2 comments about Some Different Noise: The Memoir of an Unstandard Man.

1. This extraordinary book is about as subtle as a hand upon your thigh. No. It really is worthwhile reading, if I do say so myself. Like all good books, it has a few dull parts. but on the whole it's great. I guess that is bragging enough. I wrote it over about sixty years. The largest part was taken from my letters to my Mother and friends from Hong Kong. Try it. You'll like it.



2. Living a normal life in Colorado until he was thirteen years old, the author was bitten by a mosquito. The bug was a carrier of Western Equine Encephalitis, lucky to survive at all (70% died), Mr. Barker came out of the hospital permanently disabled but mentally undamed.
   
   Now 81 years old, having spent most of his life as a journalist. In this book he describes his life in locations literally around the world. A good bit of the time he was in Hong Kong writing. Here he was introduced to sex, and married two chinese girls. Returning to the United States he has lived a productive life, following a doctors advice that he is not diabled, just limited in some of the things he can do.
   
   This book is well written, a fast read, and leave you with quite a different feeling about the capabilities of the disabled.

5 comments about New Horizons and My Angels.

1. "Thank You Acaysha for touching my life so deeply. You are a true angel and a great inspiration. Your book has given much hope and inspiration to keep going, even when the rough is winning. You will touch many hearts and souls with your story - it's a honor to know you and be your friend." Everyone needs to read this book. You are such a courageous lady, a joy to be around and an inspiration for all of us, no matter what we are dealing with !! You story is heart-warming, touching, truthful and inspiring !! Thank you for having the courage to write and tell your story !!



2. "In her book New Horizons and My Angels, Acaysha, reaches into the very depth of the human emotion and explores the essence of development as it relates to her life as an emotionally underdeveloped victim of epilepsy since age 2. Having corrective surgery at the Mayo Clinic at the age of 26 she was not prepared for her new life that included pain, depression and self-awareness. She is candid and open with her new life struggles and shares her pain with the world in order to help others heal. She takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride as she struggles with her new life without epilepsy but now she has to deal with the reality of pain and how it fits into her new life. She introduces you to her 7 angel guides and straps you into the roller coaster to ride along with her as she travels the bumps, grinds, highs, lows, curves and triumphants of the new life leading to the ending her struggles to be "normal."



3. Through the trials and tribulations through life, a woman emerges.A ture friend and angelic being. Many adversities were thrown her way and she emerged victoirious with the help of the powers that be. Her life is a true inspiration. She touches many and heals many souls. I am honored to know her and be her friend. I write this DEDICATION TO ACAYSHA:

   SOMEONE WHO IS CARING, FORGIVING, KIND, THOUGHTFUL, GENEROUS, SPECIAL, ANGELIC AND A TRUE FRIEND;
   SOMEONE WHO HAS BEATEN THE ODDS AND WAS REBORN;
   SOMEONE WHO ACCEPTED CHALLENGES WITH DIGNITY AND GRACE;
   SOMEONE WHO WALKS ON FAITH;
   SOMEONE WHO HAS TAUGHT ME TO TAKE RISKS;
   SOMEONE WHO LIVES LIFE TO THE FULLEST;
   SOMEONE WHO TOUCHES THE LIVES OF MANY;
   ALL OF THESE THINGS DESCRIBE - - - ACAYSHA.

   MANY BLESSINGS,

   REV.KAREN WILKINSON




4. "Acaysha takes you on her journey ....an awe-inspiring story of hope and renewal of the human spirit! Her experience provides us a realization that life's challenges are, indeed, our very best teachers..... but only if we really pay attention to the lessons and letting go of those thought patterns of "Why is life so difficult?" and "Why is this happening?"
   Acaysha guides us to understand "what is real" and, in the process, we discover a world of majestic beauty... the peace and joy that Dolphins experience.In this world our suffering ends once we shed our "illusions."
   Acaysha guides us as her angels guide her. It is in this world where we can meet our very own angels. Thank you, Acaysha, for sharing this wonderful world!"

   Lanis Loveday Chidel (Artist/Feng Shui Consultant)




5. New Horizons and My Angels is a study in triumphant over the author's true life frightening and threatening struggles. The author unselfishly exposes with annotated reality how life was and how her angels caressed her into her new being. With a stunning combination of a gutsy knuckle down determination and the silky graciousness of spiritual insight, the author weaves in and out of medications, surgery, suicide attempts, severe migraines and hallucinations. Her brutal collisions with her own brain and her family conclude in birthing her anew to a fresh meaningful archetype.

   Acaysha's story starts with the affliction of epilepsy when she was two. At the age of 25, she was overwhelmed with 22 seizures in one month. Foraging for better answers to the seizure strangulation hold on her, she conferred with the Mayo Clinic. After extensive testing, she was accepted as a good candidate for a complex innovative surgery to remove the damage to her brain. This sparked the beginning of an amazing journey.

   After the brain surgery, the author regressed in many ways back to being two years old. As she learned how to climb the ropes of life all over again, she painstakingly and miraculously created a bridge over this crater of emotional pain to get to the other side of her new reality. She goes on to discover a surprising revelation about the seizures. They had served her well as her attention getters and her stress boundary keepers.

   New Horizons and My Angels is a megaphone cheering people to wake up and celebrate life no matter your situation. The author has proven that a wee little boat against the mightiest of cruel winds can make it through the storm to witness a dazzling rainbow.

   Sherry Russell
   Midwest Book Review

2 comments about Baby Catcher.

1. I wasn't too impressed with this book. I started reading it and never finished it. It just never really caught my attention. I also was looking for something more along natural childbirth lines, and this book is very medical.



2. I loved all of Dr. Weise's poignant stories related to life and living. More than that, I appreciated him stressing the importance of faith.

2 comments about REBOUNDING FROM DEATH'S DOOR.

1. Rebounding From Death's Door is an inspirational book that tugged at my heartstrings from every direction! From the moment I picked it up, I couldn't put it down.



2. Reading Rebounding From Death's Door I found myself crying, laughing & cheering. Most of all, I was left completely inspired. A must read for the entire family!!!

No comments about Older Than Time: A Grandmother's Search for Wisdom.

2 comments about Midwifery and Medicine in Boston: Walter Channing, M.D., 1786-1876.

1. Anyone with an interest in history, medicine, women's studies, or childbirth (mothers, fathers, doctors, etc) should read this book. Kass does an outstanding job of synthesizing the perils of one man who was standing on the cusp of medicine as we know it today. Walter Channing was a prominent physician in Boston during the 19th century who was a pioneer in the use of anaesthesia during childbirth.

   I found this book interesting not only because Kass brought an influential (and often forgotten) figure into the limelight, but also because she tied together threads of the social world in Boston and in medicine. Once you finish this book, you almost feel as though you understand what life was like and how difficult it was to provide "high quality" care to patients, particularly women in the 19th century.

   This book would be an excellent addition to any course in the history of medicine, but I would also highly recommend it to the lay reader as well as it is accessible to a broad audience.




2. As a reader who is not well versed in medicine or in American history (don't tell my mother!) I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable and a fast read. Walter Channing lived a rich and long life, and Kass wonderfully captures the medical, social, family and spiritual life of this man and 19th century America. Channing was one of the great men (and belonged to one of the great families)of early Boston, and his accomplishments and efforts to improve the lives of women and newborns were great. And yet here is also a wonderful story (often sad though sometimes with touching humor)of a very real and inspiring person.
   
   I have read a number of biographies recently--Gallileo's Daughter, A Clearing in the Distance(Frederick Law Olmsted) and this belongs in that group of complelling and thoroughly researched stories.

2 comments about The Dark Side of Surviving Gastric Bypass Surgery: (What Doctors Don't Disclose).

1. This has got to be, in my opinion, the worst book I've ever had the misfortune to buy. If possible, I would have given it NO stars. I acquired no useful information regarding gastric bypass surgery, and I'm still wondering what the 'dark side' was of his surgery. The book is filled with the blatant bragging of a self-involved human being. It's loaded with extraneous information that I can only assume the author includes in an embarrassing attempt to impress the reader with how 'educated' the author is, and how much money he has. I'm disappointed that Amazon would even carry such a trivial tome. This one is going back. I feel like my money was taken under false pretenses.



2. I'd like to second the other reviewer's negative comments about this book. Don't waste your money: the author can't write, he can't spell, and I can only imagine that this book was self-published, because it certainly didn't have an editor. Reading this is a little like being stuck on an airplane next to an insufferable blowhard. I did not find it a useful resource for people considering WLS, and that's really the point, isn't it?

3 comments about Che: A Memoir by Fidel Castro.

1. An intense and interesting look into Cuba's political sphere and also at Castro himself. Che Guevara is brought down from myth status and shown in a very human light. If only Che was still around...I know he would've solved that whole Elian Gonzalez episode...



2. Yes, Old Fidel did write this. No, he didn't sit down at his word processor and bash it out over a quiet weekend. It is a collection of Fidel's speeches, writings and interviews about Che. Some of them are very interesting. Some of them go on and on and on. This bloke can talk! It is hardly an intimate portrait, it doesn't reveal anything new, but it is still a worthwhile read - if only to highlight the relationship between Che and Fidel and the circumstances surrounding Che's disappearance from Cuba.



3. Now in a new edition which includes Fidel Castro's speech on the return of Che's remains to Cuba 30 years after his assassination in Bolivia in 1967, Che: A Memoir By Fidel Castro is a classic political memoir and biography of revolutionary and intellectual Che Guevara. Che: A Memoir By Fidel Castro is not structured like a standard biography; chapters jump back and forth through time, reflecting on key events in Che's political life, his implacable struggle for transformation, his martyrdom, and his legacy. An inset section of black-and-white photographic plates round out this unique appraisal of a complex revolutionary figure (whose impact continues to inspire men and woman to political resistance and activism long after his own death), as seen through the eyes of a national leader who admires him. Students of Che's live and work would be well advised to visit the Ocean Press website for a complete listing of all their Che Guevara related titles.

No comments about Over My Head: A Doctor's Account of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Out.

No comments about Normandy to Okinawa - A Navy Medical Officer's Diary and Overview of World War Two.