Saving Each Other

September 15, 2012
The story of a mysterious medical ailment that blindsided a tightly knit family. Jackson, a successful cosmetics entrepreneur, writes in her prologue about surviving a turbulent, insecure childhood fraught with emotional neglect and exacerbated by a violent sexual assault she endured as a teenager. These experiences seem to have prepared her to deal with the sudden onset in her teenage daughter, Ali, of an extremely rare, crippling autoimmune disorder called Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disease, which attacks the optic nerve and the central nervous system. Ali's eyesight and pain levels worsened, and she was given four or five years to live. Jackson shifted into "warrior mode" and began canvassing the Los Angeles medical community for answers. A stay at the Minnesota Mayo Clinic initiated several radical chemotherapy treatments, though each debilitating stage further compromised Ali's youthful dreams of excelling on the tennis courts. Interwoven through mother's and daughter's individual accounts of shock, denial, resignation and eventual acceptance are lighter scenes in which Jackson appeals to holistic healers for alternative solutions to the needles and MRIs of traditional medicine. She leavens the unsettling details of her daughter's daunting ordeal with a personal history of her romance with infomercial magnate Bill Guthy and her progression from Hollywood makeup artist to cosmetic guru. Fully immersing herself in Ali's malady, Jackson became medically knowledgeable about an obscure disease and ultimately founded a charitable foundation for the education and eradication of NMO. The closing "Thriver's Guide" by Ali provides a brief five-step plan for those coping with the ailment. A compassionate mother-daughter memoir written with inspiration, empathy and hope.

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November 15, 2012
In this inspirational story, a makeup-mogul mom fights to get diagnosis and treatment for her teen daughter, who seems to have a mystery illness. The family lives in Beverly Hills, 90210, and Victoria worries that Ali suffers from anorexia. Doctors think she may have multiple sclerosis. But it turns out she suffers from an uncommon autoimmune disease, neuromyelitis optica (NMO), which can cause blindness, paralysis, and seizures. Victoria and Ali alternate in telling their story, and both possess plenty of personality. When Victoria offers her horrified daughter marijuana to help her feel better, Ali says, Mom, get that away from me! Like a typical teen, Ali adores her mom, though she refers to her as her Smother Mother. Victoria and her husband, each an entrepreneur extraordinaire, end up starting a foundation to research and fight NMO. With that kind of get-up-and-go, they vow to help others with this illness, and readers will want to follow in their footsteps.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)