the challenging task of being human. A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention broke my heart wide open in the most wonderful way."-Lorene Edwards Forkner,Seattle Times contributor and author of Color In and Out of the...
"In this exquisite and probing narrative, Schiller candidly charts her experience with ADHD while embarking on a quest to live off the land. . . . Schiller refuses to let the ADHD label end her self-inquiry, instead using it to explore the wonders that arise from being different. By eschewing tidy resolutions, Schiller's work offers a complex look into a beautiful mind."-Publishers Weekly
"A courageous and luminously written memoir."-The Bookseller
"A beautiful memoir of a scattered mind and how it can find peace in the soil. Rebecca Schiller's gaze is unflinching and full of truth. So many readers will find themselves in these pages."-Katherine May, author of the New York Times‒bestselling Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Uncertain Times
"With gorgeous language and tremendous courage, Rebecca Schiller draws us headlong into her world, where culturally wrought versions of normalcy lose all meaning-a mysterious, feral place where beauty and struggle intertwine. This book radiates an essential lesson: The mingling of mind, body, and land always forms a complex prism of joy, hope, and home."-Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Rooted and Mozart's Starling
"A beautiful, wide-open, and vulnerable book, investigating the deepest, most perplexing contours of both a mind and the natural landscape."-Kristen Radtke, author of Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
"With frank curiosity and searing honesty, Rebecca Schiller explores the challenging task of being human. A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention broke my heart wide open in the most wonderful way."-Lorene Edwards Forkner,Seattle Times contributor and author of Color In and Out of the...
Readers Top Reviews
Miranda R.
Some books help me understand the world around me and some books help me understand the world within me. A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention uniquely does both while also making me feel less alone. As if all of this wasn't enough, the writing is accessible and immersive.
Literary Redhead
A Thousand Ways To Pay Attention is an important memoir on the impact of severe ADHD on a woman and her family living in the English countryside. Author Rebecca Schiller's life began to spin out of control after the family moved to a rural area to raise goats and hens, and grow fruits and vegetables. As her symptoms worsened -- including intense anger and memory loss and many falls -- Rebecca's family felt the brunt too. Only after visits to specialist after specialist did she finally get her surprising diagnosis. What I love about this memoir is Rebecca's brave candor, which will help similarly afflicted readers most. What I struggled with was the slow pace and at times confusing narrative, which leapt crazily from topic to topic. While it gave a real picture of a disordered mind, it was often hard to follow.
