The Book of Joann with a side of chicken soup
This is an illness that cannot always be controlled and without proper help and support, people fall through the cracks. These stories are the cracks.
-Lisa Zarcone
The Book of Joann is a powerful, unflinching portrait of a mother and daughter bound together by love, chaos, devotion and the brutal reality of mental illness. Lisa Zarcones keeps a promise she made to her mother, to tell her story and she does so with courage, clarity and absolutely no softening of the truth. This is not a sentimental memoir. It is a necessary one.
Through Joann, we meet a woman who was many people at different times and through Lisa, we experience what it is like to grow up loving someone who can be radiant, reckless, tender and terrifying, sometimes all at once. One line in particular captures how easily mental illness is misunderstood by the outside world, They believed that she was getting better with her anxiety because she was always moving… mistakenly took her fast-paced energy as a sign of feeling better, instead of a warning sign of what was to come. That sentence alone speaks volumes about how often suffering is misread as progress.
Lisa’s descriptions of her mother’s young adulthood echo stories so many families recognize, especially those who have lived alongside untreated or poorly understood mental illness. The patterns, the intensity, the misinterpretations, the aftermath. At times, the book is deeply unsettling, as it should be. In one unforgettable passage, Lisa writes of another of her mother’s personalities, As she waved her naked breasts out the window, it was like freedom to her. This caged animal was finally set free to roam aimlessly, doing anything she deemed necessary to fulfill her insatiable need for sexual attention.” The moment is shocking, raw and heartbreaking, not for its spectacle, but for what it reveals about desperation, confinement and the longing to feel alive.
The Book of Joann will resonate with anyone who has loved someone with mental illness, anyone who has tried to reconcile compassion with survival and anyone who understands that telling the truth is sometimes the most loving act of all. Lisa Zarcones does not look away—and because of that, neither can we.
Grab your copy here : https://a.co/d/1SGpTMV
Grounding Chicken & Rice Soup For When Love Is Complicated
This is a soup for days when emotions run loud and steady nourishment matters more than perfection. Simple. Warm. Familiar. The kind of meal that holds you together when life with someone you love feels unpredictable.
Serves: 4–6
Time: About 45 minutes
Mood: Comfort after the storm
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 carrots, sliced
3 celery stalks, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 ½ pounds bone-in chicken thighs or breasts
8 cups chicken broth
¾ cup almost cooked white rice (or jasmine for extra comfort)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Juice of ½ lemon
Fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
Instructions
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery. Cook until softened, about 7–8 minutes—let the kitchen fill with that familiar, safe smell.
Stir in garlic, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf. Cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant.
Nestle the chicken into the pot and pour in the broth. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the chicken, shred it with a fork, and return it to the pot.
Add the rice and simmer another 15 minutes, until tender.
Season generously with salt and pepper. Finish with lemon juice to brighten everything—because even heavy stories deserve light.
Serve warm, topped with parsley if you have it, or just as it is if you don’t.
Like The Book of Joann, this soup is honest and grounding. It doesn’t try to fix anything—it simply nourishes. It’s the kind of meal you make while loving someone who is many people at different times, when steadiness becomes an act of devotion.
Best eaten slowly, preferably with a worn book nearby and permission to feel everything.