This is by far the best book I read in the month of September. I picked it up because I wanted to connect more presently with reality and I was so pleased how perfectly it hit the mark. This book is equally educational and compelling. Anne Fadiman’s work is a tragic tale of a small Hmong child who, while being treated by the American medical system, becomes brain dead by the age of four. The book explores the clash of two dynamic forces, the Hmong culture/belief and western medicine, and how Lia Lee’s permanent condition was a direct result of…
Posts Written OnOctober 2017
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Ultimately this book disappointed me. Imagine a bell curve; that perfectly illustrates the energy and my interest in this novel. The beginning was slow and that’s okay, a lot of books begin that way. I was prepared to be patient. The writing was good and occasionally very clever, clever enough I felt it promised satisfaction just around every page. I waited, then podded, onward. Even though I’m a self-proclaimed anglophile and I just absolutely adore anything British I was seriously contemplating not finishing this book. Nothing was happening, no character was strong enough to care too deeply about. Could I…
City of Thieves by David Benioff
There is so much to like about this book. It’s got real depth, but still fairly short. Its characters are full of life without being cliché. It’s atmospheric, intelligent, and even occasionally fun; there is really only one problem with this book-it feels like a freakishly talented frat boy wrote it. Seriously, the amount of content about male parts, female parts, bodily functions, sex, masturbation, etc. was way too much. I could perhaps have over looked it if it was contained to a chapter here or there but alas, it was everywhere. It felt as though I was anticipating my…