Mackenzie’s Mission
How One Mother Turned Tragedy into Hope and Love
Rachael Casella
“Rachael Casella is one of the bravest, kindest people you could ever meet… This book is the story of her daughters, her struggles with conception, pregnancy, genetic defects and ultimately death. But it is also the story of triumph over adversity, the strength that can be found in kindness and the power of one woman to affect positive change.”
I requested this book because I’m a geneticist and I’m always excited about genetic disorders (remind me at our next dinner party if you want to hear about my mechanic’s son’s disorder). Unfortunately for me, this book had less about the science and some inaccuracies in it. Fortunately, that’s not really what this book is about.
Casella brings out her story and intertwines it with moments of both hope and horrible pain. She and her husband didn’t really know anything about genetic testing before having their severely disabled child, Mackenzie. Since then, Casella has overcome or equalled her grief with the powerful need to promote more widespread genetic testing.
If you are a family that has suffered from the loss of a child, this book could remind you that you aren’t alone. Anything that promotes discussion of still births and miscarriages, and acknowledges family grief, is a worthy read. I’m not sure that you necessarily need to reread it, but it’s worth a single read.
This book reminds me how fortunate we are in Australia that women can have access to medical abortions if they need them. Also, that people are slightly more open about miscarriage and IVF journeys without ever reaching their destination. My personal opinion however is that there are other options than having your own biological children, and there are lots of kids out there that need a loving home. But I digress…
Somehow this book escaped my rigorous recording of when it came in the door and who the publicist was. In addition, I could swear that I had reviewed it, but alas, my beginning thoughts were lost. Fortunately for this book, I don’t have to give it stars (yay, non-fiction!) but I wouldn’t necessarily go for this book as a gift in time for Christmas anyway.
Allen & Unwin | 1st June 2020 | AU$29.99 | paperback
This book is a bit of a disappointment from this author. The way it comes across is as a kind of summary of his 5 other books. His other 5 books are fables and go into each item in more detail. The idea of this book was to put each thing in context, however I felt that was lost. He said at the start that you didn’t have to have read his 5 other books first before this one.
This nugget of a book takes each element of family life and breaks it down into how you can change the way you think about waste. It is basically essential that you have children to be thought of as a ‘family’ here. I think this book is best aimed at families with young(er) children, although it does have some hints about waste for teenagers. I think that if you actually sat down and tried to turn into a zero waste family in only 30 days, you’re going to feel overwhelmed by it all, despite Anita’s book being “gentle”.
This is a review by my wife, who is my resident non-fiction and business book reviewer. She got quite a bit of enjoyment out of this one I think, since she kept going back to read it, and was laughing at times. We borrowed it via Scribd, but it’s not good enough to justify a paperback copy for a reread.
Just because you can write, that doesn’t mean you should write. Equally, even if everyone else in your family has written a memoir, that doesn’t mean you need to. There needs to be something unique or exciting, some motto that someone else can gain from your life. This book had none of this.
Part guidebook, part travel diary, this book explored backpacking with two young children in tow – and that it can be done! One thing that made no sense to me was that the family had a whole heap of debt, and basically had nothing at the end of their trip. Yet they were sure their jobs would still be there when they got home? I couldn’t imagine going overseas with so little cash that a flight out might actually could have been impossible. Also, the last chapter jumps forward a year, and I felt cheated that I didn’t hear about how they readapted to living in a Western society.
This book is firmly in the business non-fiction category. So, it’s actually a review by my wife (with edits from me for clarity and order). With that being said…
There are dot point summaries at each chapter end to make sure you’ve gotten the main points out of the chapter. This book isn’t going to be a complete reread, but it’s worth having as a reference book for flicking through when I need inspiration.
This book was both interesting and problematic. I wasn’t really sure what to do with the information I learnt beyond that forensic science is really cool! once again, I loved the blood splatter analysis. It reminded me fondly of a 
I fully admit that I don’t follow politics and I specifically ignore the news because I find it quite depressing and frustrating. Thus, although I was aware of the ‘Greta phenomenon’ happening, I wasn’t really aware of the specific circumstances about it. This book won’t give you those either. What it will provide you with is a thoughtful commentary by Greta’s mother on some of the challenges of raising a neurodiverse child.
The cover, as you can see, is a business guy head desking on top of a meeting agenda. I figured I’d just skim over it and then read the other bookies waiting in my bedroom. A trusted business friend recommended it to me – otherwise I wouldn’t have picked it up on my own. Once I had it, I thought I might get more insights into meetings.