The next book I'd like...

...to recommend is Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness, by Pete Earley. The author, a former reporter for the Washington Post, writes about his son's battle with bipolar disorder.

I assumed, when my wife recommended it, that the title referred to Earley's son's mental illness and his family's struggle with it. But it's also about America's horribly dysfunctional mental health system (if you can call it a "system"). For example, the largest public mental health facility in the United States isn't even a hospital; it's the Los Angeles County Jail. "On any given day," writes Earley, "it houses 3,000 mentally disturbed inmates."

I have to confess, Crazy is a little hard to read sometimes; it's very discouraging. But a good read nonetheless.