Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Book Reviews 2020

 This list will likely be incomplete because, unlike years past, I  cannot relied on my library hold history because most books were bought or borrowed. Nevertheless, in no particular order: 


I Will Teach You To Be Rich: 

The Count of Monte Cristo

Running Home

The White Coat Investor

Invisible Women


In progress:

The Shadow King


Saturday, December 14, 2019

Book Reviews 2019

Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History 
By:  Keith O'Brien








I don't remember as much about this book as I probably should, although I read it close to one year ago. It piqued my interest because any story about women challenging the status quo is worth remembering. The story centers around 5 women, Florence Klingensmith, Ruth Elder, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Nichols, and Louise Thaden. Each came from wildly different backgrounds and made her mark in the the aviation scene of the early 20th century. They all competed in the 1936 air race and one of them won, beating the male rivals and cementing 1936 as an astonishing year for American sports history alongside the UW Olympic men's rowing team winning gold and others whom historians have yet to chronicle in books similar to this. 





The Underground Railroad
By: Colson Whitehead

This book was originally selected for the Rainier Book Club and sparked an in-depth discussion.  This book imagines an actual underground railroad, complete with stops maintained by true sympathizers assisting slaves in escaping to freedom during the strife before the Civil War. We follow Cora, an escaped slave from a Georgian plantation, as she embarks on a tragic and perilous journey north, toward freedom. Caesar is her male companion for parts of the story, in a world where Cora wrestles with what it means to trust and to rely on anyone. The physical train track and the rickety cars and the human beings forced to travel in secrecy make the reader question all our safety and security of white privilege and 21st century wealth. 
In our book club, all readers agreed that this unique take on the underground railroad made the book more readable and was a creative and imaginative way to remember the stories and tragedies of people who risked everything for freedom. 


 The Power 
By: Naomi Alderman 
 This 2016 book reimagined a world where women are more powerful, literally, than men. Women discover a secret organ, the skein, which enables them to dominate others using electrical force. Predictably, some worship the power, others hide it away, some use it to overthrow countries, and others try to exploit and harvest the skeins so that men don't miss out on the fun. What struck me most reading this book was how freeing I felt reading a world where the tables were turned and women felt free. The girls walking down streets at night alone, practicing martial arts to use their powers for good, and women connecting, empowering, uplifting each other recognizing this new common identity was achingingly desirable. It was an interesting dichotomy to both recognize the power as an evil force and also wish this world could exist. The story follows several main characters who discover they have the power as well as one male journalist covering political unrest related to the power. Their stories all intertwine in such an imaginative and rich narrative that the author stands on much more than a creative science fiction idea alone. This was one of my favorite books of the year and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci fi and stretching their thinking. 


The Three-Body Problem
By Liu Cixin 
Translated by Ken Liu

The most surprising part of this book was how masterfully the translation conveys subtly and lyricism. Each word and phrase came across clearly, or as clearly as a book about the unsolvable physics of 3 orbiting bodies could be. This was another book club pick and the only reason I started or finished this book. The writing was heavily scientific and rarely used emotion-based language, despite the content dealing with murder, neglect, and an impending apocalypse. However, the plot unfolds elegantly and the author does a nice job of intertwining seemingly separate stories and plot character arcs which span decades and realities. The end of the book was so mind-bending and other-worldly that in my mind, the dense lengthy scientific discourse spanning page after page kind of redeemed itself. This is the first of a trilogy. I will not be reading the next books. 




Machines Like Me
By: Ian McIwan
Atonement is one of my all-time favorite novels, so when I read the Economist review of Machines Like Me I was already highly inclined to read this book. It was thoughtful and deliberate, like Atonement, but lacked the true heart-wrenching connection for me. The subject itself is fascinating, a love-triangle between Charlie, a drifting writer, Miranda, his flat neighbor who is in every way too good for him, and Adam, an artificial intelligence being he buys on a whim hoping to raise him with Miranda thereby winning her affection. The book creates an alternate universe in which Alan Turing successfully creates AI in the 1980s and re-imagines various historical events. The book wades deeply into the ethics of AI and beinghood. It is simultaneously calm and domestic as well as unsettling like touching cold steel to your stomach. The ending strikes a discordant resolution that leaves the reader questioning how much we really know about connection.  



Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race
By: Lara Prior-Palmer

Part of the draw of this book is you know immediately how it will end. LPP becomes the first female as well as youngest finisher and and then remains a 19 year old girl looking for the next thing to do. Reading this book made me understand how people who are not feelings-based thinkers operate. Her writing is lyrical and poetic which is suprising for so young an author with no previous writing experience. The way she sees the world is refreshing and unusual. Her words masterfully paint the picture of the Mongolian steppe and what she experienced. In a way, her account is so easy to read because she spends no time complaining and she, for the most part, seems immune to discomfort. Her capacity to rapidly adapt without forming connections or getting bogged down by emotions makes this self-piloted endurance race exhilarating. We step into her shoes and feel free of worry, logistics, planning, and simply ride from one stop to the next. Some critics criticize her immaturity and poor sportsmanship. To an extent, I agree. But the book is entitled "rough" with good reason: she is not a typical protagonist, and we meet her very much in an unfinished part of her life, where her personality and spirit are still being formed and her thinking can be irrational and immature. All in all, I would read this book again, and highly recommend it. 

Flowers for Algernon
By: Daniel Keyes
Another book club read, and an instant classic from the moment it was published. Flowers for Algernon is a short story which was novelized and tells the waxing and waning story of a mentally delayed boy named Charlie Gordon who agrees to an experimental procedure to raise his IQ. His progress is preceeded by Algernon, a white mouse who has successfully undergone the same surgical procedure. One of the strengths of the story is how the author writes at the comprehension level of Charlie, starting slowly, simply, with many spelling mistakes, and gradually improves, adding vocabulary and depth of thought as Charlie's mind improves. The most complex story lines are also the simpliest, another reason this book is a classic. Boy loves girl. Charlie wrestles with his family. He mentally matures through turbulent adolescent self-definition and full circle realization of the gravity of his experiment. The parallel, slightly-ahead trajectory of Algernon adds a companion to this maze giving Charlie the only other being whom he can relate to. His painful, turbulent, heart-wrenching experience mesmerizes the reader and leaves them devastated. A good book spells out a truth about life, a great book presents an entire story guiding the reader toward realizing life truths themselves upon it's completion. The life truth from Flowers for Algernon is this: Love one another. 


The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
By: Stuart Turton
Another book club book. Aiden Bishop wakes up one day running through the woods screaming for Anna. He knows as much as the reader. Gradually, the intricate interwoven plotline of the story reveals itself in bits and pieces transcending time, geography, and realities as the astonishing quest to uncover Evelyn Hardcastle's murderer. This book stretched the reader's thinking and proved time and time again that Mr. Turton's first book is a classic and will stand the test of time. 











In Shock
By:Rana Awdish
Initially I saw this book synopsis and thought "Yet another book about physicians finding the humanity of their patients" and in some ways I was right. But she also addresses other themes, like how our bedside language matters, and how healthcare providers process the traumas of work together. She unflinchingly delivers the story of her lost pregnancy and experience as a critical care physician who rapidly descends into shock one night and dies without any plausible explanation. The ensuing year test the limits of her physical health as well as her meaning and sense of the world. Eventually the experience is pinned on two vascular hepatic masses and the second, unruptured mass is removed. Each step along the way seems to be complicated in one way or another. Interestingly, the author never seems to accept fault, or show real vulnerability. Many points throughout the book I wondered if her narrative was truly honest, or if she was still trying to present her best appearance. In the end, I chose to trust that this story is her real self, and was instead fascinated by the rational way she sees the entire world, including the world of feelings, emotion, and human connection. I recommend this book hesitatingly to healthcare providers looking for a fresh take on patient-physician connection, but unwaveringly to readers who want to read a doctor's incredible journey as a patient. My biggest takeaway: I will never say a patient tried to die on me again, and always think through twice what I say in front of a patient and how it could be perceived. 

The Finest Hours: The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue
By:Michael J. Tougias & Casey Sherman
This book was recommended by a friend. It chronicles the unbelievable quadruple rescue of two T2 tankers that split apart off the coast of Chatham Bay in 1954 during one of the worst nor'easters. The authors painstakingly recreate conditions as close to exactly as they happened including multiple eyewitness accounts for details with differing stories. The rescues are completely heroic and courageous and leave the reader with a sense of awe at these brave young men. The authors follow the story all the way to the end, recounting as many involved parties ultimate life paths as well as the saga of the CG36500 36 foot lifeboat responsible for rescuing and transporting 36 men from the wreck to safety. My brother being in the Coast Guard provided connection to this book and a sense of pride at the training and commitment he has undertaken.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Progress

I wanted to say a few words in light of the past 3 weeks. I was in a serious car accident and broke my back and wrist. At first I was incredibly worried about lifelong low back pain as this is a common mechanism for chronic problems. However, now I am grateful to be alive and walking. Had any of the factors been different, I could be much more badly hurt. As is, I can walk, the pain is lessening every day, and I have the assurances right now that I will return to many of the activities I love like running, swimming, and hiking. I'm optimistic about backpacking and climbing as well.
But I haven't touched social media yet. I don't know what to say. How I couldn't even stand I was in so much pain, or how I literally couldn't walk without a walker for 2-3 days. I couldn't wipe myself. My life revolved around 3 hour increments between pain meds. I cried in my pajamas at 10am on a tuesday trying to crack an egg. I have considered each action I do for the last 3 weeks and how to ergonomically perform it and if it will hurt.
Now that we are in 2019 I want to focus on what I can do. I will fiercely and bitterly fight with every ounce of strength I have to return to where I was. My goal is to not let these injuries limit or define who I am for the rest of my life. It also bothers me how so many people only use social media for the positive moments in their lives. I don't want to vomit too much personal information all over, but it's damaging to only see these one-sided portrayals of life. I haven't posted anything, because I don't know what to say. We all need to each and every day how incredibly fortunate we are. How important it is for everyone to have a safety buffer and how quickly everything can change.
There's a lot I don't know about how 2019 will go. But I know more than ever how loved I am and how amazing and compassionate my community is. My friends and family came together to help me in ways I will spend repaying for a long time.  It's one thing to say you would do anything for someone: it's another thing to actually see that proven.
So 2019 will be better. I'm not the same person I was 3 weeks ago. Nothing will make it go back. But I am resilient and tough and what I can't do others will help with. I will get through this and in the end I will be okay.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

2018 Book Reviews

Steinbeck: A Life in Letters 
Edited by: Elaine Steinbeck & Robert Wallsten

This anthology should not be read cover to cover. Steinbeck had plenty to say and was never shy or reserved about saying it. He maintained an impressively high level of correspondence and built time into each day for writing letters. His style changes as he does, succeeding professionally and riding a roller coaster of personal triumphs and disasters. He also frequently traveled, and insights about his numerous locations pepper his letters from those times. I enjoyed his book by leafing through and reading letters from various points, sometimes out of order, and following self-contained events in his life. My favorite letters were written when he reclused himself to a cottage by the sea and recovered from a failed relationship, slept with a bunch of women, then began corresponding with an attractive wife whom he eventually seduced away from her husband.
However, he may have said it best later in life in a letter to his son counseling him on falling in love.
"If it is right, it will happen - the main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away." 

A Man Called Ove
By: Fredrik Backman

My team selected this book for book club and it was delightfully charming. Ove is the European version of the old man from Up: stubborn, recluse, prideful, but resolute in his moral convictions. Early in the book he begins a never ending conflict with a stray cat whom he eventually fails to drive away and dejectedly tends to. His past is shrouded in mystery which we uncover bit by bit as the book progresses. His neighbors wind up his unlikely lifesavers. The woman is loud, warm, and full of life and laughter and befriends Ove in what ultimately becomes a symbiotic relationship. I took fault with the end of the book which I won't spoil but which I don't think accurately honored the spirit of his wishes. But maybe that is what life is all about anyway: doing what is best for others. Five stars, definitely a book worth reading and excellent for discussion.

The Night Circus
By: Erin Morgenstern

Utterly magic. This story transcended time, space, constrains of normal life and expectation and possibility. When you open the cover, you ascend into a world of limitless possibility, unnatural beauty and elegance, and pure magic. As with the best stories, an undefined conflict promising enormous sadness anchors the plot, but the main characters are not ordinary, so nor should their story. Vivid descriptions, intricate characters, and setting where anything is possible make this book compelling and hard to put down. I may have cried at the end, nobody can prove either way, but the ability of this book to engage every sense while remaining black words on white paper speaks to the skill of the author and the strength of her story.

If Our Bodies Could Talk
By: James Hamblin

When your celebrity crush writes a book of course you have to read it. James Hamblin takes some of the most common health-related questions he gets asked and answers them in ways both obvious and circuitous. While some of his answers stray from the original question, it's his way of politely re-writing the assumptions behind the original question and giving context to the subject. He also loves to tell stories and his favorite way to begin an answer is wildly unrelated to the subject at all: drawing the reader in and gradually coming full-circle to the original topic.  I learned a lot, both in obscure knowledge but also in where non-medical people's minds linger and puzzle. The first time a patient asks me a question answered in this book, I will happily recommend it and bless the man who took the time to research and publish the disconnect between ivory-towered medicine and every day human curiosity.


The Automatic Millionaire
By: David Bach

This guide to saving money smartly and efficiently was recommended to me by one of the hospitalists where I work. He is on track to retire before age 50, so I figured he must be well-informed. The book is full of cheesy personal anecdotes from the author which makes it read kind of like an infomercial, but once you drill down to the core message, his advice is strong. The book breaks down how to save money in easy, manageable chunks. In a world full of electronics, it is impressive, too, how writing a book on automating investing is so relevant. Most importantly, he helps you, the reader, identify why saving is so important and discover the motivation to make change. Even as a grad student with tens of thousands of dollars of debt right now, I still got excited about investing and managed to increase my retirement deduction. Find the time to read this book, and your financial stability will thank you.



The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_steinbeck_114033
The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_steinbeck_114033
Hidden Figures
By: Margot Lee Shetterly

This author begins her book early by telling the reader why this story is important to her. She has ties to these women on numerous levels, and was compelled by their humility and obsolescence to bring their untold accomplishments forward. She primarily follows Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three African American computer scientists who helped win WWII and propel humankind to the moon. Their brilliance is impressive, but coupled by the racism and systemic oppression and contempt society placed upon them for simply being women, and being black, is monumental. The US government believed in these women at a time nobody else would, and their sacrifices and exceptional hard work paved the way for women of color to be acknowledged and respected in these fields. Over and over, their accomplishments were misattributed, minimized, or stonewalled, but as they were pushed against the glass ceiling, they never stopped pushing back. I found this book hugely inspiring and can't find basis to complain when women like these walked the earth and accomplished as much as they did in the same 24 hours a day we all are given.

Endurance
By: Scott Kelly

In keeping with the theme of reading books about subjects I know nothing, Scott Kelly's year in space stood out to me on the library shelf, and I'm so glad I acted spontaneously. Another immensely inspiring figure, Scott Kelly paints the picture of his life leading up to this mission in the context of his year aboard ISS. He jumps between space and childhood for most of the book until the timeline catches up to his astronaut years where he focuses more on his earth time and less in space. The window he gives ordinary earth-bound humans into the immense pressure and precision of NASA's space missions is fascinating. I loved his descriptions of everything aboard the ISS, and his deadpan humor when you least expect it. The triumph of a truly international collaborative project is a breath of fresh air in a time when partisan and isolationist agendas are becoming the norm. Scott Kelly reminds us that NASA, and space exploration, is a shining example of what collaboration can accomplish, and how the biggest challenge, the reason he spent a year in space, remains for humankind to accept: putting a human on Mars.




Saturday, September 23, 2017

Summer 2017 Book Reviews

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Boys in the Boat
By: Daniel James Brown 

A classic sports tale regaling the 1932-1936 University of Washington men's rowing club and quest for Olympic gold. The story begins with Joe Rantz quest for education and a better life after being abandoned and abused on the Olympic penninsula.   The author masterfully draws the reader in with vivid imagery, exciting action, and sympathy-inducing backstories. You root for the home team, knowing full well they will win, they must win, but following along each step of the way. The author builds suspense and draws the reader in with each rowing season, until the final, dramatic 1936 season. The last race is nothing short of epic, and you feel the significance of their task, the rippling magnitude of their performance, and the emotional roller coaster of preparation for the obsessive quest to be the very best. It's a Cinderella story in its purest form, a thrilling read, and a heart-warming story. 

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Unbroken
By: Laura Hillenbrand 

Continuing on the vein of harrowing quests, Unbroken follows Louis Zamperini's unbelievable service in WWII, including his unfathomable airplane crash and Japanese imprisonment. The author paints stark, riveting images spanning years while never allowing the reader to lose interest or hope. Zamperini endured unspeakable torture during his service, drafted from the brink of being the first person in history to break the 4 minute mile. In a matter of months, his goal changes from shaving miliseconds off his mile time to surviving, unbroken. His story inspires and challenges the reader to examine her own drive and determination, drawing strength from his grit as we ponder the extreme measures his tormenters went through to break him. He seems almost super human at times in his fierce determination not to yield, but life eventually catches up to him and we glimpse the true effects of the horrors of the war. The book's ending is perhaps the most personifying aspect of his story: after gale-force storm of war and the still calm of it's end came the wreckage and aftermath, which he stumbles through and emerges a better, more sustainable man. Louis Zamperini was, in the truest sense, unbreakable.

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The Stranger in the Woods
By: Michael Finkel

This book was very short, but I found myself stopping after each chapter to let the layered meanings sink in. For 23 years, a man lived in the North Woods in total solitude less than 2 minutes from civilization. The book begins with his discovery, and pieces together his life as the author searches for understanding, understanding of the man and his motive, and understanding of why society views his the way it does. The hermits direct quotes are my favorite part: he did not speak for 23 years except to say "Hi" once to a hiker who encountered him on a trail. His primary source of knowledge were books he stole, so his sentences are sparce and pregnant with meaning. It is unclear how much he intended, but very clear he doesn't care at all. He had no filter and no emotion for many of his interviews, and his sentence structure and choice of words are so foreign from the way we generally communicate. He begs the question why. His perspective on life and existence is so radical, and diametrically opposed to the rest of civilization, that one cannot help but rethink their own opinions on how to live. A fascinating story, though only 3-4 years old, already disappearing into the past like everything this man had built his life around. A bit haunting, never dull, a strong recommendation for everyone who wants to be challenged.  


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Unbound
By: Dean King 

A fascinating glimpse into a little-known political maneuver with international implications which would reshape the face of history forever. I loved the emphasis on the women of the trip, but found the story excessively depressing. The long march is nothing more than brutal, and the author never lets you forget it. The political perspective was interesting, but there exists so little information on the individuals themselves that it was difficult to form attachments to the characters, or even sometimes keep them all straight. It hardly matters though, because so many of them end up dying.