Book Review: ‘My Hard of Hearing Life’ by Cynthia Dixon

Recently, Hearing Like Me started a book club to bring together the hearing loss community, promote deaf authors and discuss common themes around living with hearing loss.

September’s book club pick was: “My Hard of Hearing Life, stories from behind the hearing aids” by Cynthia Dixon.

Book Review:

The book “My Hard of Hearing Life, stories from behind the hearing aids” is an collection of short stories with hilarious titles like “AA Time” or “Elvis sang about me”. It consists of both entertaining and educational stories that are highly relatable to the hard of hearing community.

While reading this book, I really appreciated that the author was able to showcase her inner life. It’s inspiring to see the author as a character live her best possible life. In the book, the the author is not afraid to poke fun at herself and others, but she is able to do so in such a way it is not offensive.

The book in my opinion, is very useful for those who are hearing to understand about the hard of hearing community. The book highlights the daily struggles, hard of hearing people go through everyday like the feeling of being so exhausted from lip reading.

The Amazon summary of “My Hard of Hearing Life,” says, “By the time you finish reading this book, you’ll have a good understanding of what it’s like to have a hearing loss,” and I agree. It’s a great book for anyone looking to understand their own hearing loss, or the hearing loss of a loved one.

October’s Book Club pick:

October’s Book Club pick is “El Deafo,” a graphic novel by CeCe Bell.

In the graphic novel, fit for both children and adult readers, “El Deafo,” tells the story of Cece, a bunny who wears a hearing aid. The book is loosely autobiographical, according to Wikipedia, and chronicles the author’s experience of living with hearing loss.

Love to read? Join the Hearing Like Me Book Club!

To participate in the book club,  simply read the Book of the Month, then join the conversation on Instagram and the HLM Facebook community. If you’d like to be part of a closer discussion, you can also apply to be a Phonak hEARo.

• Author Details

Author Details

Aatish Patel

Aatish Patel is a 18 year old who loves to try out new things. He has moderately severe bilateral hearing loss who currently wears Phonak Boleros. He is college bound in fall of 2019, an avid gamer and loves learning about the deaf and hard of hearing communities. His blog can be reached at: https://theeartrumpet.wordpress.com.