5 comments about Living Jonathans Life: A Doctors Descent Into Darkness & Addiction.

1. Dr. Davis conveys an important message in a gripping and honest book: that addiction can affect anyone, even physicians, and that recovery is possible by facing one's fears and deepest emotions. As an identical twin myself, I could relate to much of the description of the relationship between Scott and Jonathan; there's just a bond between twins that is unique and unbreakable.
   
   This book is also a great resource for those interested in finding or referring help. There is a lengthy appendix addressing issues surrounding addiction and abuse as well as intervention and recovery. I highly recommend it!



2. Dr. Davis's book gives an intimate and insightful perspective on addiction and its effects not only on the addicted, but on the family. By telling his story honestly and without any flair, Dr. Davis shows us that even the best of us can become victim of addiction, and despite the horrible nature of the disease, that there is hope. As a medical student, it is a jarring view of a problem that we see all across the US all too often, and being able to understand it through Dr. Davis's account, gives us better insight through which to understand our patients.



3. Dr. Davis's discovery of his brother's poetry unexpectedly provides him with insight into his own past. What was once a shared existence, Dr. Davis's loss of his twin brother to HIV/AIDS reveals how much their lives have diverged on the surface, only to converge again in after his brother's passing - a realization that comes to him only after sharing his experiences to others during his own recovery process. Now, Davis is continuing the legacy of his brother by sharing his poetry and his life story.
   
   This book is a very fluid read, and it comes across as very honest without sacrificing its sentiment. Davis is describes the hidden aspects about a professional living with an addiction. It is an encouraging message to those of us who are facing hardships and have succumbed to addiction as a result. His life course has led him to a better place, and vividly documents how he has made that journey.



4. Dr. Davis's extremely honest and genuine account of his twin brother's death and his own spiral into addiction provides readers from all different experiences a solid introduction to addiction and the hope that comes with treatment. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a family member or friend dealing with addiction, anyone who wants to know more about a disease that is often misunderstood or misdiagnosed, and any healthcare professional who realizes the extent to which addiction pervades every patient population and the often inadequate help these patients receive. The appendices provide the reader with a great resource manual of different treatment programs and facilities nationwide as well as several screening tools for someone who suspects an individual may be abusing or addicted to alcohol or drugs.



5. Although this book is about addiction, I believe anyone can relate to the story. Anyone who's suffering from drug/chemical dependency, anyone who's a codependent or anyone who's going through a rough time in life. Great story!

5 comments about The Man With The Beautiful Voice: And More Stories from the Other Side of the Couch.

1. Dr Rubin's stories are drawn from her clinical practice and her experience with her patients. The reader meets Eve Gordon who endured a harrowing childhood with her alcoholic parents; now 39, she lives a life of virtual isolation and desperately wants to become her therapist's friend. Many sessions are spent with Eve curled up in the corner of the practice without uttering a single word. Bruce Marins, a cripple - a "Thalidomide baby", a drug taken by his mother to cure her morning sickness - who rejects sympathy as being patronising, who feels anger and distrust of people around him and who sees deceit, pity and rejection wherever he turns. As Dr Rubin is about to greet Bonnie Paulsen and Jerry Stillman in her office, she is far from picturing the way these two patients are going to deceive her with their egregious lies and carefully plotted hoax - "How easily any patient can defeat even the most artful and accomplished therapist." she writes! Jake Garvin suffers from manic-depressive psychosis and so needs help because he's having trouble writing his dissertation for his degree. This is all the more urgent since the two job offers Jake has received depend on his finishing his dissertation. A case which will unfortunately end very tragically. Richard Durbin and Valerie Goldner are a yuppie couple. But why does Richard stubbornly refuse to have a child with Valerie? What mysterious event in his past makes him refuse to become a father? And finally there is the case of Delfina Ortega, a Mexican American, who was pregnant at 16, then became an excellent high school student graduating near the top of her class, who was subsequently awarded full scholarship to the university and then, when she was accepted to a graduate programme in Latin American history, she falls into a panic attack.
   Dr Rubin's cases are a wonderful read for those of us who are mere laymen in the field of psychology.



2. Wonderfully real and inspirational reflections of therapeutic sessions with a therapist who seems to have the healing combination of genuineness, authenticity, self- and other-awareness, and the innate desire to really hear and see her clients. The words harmoniously sing from the pages of this book with the chorus repeatedly reminding us that in therapy it is indeed the relationship that heals.



3. This book gives you an inside view of the therapist-patient relationship from the therapist point of view. It's enlightening to read how the relationship develops and how that impacts the patient's life. You can get a little bit of a feel for how therapy works and what happens. The book does a nice job of juxtaposing the 'rules' of how things are to be done and 'intuition' about how things should be done and the struggle between the two. My favorite chapter was the final one where the author shared her personal experience in therapy and what that relationship meant to her and did for her. A good read for a therapist or a client in therapy.



4. The Man with the Beautiful Voice is a beautifully written book. Each case study is written in a colorful narrative style. The stories are educational and fasinating. Each story ends with an interestig twist almost as if a spy thriller. Dr. Rubin wrote with such candor and openness I felt like she gave therapists her personal permission to be human. Excellent book!



5. Dr. Rubin is an encouraging antidote to the old-school stony-faced therapist who answers your questions with questions. Here's an account that will both satisfy your innermost voyeur and humanize the helping professionals who see us at our most human. These are stories about people overcoming suffering and shame and Rubin depicts this with tremendous respect and heart. I appreciate the dignity she imparted to these souls who were at their worst at the time she encountered them. It gives me hope for a profession that is plagued with discredits, scandals and just plain low success rates. That hope lies in the fact that every person is different, therefore the therapist's approach -guided ideally by the therapist's own compassion and intuition- must also be different.

5 comments about Ebola.

1. I loved this book! It was a brilliant mix of emotion and a medical thriller-I really liked all of the characters, and it was very interesting. Definitley one of my favorites.



2. Ebola, by William T. Close, M.D., is a moderately dramatized account of the first outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976. The book's cover and introduction make it a point to inform you that Dr. Close was there to witness the outbreak firsthand and "worked desperately to contain the first outbreak of the virus", but the book is written in the third person and Dr. Close never makes an appearance. It's clear that he changed the names of the other people involved, but why change his own name in a book he's writing? Strange.
   
   Also somewhat strange is the fact that the word "Ebola" never appears in the main narrative. This is understandable given the book's focus on the characters rather than on the virus, but since the book's title is Ebola, I was expecting a little more information on the virus itself. Close's choice to focus on the characters rather than the virus is at times a good thing and at times perplexing.
   
   The story begins slowly, establishing the look and feel of the village of Yambuku, its people, and the Flemish nuns running the mission there. As the first victims of the virus begin to appear, the foreshadowing gets a little ham-fisted. It almost feels like Close is intentionally portraying the nuns as unconcerned and even careless merely for the sake of adding to the suspense.
   
   After the first hundred pages or so, things finally start to pick up and the really interesting stuff begins. The dedication of the nuns in caring for the victims under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, even as they themselves begin to contract the virus, is touching, and it's what makes the book worth reading.
   
   Unfortunately, while the middle of the book is gripping and generally well written, the last third goes completely off track. When two doctors from the WHO finally arrive at Yambuku, the virus has already killed hundreds of villagers and is beginning to burn itself out. Without the constant influx of Ebola victims, the author seems to lose his bearing, and the story inexplicably shifts its focus to a schoolboy crush one of the doctors (who is married) has developed on one of the nuns. It's so awkward it's almost creepy at parts. After this confusing twist is resolved, the book just keeps on going for no discernable reason, following the nun as she flees Yambuku when it seems like the virus might reappear. Nothing interesting happens to the nun, the virus doesn't return, and the book just ends, having strung you along for the last hundred pages or so for no real reason.
   
   There's another creepy thing about this book, and that's the author's apparent fascination with breasts. He describes them at every possible opportunity, often in unnecessary detail. The reader is kept constantly aware of the statuses of the breasts of nearly every female character, villagers and nuns alike. At one point we're even forced to read a description of the teats of one of the village's mangy dogs. I like breasts as much as the next man, but Close seems to think (and write) about them far more than is warranted, especially for a story primarily about Flemish nuns.
   
   On the whole, while I wasn't crazy about it, the book did tell a compelling story. I think a better author could have made it even more compelling, but since Dr. Close was apparently there, he'll have to do. However, if you're looking for technical descriptions of Ebola, its effects, and its treatment, look somewhere else. This is a book about villagers and nuns and how they dealt with an outbreak; it's not a book about Ebola.



3. Even Victor eats roaches yearly, so, I needed goats loving ewes doing almost yelling come here under caves kiting every lowly beast. Enough limits took all kin, even sewing artwork lesson almost reaching gave each boy limits. All candy kiting carries over coming knife in niches. Harold inside safe, almost stuck silly.



4. One of the most educational and eye opening books that I have ever read. I love this book and it is the reason i started buying other virus books. It really opened my eyes up to the terror that is truely out in the world that is put there by mother nature. Sometimes difficult to follow, but a facinating subject from a Dr. who was in the thick of the outbreak. Very good book with an objective for everyone to think about viruses like this.



5. Found this on the shelf of a second hand store for a very cheap price. I was expecting a lot more science in this book and it wasn't there. It's mostly written from the standpoint of the nuns of the Yambuku mission that witnessed this first outbreak. Although the characters claim to be terrified, that feeling never really came across to me- the reader. I also found some of the writing strange- the attraction to Veronica (a nun) by Dr. Aaron Hoffman was just weird. You knew nothing was going to happen because she was a nun and he was married. It came across as a lame attempt to make nonfiction spicy. Also, although he never says it directly, Dr. Close clearly does not like the French.
   Regardless, the book did give me interest in the subject and I just picked up "The Hot Zone." I also learned a lot about African culture from the book as well. Readers may be interested to head over to the CDC's public health image library (google it) and search for "Ebola." There are several interesting pictures related to the book there including pictures of the mission at the time and some of the subjects of the book.

5 comments about Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter.

1. Adeline Yen Mah, the youngest daughter of a prominent chinese businessman and his young half-chinese, half-french new wife, shows a poignant and vivid picture of life as a most unwanted Chinese daughter growing up during the cultural revolution in mid- 20th century China. Despite horrible mistreatment and abuse by her step-mother, Yen Mah slowly flourished from a sad, quiet girl to a successful physician living in the United States because of the love and encourgement of one unempowered Aunt. A heartwrenching read, this autobiography is proof that even when 'bad things happen to good people', knowing one has done the 'right thing' is priceless indeed.



2. ...with that whine? Self serving, whiney, horrible. I just don't get it. No comparison to anything by Frank McCort, Amy Tan or anyone like them.



3. The heartbreaking story of an unwanted, abused, neglected child who never ceases to try and earn her family's affections. If you have ever experienced these feelings,no matter what your race, you will LOVE this book. It moved me to tears and I could not put it down once I started reading it.



4. This book was beautifully written and gripping from the start. The reviewer who complained of Adeline's "whining" tone, is being unfair. I don't see her as whiny, but rather somewhat detached as she recounts the emptiness of her childhood. In fact, I want her to scream and kick and rebell, maybe even whine, yet she does none of that. Whining is even more emotion than I think she allows herself to feel. She endured a childhood with certain material wealth but vastly lacking in emotional wealth.
   Adeline takes the emotional abuse because she knows nothing else. Her father is the true villain for caring more about his trophy wife than his own family's happiness. He is oblivious to his children's emotional needs. He disappoints more than the stepmom for choosing to abandon children that he chose to bring into the world. He manipulates and plays them one against the other for his own selfish desires.
   After long periods of thinking about this book, I've come to my own understanding of why she managed to salvage a happy life out of such a miserable upbringing. It is the very belief, albeit blatently false, that her family would one day accept her, that makes her continue to push for their love and not give up. Children are frequently unable to find fault with their loved ones. It is that very "innocence" that protected her from worse harm, the knowledge that acceptance would never, ever, be forthcoming.



5. Although there are hundreds of reviews, I had to review this book because it had such an impact on me. I think this book is wonderful. It is a captivating story. I read it complete in one night, I just could not put it down!
   
   Adeline is a beautiful story teller, with an exceptional eye for detail. Although I loved the book, there was a strange voice that would creep into the story. Almost as if there was a repressed part of herself that could not hide from this book: it is a young Adeline still hoping to be the apple of her father's eye; and for her family to appreciate, love and respect her.
   
   It is a sad story that shocks readers with the inhumanity that families can inflict on one of their own. It is still beautiful and hopeful, even in its most miserable moments.
   
   Highly recommend

3 comments about Memoirs of Childhood and Youth.

1. This superbe little book is a simple and engaging introduction to Schweitzer's life and thoughts. He has a knack for describing, with directness and humor, the thoughts and feelings of himself as a child learning some of life's tough lessons. For anyone interested in Albert Schweitzer, what a perfect place to start!



2. In order to fully understand the philosophy of Reverence For Life to its full meaning one must understand the man behind the legend that is Albert Schweitzer. This book gives us a glimpse of a youthful Schweitzer from his humble beginnings in Gunsbach. As this Nobel laureate reminisces about his childhood days he reveals the poignant moments that forever shaped one of the most brilliant minds of the last century. Delightful and readable, Memoirs is a treasured classic among those who study the great philosophers. I highly recommend this book for all ages but particularly for youth as a starting place for Schweitzer study- you won't be disappointed!



3. Eloquently written, this small book is packed with stories and wisdoms that shaped this great man's life. One particular chapter on gratitude struck a chord in my own life as he wrote of remorse of not being able to thank those teachers and mentors that had passed on. Schweitzer's life was an example of supreme service to mankind, and he coined the words "Reverence for Life" which spearheaded a movement to remember that all life is sacred. This book will burn a desire in the reader's heart to live life with greater awareness and gratitude for all people with whom we come in contact.

5 comments about Karen (Dell Book).

1. I picked up this book in a library toss bin recently and foolishly (not realizing it was out of print) left it on the airplane for the next passenger requiring inspiration. The many 5-star reviews should give an objective reader a clue as to the type of book this is, and the type of writer Killilea was--and that does NOT mean Jane Austen. Because I am something of a 3-star Sally in my reviews, I must add that my usual complaints (poor writing, confusing organization, insufficient editing) are not my reasons for faulting this book. It is fairly well-written (back when editors were editors!), with the insousiance that pervades works by well-fed, country club ladies of the 1950's (Jean Kerr comes to mind) who bore none of the crosses feminism would later burn figuatively on their expansive front lawns.
   
   My beef about this book--please do NOT send me nasty e-mails!--is that I did not find any of the characters, and I include the title character and the author, particularly appealing. As to Karen herself, she was a little girl undergoing a particular education regimen. It was rigorous and stressful, and, being a little girl who, like most little girls, wanted desperately to please those whom she loves, she survived it. But living to tell the tale is not the same as heroism, though nowadays you would never know it, and if Oprah were interviewing Homer about Troy, we'd be listening to the story of Aeneas rather than Hector. I doubt that Killilea's intention was to raise her daughter to a pinnacle, though, and anyone who views the child's story as a triumph over adversity is misreading the book. I believe that Killilea's point was that Karen's story could be ANY child's story, given the same set of favorable circumstances.
   
   So, having attempted to view the author's intentions in a light most sympathetic to me, I sadly must now add that I really didn't like the author ONE BIT. She represents a type of unquestioning, anti-intellectual, rigid Catholicism that makes it hard for other Catholics to be Catholic. Since she flaunts her Irishness, I feel free to whack the ball back into that court by saying that the Italians where I grew up in New York thought people like the Killileas were crazy. I do not know how many Roman Catholics she and her ilk have caused to lapse over the decades; any healthy religion has a spectrum of levels of dogmatism, but this particular group seemed to dominate the Church in New York for a long time (if you think I lie, check the list of bishops in the NYC archdiocese even now).
   
   But I should not air this dirty laundry online! And I should not let my intellectual response to the book be colored by the fact that I now am sojourning in a city that gives full testament to the Catholic Church's exhuberance, wackiness, theological depth, and sensual excess. Killilea was probably an above-average product of her isolated little smoke-filled (literally as well as figuratively!) caucasion world. (I normally make my home in the Baltimore/Washington area, and found quite enlightening her descriptions of the people of color who carried the Killilea luggage on the way to Johns Hopkins Hospital).
   
   Speaking of smoke-filled: Amen to the reviewers who point out the frightening excess of tobacco-dependence. I do believe there was a point in the book in which the author and her husband sit around smoking in the same room where lay their daughter Marie, at that very moment suffering from some type of long-term lung failure. Excuse me? Is there a doctor in the house? (No, wait; the doctors were the ones offering cigarettes.) Maybe just someone with an inquiring mind? (See, it's getting back to the Catholic thing . . . . )



2. I read this the first time as an adult. I had asked a librarian if she could recommend a good heartwarming book, and she insisted this was what I needed to read. It instantly became one of my all time favorites. The main reason I wanted to review it here, is I notice so many fellow readers complaining about the mother's approach to her daughter's disability, etc, and I want to point out,when Karen was born, the world was a different place entirely. 'Political correctness' had not been coined yet.
   Smoking was not recognized as the evil we now think of; in fact, it was common for doctor's to smoke in their offices with their patients. Mother's were not told to quit smoking because they were pregnant. I could go on, but my point is, for the time in our history when Karen was a child, there was no Disability Rights Act. The idea to treat a disabled child with dignity and equal rights were sadly un-common, and this is not the fault of Karen's family. Like all of us, they did the best they could with what they knew how to do.
   I think all this P.C. talk is taking away from the underlying feeling of the book. It is a triumph of the human spirit and I see that so clearly and am left feeling good about the strength and courage inside of us that we don't know is there, unless we are forced to summon it, or learn about someone like Karen, who had no choice but to live life the best she could.
   I am not condoning smoking or other bad choices mentioned in the book. I am simply attempting to suggest that if that is all you are looking at, you are missing the boat.
   This is the kind of book that I love most; it makes me laugh and cry and most of all, it is the kind of story that makes me realize how small most of my problems are.
   It brings to mind other humbling people such as Helen Keller. It may not be an equal comparison, but the feeling I derive from it is the same.



3. I have read "Karen" a number of times since my teen years, though prior to purchasing the book, it had been at least 10 years since my last reading. This story of a girl born in 1940 with cerebral palsy -- and all the trials, tribulations, and stigma that went along with its diagnosis, treatment, and daily living at that time -- remains intriguing and engaging.
   
   More than simply an eye-opening account of life with a severely disabled child, "Karen" is a window into another era, even another culture (the story takes place in the well-to-do suburbs north of New York City). The Killilea's were a devoutly Catholic Irish-American family. This is before Vatican II and the changes it brought to the Mass and to the church itself. Smoking was socially acceptable, its health risks not well-consdidered. These things all play into the story.
   
   I feel compelled to address Marie's (author/narrator) comment, during her husband Jiimmy's serious illness, that she would sacrifice her children. I believe other reveiwers have mis-interpreted her remark. She wasn't minimizing her love for her children; she was expressing her extraordinary love and devotion to her husband. Again, remember that the book was written in 1952 and should not be judged as if it had been written in 2006. Language, customs, beliefs, and even our culture were significantly different.
   
   In summary, "Karen" is a fascinating story. Should you take everything in it at face value? No, of course not. Is it worth reading? Absolutely, if not for the day-to-day details of life with cerebral palsy, then for the window into life in suburbia in the early 1950's.
   
   It is also worth noting that Marie Killilea was instrumental in founding United Cerebral Palsy, the organization that still advocates for and supports the cerebral palsied today.



4. I am 49 now and read this book when I was about 8 years old. (Why a book with curse words was available in the Weekly Reader Book Club for little children to read, I'll never know.) I have never dwelt on any of the negatives that readers are commenting about, with the one exception of the smoking. I do not have CP, but as a child I knew something about me was different. I was premature, late learning to walk, and the slowest runner of all the children - no matter how hard I tried to run faster or how much I loved to run. I had frequent stomachaches & got sick with sinus/allergy/URI's/dehydration regularly every 3 months or so. I almost died at least twice. My ankles turned or twisted very easily. I hated being crowded or hearing loud noises. My legs hurt often, & if I fell on one of my kneecaps, it felt broken because the pain was so horrible. The pediatrician said this was "growing pains", but it wasn't. At the age of 28, I learned that I had "fibrositis", now called Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS or CFIDS). This incurable chronic disease - an autoimmune, muscle, pain, allergy/sinus, urinary, colon, and neurological/cognitive disorder in one - can be disabling. In fact, it has been compared to mild cases of spastic CP. Microscopic tears that grew into huge tears (caused by the FMS) made me need to have major reconstructive surgery of my right knee at 13 and my left knee at 24. So reading about Karen's struggles from a young age helped me to also conquer challenges that my own disability has brought into my life. I presently work a full-time job as an administrative assistant for a global company. I love Big Marie's different writing style. Like today's very popular cable show about the Roloffs of Roloff Farm in Oregon (married dwarves who have 4 children, only one of which is a dwarf), who have the problems and disagreements every family has but struggle as a team to make it in an oversized world, the Killileas were a normal family dealing with a precious child who was labeled "abnormal". I loved that they turned the living room into a physical therapy room and invited the "normal" kids over to watch and join in the fun. I loved that there were gouges in the furniture where Karen had vacuumed, and they didn't care. I loved that Karen was not a little saint - she was human, as proved by the stunts she made her little brother Rory carry out, and the "female dog" term she used to get rid of an obnoxious stranger who invited himself into their house. I loved that Gloria had the maturity, discipline and self-control to wait 7 years for Russ, her true love. I'm not Catholic, but I loved that they regularly went to Mass and had spiritual insights. I loved that they taught Karen to take part in what physical activities she could, such as swimming and horse riding. I loved that Karen dealt with severe pain every day (as I do) and HATE that they put that spreader between her legs at night to stretch her leg muscles - like torture! In short, the best part of "Karen" is that she never limited herself by listening to what doctors and therapists told her she could never do, but she surpassed all their limitations and expectations by victories like walking, writing by hand, and getting up & down off of chairs alone. I'm still inspired by this book today.



5. I've read some reviews and have to repeat what someone else has pointed out: Readers need to keep in mind that this stuff happened in the 40's and 50's. You can't criticize the smoking, because at that time, people didn't know smoking around kids was harmful. Smoking was a very normal activity for many adults. If Marie Killilea had known that smoking might be contributing to her miscarriages and ill health of her kids, I'm sure she would have stopped. People didn't know.
   
   You can't criticize Karen's parents for not creating a cerebral-palsy playgroup for her, because they were the groundbreakers in treating cerebral palsied kids like "normal" kids. They were flying by the seat of their pants. My guess would be that they decided they should raise Karen "normally," and having her play a lot with other handicapped kids would not have seemed "normal"--after all, what they were fighting were doctors and other professionals who recommended placing Karen permanently in an institution FILLED with other handicapped people. This book is not a recent book and it has to be read in the historical context. I mean, schools were still segregated when Karen was born. Geez.
   
   I read this book and "With Love From Karen" when I was in about fifth and sixth grade, after my mother gave me "Wren." Honestly, I never thought much about the cerebral-palsy side of the books. I was an only child, I loved animals, and I thought that Karen was lucky to live in her family. The cerebral palsy was kind of a side issue for me. We didn't go to church, and I didn't understand a lot of the Catholic stuff either, but I loved that the family sounded so close.
   
   I think the concern someone posted about publishing this book when Karen was still young has some validity, but--her mom was desperately trying to draw attention to the fact that handicapped kids were okay. She succeeded in a huge way, through this book. She influenced a generation of people, people who would have looked at her daughter strangely if they ever met her, due to her handicap, but, instead, looked at Karen as practically an angel, because they felt they knew her through this book. And after all, when Marie wrote the book, she would have had no idea that it would end up being in print for decades and read all over the world, and that Karen would still be hounded by fans in 2007 (which apparently she is, when they can track her down).
   
   I guess what I'm saying is, before anyone criticizes Karen's mom, they ought to keep in mind that their opinions about what's right and wrong for handicapped kids were probably shaped by Karen's mom, whether they realize it or not. Our whole society was influenced by "Karen." Yeah, everyone knows you don't keep a kid with cerebral palsy hidden in the basement of your house--but hey, America didn't always know that.
   
   I just found a website where I read that Gloria's two daughters, ages 9 and 7 at the time, were killed in a house fire. I actually cried over this. Although of course I never met any of these people, they felt like my family when I was a kid.

1 comments about No Boundaries: A Cancer Surgeon's Odyssey.

1. No Boundaries is the story of the author's rise from humble beginnings on the black side of a little town in the Florida Panhandle to the pinnacle of his profession as head of the American College of Surgeons, the American Cancer Society and the President's Cancer Panel. Dr. Leffall's story, honestly and often heart-wrenchingly told, recounts how he shattered racial barriers throughout his life simply by his determination to do every job well and learn from his own mistakes. It's a great read for anyone who wants to believe that hope and determination conquer narrow-mindedness and despair.

5 comments about A Country Doctor's Casebook: Tales from the North Woods.

1. A Country Doctor's Casebook: Tales From The North Woods is an anthology of autobiographical stories by Dr. Roger A. MacDonald, a physician who has served the people living in a remote region of northern Minnesota during the years after World War II. Vignettes of sickness, compassion, feuds, dangers, births and deaths make A Country Doctor's Casebook unforgettable and very highly recommended reading.



2. Dr. MacDonald's book is a welcome remembrance to those who lived in Northern Minnesota in the 40's & 50's. His stories of survival (and sometimes not surviving) are very descriptive and detailed. When he tells of a trip through a swamp he carried his wife through to help a patient, you almost feel as though you are sloshing through the mud with him. His stories are NOT about heroics that he performed on helpless rural Minnesota residents, although he certainly could do that as well. They are about the heroics of those people he cared for. This story has it's humorous parts as well as parts that make you cry for the brave and futile attempts at life of his patients. I am grateful to Dr. MacDonald for this book, and I hope to see more from him in the future.



3. I got this book because I too come from Minnesota and work in health care, but once started on Dr. MacDonald's A Country Doctor's Casebook Tales from the North Woods, I was hooked. The author was what we would now refer to as a family practitioner who worked in a small rural community near Duluth from 1947 to 1980. His charming collection of stories is a delight to read, and I literally read the book from cover to cover over about three hours without putting it down. The tales of the doctor and his patients pull the reader through the pages without tricks of style, just the author's natural talent for telling a simple story: the life and death struggles of members of his community, the happiness of new lives begun, the suddenness of unexpected death, incredible courage in the face of adversity, acceptance of the setbacks of life, amusing vignettes of simple people living life among their neighbors.

   FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS in English, creative writing, journaling, journalism, history, and sociology, this would make a nice format to follow or a good bibliography entry. The author has used his own life experiences to create a history of his practice, community, and time.




4. I thought this book was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed this book... you'll laugh out loud and you'll cry as you see everything through the eyes of one rural Minnesota doctor. I'm couldn't wait until his second one came out! Read it!!



5. As the daughter of a semi-country doctor, I grew up with the experience of having a father who always seemed to be on call. Dr. Macdonald's anthology of cases was an excellent read, and after the first story I immediately called my mom to share it with her. We both had a laugh over it, and I am going to recommend that she buy it, along with my 2 older sisters. I enjoyed reading the stories, and they are set up such that you can read for as long or as short a time as you want. A must-buy for any child or spouse of a physician!

5 comments about Doc.

1. Doc Losee writes in a wonderfully refreshing style that brings the reader into an inevitable friendship with him. Medicine may never be like this again, but Doc has left a record of what is once was. The day I finished this book I wrote a letter to Doc Losee, and imagine my surprise when less than a week later, I received a personal note back from him. I have it on my wall in my study to remind me of this beautiful little book written by the Yale-educated country doctor



2. This is a wonderful heart filled story of what it was like being a doctor when you had very little supplies, but a whole lot of heart!! It is a book that will hold a place on honor in my library, not only because I have met the author, but mainly because it is a part of our country's heritage. Dr. Losee's stories are told so that you can picture them in your mind and see what it was like to be in that era. Some make you laugh, others make you cry. I compare his writing to that of James Harriot; both writers make you feel like you are there with them.



3. This was an excellent book and would like to have this man as my doctor. He gave an excellent picture of what doctoring was like in a small town, what his philosophy of being a doctor is and his criticism of non doctors making doctor decisions. He is critical of law suits and the problems of liability insurance costs that he could not afford. He is down to earth and not afraid to say that mistakes can and are made. Some medical terms might slow someone not familiar with them.



4. Doc Losee was my family doctor growing up in Ennis, Montana- my brother's birth is mentioned briefly in the book. He was and is the best country doctor, with brains and skill and heart and humor- a true straight shooter. I am so proud to know him and his wife Olive.



5. This book could have really used an editor. I assume most doctors frown on home surgery by amateurs and not every doctor can write. I often had to reread portions several times. The content was great, just some very poorly constructed sentences.

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