Looks like I’m in for not just a rainy, but a thunderstorm-y weekend, readers.

One of my favorite things to do when it’s dark and stormy out is curl up with a good book.

Unfortunately, the book I have to curl up with isn’t all that good, but I’m two-thirds finished with it and, well, I’m committed. I have to turn the last page.

(Plus, leaving a book unfinished is just unnatural to me.)

YOU, however, can fill your weekend with something a little more inspiring!

Just a couple of weeks ago, Gimundo compiled a list of 20 memoirs and biographies that highlight creative minds.

Regular Celebrity Psychings readers probably remember Michele Rosenthal.

She’s the super helpful lady who talked with us a few years about about PTSD and entertainment media and worked with Carre Otis to provide information on everything from intimacy issues and trauma to overcoming fear and learning to let go of your past.

Well, earlier this month, Michele released her memoir, Before the World Intruded: Conquering the Past and Creating the Future, A Memoir.

Before the World Intruded tells the story of Michele’s 25-year battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how she reclaimed her life and now lives completely free of PTSD symptoms.

Also, the book is full of ways other PTSD sufferers can recover:

Psych Central’s very own Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. (Mindfulness and Psychotherapy) released a new book a couple of days ago: The Now Effect: How This Moment Can Change The Rest Of Your Life.

Dr. Goldstein advocates an approach to mental health that considers all areas of health – mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual. He promotes mindfulness as a way we can do away with anxiety and negativity and achieve self-acceptance, inner peace, and ultimately freedom.

I was able to talk with Dr. Goldstein about mindfulness and how this practice can help us get to the space of awareness he calls “The Now Effect.”

Got a few bucks and nothing else to do this weekend?

You might want to check out the new Courtney Love tell-all, Courtney Comes Clean.

Courtney Comes Clean isn’t your traditional celebrity biography.

The first in what will be a monthly series of addiction-related topics called “The Quick Fix Series,” Courtney Comes Clean was constructed from a series of interviews that took place over a one-year period with TheFix.com’s Editor-in-Chief Maer Roshan.

After a variety of media outlets picked up on the story, Sterling (a division of Barnes & Noble) decided to turn the interview into an e-book – one that, according to TheFix.com, provides “a rare look into the manic mind of a musical icon, a grieving mother, and a struggling addict.”

Roshan uncovers a trove of never-revealed information, including previously-sealed depositions from Frances Bean Cobain, a rare interview with Love’s mother, and details about her upcoming plans to auction off Kurt Cobain’s estate.

“A lot of people glamorize this lifestyle, and only choose to look at the glitz and the glory, but the cold reality of this world is murder, and that is not something people think about when they romanticize the Mafia. Looking back, families of the Mafia pay the consequences for actions they had no part it.” – Karen Gravano

Karen Gravano’s long-anticipated memoir, Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, and Me! is to the bookshelf what “Mob Wives” is to television: A scandalous, voyeuristic glimpse into a notorious lifestyle so guarded, it may as well be fiction to most of us.

The thing is, it’s not fiction, and Karen Gravano – along with her mother and brother – certainly have paid the consequences for Sammy’s actions. They lost homes, friends, and even family members over the lifestyle that Sammy chose to lead…

…and eventually turn his back on.

Remember last Friday when I told you to stay tuned for more Carre Otis goodness?

Well, it’s here, sweet readers!

First, Otis has written a guest post, Healing Sexual Intimacy, for Michele Rosenthal‘s Your Life After Trauma. The aptly titled article discusses Otis’s experiences with sexual dysfunction and provides five steps or methods Otis has used to overcome her intimacy issues and become more present and comfortable with her sexuality.

The post went live this morning and you can head over there right now to check it out.

This week’s “Weekend Reading” comes to us from Michele Rosenthal, creator of the award-winning Heal My PTSD and host of Seaview Radio’s Your Life After Trauma.

You might remember Michele from the fantastic interview she gave Celebrity Psychings a few years ago regarding PTSD in entertainment media – including Kevin McKidd‘s role as Owen Hunt on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Aaaaand, you might remember Carre Otis from Guess and Calvin Klein ads –

- or Playboy and Sports Illustrated, depending on what you’re into.

After battling a troubled marriage to Mickey Rourke, drug abuse, and an eating disorder, the super model and actress spent some time regaining balance and serenity. She chronicles it all in her tell-all Beauty, Disrupted: A Memoir, which she released back in October 2011.

So, why does Michele think we should give it a shot?

Earlier this week, I introduced you to the new DBSA Celebrity Honorary Advisory Board.

Several of the board members are award-winning authors, and while I haven’t had the chance to check out any of their books yet, fellow Psych Central blogger Margarita Tartakovsky of Weightless has read Kay Redfield Jamison’s and Marya Hornbacher’s memoirs and enjoyed them both.

So, I thought now would be a great time to get to know these DBSA celebrity authors a little better and maybe check out their works!

Here’s the kind of story that’ll make you wonder what YOU spent your early teen years doing.

Just a couple of years after she came out, 14-year-old Amelia Roskin-Frazeel launched The Make It Safe Project, a book project that works to donate books about sexual orientation to K-12 schools and youth homeless shelters.

From the website:

Many young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) teens only hear the word “gay” when it is used to mean “bad,” as in the phrase, “That’s so gay.” Schools rarely have books about being LGBT and most health curricula overlook LGBT relationships, sending a message to their LGBT students that they are not worth as much as their straight peers. As a result, startling numbers of LGBT teens have been bullied to the point where they have taken their own lives.

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is all about chatting it up, lately.

The same organization that brought you the free telechat with athlete-turned-advocate All-Pro NFL punter Greg Montgomery last week is bringing you a free webinar on beating holiday stress in a couple of weeks, on Monday, December 12, 2011.

I’m telling you about it now because the webinar is limited to 100 seats, so time is of the essence if you want in on this.