An absolutely fascinating book about an absolutely fascinating man. Mountains Beyond Mountains, written by intrepid reporter Tracy Kidder, follows the life and good deeds of Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer, by all accounts incredibly intelligent, ambitious and kind, splits his time between treating the poor in Haiti, treating the TB-ridden in Russia and Peru and educating new students in Boston. In his “free time”, he creates charities and foundations to fund these projects, and spends a good chunk of his life on airplanes. “And I can […]
“I want to be a comfort to my friends in tragedy and I want to be able to celebrate with them in triumph. And for all the times in between, I just want to be able to look them in the eye. “
You know those personality tests you take (mostly online now, but I’m from the stone age when I had to take some of mine on a Scan-tron), and they supposedly tell you what careers you’d be good at or what traits are your strongest? Well mine always came/come back teacher, or counselor. Which was a good thing, as I always knew I’d be a teacher, and when it came to my family and friends, even as a kid, I might as well have hung out […]
A Bourdain Book You’ve Likely Missed
After reading Kitchen Confidential this summer I decided to add all of Anthony Bourdain’s books to my To Read pile. Given my slightly OCD nature I went immediately to Goodreads to figure out which book was next by publication date, not knowing which came first, A Cook’s Tour or Medium Raw (it’s A Cook’s Tour for those equally as worried about these things as I am). While looking for that information I came across another book Bourdain authored. This one wasn’t an autobiographical work and […]
Body by Diaz Has a Nice Ring To It
The Body Book by Cameron Diaz was the latest selection from my book club; so recent in fact, we haven’t even met yet to discuss it. This book had been on my list of books to read (love you Amazon wish list) and was glad to have the opportunity to pick the book up. Even have an out if I ended up not liking the book and wanted to dissociate from my selection…” Oh, that, I’m reading it for book club.” I was pretty sure […]
Another unbelievable conspiracy thriller
This is the first in a new series about FBI special agent and forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick, written by Burcell, herself an FBI-trained forensic artist. A somewhat better tale than Burcell’s The Dark Hour which I recently reviewed, this novel focuses on Fitzpatrick’s personal crisis over whether to follow up on brand-new clues about her father’s murder 20 years earlier, or to leave it alone. Of course, had she left it alone, we would have no story, so…. There is a race against time, as […]
Gulp by Mary Roach
Mary Roach never disappoints. This particular foray into science focus on the alimentary canal: how it works, why it works and everything else we know about it. As usual, Mary isn’t afraid to investigate everything from what your saliva does to how/why gas smells (including going to a laboratory that studies exactly that) to fecal transplants to cure colitis. She speaks to Elvis’s personal doctor. She gets stomach acid dropped on her arm (makes you itchy, apparently). She speaks with scientists who study food textures […]
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