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Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes

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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.

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.

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.

I bought this book to celebrate my 10th anniversary of having Type 1. I was disappointed. Although the funny anecdotes are pleasant to read, I was craving a little more insight and a little more thoughtfulness from Ms. Moore. I didn't learn anything from this book. I would think that writing about living with chronic disease for decades wouldn't be a weekend project for the author, but unfortunately her book reads that way.

Mary Tyler Moore was once America's Sweetheart, a shining beacon of happy domesticity on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and an iconic figure of both pop culture and the women's liberation movement on her 1970s landmark program "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Throw in her dance career, both as a ballerina and then as a hoofer on Broadway and television (most notably in her own eponymous variety shows), and you have a consummate American star of stage and screen whose very name evokes excitement and love from anyone who hears it.

In GROWING UP AGAIN: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes, Moore takes us on a tour of a very different part of her life, the one that she has been living for the last 40-plus years.

Three years after her turn as Laura Petrie, Moore found out she had type 1 diabetes. It was the year before she made her massive leap into the Television Hall of Fame with "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." This was not a performer who had time to spare, and yet, just as one of the busiest parts of her career was about to commence, she discovered that her life was going to change in significant and not-so-pleasant ways. Undergoing a D&C after a miscarriage, the doctors discovered she had juvenile diabetes, a strange occurrence since juveniles usually find out they have the disease, hence its name.

Clearly, she has "managed" this disease without affecting her ability to work, but I surmise that most people will find some of the stories contained in this book absolutely shocking, such as the fact that she was also "managing" as a working alcoholic at the same time.

There is an amazing honesty to Moore's recollections --- these are debilitating and difficult situations to retrieve, and her memories serve her very well, down to the last detail. When she writes about the way that her sicknesses have taken a toll on her, body and soul, she gives specifics. If you or someone you know is a diabetic, you will find this candid look at the real effects of diabetes to be a very valuable tome. If you are just a fan, you will find Moore's inimitable pluck intact, particularly when she talks about how her disease has gotten in the way of her performing. Her story about her eyesight failing at a party for John Travolta after the premiere of Hairspray is alarming. Who would've thought that someone like her, who seems so outwardly together and functioning, could have moments like these where she is almost blind and falling down in public?

Moore's tales of her alcoholism as well as her difficult marriages and her son's death due to drug abuse are all testaments as to why she can be called a "true survivor."

It's hard to tell what this book is supposed to be--it's a meandering mixture of remembrances from Moore's life mixed with her attempt to be a role model for diabetes sufferers.

I loved Mary Richards and liked Laura Petry. But I'm not so sure about MTM. She can be self-deprecating one minute (sharing her average IQ and 4th-grade level math skills) and bragging the next (claiming she never made a mistake on the Mary Tyler Moore Show so they never had a clip of her to use in the gag reel!). She also assumes that you have read her previous book, alluding to stories or people that she doesn't explain (like her connection to David Letterman).

There just isn't enough insight into Mary Tyler Moore here--only 150 pages of text (followed by another 50 in appendixes). The stories are presented in a style like your grandma drifting from thought to unrelated thought. Some of it's interesting (her private visit with the pope) but other parts are only for those interested in diabetes. It is a bit frustrating to read and you end up unsure the point of it all. And in the end I like her less as a person than as a performer.

As an adoring fan who has followed Mary Tyler Moore since her early career as Laura Petrie on the classic Dick Van Dyke Show, it is a bit of a surprise to have to view her as an actress, dancer, singer, recovered alcholic. But in her second book, GROWING UP AGAIN, Mary Tyler Moore exhibits that old spunk and classic smile and tells you the truth.

In a free-spirited and almost unscripted way, Mary recounts highlights of her life including her visit to the Pope, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, her appearance on Broadway and her marriages. She also talks in a plain, no-nonsense way about diabetes.

After you finish this short and easy read, you put the book down and realize two things: you know a lot more about juvenile diabetes than you ever had before (no preaching - just simple facts) and you still love Mary Tyler Moore. No matter what battles she had to fight or struggles she endured to get to the top of her profession, Mary Tyler Moore still remains an optomistic, happy and honest person.

This book, excellently written and edited, makes the perfect companion piece to her first literary endeavor, AFTER ALL.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was fast reading and held my interest. After having Tupe 1 diabetes for the past 46 years I could relate to the things that Mary Tyler Moore wrote about. In fact she had some of the same feelings about the problems of eye sight and babance (or the lack of).Anyone with diabetes wouid enjoy this book. Mary Tyler Moore did a great job writing about the real prublems of having diabetes.

I bought this book for my daughter, at her request. She is an adult diabetic and was very impressed with the book.

I didn't find this book as interesting as her first memoir After All because that one was juicier! And if you're not diabetic, this probably won't interest you that much unless you're a die-hard MTM fan. I am both a die-hard MTM fan and a diabetic. I didn't get through the book on my first try, but I did make it through when I picked it up again. As a diabetic, I know all about AlC tests and such and so it was quite interesting to me to hear about the ups and downs of her disease.

I was also happy to get all the latest news in her life--I'm glad that she and Dr. Levine are still going strong but was surprised to hear that they tired of living on the ranch. I can certainly understand why, though. I think that as we get older proximity to doctors and pharmacies and corner stores holds much more appeal. Also surprised to hear that dancing is no longer a part of her life but happy to hear that she still keeps to a fitness routine.

Like After All, this is a book I'll keep on my shelf mostly because I love MTM and enjoy hearing her take on life. I was afraid that she'd be one of these diabetics with a strict diet and was glad to hear that she's human and can't resist her mocha cake!