5 comments about Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

1. Gladwell offers an intriguing look at how the subconscious or intuition of a person works in different situations, as well as how it can be trained and the importance of sometimes taking a step back before acting on a situation. This is a relatively quick read with some intriguing ideas offered in it. If you like this book, you may find it useful to track down some of the writings by people he references as they go into more depth than Gladwell does.



2. First, let me say that this is a good book. It's well worth your time to read. I don't think that it's as good as the Tipping Point though. This one seems to go a little longer than what is necessary maybe. It seems to be like Mr. Gladwell is trying to stretch it out a bit. The good thing about all of it though, is that it is a very quick read, and you won't have a lot of time invested into it. So definitely pick this one up, you won't regret it!



3. This book is a great buy and the seller is very good. Lightning fast shipping.



4. This is a very good book. (Sorry to repeat myself...) I really appreciate the other side of the coin. Thinking has been drilled into my head and I tend to totally ignore anything else. If it isn't a fact that I can define, it can't be not real or true. But there is some value in intuition. Some things are under the radar of our thought, (and should be, or we'd be overwhelmed), but they can be important. Intuition is our way of communicating that to ourselves.
   
   This book has gotten some criticism - of course people should think. But there has not been much written on the power of intuition. When a person is knowledgeable about a subject, and they feel like something is wrong, they should trust, or at least acknowledge and respect that feeling. You can't just trust your intuition (make a guess) and go with it if you don't know anything about the thing you are "guessing" about. But if you do know about something, say you are an expert on US Currency (or someone who handles money alot), and you see a $20 bill that something seems wrong, should you act on that instinct, or do you say - "I can't see anything specifically wrong with it, so it must be ok."? If you were a foreigner, and came to the US, and looked at a $20 bill and said - something seems wrong about this, of course you can't go with that feeling, because you don't know anything about a $20 bill.
   
   Anyways, read the book. It's worth it.



5. I think this is a must read, especially for those that enjoy psychology and understanding human behavior, human interaction and the reason we do many of the things the way we do. I think it is also a great self improvement tool

5 comments about Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry.

1. This book is one of the best biochemistry available. It presents an extensive amount of valuable concepts and information a highly readable manner. I used this text as an undergraduate and even as a gradduate student I find it impossible to part with it. The understanding biochemistry CD that is included with the book is also an excellent tool for revision. I found that the retention of information and ease of understanding is higher when the book is used in conjunction with the CD. It comes highly recommended for any serious students of biochemistry and as an invaluable reference.



2. If you are a undergraduate or a graduate student who needs to learn some biochemistry from the ground up (without an instructor), this is the text for you. Lehninger really outdoes himself by creating a Biochemistry textbook that's not only colorful and pretty to look at but also wonderfully written. Of all of the science textbooks I've had to read to date, this was the best! Lehninger really does write the text so that it's like reading a novel, which allows for maximum absorption of the material he covers. Occasionally, I hit spots in my reading which were harder to understand, but that was because my own ignorance and not his. He begins the text with a review of the basics of general chemistry and organic chemistry which come into play with the biochemistry subject matter. Then he continues on, developing the student's foundations with describing protein structure and protein function, working his way up with enzymatic properties and activities. Carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids come next. The last section of the book is devoted to biochemical mechanisms, which is alot, but it is covered adequately for a beginner's textbook. The only major drawback: many of the answers to the chapter questions are wrong, hopefully, this will be addressed in the 4th Ed. If your school doesn't use Lehninger, protest, write treatises, do anything to convince your Biochemistry professor to use this text to teach you biochemisty! It's expensive, but once you have this textbook, don't ever sell it because if you're going into chemistry or biochemistry, it will be a priceless resource for your future studies!



3. This book is complete and thorough in explaing every energy pathway (Kreb's cycle, electron transport system, glycolysis, etc.) The diagrams are helpful and explain the material with visual detail especially in this type of book. The only thing, the book is somewhat hard to understand for reading it the first time. I know biochemistry is a hard subject, but I thought it could be explained in a little easier fashion. However, other than that, the book is quite organized and a must buy for every chiropractic student taking biochemistry. I also highly recommend:
   National Board of Chiropractic Part I Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers
   Both these books I found very helpful for studying for the National boards. The text is a must for studying for the biochemistry part of the chiro boards.



4. The Lehninger Princicples of Biochemistry is the best book in biochemistry that has been written. I have use it in my biochemistry course in my first year in school medicine and thanks to this book I pass my class with one of the best notes in the group. Any other book exposes the biochemistry principles with clarity and coherence like the Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. I can't wait for the 4th edition.



5. As a physics graduate student interested in biophysics research, I found this text an invaluable resource. I had intro chemistry as an undergrad and AP bio in high school, but no organic chemistry or any other background. This text contained a clear introduction to biochemistry and described a lot of the techniques I was reading about in scientific papers in language that a non-chemist could understand. I still refer back to it frequently.

5 comments about The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

1. If anyone's been patient enough to read all hundred-plus reviews up to this point, they already know what this book is about, how well-written it was, how well researched, and how terribly humane.
   
   All I can add is that, though I read (well, start, at any rate) about a hundred books a year, and have been doing so for about three decades now, this is the single best book I've ever read.



2. This was an outstanding book. You may need to be a social anthropologist at heart to really love it, but the book was so enlightening on so many different levels. The background and customs of the Hmong are fascinating, and their clash with western culture is eye opening. I learned so much, not just about the Hmong, but about my own beliefs.



3. A fascinating case study of a Hmong family's profoundly frustrating encounter with a county medical center in rural California. The book is very well written, and gave me fresh insight into what it really means for us to be a "nation of immigrants." My only frustration was with the organization of the book. As it jumped backed and forth between the micro and the macro, and between the recent and more distant past, the narrative lost some of its momentum. But that said, it is one of those rare books that has made me look at the world in a new way, and for that reason, I highly recommend it.



4. As the title implies, this book offers an alternative perspective of epilepsy, or seizures, as seen through the lens of the Hmong people. It also provides a fresh view of Western so-called civilization itself, and most particularly Western medicine.
   
   I doubt there's any American today who doesn't harbor at least some ambivalence about how medicine's practiced in the United States, and I'm not just talking bills and insurance. Foua and Nao Kao Lee didn't trust the doctors who tended to their baby daughter Lia when she began to have seizures; they worried about doing damage to their baby's soul. In the Hmong culture, sickness is a signal of disturbance to the soul, and healing is a matter of tending to that soul. When did you last see an American doctor do that?
   
   Even had the doctors who cared for Lia known of this tenet of the Lees' belief system, they probably wouldn't have given it consideration. As things were, they knew little about their patient's family: not only did the Lees not understand English, but the Hmong culture is so far from that of anything remotely American, the doctors hadn't the ears to hear, eyes to see, or consciousness to absorb any of it. To them, as to many Americans, the Hmong are a "Stone Age" people, ignorant and superstitious.
   
   Certainly Hmong rituals and healing ceremonies are strange and arcane--but no stranger than those of the Catholic or Jewish faith: all utilize symbols, whether it's wine standing in for the blood of Jesus, drops of wine spilled onto a plate for Egyptian plagues, or a wooden bench transformed into a winged horse carrying a healer in search of a sick person's soul. Why is it that the good citizens of the United States laugh only at the latter?
   
   Writer Anne Fadiman decided to look at American medicine through the prism of Lia Lee's sad story. She discovered, and conveyed to readers, the richness of Hmong culture, devoid of sentimentality. Fadiman is careful not to imbue the Hmong with the kind of romanticism that European Americans tend to hold about Native Americans: she does not evade the fact that they can be extremely difficult. By allowing them full humanity, she brings them vividly to life the same way a novelist does her characters--though non-fiction, thi book is as compelling as a great novel.
   
   The Hmong came to America in the 1980s courtesy of war in Southeast Asia. They'd been living in the mountains of Laos, to which they'd migrated from China. The Hmong never assimilate into the culture of the country they inhabit, and have suffered persecution for centuries. Much like the Roma or the Jews, they're a migratory tribe without a homeland--but I doubt they ever felt quite as displaced as they did when they got to the United States. Because they helped the CIA in Laos, the Hmong were promised they'd be welcome in the U.S.--but when the troops left, they jetted only generals and hotshots out of the country, leaving the rest of the populace to fend for themselves. With the Laotian army hunting them down as enemies of the state, Hmong families set off on foot, carrying whatever they could manage. Many, particularly the old and the young, died along the way. Most possessions were shed, too heavy to carry, on the days-long journey. When they arrived in Thailand they were placed in refugee camps, where they waited to be rescued by the Americans. Those who were finally brought to America were `resettled' all over the map, without regard for family cohesion or transferability of survival skills: in Detroit, Minneapolis, Utah, Vermont--the Hmong were distributed all over the country so as to not unduly `burden' any one locality.
   
   The Hmong tend to have large broods of 12 or 13 children, who they deeply adore, and they view disability as a consequence of some parental transgression, for which they atone by treating children with disabilities extra lovingly. They're used to living near relatives, who they see frequently, if not daily. The diaspora of the Hmong represented unspeakable hardship--which they resolved with what they call their `second resettlement.'One family would pack up a hastily purchased jalopy and drive off, looking for a spit of land hospitable to growing vegetables and the herbs necessary for healing rituals. They'd end up where all pioneers do, in California, and send news to relatives in Detroit or Chicago or Billings, Montana. Eventually, pockets of Hmong were clustered in a few locations around the country. Of these, Merced, California, where the Lee family settled, is one of the largest.
   
   About one in every six residents of Merced, formerly an all-white rural area, is now Hmong. Here their culture and community thrived, parallel to the dominant culture, assimilating as little as possible. One way they did have to assimilate is medically: since 80% receive some form of government assistance, social services closely monitor them. American social workers do not have a high level of tolerance for cultural difference, and many Hmong practices, like gardening on the living room floor, or animal sacrifice, put parents in danger of losing their children to foster care--an unthinkable consequence that did occur, for a period of time, to Lia Lee.
   
   The Hmong had heard about Western medicine even before arriving on these shores. They approved of antibiotics--swallow a pill and get well in a week--but not of much else. Surgery was anathema, since cutting the flesh or removing organs risks the flight of the soul. When their daughter Lia fell into the hands of the medical establishment, the Lees suffered deep agony over every procedure, from IV insertion to spinal taps.
   
   Fadiman explores the interactions between the Lees and their daughter's medical caretakers in exhaustive detail. Whenever Lia suffers a setback, the Lees blame the doctors and their methods. The doctors accuse the Lees of "noncompliance" when they fail to properly dose Lia with three different kinds of anti-convulsants at the various times of day prescribed, not realizing that the Hmong don't even use clocks. Fadiman presents a balanced picture, blaming neither the family nor the hospital, but cultural barriers, for what goes wrong--and eventually things do go terribly wrong. By the age of four Lia is brain dead. The hospital hooks her up to feeding tubes, expecting her to die within days, but the Lees insist on taking her home, where they disconnect every tube and treat Lia as a favored family member. They take turns carrying her around on their backs; like a mama bird, Foua pre-chews her daughter's food and feeds it to her orally; they sacrifice pigs in healing ceremonies; and Lia sleeps with her parents every night. To the astonishment of the medical community, Lia does not die, and by the end of the book, years after being declared brain dead, she's still alive. As I write this, Lia Lee is still alive and lovingly cared for by her mother and siblings. Her medical condition has not changed. Her father, Nao Kao Lee, died in January of 2003.
   
   This book enriched, and possibly changed, my life. I can't recommend it too highly.



5. Well-written, gripping, thoughtful, thorough investigation into the tragic and seemingly unavoidable events in the life of a sick young girl and her loving family. Everyone wanted the best, but it all went terribly wrong. A compelling example of why we all need to keep learning from each other.

5 comments about A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing).

1. I'm a history minor in college and am starting to get into those history classes that ask for a lot of papers. The teachers said that we would be using the Chicago style to cite our work. A few of the students in the classes along with myself had never heard of the style before so one of the teachers mentioned this book. It helped me so much! It explains what to do and gives examples right away for you to work with when citing work. The only difficulty I had was using the table of contents, but it doesn't take long to work out that issue. Otherwise great book. If you do anything that involves writing when it comes to history, you should have this book!



2. This manual is very user-friendly. It's a must for anyone writing papers in the respected fields in which it is intended. It is worth every penny.



3. Turabian 7th ed. is all I expected. the only bad would be is a an update now that I have just purchase this one. The info in these is always timely for the achievement of the best papers can write as they stand above.



4. Every year, I have more papers that must be in Turabian style. This is a must have for those who are upper level in college or in graduate school.



5. The book arrived in a timely manner, and was in good shape. We got exactly what was stated in your description.

5 comments about Medical-Surgical Nursing (Single Volume): Assessment and Management of Clinical Problems (MEDICAL SURGICAL NURSING (LEWIS)).

1. This same book is available in a two-book set. I highly recommend the split version so you don't have to carry one, huge, heavy book around all semester!



2. This and other textbooks put out by Lewis and Mosby are combersome, wordy, unorganized, and unprofessionally written. I have been subjected to two other texts written by this author. I am a self learner and have read many texts. Some are good and some are bad. This one is in the bad category.



3. The whole transaction was quick and shipping was within a week. The product was as described, couldn't be happier.



4. This is a great book that is very useful for the begining RN student. It explains everything in detail and shows how things are done. Very useful for quick facts about the diseases and their processes. GREAT BUY!!!



5. This book is a required text for my nursing class. This one was in excellent condition. it is easy to use and understand.

5 comments about Bates' Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking, Ninth Edition with E-Book (Guide to Physical Exam & History Taking (Bates)).

1. Great book on physical examination and history taking. Will recommend to other healthcare/medical providers.



2. I am a Physician Assistant Student and i have to admit that every semester we are required to buy books and at the end of every semester i sell my books buy. This was the only one i did not sell back. Its great for a person who is beginning the medical field and is great for someone who just wants to brush up on technique. The CD located in the back of the books is really not that helpful because it skips critical parts of the physical exam however its good to see how to do certain things. Most of the books chapters are well organized except for the HEENT chapter bc its all over the place. However i LOVE my Bates and i still use it on clinical rotations.



3. Good book and a geat resource. This particular work places the patient History and exam in a logical and systematic approach with illustrations and study helps - a keeper.



4. I am taking BSN courses and this text is required. The book includes a CD which I have not had the time to review.
   
   The text is very good. It has a great flow from system to system. There are many color photos to explain the various findings. The book is through and I especially love the red text in the borders that explains the criticial thinking of the assessment coupled with the finding.
   
   I own a Mosby's guide from my previous Nursing classes. I thought it was good until I purchased Bates. This is my new favorite examination text and one I will keep in my personal library for years to come.



5. The book was true to description- Never used. It still had the CDs in it. The price was excellent ($10.00 for a book that cost $100+) and delivery was fast.

5 comments about Atlas of Human Anatomy: With Netteranatomy.com (Netter Basic Science).

1. This text has quality, picture that will help you understand gross anatomy. If you want a clinical atlas this is not the one for you. It does have the MRI's, CT etc. However, it does the the job for the student and helps for provide a greater understanding of gross anatomy.



2. As an Anatomy Masters student, I highly recommend Netters for anyone who is taking an advanced anatomy course especially graduate students and medical students. This book has wonderfully detailed pictures that aid in your studying, and the online Netters is riddled with study hints, image downloads and has really improved my study guide capabilities. This book may be a bit advanced for most undergraduate courses (there are cheaper ones out there with everything you need), but will definitely cover all the material you need to know.



3. As a medical student, purchasing a Netters Atlas is essential. I borrowed one during anatomy, but bought my own after the class so that I could always have it for referencing.



4. Frank Netter, M.D. created approximately 20,000 paintings of the human body and provided countless medical students with an invaluable educational resource. He can be credited for teaching multiple generations of doctors worldwide. Although he is now deceased, his legacy continues to provide students with intricate knowledge that only a physician and gifted artist could have given. I am thrilled to have purchased what I consider an educational necessity for such a reasonable price.



5. From what I have been able to gather online from the publisher (Elsevier), the Professional Edition is the only one that is supposed to come with the CD, which is purported to contain "over 80 of the most important anatomy illustrations from the book to use in presentations and lectures."
   
   View the differences between the editions:
   Professional 4th Edition:
   http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781416036999
   Soft Cover 4th Edition:
   http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781416033851
   
   It seems to be $60 more (at least, depending on where you look) for just for the CD (and the Hardcover opposed to the Soft Cover). The Professional Edition is more like a Reference book for a library, but hey maybe you need that. The 4th Ed. Soft Cover still comes with the ability to log onto "www.netteranatomy.com" for "Ninety plates from the book as well as a powerful and varied bank of ancillary material, unique to this atlas, are available online" through that Netter Anatomy Website. Through I'm fairly certain that the Professional Edition also comes with that ability.
   
   Also in response to the earlier post, the Interactive Atlas of Human Anatomy 3.0 CD only comes with the 3rd Edition, not the newest 4th Edition. Here is the link just to that 3rd Edition CD:
   Interactive Atlas of Human Anatomy 3.0, 3rd Edition:
   http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781929007141
   
   Hope this helps.

5 comments about Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

1. Ever wonder if sumo wrestling is rigged? Or maybe pondered the likelihood that the slim wealthy single you met on a dating site is overweight and unemployed? In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner take on these questions and more in their fascinating and hilariously funny exploration of the most bizarre phenomena our world has to offer. Using solid research and piercing wit, Levitt and Dubner delve into the inner economic workings of those enterprises that are ignored by stock traders and analysts, and tackle the social issues that are too touchy, or just too weird, to be covered by more traditional writers.
   
   Using the theories of economics, Levitt and Dubner challenge so-called "experts" or talking heads by asking intriguing questions. For instance, in the chapter titled, "Where Have All the Criminals Gone?" various experts are quoted claiming that the reduction of crime in the 1990's was due to several factors: a larger police presence on the streets, an aging population, and/or longer prison sentences. Levin and Dubner dispute these theories and set out to show us that Roe vs. Wade, the legalization of abortion, affected the crime rate more than any other factor. Levitt and Dubner offer the reader compelling statistics to demonstrate that a reduction in unwanted children directly influenced the reduction in crime. In another chapter Levitt and Dubner draw correlations between sumo wrestlers and teachers, showing that they both resort to cheating under pressure, while in yet another chapter we learn why street gang members could run McDonald's.
   
   Some readers may argue with Levitt and Dubner's conclusions, and question the difference between correlation and causation; despite those objections, this is a worthwhile read that encourages the reader to question foregone conclusions. Levitt and Dubner also have a weekly column in the New York Times.
   
   Quill says: Freakonomics will change your view of economics, and the role it plays in everyday life.



2. While reading this book, I remembered something that my father told me when I was about ten. He told me that in the USA a lot of effort was put into gathering data about every imaginable thing. Then two sets of data were compared to see how often one thing occurred at the same time as another. "I will give you an example: they compare how many dishwashers are sold in one month with the test results in mathematics and in biology of the children coming out of the first and fourth grade. Then something like this can come out: the more dishwashers are sold, the better the grades in mathematics of the children in fourth grade but their biology grades seem to stay the same no matter how many dishwashers are sold. The grades of the children of first grade are worse both in mathematics and biology when more dishwashers are sold." "Daddy, it is sooo foolish! What do dishwashers have to do with your math grades?". "Think of it more carefully, it's not at all foolish! It's probably not the most elegant approach, but it surely is useful. By doing this, they are generating theories, a lot of theories. Then they can discard the ones that are useless. This approach might lead you nowhere with several theories, like the one I exaggerated, but at some point it's Bingo!"
   
   Having said this, and although I found the book an easy, entertaining and at times funny reading with some interesting cases and conclusions, I did not find it overwhelming.
   
   I cannot help thinking that the author did not go far enough with his research. I would have liked that the author explained the statistical methods he used, as well as the certainty or error levels obtained, and also what these latter mean.
   
   I am probably biased, but I would like to quote A. Zee, author of several books on quantum physics: "My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful, but when I had to chose, I usually chose the beautiful." I cannot judge the truth in Levitt's propositions, but I find them extremely ugly. Although he would not propose it and even seems to be against it at the end of the chapter, starting from his supposed facts, logical reasoning would lead us to suggest that in order to reduce criminality, a government would do well promoting abortion among young mothers to be, specially if they are teenagers, have not finished school and belong to an economical lower class (if they are Afro-Americans or Latin it is even more probable that the abortion benefits society in the long run, since people belonging to this races make up for half the criminals). This is reinforced with some studies that reveal that before "Rose vs. Wade" (at a time when only rich women could afford an illegal abortion), abortions had no correlation to criminality indexes. This makes me think of "economics for freaks" or "economics that can freak you out".
   
   If we accept "neglected children" as the first cause for criminality and start from here, then of the 5 whys suggested to find the true root cause of a problem, I am missing 4, why are the children neglected, why are so many unwanted childs conceived? The author mentions one abortion for each 2.25 births!!! Conceptions increased 30% while births decreased 6%!!! He suggests that women probably use abortion as a radical birth control method. Aren't this figures worth a freakonomic study of abortion economics? Are $100 for an abortion cheaper than preventive methods? It's definitely cheaper than more and better sexual education at school, cheaper than better nursing or day care facilities, cheaper than help-groups or even therapy for teenage parents or single mothers, cheaper than better sporting facilities or other programs for teenagers...



3. There are a few people here whining that this book draws ridiculous conclusions, but those people are wrong. The authors draw few, if any, conclusions. They show correlations and posit possibilities, probabilities of causation. They don't, as some dumber people here are suggesting, declare definitively that, say, Roe v. Wade was responsible for the drop in crime 20-30 years later. They simply show a correlation, a connection, for the reader to think about. They also discuss other possible reasons. The only conclusions they draw is when they are able to conclusively show that a suggested reason had no impact.
   
   Too much information disseminated in the media is baloney, the product of lazy reporting, journalists taking the word of politicians, pundits, and 'experts' and reporting it as the truth without enough research or in-depth analysis. Freakonomics isn't a book to forward a few left-field theories about crime, sumo wrestlers, or teachers. It's a just a demonstration of how set in our ways we are, how worn the paths are in our thinking. Most people, myself included, are not thinking hard enough about things, not looking from enough angles, not asking enough questions.
   
   The book makes this point very effectively, and I'm glad I read it. It's not telling you what you should think, just that you should think more, and differently. Fun!



4. This would be a dangerous book if Americans werent stupid and corrupt.
   
   Its a page-flipper and definitely interesting.



5. For those that don't know, the basic idea behind this book is that it applies economics to weird questions that aren't normally thought of as economics, like:
   - Are teachers cheating on standardized exams?
   - Are sumo wrestlers rigging matches?
   - Will real estate dealers get the best deal for clients? (Hint: they tend to get better prices when selling their own houses than when selling clients' houses).
   His results are often intriguing, and this results in a very interesting and readable book. Even people who hated economics in college or swore they would never take it will enjoy this book.
   
   However, it seems like the authors let their own political views bias their work in places. For example, one of their more controversial claims is that abortion led to decreases in crime because the people most likely to be aborted are also the people most likely to be criminals. While this may be intuitive, other economists, such as Dr. John Lott, have largely discredited this finding. One of the many problems with their finding is that the decrease in crime in the 90's (which the authors chalk up to abortion) was greatest among people born before Roe v. Wade, which is exactly the opposite of what you'd expect if their analysis was correct.
   
   Other than their occasional slips to political bias, this book is very well written and makes for a good read, and I recommend it overall.

5 comments about The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of his Life--His Own.

1. This gripping memoir by New York Times reporter David Carr is like a three-hundred-eighty-five page-pre-paid ticket for a roller coaster ride to drug-hell. Once the reader climbs aboard, this roller coaster travels straight down ninety-percent of the time. The author will lead you through the hellish remains of the way his life used to be... going from pot and alcohol, to cocaine addiction... and then to the final barren chamber, in the deepest darkest, dungeon of all addictive drug hell... smoking crack cocaine. He was in such bad shape, that even all of his main drug buddies, undid their seat belts and jumped off the ride... as the roller coaster and author flew way off the rails. As David attempts to tell his story... he suddenly realizes that he can't remember what really happened to him. He starts off telling his "romanticized" version of his drug-crazed exploits... but when he finds his old friends and family members (that actually lived through the self-destructive atomic haze) he very quickly found out, that what he thought he remembered, differed completely from the other "survivor's recollection... including the night one of his best friends put a gun to his head... as alluded to in the title. The only problem with that scenario, is that his friend contacted twenty years after... states that David pulled the gun on him. David quite "clearly" remembers that he never owned a gun. But, then he tracks down another friend from the past who tells him, that twenty years ago, David had him go to his house... to get his gun out... before the cops... that the author was fleeing from... got there to search his house.
   
   The outright marvelous writing and colloquialisms that the author paints his story around, are certifiable genius, and makes the potential reader hope the author continues to publish more books of this genre, whether in autobiographical or novel form, before you've even read one-quarter of this book. When the author realizes that he can no longer vouch for any of his raucous, debauchery, depraved, self-destructive former life... he decides to buy video and recording equipment, and hunt down the role players from his past, and interview them, to get their perspective on his time in self-imposed hell. And thus the statement:
   
   *** "PEOPLE REMEMBER WHAT THEY CAN LIVE WITH MORE OFTEN THAN HOW THEY LIVED." ***************************
   
   As the author's drug use spiraled out of control his innate writing talent would give him temporary employment until employers couldn't look the other way anymore. In hindsight David says: "SOMETIMES ADDICTION SEEMS MORE LIKE POSSESSION, A DEATH GRIP FROM SATAN THAT REQUIRES SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION." If there is a bottom that is lower than "BOTTOMING-OUT" then David takes you there with a little help from his friends. Is it possible to descend any lower as a human being, than when Anna was pregnant with the author's twin girls and "SHE WAS USING CRACK WHEN HER WATER BROKE, SIGNALING THAT THE TWINS HAD ARRIVED TWO-AND-A-HALF MONTHS EARLY. I WAS THE ONE WHO BROUGHT HER THOSE DRUGS."
   
   Throughout this guided tour of soulless descent, the author demonstrates literary "chops" that the leading writers of detective yarns could only hope to emulate. In describing one of his former dope dealers he says: "PHIL COULD BE FUN AS HELL WHEN HE WASN'T "CONDUCTING", WHICH IS WHAT HE CALLED DEALING, FULL OF STREET LORE, PHILOSOPHY, AND MIND GAMES. SOME GUYS LOOK TOUGH. SOME GUYS TALK TOUGH. SOME GUYS ARE TOUGH. PHIL HIT FOR THE CYCLE." A simple off-hand throw-away comment about cokeheads: "the eyes that saw too much because they did not close often enough." A simple off the cuff statement about a stop on a typical night out would make Robert B. Parker and Robert Crais proud: "WE WENT BAR HOPPING AND ENDED UP AT "STAND UP FRANK'S, THE KIND OF PLACE WHERE A SCREWDRIVER WAS A GLASS FULL OF VODKA THAT THE BARTENDER WHISPERED THE WORDS "ORANGE JUICE" OVER BEFORE HANDING IT TO YOU."
   
   This is an immensely talented writer... who doesn't need to make up street-jargon... he lived it. If he stays clean... and doesn't relapse back into the world he already lived in... but just truly discovered on this follow-up journey... that for example... he was actually in treatment centers five times... even though for the last twenty years he thought he was only in four times... then the reading public as a whole... has an awful lot of exciting literature to read and enjoy in the future.
   
   Remember David... ONE DAY AT A TIME!



2. "Carr takes as a given that our memories are suspect, compromised by the understandable desire to make a coherent story from shapeless experience, to cast ourselves in the role of hero (or dashing villain), and to inject a bit of drama when the plot begins to sag." Jennifer Reese
   
   David Carr, media critic for the New York Times has written an extraordinary book of his life of addiction. He tells the truth, but not enough of himself is disclosed. I don't get a feel for the man until later in the book. True he researched this book like a journalist- he traced all of his old contacts and interviewed them because his memory was faulty at best. His depicitions and summaries of his friends and lovers are all well drawn out and illustrated. The story is not pretty. He started out as a drunk- one of 3 or 4 in his immediate family, by the way. He then moved on to cocaine and finally injecting it. Drugs were his life, he lived for them. His friends were the ones who helped him get his drugs. His girlfriends, part of the crowd. And he worked to buy the drugs,got fired, somehow got drugs again and found a job and on and on. His girlfriend Anna, got pregnant and on the night he gave her a needle to inject cocaine, her water broke. The twins were born 2 1/2 months early. He still did drugs and so did she. He gave up drugs the night he left his twins in the car in the middle of winter to go buy his drugs- he left them in the car for 5 minutes or was it hours- who knows?
   
   David Carr goes straight for many years. Bringing up his twins alone for six years, meets the love of his life, marries, has another child, moves along on his journalism carrer. The portrait of his family, his twin girls and wife are revealing and insightful. And, then, well things were too good, so he starts drinking again. Up until this portion of the story, it is pretty cut and dry and sometimes boring. The latter part of his life with his new wife and children are the most interesting portions. He and his family are brought to life. I start to care about this man and the women in it. His story is straight and true, and not as hyped up and gaudy as James Frey's story of addiction. David Carr finally comes to life and in just in time.
   
   "The epiphanies are fascinating, and the scabs gnarly
   Even when Carr does eventually enter rehab and make good, his tale veers unnervingly from the familiar and reassuring arc of the recovery narrative. Maybe that's what happens when you stick to the facts. Carr is as immoderate in his drive to unearth every detail of his sordid past as he once was to hoover up that last grain of coke on the floor. You may not forgive Carr his flamboyant misdeeds as readily as he seems to forgive himself, all the while patting himself on the back for his brutal honesty. But he is an undeniably brilliant and dogged journalist. "Jennifer Reese
   
   Recommended. prisrob 08-09-08



3. It sounds like books you've read before; the true stories of a junkie's drug-addled existence, the downward spiral, the damage to friends, family and career. Like many of those books, this one too is written by the former junkie himself. But this book is not like the others. It's author, David Carr, is a journalist who decides to see how he fares when he turns the journalistic spotlight on his own past as a cocaine addict. He sets his book apart immediately from the others with one assumption: his own memories are not to be trusted.
   
   As Carr points out, human memory is proven to be a strangely untrustworthy source for solid information. The memory of a junkie? Carr knows any reporter worth his salt would need to do better. So Carr does.
   
   Carr re-creates his years as a cocaine addict the way he would a newspaper story about someone else. He interviews former friends, girlfriends and associates to check their memories versus his own. He looks back at police and court records and he connects dots. The results usually paint an ugly picture of the man Carr used to be, but he never seems to back away from his task even at times when he's clearly uncomfortable with what he's discovered.
   
   Carr's fresh approach takes a story that has the potential to be good, but undistinguished, and turns it into something that makes you feel like you're reading something special and unique. It's the non-fiction version of A Million Little Pieces (at which Carr takes a shot without ever using its name).
   
   Highly recommended for anyone who likes addiction chronicles or for anyone who just appreciates a successful attempt to do something new and different.



4. As a former addict and one with a story that has a lot of parallels to that of David Carr, I enjoyed reading this book. I was able to relate to a lot of what he went through and he did a great job of putting the misery of low-bottom addiction into words. My only complaint with this book is that Mr. Carr narcissistic personality is evident in The Night of the Gun. The way he told his story just made him sound full of himself, not humble like many in recovery are. Still a good read, worth checking out.



5. The concept behind David Carr's memoir is intriguing. Stoned and drunk for much of his early life, the fact that he couldn't trust his own memories was brought home to him when he was shown that he completely misremembered an incident with a gun (hence the book's title). So, reporter that he is, he set out to interview people who knew him back in the day. He became an investigative reporter tracking down the young David Carr. Along the way, he discovered lots of things he said and did, but of which he has either no or distorted recollections.
   
   So the angle that Night of the Gun takes is attractive. That's the good news. The bad news is that Carr can't quite deliver. For starters, the book is way too long and so the episodes Carr recounts (often with cinematic speed and compactness) tend to become repetitious. So there's a lot of words but not a lot of depth. Moreover, the lack of depth is reflected in the tough guy, Mickey Spillane style Carr chooses to write in, a style that comes across as inauthentic and, within just a few pages, incredibly annoying. Perhaps the point of the style is to create a living-on-the-edge ambience. But it doesn't work very well.
   
   Ultimately, and most seriously, it's difficult to see what the point of Carr's book is. Is it to draw attention to the mysterious ways in which our memories deceive us? But if so, there's precious little real reflection on the issue, and most of it consists of unenlightening one-liners. (What a lost opportunity.) Is it to impress upon us the terrible things that drug and alcohol addictions do? But surely this has been done a bazillion times already in other memoirs as well as in films and novels (read anything by Hubert Selby, Jr., for example). Is the book intended to be a sort of celebrity confessional? But if so, it falls short of the mark because Mr. Carr simply isn't a celebrity.
   
   I'm glad that Carr has straightened out his life. But I'm afraid his book rates no more than two and a half stars. For more authentic and better written recent memoirs of the addicted life, I recommend Lee Stringer's Grand Central Winter, David Sheff's Beautiful Boy, or James Salant's Leaving Dirty Jersey.

5 comments about My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

1. Two years ago, I had surgery to remove a golf ball-size tumor from my brain. The months of therapy that followed were difficult and intense, but ultimately successful.
   I wish I had this book then, for its encouragement, practicality, wisdom, and "I've been there," message.
   Reading it now has been meaningful nonetheless, and I could hardly put it down once I started it. I would recommend it to anyone who has suffered a brain injury--and anyone close to someone who has.



2. I debated over whether to give this book three, four, or five stars. The information that Dr. Taylor presents about the brain and stroke is worth five stars, without question. But I have a few complaints about how she presents this information; and lots of complaints about the "self-help" aspects of this book. I almost wish I could post two reviews of this book -- a five-star review for the information about the brain and stroke; and a two-star review for everything else about the book. I ended up giving the book a (somewhat charitable) compromise rating of four stars (but in some ways the four star rating is too low; and in others it is way too high).
   
   Let's start with the positives: This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the human brain and how it functions, any health care professional or caregiver who deals with stroke patients, anyone who has a friend or family member who has had a stroke, and anyone who is concerned about the possibility that they might someday suffer from a stroke (a statistical possibility, since about 700,000 Americans will have a stroke this year). If you want to know about what it's like to have a stroke and to recover from it, this is the book to read. Dr. Taylor is a brain scientist who had a stroke and lived to tell her story of survival, recovery, and rehabilitation. The information she provides about her personal experience is priceless for anyone who wants to better understand what happens when someone has a stroke, and what is needed for recovery and rehabilitation. This information is also of extreme value for anyone who wants to better understand how the brain works to make us who we are. Five stars for the information on the brain and stroke.
   
   But now I must deal with the negatives, and comment on the "two-star" aspects of this book. First of all, the writing style is a bit amateurish; but we can excuse Dr. Taylor for that, since she's a brain scientist, not a professional writer. But I do have a bit of a problem with how she tells her story. What bothers me about her account is her description of what was going on in her mind while she was having the stroke and during her recovery. She describes herself as having certain thoughts that just don't seem plausible given her description of the mental impairments she was suffering at the time. She makes a point of saying that the language centers of her left cerebral cortex had been impaired, silencing the inner voice in her head, leaving her mind in a state of peaceful quiet. Yet she goes on to describe thoughts that were running through her mind. (How could she have such thoughts without that inner voice?) I got the feeling that she was actually describing the thoughts that went through her mind years later as she was recalling her stroke experience. (But, given the fact that our minds actually "construct" our memories as we reflect on our past experiences rather than simply recording our experiences and playing them back for us with perfect accuracy, this sort of thing is to be expected.)
   
   But what really annoyed me about this book was that, in the last few chapters, it turned into a sappy, shallow, self-help book of the "learn-to-love-yourself-and-think-happy-thoughts" variety; and includes what has to be the single corniest sentence ever written in the English language: "When my bowels move, I cheer my cells for clearing that waste out of my body." (p. 156) In these later chapters, the book even delves into "New Age" stuff like "energy dynamics", Feng Shui, and "Angel Cards". I felt that this seriously compromised the integrity of the valuable information that Dr. Taylor presented about brain science and stroke recovery. This information is so valuable that I would still recommend the book in spite of its many shortcomings; but I would encourage you to take the last few chapters of the book with a grain of salt.



3. The author describes minutely her subjective experience of having a stroke and her struggle to recover. It's a quick primer on brain functioning, particularly on the activites of the right and left hemispheres. One feels great empathy and admiration.
   However, the book could easily have been a magazine article, as it is quite repetitious. First, it becomes a catalogue of thank-yous to her mother, who aided her recovery. Second, it is an under-edited exhortation to train our minds to choose right-hemisphere thinking, which is more loving and accepting and less judgmental. Oops. Maybe I still need practice on that.



4. Dr Taylor shows her courage to break convention and formal ideas about this topic. Her experience in full view, with their emotional and philosophical content included. Not only was she inspired by her own journey, but she shares the inspiration directly with the reader.



5. The book, 'My Stroke of Insight' by Jill Bolte Taylor is a remarkable read. It contains information everyone should know who might sit with or care for a stroke victim or anyone suffering from a brain injury. The chapter, 'Simple Science' is like taking a course in 'The Brain 101' as we are given a look at the workings of an organ that defines who we are. I recommend this book to the inquisitive and to inquiring minds.
   
   Billy R. Boggs
   A Critical Reader