Book Club

“It brings me such joy and a sense of community to be an HD Book Club member. I love reading and sharing information with everyone! It's really nice to read thought provoking literature together”.

Tanita Allen

“I recently joined the HD book club in an effort to have a greater sense of community. I have tried support groups before, and found it to be overly unhelpful for me as a pre-symptomatic patient, and made me dwell too much on testing, diagnosis, and symptomatology. It is refreshing to not have the financial burden of being a part of a community discussion through the grant sponsored books and there is less pressure to share personal grief due to a focus on a book's content. It allows us to discover what is similar and dissimilar in our experiences, but also learn more about ourselves and others in the community. 

Often being at risk comes with the judgement and assumption of getting tested, which in my past has added an extra sense of urgency and avoidance to any discussion. Furthermore, being gene positive or gene negative comes with it's own loaded questions. I enjoy that in book club we have subject matter to focus on, and it removes a lot of this pressure and judgement from the discussions since we are able to go outside of ourselves and identify with a story while simultaneously discussing how everyone is impacted by this disease at our own comfort levels. I especially appreciate the financial support of the book club, since many families are generationally impacted by HD financially. This is often an overlooked aspect of the disease's impact on patient's lives, generations, and families. I'm very grateful to receive this support, and value that HD Reach is able to support the HD community in this way through grant-based funding and fundraising. Book club gives me a place to be my intellectual self, while simultaneously addressing how HD has impacted my life on an emotional, physical, and financial level through thoughtful intellectual discussions that feed my mind." 

Anonymous

“HD-Reach Book Club is a great way to make friends, learn new things, spend valuable time, and have a chance to have intellectually stimulating conversations every month with a compassionate facilitator named Erika!”

Yvonne