Happy Friday, Wildcats! Falvey Library is delivering you another semester of Weekend Recs, a blog dedicated to filling you in on what to read, listen to, and watch over the weekend. Annie, a graduate assistant from the Communication department, scours the internet, peruses the news, and digs through book stacks to find new, relevant, and thought-provoking content that will challenge you and prepare you for the upcoming week. 

Next Wednesday, Feb. 28, is Rare Disease Day, a day dedicated to spreading awareness about rare diseases. Suffering from a rare disease is an uphill battle, often both because of the actual symptoms and because of not being taken seriously by doctors or being treated differently. Although there are just too many rare diseases to cover in a blog post, this weekend’s recs will spread some awareness of what’s it’s like to live with one.

If you have 10 minutes…and are a fan of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, check out this article about how she balances being a best-selling author with living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a “rare” (though, we’re slowly learning it’s much more common than previously thought) genetic connective tissue disorder. You might recognize some of Rebecca’s real life symptoms in her protagonist Violet.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

If you have 15 minutes…and want to better understand what living with long COVID is like (or if you can relate), read this New York Times article. Through impeccable graphic design, Giorgia Lupi’s essay is really able to convey how long COVID can take over your life.

If you have 44 minutes…and like medical dramas, watch an episode from the first season of House M.D. (or simply House), available in Falvey’s DVD Collection.

If you have 1 hour and 35 minutes…and want to experience what it’s like to be a medical mystery (if you haven’t already personally), watch Brain on Fire, available to stream on Netflix. The movie follows reporter Susannah Cahalan and her journey to being diagnosed with a rare brain disorder.

Bonus: if you liked the movie, you can also read the book, available in our Popular Reading Collection.

If you have 4 hours…and want to solve medical mysteries along with the author, read Playing the Ponies and Other Medical Mysteries Solved, available online through Falvey.

If you have 5 hours and 31 minutes…and like medical shows about real people, watch the first season of Netlifx’s Diagnosis. It’s both interesting to learn about new rare disorders while also humanizing the people going through the often grueling process of trying to obtain a diagnosis.

Annie Stockmal is a second-year graduate student in the Communication Department and Graduate Assistant in Falvey Library.