5 comments about All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs.

1. This is one of the times when I think we should be able to go higher than 5 stars. Elie Wiesel's All Rivers Run to the Sea gave us a more in-depth look to the concentration camp survivor. He really gives us a rich experience in weaving together the threads of his past, from his days in school to the horror in the concentration camps, right up to his days of being a journalist, and ending with him as a groom. You really get a feel for the type of person he is as well - a wonderful, compassionate, and intelligent man. If you've read Night already, you're definitely going to want to check this out.



2. I would strongly recommend that all readers on Amazon read the review whose title caption is ' Remember'. It is far more extensive and far better than the small remarks I am about to post.
   Elie Weisel is the one human being who more than any other has helped the world understand the horror of the Shoah , the Holocaust the Nazi destruction of one - third of the Jewish people six million human beings.
   For this he should always have a place in the historical consciousness of both the Jewish people and mankind.
   His memoir is at times very moving .For those who know his other work and his masterpiece ' Night' there will be much familiar here, though here the story is enriched by greater detail.
   I find myself whenever I am reading Weisel unable to really judge in abstract or purely literary terms. His significance as a human being, as a witness as one who has spoken to me in my own life is so great that my feeling is closer to reverence than anything else.
   I read this book with the idea that any additional detail about his life and work, any additional understanding of his thought about Man's relation to G-d would be worthwhile. I read this work as I will read all his future works as an admiring student of a great teacher.
   May he be blessed by many more years of great creative work.



3. I found this a very compelling read, lasting over several readings. It's true the author did not stick tightly to chronological order, but anyone who has read his fiction knows his style tends to be very esoteric and rather free-floating (I personally do not care for his fiction, which I admit I do find to go over my head). However, as a reader, I certainly got a feel for emotions he felt throughout different experiences in his life. I found the last scene describing his emotions before and during his wedding to be really profound. It's true that there is a lot of Jewish content in this book, which may cause some of his analogies etc. to be less accessible to someone from a different background. However, for someone who wants to read a first-hand Holocaust experience without very strong graphic details, I do recommend it. (As a side note, just last week I actually attended a speech by Mr. Wiesel, and he is really a personable, funny, self-effacing and sweet man, not the really sad and somber person you might expect from his writings. I was surprised by this, pleasantly so!)



4. This spectacular memoir of Elie Wiesel, the great author and voice of conscience, begins with his boyhood in the small Transylvanian village of Sighet.
   
   A pious child, with a great thirst for Jewish knowledge, a student of Torah and Talmud, and fascinated with the Kabbalah. Elie is swept into the Nazi ghetto and then death cams where he loses his parents and his beautiful little blond sister Tzipora, all of whom perished in the Nazi furnaces.
   
   He writes in memory of his losses:
   
   "If only I could recapture my father's wisdom, my little sister's innocent grace. If only I could recapture the rage of the resistance fighter, the suffering of the mystic dreamer, the solitude of the orphan in a sealed cattle car, the death of each and every one of them. If only I could step out of myself and merge with them".
   
   Wiesel writes of the prophecy told to his mother by the Wizhnitz Rabbi that her son would become a gadol b'Israel (a great man in Israel) but that she would not live to see it.
   
   Wiesel records some of the horrors he witnessed in the death camps such as live children being thrown into furnaces by the Nazis, and laments the inaction by the Allies to do anything about the extermination they knew was taking place of the Jews- saving Jews was not a priority for the Allies either.
   
   He mentions that most of the Jews who collaborated with the Nazis were intellectuals- not surprising in light of the fact hat most Jews who have thrown themselves into the campaign of hate against their fellow Jews in Israel.
   
   He writes about the liberation of the death camps by the Allies after the war, and how one of the youngest child survivors of Buchenwald was eight year old Israel Meir Lau, later to be the Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi of Israel. In his section of his travels around the world as a young man during the early 1950s he writes of his great compassion at the plight of poverty-stricken children in India.
   
   Wiesel records his life in a youth home for Jewish refugees in Paris and the fate of displaced Jews after World War II, his life as a journalist for Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot for whom he covered the Eichmann trial, civil rights struggles, the Six Day War, the 1968 Student insurrections in France, and other world events.
   
   He has always been greatly interested in philosophy and parapsychology and writes of his discussions with such great leaders as Golda Meir and David
   Ben-Gurion, as well as the greatest thinkers of the day. He writes of his great love for Israel and it's people for which he has been attacked by the hate-filled bigots of the International Left. He also took a strong stand for persecuted Soviet Jewry during the 1960s and 1970s. Elie Wiesel also writes of his great compassion for humanity as a whole, such as his pain at seeing the suffering of destitute children during his travels in India. But unlike certain Jews of the Left, he does not see a contradiction between this and his great love of Israel and the Jewish people- Ahavat Israel.
   
   He writes with great compassion, passion, anger, sadness and hope.
   In a plea for the plight of his own people today, especially the youth and children of Israel today targeted by terror and forces of genocide (such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Ahmadinejad regime- as well as all who are sympathetic to these anti-Jewish elements) he penned an open letter to President Bush stating: "Please remember that the maps on Arafat's uniform and in Palestinian children's textbooks show a Palestine encompassing not only all of the West Bank but all of Israel, while Palestinian leaders loudly proclaim that 'Palestine extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, from Rosh Hanikra (in the North) to Rafah (in Gaza). Please remember Danielle Shefi, a little girl in Israel. Danielle was five. When the murderers came, she hid under her bed. Palestinian gunmen found and killed her anyway. Think of all the other victims of terror in the Holy Land. With rare exceptions, the targets were young people, children and families. Please remember that Israel--having lost too many sons and daughters, mothers and fathers--desperately wants peace. It has learned to trust its enemies' threats more than the empty promises of 'neutral' governments".
   Elie Wiesel is a true voice of truth and conscience.



5. Elie Wiesel may be best known as the author of "Night", his harrowing and sparse account of his time spent in the concentration camps. His literary works have focused around the events that shaped Holocaust survivors and the questions those survivors had about their faith afterwards. His life's work is heavily imbued by those events early in his life, his novels vast testaments to making sure the world never forgets the atrocities man inflicted upon man.
   
   Yet there are many sides to this amazing man, which can often be forgotten when one dwells solely on his literary works. The first volume of Wiesel's memoirs, "All Rivers Run to the Sea", is a brilliant introduction and elucidation of the author. He relates quickly his early childhood and his time in the camps, but moves onto and focuses on his path after those events. As he forges a career as a journalist, meeting statesmen and celebrities, he finds himself and what causes he is willing to fight for. As a stateless person, his life is often difficult as he arouses suspicion, and he struggles constantly to make ends meet. Reading about his personal adventures, the reader sees how he is passionate, full of empathy, timid and captivating, a brilliant man with many stories to tell.
   
   For anyone who has read Wiesel's writings, the style of "All Rivers Run to the Sea" will be just as familiar: while it is divided into sections, his reminiscenses are as tangential as his fictional stories. Learning about his real-life adventures, readers can easily see how Wiesel has woven his experiences into all of his fictional works. The praises and accolades he has received are more than well deserved, for as long as he writes, his people will have a testimony to their past and to their faith.

5 comments about Cutting Remarks: Insights and Recollections of a Surgeon.

1. I found this book to be interesting for the fact he tells what surgery and the medical field was like back in the seventies. You can see how far things have come since then. He sounds like an awesome and insightful doctor. Wish there were more like him instead of some of the ones he describes in this book.



2. This book is hysterical. There were parts when I could not stop laughing. It gives a nice, well-rounded view of this surgeon's life. Interesting read.



3. Every medical student should read this before starting third year. Above all, this gives insights into the mindset of a first rate surgeon. The culture and work ethic of surgeons has not changed much since the 70's when I trained as a pathologist. As a bonus, the book has beautifully written explanations of the surgical details. And unforgettable humor. This will leave you a lot more inspired than "The House of God". Hospital administrators, RN's and surgeon's spouses would also benefit from this book.



4. I bought this as a gift for my son, currently attending medical school. I happened to look through the book before wrapping it up and became so engrossed I had to read it cover to cover, trying hard to be very careful not to crease the pages or spine. A slop of coffee spilled on a page as I shook with laughter at one of the stories in the book, gave away that I was now gifting a not so pristine book. No matter, my son loved it and has shared it with his friends. Meanwhile, I have become a daily reader of Dr. Schwab's blog at http://surgeonsblog.blogspot.com.



5. I liked Dr. Swab's book very much..I think he is a clever and interesting person who knows how to tell a story well. I like his blog stories too! Lynne in Oregon

5 comments about Married to a Bedouin.

1. This New Zealand-born woman with her Dutch ancestry talks about how she wasn't brave or didn't do anything extraordinary: she merely fell in love with a wonderful, decent, funny, charming and intelligent guy -- who happened to be Bedouin and live in a cave in Petra. I met them in the teahouse across from the amphitheater in the spring of 1989 when Salwa was a little girl and the boys were toddlers. Marg and Mo became our lifeline there and secured one of the new government houses in Umm Sehun for us to rent -- with a hot shower and all. We returned in the fall for three more months, learning so much from Marguerite: how to weave a tent from goat hair, to make margluba in one pot and attend a wedding. Each year for the next 10 years (until 2000), we remet and rekindled our friendship, having incredible fun with my own bint (daughter). Now, reading her book, I cherish each page, understanding even more about their special lives and what it means to be part of a Beduoin family.
   It is a book that is so pertinent today in understanding another culture and how our American government is clueless about that part of the world and the vastly different outlook, superstitions, meanings, approach to everyday living that the local people have. Bravo Marguerite.



2. Read this book right after touring Petra. It enhanced my feelings and memories if the place immensely. Well written. It gives a very good sense of what life was like in a Petra cave and being married to a very creative Bedouin man and his very large extended clan. Recommended highly, although I'm not sure how much I would have comprehended without having been there myself.



3. If you want to understand Arab culture no better place than to start here. You get a two for one. Petra is one of the great places on the globe and the people there are very special. Marguerite writes a cogent and charming account of her life from New Zealand to Jordan and her family in Petra.



4. Having been to Jordan several times and hoping to go back (I am totally in love with the country) I picked up this book at the airport for an in-flight reading.
   
   I thought it would be just another account of a western person whining about the ''wrongs'' of Muslim life but I was so pleasantly surprised that I couldn't put this book down.
   
   Margaruite's story is a matter of fact account and no preaching. She writes it as she experienced it and offers us facts which we can then make into whatever we want. She offers no criticism of the lifestyle nor does she compare it to the western lifestyle as many of the similar accounts are written nowadays. She also isn't a ''hippie gone native'' as she says many people used to see her as.:)) She simply fell in love with a man and adapted to live her life in his culture. You will enjoy the funny details, and I especially liked her account of the trip back to New Zealand with her Bedouin Husband.
   
   I admire her story, not just for the story itself but for the way it was written.
   Although I have been to Petra several times, after having read this book I went again to experience it in a totally different way, not stopping to admire the ancient Nabataean city but the people who live there and around at the moment. And the experience was unforgettable. We do tend to forget observing the people when doing the ''touristy'' thing at the historical sites. And ashamed, I must admit that the first couple of times around I was annoyed by the ''Bedouins'' trying to get me to buy the ''ancient'' items - but this time around I had a wonderful experience enjoying their spirit.
   
   I don't want to give away too much.
   Read the book. You will not regret it!
   
   Hope it will get you to plan your next holiday to Jordan!



5. I've only heard rave reviews of this book and was strongly encouraged to read it since I would be spending an extended period in Jordan. I think my expectations were too great. I had hoped to learn more about Bedouin traditions and culture and how a Westerner became a part of the society. I'm not a scholar of the Middle East, Arab, or Bedouin historty/tradition, but there was little information that was new for me. I found the book to be poorly organized, lacking of structure, and repetitive. Except for a few "chapters" when the author truly opened up to the reader, I felt as if I were reading a list of items from a day planner. From the anecdotes, it's clear Ms. Van Geldermalsen (Umm Salwa wa Umm Raami) led a rich life and experienced much that most of us will never know. I simply wish she had a better editor.

5 comments about Detour : My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D.

1. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the summer of 2007, at the age of 41 after being hospitalised. In the years prior, I struggled with depression, extreme emotional turmoil, and a precise feeling of not fitting in, of not feeling normal. After I was discharged from the hospital I sought out books that I knew to be out there regarding others and their experience with bipolar disorder to sort of get a handle on what I might be dealing up against. While Ms. Simon writes from the perspective of an intelligent, beautiful, talented young woman in the glow of her youth, I felt a resonance with her stories and encounters that make up "Detour". She visits with several other people she meets on a sort of mental health road trip and compares notes. Out of that came a dialog of the diffences, similarities, and ultimately the uniqueness of each person's bipolar disorder. If you or someone you love is struggling with an understanding of bipolar disorder, Lizzie Simon's book, "Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D" is essential to fascilitating your awareness.



2. Lizzie is courageous & heroic! Her memoir of a young woman struggling with bipolar disorder is not only brilliantly & creatively written, but it's incredibly inspiring!!!



3. This is not a scientific book. It is simply one woman's attempt to help us understand what goes on in the mind of a bi-polar person. It helped me better understand but most importantly, sympathize with any one who has the disease. I recommend it if you want a personal account of bi-polar.



4. I absolutely love this book! When one reads about bipolar, it is usually medical information describing the characteristics and treatments of and for this illness. This raw engaging view from a wise young woman gives the reader a first hand view of the interior landscape of bipolar illness. We go on a journey of discovery with Lizzie. And an amazing journey it is. There is so much misinformation and stigma on mental illness. This book helps to bring forth the reality of the illness and gives one hope. There is still much to unfold in the arena of mental illness, but it is like any other illness, it is an illness! It's so stigmatized because there are so many unknowns. Do we stigmatize cancer, epilepsy, diabetes?! I have a friend who is bipolar and have always struggled to understand it and now the door has opened. I am also currently in the wake of standing by another individual struggling with this illness and have gained greater compassion and coping skills from this book. My own family has a lineage of mental illness, though no one ever truly "coped" with it. I grew up in fear and misunderstanding. Thank you Lizzie for bringing forth truth, understanding and demystifying as best as possible the land of bipolar! This is truly a must read!



5. As someone who also suffers from bipolar disorder, this book hit very close to home. Lizzie Simon gave us a nice break from the typical scientific terminology, and replaced it with the emotional and mental hardships and experiences that people diagnosed with bipolar disorder know all too well. Her bipolar roadtrip provided comfort and understanding to all of us. Thanks Lizzie

5 comments about What I Learned in Medical School: Personal Stories of Young Doctors.

1. Not just for minorities or those who have faced hardships on the road to becoming a doctor, this book paints a very realistic and (often) terrifying tales of students' worst experiences in medical school.
   
   While it may seem intuitive that medical school is easier if you have financial support as well as a healthy personal and family life, not all of us are so lucky. This is a collection of stories from those who have found themselves in an unlucky position at one time or another. While most of them faced prejudices, the culture at medical schools has become more accepting; however, many challenges still remain. The most important part of the book is towards the end where a list of problems plaguing our medical school is outlined in a concise, clear manner. These issues are important whatever your race, creed or gender.
   
   The face of healthcare is changing and our medical schools must change with it. The obstacles created by academic beaurocracy and an unforgiving system apply to all of us. I would heavily recommend this to anyone apply for or already in medical school.



2. Not the best book I have read of this type, but interesting. Some of the writers come across as a little too self-involved (woe is me stories are not my favorite) and I skipped the poetry sections. Keven Takakuma's story made the whole purchase worth while, in my opinion.
   I imagine if you are a minority going into med school, you could relate very well to the stories of the struggles and concerns of these students.



3. I believe this was a great book. It was interesting and certain things they mention I can relate. My mentor let me borrow the book and it really motivated me to continue on the path of medicine.



4. A collection of touching and unforgettable true-life stories of a group of diverse individuals in pursuit of a career in medicine. Some of the stories are so intense that they leave you wanting more and wondering whether these people finally achieved their goals. This book proves that you can get accepted to medical school regardless of your ethnicity, religion, income, social status or sexual orientation.



5. There are many stories in here, but very few are about what anyone learned in medical school. In fact the first section is not about med school at all. One needs to understand before getting this book that it is really about Personal Stories, not about med school. These people could be in journalism school or on a cruise as far as the focus of the book. I did find in the middle of the book a few interesting descriptions of the experiences of medical school specific chapters, but not enough to make this worth the purchase if one is looking for what it is like to be in medical school. One of the things the authors avoid is the descriptions of middle of the road students and another which I find most dissapointing is the just how do medical students get through this huge work load that is there especially in the first two years. So, if you are looking for interesting personal experiences that have med school as the stage then maybe you will want this, but if you want to read about the everyday week in and out what are they experiencing and how are they doing it as med students in med school, well there is a little of that, but I think you will be dissapointed.

5 comments about Walk on Water: The Miracle of Saving Children's Lives.

1. I love to read medical non-fiction, and have read Danielle Ofri, Tilda Shalof, Atul Gawande, and about fifteen other authors who have written about their own journey as a medical student, resident, doctor, surgeon, or nurse. The time I spent as a teen in the hospital for a lung problem left me with a strong desire to understand how hospitals work and how people in the medical field think.
   
   This book's strength and weakness are, strangely, the same thing. Most medical non-fiction that I have read focuses on a variety of procedures, situations, and settings, even when it focuses on one surgeon or doctor. This book focused exclusively on congenital heart defects, so over and over again they described similar surgeries - heart surgery on newborns or older babies. This is wonderful if you are wanting in-depth information on congenital heart defects and how they are treated surgically, but as a casual reader, I got bored of having the same surgical staff, the same kind of operation, the same hospital.
   
   That said, Ruhlman's writing is excellent. I found the level of technical detail perfect for my needs, really enjoyed the historical background info he gave on congenital heart surgery, and got a lot out of learning about Roger Mees and his surgical staff.
   
   But the question is, with all of the generally interesting medical non-fiction out there right now, is this book your best choice among all of the competing books on similar topics?
   
   If you have a particular interest in congenital heart defects, then this is an amazing book. It even gives tips at the end about getting the best care you can for your child with congenital heart disease. The writing is accessible and interesting, and is very focused. I didn't notice the swearing, myself.
   
   But if, like me, your interest is more general, then maybe read a few other books first, like Complications by Gawande, On Call by Transue, A Nurse's Story by Shalof, Singular Intimacies by Ofri, or Baby ER by Humes, and see if your interest leads you in this direction.



2. I recently became a pediatric cardiac intensive care nurse. I never really understood what it was like to be a family, or cardiac surgeon until reading this book. It is so amazing that someone could write such as informational insiring book, that has no health background. It makes me proud to be a nurse for this type of unit.



3. Imagine opening a newborn baby's chest and holding his plum-sized heart in your hands, confident that you can repair it and give the child a healthy life.
   
   Meet Dr. Roger Mee, one of the world's top pediatric heart surgeons. Dr. Mee and his team at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio do just that, two or three times a day, five or six days a week. Author Michael Ruhlman spent a year as an embedded observer in this center of excellence, exploring an elite surgical specialty and the professionals who devote themselves to perfecting it.
   
   "Walk on Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit" is the wonderful product of that year, and you won't find a more fascinating or inspiring story. Ruhlman gives us a satisfying mix of history, anatomy, biography, and personal interest.
   
   The unit specializes in the repair of congenital heart defects. Each chapter starts with a case or an individual, suffering from or exemplifying some condition. Then the author catalogues the development of treatment options for that condition. Finally, he returns to the clinical setting to finish the story.
   
   Ruhlman discusses medical politics and the story behind outcome statistics. What is the impact on a unit's statistics when that unit is a referral center for the sickest babies? How can a patient -- or a parent -- know the importance of the BEST care versus GOOD care? Thorny questions are raised.
   
   But this is first and foremost the story of New Zealand-born Dr. Mee and his team, and the huge demands they make on themselves every day for the sake of these babies who got an unlucky draw -- at least, unlucky until they come under Dr. Mee's care.
   
   "Walk on Water" is action-packed and sensitively written. If you are interested in medical non-fiction, you WILL be stunned by this book. It's a completely absorbing read and I highly recommend it.
   
   Linda Bulger, 2008



4. Roger Mee, the surgeon profiled in this very well-researched and well-written book, would be the first to tell you that he possesses no divine powers. As he stresses, and author Ruhlman emphasizes, the craft of surgery is in attention to detail. An interesting contrast is drawn between Mee, who strikes the reader as very down-to-earth, and a brilliant but difficult intern, who (after this book was published) took his own life.
   
   The book also contains excellent portraits of Mee's surgical nurse, the difficulties facing anesthesiologists when working with 5-pound neonates, and is very sensitive to the awful, gut-wrenching torment suffered by the new parents, who would rather be anywhere than inside a pediatric ICU.
   
   Ruhlman is at his best when writing about how difficult it is to do things right, as in his other great book "Wooden Boats."



5. My daughter was born with a heart defect in 2007. She had had one open-heart surgery by the time I was introduced by word-of-mouth to this book. I can't say how important it was to me as a parent to read this book. It gives an insider's view of the world of congenital heart surgery and if you are a parent who wants to know what doctors really think and do, you have to read this - if you are a parent who wants to put all of your faith in the perfection of doctors, then don't read it. My family is very grateful that things have turned out well for my daughter, who is now 15 months, and can't thank her healthcare team enough... but if she needs another surgery, we are going to go to one of the surgeons mentioned in the book. We'll fly her to another state - whatever it takes to get the very best care for her. I hope if you are looking at this book because someone you love has a heart defect, that things turn out well for you, too. What a living nightmare. Read the book.

5 comments about The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy.

1. The Anatomist is another winner from Bill Hayes. The book tells the story of Gray's Anatomy, the definitive anatomy text that was first published 150 years ago this year. Most likely your doctor has come into contact with the text somewhere in their training or career. Until The Anatomist, very little has been written about the two others of Gray's Anatomy. Yes, there are two authors. While the book is named after Henry Gray who wrote the text, there was another author/artist who drew the meticulous, detailed drawings of the human body. As a matter of fact, it could be argued that the book is most well known for the drawings by Henry Vandyke Carter who has mostly been uncredited since the early editions. The story of the book is fascinating. After copious research very little is known about Henry Gray. I won't give away why. But in his research on Gray, Hayes stumbled upon Carter's journals which are filled with details about his life during those times. The journals provide a fascinating glimpse into the troubled life of Carter who is tortured by the religious doctrines of the time and his burgeoning sexuality. Of course scandal ensues for Carter and I also want give that away. The book is also a fascinating examination of the practice of journaling. Hayes himself is journal keeper and finds many similarities in the practice of keeping a journal with Carter who lived 150 years earlier. If you keep a journal, you must read this book. Hayes also includes side by side with the story of Gray and Carter his own experiences in the gross anatomy lab learning about the human body through dissection. Hayes is a beautiful writer. His choice of words and his descriptions of the human body are eloquent and strangely beautiful even when he is describing something that most would want to turn their gaze from. His sentences flow with grace and he seamlessly mixes all of the different elements of the story with his own memoir. Like his other two books, Hayes has a unique gift of combining traditional memoir with science. I can't recommend this book more highly.



2. Author Bill Hayes pursues parallel stories:
   * The back story on that medical reference icon, "Gray's Anatomy"
   * His own anatomical education in exploring dissection of the human body with classes of pharmacy, physical therapy and medical students
   
   He deftly shifts back and forth between the two narratives. He finds that he cannot do justice to Gray's Anatomy without chronicling the life not only of Henry Gray but also the book's illustrator, H.V. Carter. With the patience of a skilled investigator and historical sleuth, Hayes unearths a fascinating narrative of how Grays Anatomy came into being, a tale befitting the 150th anniversary of the book's publication.
   
   Hayes also touches on some interesting points regarding current medical student education, where hands-on dissection may be reduced if not supplants by CD-ROMS and computer-aided tutorials. Do fledgling doctors get the same benefit from that approach or is The Old Way the best?
   
   This is a good book but is somewhat marred by the distraction of Hayes' insistence that all the readers know he is gay. He inserts references to his "partner" Steve, how he got into body-building as a youth to attract the boys, etc. With a clicking sound in his jaw, Hayes suffers apparently not only from TMJ but TMI - Too Much Information! This undercurrent in the book adds little or nothing to the book's narrative thread. OK, we get it. You're gay. Move on! For the medical laity he insists on flaunting his gaiety.
   
   Despite this quibble, "The Anatomist" is a good book that will especially (though not exclusively) appeal to those interested in medicine, health and medical education.



3. Very interesting book with a different perspective of being a biography
   with a personal story of the author. Lots of background on everybody
   concerned. Its not just Gray's Anatomy but the collaboration of Gray and
   Carter. Not too technical but informative.



4. The Anatomist. Bill Hayes. New York: Ballentine Press, 2008. Pp. 250
   
   For those who do not know, Gray's Anatomy is not the television series, Grey's Anatomy, it is the medical school anatomy textbook after which the series is named. The Anatomist is a nonfiction book about the author and the illustrator of this famous textbook which was written 150 years ago and is it in its 39th edition. Physicians all over the world use it in dissecting cadavers and learning human anatomy. Additional stories that Bill Hayes skillfully weaves into the main story are his own experiences participating in anatomy classes with doctors, physical therapists, and pharmacists, and the story of working with his partner sifting through books, manuals, catalogs, diaries, and letters in libraries and archives in England and India as they uncover the story of the lives of these two men, both named Henry, Henry Gray, M.D. and Henry or H.C. Cartwright, M.D., Illustrator.
   Henry Gray is a man driven by ambition, fame, status, and money and is the principle force behind the writing of a concise and inclusive manual of anatomy to be used as a guide to dissection of the human body. He does achieve his goal but meets an early painful demise at the peak of a successful career. H.V. Carter, the illustrator, is the coauthor but was not given credit in name or financially to the degree that Dr. Gray was. He is a complicated, driven, obsessive, self deprecating man with strong Christian beliefs whose motivations regarding the book are to make the world a better place and live a life commensurate with his religious values. He pursues it with little regard for status, fame and fortune. His life is productive but tortured, and his career takes him to India studying and writing about tropical diseases. He has a scandalous marriage in India that leaves his wife and himself leading separate lives, he living in India, she in Europe with an occasional rendezvous when he is able to take a break from his work in India. She dies at an early age. He eventually acquires stature and fortune in the British government Indian Medical Service and remarries. At the age of 50, he presents his research on tropical diseases to peers such as Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, and Joseph Lister. I will leave the rest for the reader to discover. It is an interesting tale.
   To research the book the author, Bill Hayes, participates in anatomy classes and cadaver dissections with medical students, pharmacists, and physical therapists. Interwoven in the story of the two authors is a tour of the human body and the process of learning anatomy through dissection of human cadavers. It involves teamwork and getting to know the different types of people and their feelings of awe as they visualize, touch and feel the parts and understand the workings of the human body. It is an anatomy education for the lay person as well as some insight into the personalities of the different professionals. The other part of researching the book involved working with his partner who assists with the research by sifting through letters, diaries, notes, medical research papers, anatomy manuals, etc. both in Great Britain and in India. The materials are 150 years old and frequently illegible or very difficult to read. Of interest also are the authors' experiences gaining access to archives and dealing with various archivists. There is a much unexpected ending to the book that I will leave the readers to find.
   Personally, as a Physician, I have read Gray's Anatomy and used it in my dissection of a cadaver. That experience made the reading of this book particularly appealing. The book is of educational value to those without a medical background. It also gives insight into the personality types of the different professionals that the author worked with. The three stories of Dr. Gray and Dr. Cartwright, the anatomy classes, and Bill Hayes and his partner's research experiences were cleverly interwoven. The only negative I would say about the book is that the descriptions of Bill Hayes' experiences in anatomy class occasionally became a little long to sustain interest. The stories were fascinating, and I would rate the book as excellent. It was well researched, well written, and very interesting reading. I would recommend it to anyone. It is not a book with the gay theme but has a gay author. It is not written for the gay reader only but is a mainstream book.



5. The Anatomist is a delightfully told story about Henry Gray and Henry (HV) Carter, the author and the illustrator, of the landmark and still in use monumental tome, Gray's "Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical".
   
   I was first introduced to "Gray's Anatomy" while taking Human Anatomy in College on my way to degrees in the psychological sciences. That was many years ago. Years later, my interest in anatomy was again piqued while studying the life and works of Leonardo Da Vinci whom many consider the father of medical illustration.
   
   So it was that when I came upon a copy of "The Anatomist" I grabbed it, sight unseen as it were.
   
   It proved a good read, interesting, full of the history of the study of human anatomy, and as the title purports, Gray's Anatomy in particular. It is largely seen through the eyes of H.V. Carter the illustrator. The historical tract for Carter is extensive. That for Gray himself has been lost.
   
   Hayes takes one not only through the history of anatomy, but manages with some skill to take the reader right into the dissection room where the wonders of the unveiled human body are revealed. Tastefully done this short work is well work reading.

2 comments about La escafandra y la mariposa/ The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Un Sobrecogedor Testimonio Sobre Los Limites De La Naturaleza Humana.

1. This book is captivating and touching in both English and Spanish. Knowing that each and every letter of every word written was such an effort and struggle to write...makes the experience of reading this novel that much more powerful. This book is truly eloquent and thoughtful, as well as inspiring and beautiful. The reader will close this book with a greater appreciation of what they have now.



2. Un relato realmente conmovedor acerca de lo grandioso del espiritu humano y su fortaleza ante las adversidades. Es una historia real que nos obliga a reflexionar sobre el verdadero proposito y sentido de la vida.

5 comments about Truth & Beauty: A Friendship.

1. The reason I even looked at reviews for this book is so that I could gage how trustworthy other book reviews on here are and how seriously I should take them. Now that I look at the negative, totally ridiculous critiques of Truth and Beauty, I'm never trusting another sour review on here again! When somebody asks me, "What's your favorite book?" I used to say something by T. Capote or M. Angelo, but now I reply, without hesitation, "TRUTH & BEAUTY by Ann Patchett!" Seriously. This book is awesome and I'm annoyed even reading other bad reviews on here about it. Patchett writes in a way that makes me stop, re-read the page, and then say to myself, "Damn, this is great stuff! Why didn't I think of something like that?" I think if you are an aspiring writer, or just somebody who appreciates intelligent, well-written prose, then you should read this one. Do not trust the other reviewers on this page - they're probably the kind of people who'd give a Harlequin novel 5 stars.



2. Readers will likely recognize the author's name from her previous novels, including Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, and The Patron Saint of Liars, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Readers also may recognize Ann Patchett from her articles that appear in such publications as Gourmet, the New York Times Magazine, and the Paris Review. No doubt, some readers will recognize Patchett's friend, Lucy Grealy, as the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Autobiography of a Face.
   
   Truth & Beauty is the story of the friendship shared by Lucy Grealy and Ann Patchett. It is at once tender, heartwarming, heartbreaking and complex. Truth & Beauty is neither the story of Lucy nor the story of Ann, but of the parts of each life that were shared. What one lacked, the other offered for the relationship. What one shared, the other reached out to receive.
   
   Ann and Lucy met in the early 1980s while attending college. At the Iowa Writers' Workshop, they began a friendship that would become a lifelong process. This is no ordinary friendship. It is one riddled with emotional upheaval, creative successes and disappointments, health crises, and ultimately the lecherous hold of drug abuse.
   
   This is a phenomenal look at the way in which two exceptionally creative people lived, loved, wrote, and grappled with the realities of life. It is also an extremely sensitive description of the way a woman wrought with illness, despair and depression can one minute create beauty and the next minute search for ways to destroy herself.
   
   Truth & Beauty is the story of two friends who loved one another through the best and worst of times. It is a portrayal of loyalty and devotion over more than twenty years of friendship, and a haunting, heartbreaking portrait of the belief in the invincibility of one who lives so largely despite their diminuitive size. Only to find that no one is invincible...no one.
   
   by Lee Ambrose
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. I'm giving this book 3 stars because I like Ann Patchett's writing very much, but the story isn't as interesting to me as a woman in my mid-40s as it would have been had I read this in my 20s. In my 20s, this would have been a grand sweeping tragedy - a life changing book, a standard by which to judge loyalty and friendship. In my 40s, I went "eh." I read this as the story of two highly dysfunctional people in a suffocating relationship. It feels like Patchett wrote it as a way to exorcise her grief; and also perhaps examine her own less than healthy behavior. It did make me want to read more of Patchett's fiction. I picked up a copy of Patron Saint of Liars and am going to give that a try next. Part of me wants to say, Ann just forgive yourself already. We've all been there and done that. Maybe not in such an extreme way or for so many years... but we've all been sucked in by a charming selfish user. Learn a lesson and move on.



4. I don't like memoirs, but I read this one in one day. The two writers Anne Patchett and Lucy Grealy meet at Sarah Lawrence and later are roommates while pursuing Master's Degrees at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Fate deals them both great success as writers, yet their personal paths take completely divergent courses. The bond of friendship spans two decades and countless heartbreaks. Anne Patchett does portray herself to be the 'saint' in this friendship but you would almost have to be to endure the suffering that being friend to Lucy Grealy demanded. The themes of friendship, art, loneliness and love are rendered with realism and depth. Patchett's obvious love for writing and her poet friend is shared in this gift of a book.



5. wonderfully written. if you put a gun to my head and ask who was a better writer, patchett or her friend lucy grealy, the friend that makes completes this companionship, i'd say grealy. much more forceful, passionate and wild writer, hence grealy is not alive now, but patchett is. good book however. check out grealy's writings too.

5 comments about The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery.

1. I found the book immediately tedious and repetitive, a seemingly endless series of similar case histories of operations by the great John Hunter, in squalid conditions as he was reviled and admired. The book needed much stronger editing. The prose reminds me a little of articles in Readers Digest. There doesn't seem to be much drama or unpredictability here, the whole book's course is immediately plain. I guess if you like to know how modern operations originated this is the book for you, but it lacked something like vitality and sophistication to keep my interest. A real disappointment.



2. Funny how I'd always confused John Hunter with his brother William whose reputation as a prig more concerned with titles and position than with surgery filtered down to me through histories of science and the times that I'd read. And of course I'd come across the Hunter name in connection with lurid tales of body snatching and the gut-dabbling "Jack Tearguts" of Blake's "An Island In The Moon," which gives us the verbal equivalent of a Gillray print. Now Wendy Moore has brought clarity to this subject, and I now see that John Hunter was indeed on the cutting edge (forgive the pun!) of his profession! Moore takes us through the streets of Johnsonian London, complete with pavements slick with chamber pot slops, poor children willing to sell healthy teeth and mangle their smiles forever so that the smiles of the elite could be temporarily refurbished for tremendous sums, and every kind of illness ready to hurry man, woman and child to an early end and task their brief existences with gleets, tumors, stones, tremors, rots and imposthumes before they expired. Through it all stalked keen-witted John ("Jack") Hunter, skilled in teasing apart the threads and fibers of nerves and separating the anatomical processes for preparations that are still pointed to for the genius they display, and unafraid to spend long hours in the presence of the dead when the Ghost of Cock Lane made headlines in the daily papers. Like William Blake, Hunter was a plain speaker, totally sure of his abilities, and this of course brought him enemies by the dozens from among the tribe of doctors and surgeons who relied on reading "the Ancient Classics" on medicine and an old boy system to put them in positions of power. Hunter, on the other hand, was almost alone in his insistence on learning from close observation and trial and error. In an age when surgery was done with dirty fingernails and aprons stiff with dried blood, this system perhaps did not bring much visible change to the sad lives of those stricken by ill health, but it was the key to the invention of new techniques and the arrival of our modern understanding of the human body. But this is not all; Moore also shows us that this wide-ranging intellect was intent on understanding the well-springs of life and the "living principle" itself and fashioned an early form of evolutionary theory which he taught to his students. However, there is indeed an unsavory, and even a sinister side to this story. Hunter grows obsessed with obtaining the bones of a young Irish Giant, and he does so against the poor man's death bed wishes. The literary salon that Hunter's beautiful wife sponsors once a week takes place while Hunter and his crew of helpers and students unload bodies delivered by the resurrectionists to the basement door. We can only imagine the occasional smell of decay wafting up the stairs while Horace Walpole holds forth in powdered wig on the superiority of English literature. The surgeon grows more and more eccentric, because perhaps his mid-life experiment involving syphilitic self-innoculation was having unexpected ramifications. Moore also tells us about Hunter's menagerie and his practice of wide-awake, bug-eyed, howling vivisection-unto-death, which would horrify animal rights activists today. Still and all, the Jack Hunter of Wendy Moore's book is a real hero.
   
   Though the writing in The Knife Man can sometimes be redundant, the style is good and the content compelling, if at times, a little grim. I recommend this book highly.



3. John Hunter was a blunt, irascible sort who was not disposed to accept established opinions on health and the functionings of the human body. Living in London during the 18th century, he quickly developed a reputation as an iconoclast who rejected tradition and sought to learn as much as he could about human anatomy. This necessitated a strong stomach and a willingness to flout the law. Since dissecting a human body was against the law, Hunter and others who wished to do so had to be willing to deal with unsavory body snatchers who haunted cemeteries and execution sites.
   
   This fascinating biography is divided into chapters with headings similar to those found in hard boiled detective stories. Each describes one of Hunter's famous human or animal dissections and traces the expansion of knowledge that resulted. The descriptions are colorful and vivid and do an excellent job of depicting the full sight, sound, and smell of London in the 1700s. The stories of Hunter's dissections and his surgeries, many surprisingly complex and invasive despite the lack of anesthesia and antiseptics, fill the reader with awe and admiration.



4. Not a quick, easy read, but an interesting and intriguing read to see how far all medicine, especially surgery, has come. The story begins and is largely finished even before handwashing was known to be a preventative of disease and infection. The reader is left to wonder how far medicine and surgery will progress in the next 300 years and how doctors,surgeons and readers of that day will look back on what we consider "state of the art" medicine today.
   
   (When discussing this book at recent book club meeting, one of our members, a physican, said he believed people will ultimately look at what we are doing with chemotherapy and radiation in the treatment of cancer to be the equivalent of bleeding and humors in John Hunter's day...an interesting thought.)
   
   This is a book a that will stay with you and come to mind weeks and months after the reading is done. Fascinating read. Most fascinating. At times amazing and mesmerizing.



5. The surgeons of the 18th century faced a dilemma that would tie any of today's bioethicists into a pretzel shape.
   
   They had inherited a crude, limited, unsystematic and usually ineffective technique from medieval or even classical times, but to get to today's comprehensive, delicate and scientific methods they had to experiment on the living and the dead.
   
   The question of experimenting on the living presents obvious difficulties, but in some ways experimenting on the dead was an even more problematic question 250 years ago. Many people held a religious belief that a corpse disassembled on Earth could never be reunited in heaven after the Second Coming. There was also a deep horror of autopsy itself.
   
   Few if any of the surgeons of the day or their admirers spent time worrying about this, and certainly not the greatest body investigator, John Hunter, subject of Wendy Moore's "The Knife Man."
   
   Many writers have commented on the brutality of 18th century London, but none that I know of presents it in such a chilling way. Not only the descriptions of surgeries done without anesthetic (other than alcohol or opium) and without concern for either asepsis or antisepsis, and not only the lack of social fastidiousness that allowed both surgeries and autopsies on stinking corpses to be done in private homes.
   
   There was also the social brutality of the grave robbing and corpse stealing. At public hangings, there were brawls that lasted for hours between families of the condemned and surgeons' "recruiters" for possession of the bodies of the hanged. Most different from our own conceptions was the indifference toward crime and brutality on the part of the leading lights of this age of the most particular personal fastidious (in behavior if not personal hygiene) among the upper crust. Both the logic-chopper David Hume and the moralizing historian Edward Gibbon, whose favorite word was "specious," attended a full course of anatomy lessons on stolen corpses, and Moore observes that Gibbon, the cultivated gentleman, courteously thanked the surgeon following every session.
   
   Into this brawling maelstrom of medieval savagery and only slightly less savage Enlightenment wandered a possibly dyslexic Scottish farm boy, John Hunter. Never have a man and a place been better suited to each other.
   
   Hunter had an astonishingly deft touch with a scalpel, which would not have meant much to us except that he also had a fearless, keen brain coupled with a fanatic desire to learn what life was. There were other, bigger cities (like Istanbul), but if Hunter had ended up there, we still would not have heard of him. London was in his time (1728-1793) the world's emporium, and he cut up not only stolen people but whales, dormice, lizards and lions. Anything could be had through money or influence.
   
   Moore's biography is an odd combination of popular biography and scientific monograph (with over 40 pages of endnotes). It can be read for information about the origins of surgery, evolution, physiology and medical care; or as a real-life novel with unbelievable plot turns that would shame the scriptwriter of an opera , soap or grand.
   
   Hunter was consulted about the infant Byron's twisted foot and Hume's cancer; his wife was rather too friendly with Joseph Haydn; he discovered the separate circulation of the blood in mother and fetus; he helped found the first medical and first veterinary schools in England, he . . . well, you will have to read Moore's book, the list is almost endless.
   
   Hunter introduced a rigorous, scientific method into biological investigation -- ironically, in opposition to his older brother, William, who was also a famous anatomist but stuck in medieval ways -- and he made numerous discoveries. Some were correct (bees make wax) and some were incorrect (syphilis and gonorrhea were the same disease).
   
   Famed among the medical community, Hunter is probably best known generally for his relentless pursuit of the pitiful Irish giant, Charles Byrne. Byrne had such a horror of being "anatomized" that he asked his friends to put his body in a lead coffin and sink it in the English Channel. Hunter got it anyway, and Byrne's bones can still be seen in Hunter's museum, even though half the collection was burned by Nazi bombs in 1941.
   
   Hunter's bones are in Westminster Abbey.
   
   This book badly needs illustrations of Hunter's "beautiful" natural history preparations, but it does not have them.