Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes [Hardcover]

Mary Tyler Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0312376316 | ISBN-13: 978-0312376314 | Edition: First Edition

With generosity of spirit, ebullience, and sly humor, Mary Tyler Moore presents the intensely private, often funny, and sometimes startling story of her life with diabetes. Growing Up Again is a delightfully candid read for her legion of fans, the more than 20 million Americans with diabetes, and everyone struggling to cope with life’s unexpected challenges.

Mary Tyler Moore, actress and activist, relates the highs and lows of living with type 1 diabetes for the past forty years. With inspired, well-crafted prose, she drills down to the most heartfelt, yet universal truths about life—including the lives of those with diabetes. She unflinchingly chronicles her struggle with diabetes, as well as her successful rehabilitation from alcohol dependence, all while deriving gratification from her roles as an actress, mother, businesswoman, campaigner, and fund-raiser. Her revealing tales of both her successes and failures in coping with diabetes offer others with the disease guidance and inspiration through example. In the book, stories include her rebounding from a low-blood-sugar episode during a Mary Tyler Moore Show script reading after the director poured orange juice down her throat, to misadventures caused by diabetes-related vision impairment at a dimly lit party for John Travolta.

She also taps into the vast diabetes research network to talk to diabetic children and adults and with leading experts who are discovering new ways to control diabetes and its complications, and pursuing new ways to cure this disease.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Her TV alter ego, Mary Richards, may have been perfect, but it’s Moore’s imperfections that make her the ideal author of this surprisingly frank memoir about living with diabetes…this helpful and illuminating guide is a winning mixture of personal stories with occasional visits to experts.”

--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Excerpt from Growing Up Again:

Each person who has diabetes struggles to come to terms with it and experiences the basic challenges of the disease in a uniquely personal way. For me, it has been a trip through rebellion and denial to finally arriving at acknowledgment and commitment to solutions. It took years. And I still rankle at the restrictions, the have-tos, the may-nots, and the never-endingness of it. But the illness is what it is, and I thank God for the genius of medical researchers who have done so much to make diabetes a less cruel imposition while propelling us toward a cure.

I don’t think the story of my life with diabetes is a model for anyone else. There’s no template to follow that will determine the course of the disease and how it affects a person’s life; no one right way to manage diabetes. What I have put on paper is simply the tale of how, in the course of everyday living—dealing with the losses, the dead ends, and the triumphs that come in often seemingly random order—I’ve dodged, faced, and sometimes conquered the challenges of diabetes.  I’m sharing my story because it is what I have to give, shedding some light on the follies and achievements that I’ve racked up in my daily confrontation with the disease.

But my journey is just a part of the picture. So I’ve talked with other people who have diabetes to give voice to their experiences, to provide a varied view of how to live and thrive. And I’ve sought out some of the wisest and most capable doctors and scientists who are waging war in the laboratory and conducting bench-to-bedside experiments that are producing new and exciting treatments to help the millions of people with diabetes manage—and ultimately vanquish—the disease.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312376316
• ISBN-13: 978-0312376314
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like Talking to a Friend, April 10, 2009

By 

Fiona Guillory - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes (Hardcover)

You know how you talk when you are around another Type I diabetic? You tell silly stories about how you act when your blood sugar is low. You talk about how irritating it is to suddenly have your blood sugar high for no apparent reason. You talk about how it used to be when you were diagnosed. It is such a relief to be able to talk to someone who understands all that you go through every day. That is exactly how I felt when I read this book. I have had diabetes for 25 years. That is not nearly as long as Mary Tyler Moore, but our feelings about our disease are very similar. Of course, this is a great book for someone with diabetes, but I think it is also a great book for family and friends of diabetics. Mary describes in an entertaining way just what it feels like to live with our disease. We are living in a world where more and more people are getting Type II Diabetes. Those of us with Type I are living in their shadow. I hope that Mary's book brings the subject to light again and helps people remember that fighting against Type I Diabetes is still important.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The right kind of spunk, April 2, 2009

By 

Moira C. Stanford "MoiraMcC" (Plymouth, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes (Hardcover)

As the mother of a child who has grown up with diabetes, I know too well the challenges, pain and fear that comes with living with this disease (the only person who would know more is my child). Well, my child and Mary Tyler Moore. Moore is such an inspiration to all of us who either have Type 1 diabetes or love someone who does. She's forged a constant, hour-by-hour battle for decades with grace, dignity and yes, spunk (take that, Lou Grant!). This books gives a wonderful insight into who Ms. Tyler Moore is, how she's not only adapted but thrived to life with diabetes (and done so at superstar proportions), and how instead of simply dealing with her disease as an individual, she's joined forces with those in search of a cure around the globe and truly worked to change the world. It would be easy for a super star like Ms. Tyler Moore to simply fight this personal battle in a private way. But, as her book depicts, by taking it public, she's forged a path to a brighter future for everyone with Type 1. She's turned the world on with her determination, candor and willingness to do all she can for all of us.

This is a must read not only for those who battle Type 1, but for anyone who has faced challenges in their lives, and for anyone who wants to know what "America's Sweetheart" is really made of. That Ms. Tyler Moore's proceeds from this book go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation only makes it better. Get it, read it and love it.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Book, April 2, 2009

By 

Gail Pressberg (Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes (Hardcover)

Mary Tyler Moore's Growing Up Again is an honest account of the ups and downs of living with diabetes. Although not meant as a "how to" book in fact it is chock full of information about taking care of oneself as a diabetic and how to support research for a cure for diabetes.

Fortunately for us all Mary Tyler Moore has always seen her life as more than "Mary, a diabetic" and the book shows it. It is a great account of Mary the television, stage and movie actress, Mary the dancer, and Mary's struggles as a wife and activist for a cure for diabetes and for animal welfare. Growing Up Again is a great read filled with humor and insight.