WAKE UP BITCH AND FIX ME SOME CHICKEN is a humorous look at the patients and staff at a state-run mental health hospital. Whether divinely driven or by serendipitous happenstance, John R. Booth, after a career in the pharmaceutical business, found himself working as a social worker at the largest mental health facility in his state. In his first book, Booth chronicles stories of some of his most memorable patients. His preconceptions of what the patients would be like began an almost immediate transformation upon his arrival. He had heard all the stories and seen all the movies that depicted these souls as dangerous mental defectives and was sure that his life expectancy would take a turn for the worse with prolonged exposure to the "crazy cooties" he knew they must be infested with. The first day his ideas of mental illness began the transformation from shock and revulsion to seeing humor in the patients' distorted reality and their reactions and adaptation to this reality. Some patients were truly scary and dangerous.

Sometimes they would say funny things, and other times they would say things funny. Dan, Poor Pitiful Paul, Doug the Firebug, and all the others are real patients, with real problems, who are really funny, if you just look for it. Whether it is midgets in the walls, misunderstood English, fast-talking Gilbert, or the psychobabble of Nurse Kiki, rest assured, you will not "sleep right through it." This easy read will keep you turning pages, give you a new view of the mentally ill, put a smile on your face, and, in the end, you'll see why John believes that his patients are some of the most precious people on earth.