Steven desJardins (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stevendj) wrote,@ 2007-09-16 16:09:00 |
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Books of the Fortnight
I'm pretty late on my "Books of the Week" post.
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande has some interesting things to say about training doctors, medical error, and just plain uncertainty.
The Memory-Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards has an interesting premise—a woman gives birth to twins, one with Down Syndrome, and the husband (who delivered the babies) tells her that one of the babies died. He has the nurse take the babies to an institution, but she decides to run away and raise the child herself. The lie, and the husband's inability to talk to his wife about his guilt and his worries, drives a wedge between them; meanwhile, the nurse finds love and fulfillment raising the daughter as her own. This was one of the selections for my condo's book club, and I liked it quite a bit.
The Third Rumpole Omnibus is a set of mysteries by John Mortimer about a curmudgeonly barrister who's very good at offending judges while fighting for his clients. Formulaic and predictable, but entertaining.
The United States of Arugula is a nonfiction book about how American food stopped being boring, and embraced all kinds of new ingredients and styles of cooking. It talks about who first imported things like balsamic vinegar from Italy, or brought free-range chickens into restaurants, but it's somewhat weaker on explaining why none of this happened sooner. Still, it's chock-full of detail and well worth a look.
I uploaded one book to Project Gutenberg, Frank Merriwell's Bravery. Frank is mistaken for Black Harry, a notorious outlaw who happens to be Frank's exact double; accepts a ride on an experimental flying machine, and is stranded in a valley of murderous Mormon terrorists; tracks a missing girl, and wrestles a grizzly bear; and is swindled by a counterfeiter, who happens to be an exact double of his friend Bart Hodge's fiancée.
I scanned Buffalo Bill's Spy Trailer, a 1908 pulp novel ("Manifestly, no history was ever written that could give space in such detail to the adventures of a single man, no matter how important his life's work may have been; it really takes a line of so-called fiction to do it, and we can honestly say that the stories in this line do justice to the interesting character of Buffalo Bill."); The Prison Chaplaincy, and Its Experiences by Hosea Quinby, who was chaplain of the New Hampshire state prison from 1869 to 1871; and The Corsair King by Maurus Jókai, a short novel which I scanned for International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I kind of hoped that The Corsair King might make it to the third proofing round in a single day (since special day projects have priority, until the day is over), but there are 25 projects ahead of it in the Talk Like a Pirate queue, so it may not be quite so fast.
I'm pretty late on my "Books of the Week" post.
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande has some interesting things to say about training doctors, medical error, and just plain uncertainty.
The Memory-Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards has an interesting premise—a woman gives birth to twins, one with Down Syndrome, and the husband (who delivered the babies) tells her that one of the babies died. He has the nurse take the babies to an institution, but she decides to run away and raise the child herself. The lie, and the husband's inability to talk to his wife about his guilt and his worries, drives a wedge between them; meanwhile, the nurse finds love and fulfillment raising the daughter as her own. This was one of the selections for my condo's book club, and I liked it quite a bit.
The Third Rumpole Omnibus is a set of mysteries by John Mortimer about a curmudgeonly barrister who's very good at offending judges while fighting for his clients. Formulaic and predictable, but entertaining.
The United States of Arugula is a nonfiction book about how American food stopped being boring, and embraced all kinds of new ingredients and styles of cooking. It talks about who first imported things like balsamic vinegar from Italy, or brought free-range chickens into restaurants, but it's somewhat weaker on explaining why none of this happened sooner. Still, it's chock-full of detail and well worth a look.
I uploaded one book to Project Gutenberg, Frank Merriwell's Bravery. Frank is mistaken for Black Harry, a notorious outlaw who happens to be Frank's exact double; accepts a ride on an experimental flying machine, and is stranded in a valley of murderous Mormon terrorists; tracks a missing girl, and wrestles a grizzly bear; and is swindled by a counterfeiter, who happens to be an exact double of his friend Bart Hodge's fiancée.
I scanned Buffalo Bill's Spy Trailer, a 1908 pulp novel ("Manifestly, no history was ever written that could give space in such detail to the adventures of a single man, no matter how important his life's work may have been; it really takes a line of so-called fiction to do it, and we can honestly say that the stories in this line do justice to the interesting character of Buffalo Bill."); The Prison Chaplaincy, and Its Experiences by Hosea Quinby, who was chaplain of the New Hampshire state prison from 1869 to 1871; and The Corsair King by Maurus Jókai, a short novel which I scanned for International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I kind of hoped that The Corsair King might make it to the third proofing round in a single day (since special day projects have priority, until the day is over), but there are 25 projects ahead of it in the Talk Like a Pirate queue, so it may not be quite so fast.
