2 comments about Healing Lessons.

1. I recommend this book to those living with cancer and those who love them. This book reveals that those of us who care about someone with cancer, even a world-reknowned physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, are feeling many of the same emotions and drains. Sloan-Kettering is a wonderful hospital and Sid Winawer is amongst its many, many stars.



2. I read this book days after discovering my father has stomach cancer. I am so greatful for this book. There are not many books that deal exclusively with gastric cancer and that is what made this book so important to me. For me it was good to go through the entire process of before diagnosis to death throught the voice and eyes of a top Gastroenterologist. I thought the book was a bit over the top with the descriptions of their wealth and fortunes. I also skipped over the religious/god bit. But overall I was truly touched with the descriptions of her death. With reagrd to the alternative treatments I suppose it discouraged me from waisting money on it. It helped me focus of what does work and the thought that hope is a powerful motivator. It gave me and idea of what to expect for my father and for that I am grateful.

1 comments about Fifty Years a Country Doctor.

1. I wasn't looking for humor per se when I got this. I thought this might be a little glimpse into years gone by and some shrewd cowboy psychology or something - and to some extent, it is that as well. I found myself laughing a lot at some of the stories, despite Cooks attempt to handle some of the topics with "discretion". Great look at a different time and a different mentality. Can't think of a doctor I wouldn't recommend it to - they might learn something!

No comments about Making Medical History: The Life and Times of Henry E. Sigerist.

5 comments about For As Long As I Can.

1. "...the eye that can see does not." A powerful illustration in the life of a dying man. Roland takes the reader on a moving journey that only a loving son can tell. This book has two gripping themes. One of a prodigal father's return and the other of a son's own self examination as he serves his father emotionally, physically, and spiritually.



2. I found this book to be a sensitive look at the journey that many families take when a loved one becomes ill. This journey took this family through both physical and emotional pain as they dealt with issues from the past and present. The message of forgiveness, reconciliation and love of God and family is a touching story. Mr. Cavanaugh's style of writing is open and lets the reader see into his heart and that of his family. This book is a must read for all adult children who have elderly parents.



3. This book is a day to day account of a son sharing his father's last days on earth. While parts of this book will break the reader's heart, it also provides great hope for anyone that has unsaved loved ones. Through God's amazing love and grace, relationships were restored and salvation was won. I would recommend this book to all care givers and to those with lost loved ones.



4. Thank you for letting us see into the insite of how it is to go through the death of a loved one, it shows so much what the family is feeling and how they deal with it. It also shows how a man lets go of his family thru their grief and how it brings them together. A MUST READ for anyone who has lost a parent.



5. My wife and I have a Hospice Ministry and found the book to be a very real look at a family as they dealt with final days of a very dear loved one. The daily process that Dr Cavanaugh details is the struggle that we all will experience at some point in our lives, either for ourselves or a loved one.

2 comments about Recovering From Mortality: Essays From A Cancer Limbo Time.

1. Read this book as fast as possible to experience the brilliant highlights and the thoughtful shadows of the "limbo time" and then go back and read it again--essay by essay. Use each essay as a meditation on living. Deborah Cumming's essays are not your typical cancer book. People who are not dying of cancer do themselves a disservice by leaving this book on the shelf. We are all living and dying every day.
   
   Deborah's observations about her experiences, when she felt well after treatment and before decline, can be applied to anyone. How often do we feel stuck in our lives? How often do we wonder what is important? How much should we pay attention to other people's opinions? Can we chart our own course? Do we want to?
   
   There is humor in this book and wonderful juxtaposition. One of the first quotations is from a nautical chart: "the prudent mariner will not rely solely on any single aid to navigation..." Most healthy people in our modern, stress-filled time, do not take the time to exercise or relax, let alone take the time to contemplate the meaning in their lives. Deborah's words give us that opportunity: "Balance is awareness, confidence, and--yes--belief. Belief that balance matters and that it can be achieved."
   
   I received this book as a gift. It opened my mind and my heart. It is an amazing book. I bought two more books and gave them to friends with the caveat that if the book touched their hearts, they should buy a book and give it to a person of their choosing. They loved the book as much as I did and I think you will too.



2. It was only in acknowledging her mortality - in confronting it directly, and most intimately: in absorbing into her life, not only the certain knowledge that she would die, but the various uncertainties of the limbo time - that she was able to live fully, and achieve the most complete expression of her life, and of the depth and fastness of her bond with us, with all mortal beings.
   
   For me this is because her book written on the edge of death is so charged with life, with the affirmation of all that is most holy and most central in life, and most to be treasured.
   
   At some point in the progress of her illness, Deborah came to understand that her predicament was at once an opportunity: that this limbo time had never been described, exhaustively, before: that it was a territory still partly undiscovered, not yet fully known, or absorbed into human experience, hovering, beyond her ken, like an unknown continent; and that, now, she had the chance - even the good fortune - to venture into it with her eyes fully open, with all her receptors alert. Every moment was precious, not only because there were so few of them, but because they contained this experience which might be conveyed to others, who might pass through the same place.
   
   It became her habitat: this in-between area where there were no certainties, no securities.
   
   Throughout the book the reader can feel her adapting to her new territory. She was equipped to do so: she had the vision, the mind, the will and the heart, to keep herself open to whatever came; to see, clearly, without prejudice; to sustain her attention without remission, without falling under the spell of a dogma; and to convey all this, with moving eloquence, in part because she was so gifted a writer, and partly because she was motivated to do so.
   
   She wanted to help others, and she wanted to see, and speak the truth, of her condition. She realized that, in this limbo time, it was in being true to herself that she could be of the most help to us.
   
   
   Jack McMichael Martin

1 comments about The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Female Physician.

1. ... the best biography of Elizabeth Blackwell ever written. ...
   
   Julia is a meticulous researcher. She personally visited every repository in Britain and America that has primary source materials relating to Blackwell. During these travels, she spoke on Blackwell at Upstate Medical University and the New York Academy of Medicine. Her use of the facts and images she found in these repositories is judicious, scholarly, and precise. Her narrative is abundant with quotes from diaries, correspondence, and other scarce or unique items, both manuscript and printed, all clearly documented. Each of these quotations is entirely germane to its matter at hand and most of them are quite fascinating. Every assertion Julia makes is well supported by primary sources.
   
   The book is also a real page turner. Julia paints a vivid portrait of an opinionated, controlling, ambitious, but benevolent, idealistic, and mostly optimistic Elizabeth growing up in a large, close-knit, non-conformist, intellectual, religious, abolitionist family characterized by intensely competitive sibling rivalry and beset by sine waves of financial prosperity and despair. The story reads so much like a novel that readers could sometimes forget they are reading history.
   
   Nevertheless, there are lacunae and ellipses. Expecting more detail in a certain section, I often felt frustrated when the narrative did not give it, but instead proceeded -- not abruptly, but decisively -- into another aspect of Blackwell's life. For example, Chapter Seven concerns her clinical training from March 9 to September 23, 1848, at "Old Blockley," the Philadelphia Almshouse, later Philadelphia General Hospital. Three times Julia mentions Blackwell's attending physician, "Dr. Benedict," with no first name and no further detail. Since he played a central role in Blackwell's life for six months and since she called him "the loveliest man the Almighty ever created," I would have liked to read a bit more about this "Dr. Benedict." [He was in fact Nathan Dow Benedict (1815-1871), a member of the University of Pennsylvania medical class of 1840, a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia since 1845, Amariah Brigham's successor at the New York State Asylum for Lunatics at Utica in 1849, and generally a rather interesting physician.]
   
   The book could easily -- and probably should -- be twice as long. Blackwell led a very exciting life which could be told in greater depth without boring readers. Julia's fluid and graceful writing style could support this extra length with no trouble. Blackwell's encounters with physicians like Benedict, Austin Flint, Clemence Sophia Lozier, and many others deserve more than just mentions and allusions.
   
   Blackwell did not become a physician because she was attracted to medicine or even to healing or compassion. Rather, she went into this field specifically to show the world what a properly motivated woman could achieve. Unlike the Seneca Falls feminists whom she criticized, she did not blame women's subservience and low social status on men. She believed instead that women's problems came mainly from their own lack of will to say and do what they most deeply believed was right. Moreover, she held that if women only exercised their natural moral superiority, infusing the ethos with maternal values, the world would be a better place.
   
   Julia excels at showing Blackwell's philosophical, political, and religious growth. She traces the character of Blackwell's moralism, which was woman-centered but not feminist, and the influence of François-Marie-Charles Fourier and William Henry Channing on the "Christian Socialism" that became her ideology.
   
   The scholarly apparatus is impeccable and the bibliography contains some real gems, such as Redelia Brisbane's biography of Elizabeth's sister Anna's lover, the Fourierist Albert Brisbane; John Closkey's history of Philadelphia General Hospital; and Flint's anonymous article, "Female Physicians," Buffalo Medical Journal, 3 (1848): 494-496.

1 comments about Fire, Blood and Forty Below.

1. Fire, Blood and Forty Below, set in Fairbanks Alaska in the 1980's, chronicles the first year of a new volunteer firefighter/EMT.
   
   Written in journal entry style, the pace of this book is fast. Most authors seem to think that filling a book with detailed descriptions of clothing, food, and room decorations makes them more "literary" so they tend to do it - ad nauseum. That is not the case here, there are no extraneous words, every word is necessary and valuable.
   
   Another thing that seems quite difficult for most authors to pull off, but that Alan does with great ease, is humor. I've read books that were supposedly humorous and had a hard time finding anything to even be amused by - throughout this book I was not only amused, but chuckling and laughing out loud!
   
   Since the majority of our nation's firefighters are members of volunteer fire departments, this book would give anyone considering the field an idea of what to expect, especially in a rural setting.

5 comments about Next of Kin: What Chimpanzees Have Taught Me about Who We Are.

1. Although this book was written some time ago, it is exceptionally timely because the relevance of chimp behavior to our own continues to unfold. The devotion the author invests in his charges and the passion he feels about the atrocities visited on chimps both in the laboratory and in the wild drive his story. This abuse is reinforced by the backward and ignorant thinking that stems from bible thumpers who fear the truth about evolution and man's close relationship to apes. Roger Fouts and his wife have provided an invaluable service to our understanding of chimps, and their research related to sign language is truly stunning. They have succeeded in accomplishing their observation and reporting against considerable odds. All these aspects, and the Fouts' fully rounded examination of their subjects make for a gripping and emotional tale well told.



2. At age 62, I still look for writers who will change and deepen my sense of our human nature and our place in the natural world. More than writers about religion per se, I think these writers are able to help us advance our moral and spiritual understanding and reconcile our human/animal natures. For some years I've been reading Goodall and others on primates, but Next of Kin was, for me, a pinnacle illumination. Even if you aren't interested in these types of questions, I think this book will move you deeply. If you ARE interested, may I also suggest the recent Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets.Take Me With You When You Go



3. A must-read for any animal lover. Roger Fouts and the recently deceased chimpanzee Washoe are my heroes.



4. "Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees" is one of the most amazing, heartbreaking, and inspirational books I've ever read. The book is written by Roger Fouts, a primatologist who devoted his life to studying the language patterns of chimpanzees. While in graduate school, Roger was introduced to Washoe, a precocious young chimp who became fluent in American Sign Language. Eventually "Project Washoe" expanded to include many chimpanzees, all who learned to communicate with humans using ASL and demonstrated unique personalities, complex emotions, and astounding intelligence.
   
   I've always been a big animal lover, but reading this book taught me so many things that I never knew before. Anyone who questions an animal's ability to think or feel will get a sharp reality check after reading this book. Chimpanzees are people, too, just as much as human beings are. Unfortunately, the majority if humans in this world don't agree with that logic, and thousands of animals, including chimpanzees, are routinely kidnapped from their natural habitats and bred in captivity for the sole purpose of participating in biomedical research. In many cases, medical laboratories house animals in appalling conditions and literally torture them to death. "Next of Kin" details the horrors that go on behind closed doors at biomedical laboratories, and chronicles the steps Fouts and other animal activists have taken to protect chimpanzees from being treated inhumanely.
   
   I absolutely loved this book. Reading it made me feel close to Washoe and her chimpanzee friends, even though I never met any of them before. (Sadly, Washoe passed away last fall at the age of 42, but I hope to visit members of her family at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute in Washington someday.) Parts of this book are incredibly depressing and difficult to read, but hopefully learning about the terrible ways animals are treated will inspire people to take action. I admire everything that Fouts, his family, and his colleagues have done to protect chimpanzees, who are our next of kin on the great evolutionary scale. I hope other readers get as much out of this book as I did.



5. A very readable & enjoyable book. I especially enjoyed the chapter on autism & the origin of language. Fritjof Capra's book "Hidden Connections" referenced this informative & amusing text including the link between brain function involved with hand gesture, signing, & tongue movements that unexpectedly led to the promotion the uptake of speech in autistic.
   There are many insights into the shared psychology of humans & other primates. Despite the physiological and genetic similarities of all primates that have made chimps attractive model organisms for research,it was interesting to read about the reluctance of biological scientists to accept the anthropomorphic traits of chimps. There can be little room for a claim to "value-free" objectivity by biomedical researchers who can apparently dismiss the psychological effects of enforced confinement & sensory deprivation, on the effectiveness of anti-viral medications, or a range of other pharmaceuticals. The author has shown considerable bravery & commitment to expanding this area of learning, despite the threats against his personal career by people with vested interests in ignoring or denying the contradictions to their implicit or explicit values.

2 comments about Of Time and Change.

1. In this well-written memoir, Frank Waters shares intimate details of his friendships with many of the artists who lived in Taos, New Mexico during the Mabel Dodge Luhan era. A pulitzer prize-winning author, Waters uses his talent with the pen to acquaint the reader with his artist friends in Taos and tell his own life story. Waters also shares his exploration of the history of Native Americans in the Four Corners area. If anyone is qualified to write about the art world in Taos at that time, it is certainly Frank Waters. A must-read for those interested in the Southwest.



2. While I agree with Steffanie Gibbons' view that the Waters' memoir is well-written, in that it flows with the pen of an accomplished writer, but I cannot not agree with a rating of five stars. The "intimate" picture portrayed gives a thin image of his artist friends. Moreover this picture is one of, somewhat desperate, people seeking to be significant as artists, but coming off more like hangers-on. After reading the book, Taos has lost much of the well manicured luster as an artist center, and comes off more like a tourist trap.

No comments about Leading with My Heart.