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Grief in tangible and
intangible forms: a
deft meditation.

The Question of Miracles by Elana K. Arnold. Harcourt, 2015, 240 pages.

Beautiful meditation
on life, death, and friendship.
Worth all the buzz.

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart. Scholastic, 2015, 240 pages.

Hard conversations
that we can't seem to have well.
Alles fleisch indeed . . .

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Metropolitan Books, 2014, 304 pages.

P.S. Apparently I took a weeklong blog break. Oops. I'm only mortal . . .

Innovative and
effective take on
unmentionable disease.

Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling by Lucy Frank. Schwartz + Wade, 2014, 272 pages.

You'll catch on before
Maggie does, but you'll love her
for her ignorance.

The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern. Chronicle, 2014, 220 pages.

Stick this on your
Diverse Books About Kicka$$ Girls
shelf. (Don't have? MAKE ONE.)

El Deafo by Cece Bell. Amulet/Abrams, 2014, 248 pages.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic David Quammen

We’re all going to die. And it’s probably bats or monkeys that will do us in.

As you may remember, I’m a huge fan for medical epidemic books and stories so I was very excited to come across this one, which is about diseases we get from animals, and the science of how a spillover works-- what makes something go from an animal to a human and then make large numbers of us very sick?

Quammen looks at several zoonosis (infections we get from animals) throughout history, and the history of how it made people sick, how they figured out what was going on, and what made it spillover and spread. And he looks at A LOT of diseases such as Hendra, Ebola, SARS, AIDS, Malaria, Lyme, and a host of others. Along the way, he also talks to many scientists about what they’re doing now to be ready for the next one-- what will it be, where will it hit, what can we do to be prepared.

One on hand it’s fascinating. On the other, it’s terrifying (even though he doesn’t want us to freak out too much. I mean, we will all die at some point. And probably not of the next BIG ONE. Which will probably be a flu. And probably from bats or monkeys. Man, I really like bats.)

It’s very interesting, but it does occasionally get bogged down (I found the AIDS stuff a little too academic and wasn’t a fan of his speculative fiction about how it spread in humans).

It was a weird one, because I LOVED it, but it took me FOREVER to finish. Not sure why.

If you liked Outbreak and The Hot Zone, you should probably read this one (if nothing else, just to find out that everything you thought you knew about Ebola is false.) Plus! It's an Outstanding Book for the College Bound.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Doctor Cartoon  – By Bob Ostrom Studio

I was just thinking… What the fill in the blank questions on the SATs looked like this?
(Feel free to answer in the comments section. You will receive your test scores in the mail in about 3 weeks)

The post What is the SATs looked like this? appeared first on Illustration.

Halse Anderson
does it again: takes my heart and
rips it wide open.

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking, 2014, 304 pages.

By Heidi Moawad

As a medical student, you are the future of health care. Despite the persistent negativity about the state of health care and the seemingly never-ending health care crisis, you have astutely perceived the benefits of becoming a physician. There is no doubt that health care delivery is unreasonably complex for everyone involved and, as much as political party loyalists insist that this is the fault of the ‘other’ party, the bureaucracy and inefficiencies have endured despite the back-and-forth changing hands of responsibility.

Fortunately, you have seen past the commotion and panic, and steadfastly remained optimistic. There is not a single medical student who ended up where he or she is by accident. The completion of rigorous undergraduate pre-medical prerequisite courses, outstanding grades, and top-notch MCAT scores required for application to medical school only come to those who have a well-thought-out plan, combined with a commitment and perseverance to become physicians. Medical school acceptance is exceedingly competitive, involving a multistep application process starting with preliminary applications, and then progressing to selective invitations for secondary applications and interviews. Academic excellence is the entry point, while interviews serve to distinguish young people who have a passion and a gift for helping humanity. Interviews are granted to few; offers of positions in a medical school class are even fewer.

You have already overcome all of these hurdles and remained focused. You are fortunate to begin your medical education at a time when you can shape the future of the profession. Medical education is becoming more innovative, going beyond traditional approaches to learning. The potential benefits for students are endless. With these advantages, come higher expectations. As a doctor of tomorrow, you will often expect yourself to improve the world around you for your patients.

The direction of health care will certainly improve as your generation of young physicians in training masters the knowledge and proficiencies necessary to become licensed MDs in a few years. The capabilities that will make you a leader are skills that cannot be measured, yet can absolutely be learned. Like many of today’s future doctors, you are likely to find yourself driven to improve the health care options available for patients or to use technology in new ways that have not been thought of before. There has been an increasing trend of physicians playing roles that have not been defined previously.

As a young physician, while you fulfill the requirements for licensing, you may discover that there is more than one way to be a doctor. Some of the ways to be a doctor involve non-clinical work, which typically does not enjoy a well-established path. If you choose to establish experience and find employment in alternative areas besides clinical practice, you will find that you don’t have built in access to guidance and direction. Yet, it is advantageous for you to understand all of the professional opportunities available to you while you embark on the road to becoming physicians. Knowledge is power. Every young doctor ought to appreciate the full array of options after graduation from medical school. This can help set the stage for career satisfaction in the long term. You can attain a career path that is challenging and fulfilling. The results for medicine as a profession will be enhanced when all doctors use their skills and talents in the way that fits best.

Heidi Moawad, MD is neurologist and author of Careers Beyond Clinical Medicine, an instructional book for doctors who are looking for jobs in non-clinical fields. Read her previous blog posts.

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Image credit: Multiracial medical students wearing lab coats studying in classroom. Photo by goldenKB, iStockphoto.

The post To medical students: the doctors of the future appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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Spit to poop and
everything in between. (Go ahead --
make a fart joke.)

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach. Norton, 2012, 352 pages.

Standing out to fit in
seemed like a good idea
at the time. Smart, sad.

Peanut by Ayun Halliday, illustrated by Paul Hoppe. Schwartz & Wade, 2012, 216 pages.

In his new book A New Language for Life: Happy No Matter What, Dr. Louis Koster shows you how to transform your life from a place of higher awareness, to trust yourself and life, and experience an overall sense of peace and well-being—no matter what.

Why did you feel compelled to write A New Language for Life?

Louis:  I was humbled by my experiences. There is no other way of saying it. I felt entrapped by the circumstances of my life and at some point realized that there was nowhere else to go. I knew that the way I viewed the world had to change. This was my defining moment. I realized that if I considered life as fundamentally good, I may as well trust what was occurring in my life as fundamentally good, rather than condemning it. I made then and there a commitment to be happy and content, no matter what the circumstances of my life. This commitment became a passage of awakening and higher awareness that allowed me to transcend the circumstances of my life and reclaim my capacity to manifest my life. I then became willingly compelled to share this message of awakening and inner peace with others.

Why would someone want to read A New Language for Life?

Louis:  Entrapment in our circumstances is the human experience without exception at some point in a person’s life. In A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What!, readers are invited to dwell in two powerful affirmations–The Choice and The Insight, which by its own unique design, open up a passage of awakening and higher awareness without changing anything about the circumstances of your life. The Choice andThe Insight release being from its entrapment in language and allow readers to experience an authentic freedom to be and be present again to the true joy of life.What makes A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What! so appealing is the simplicity of its passage. A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What! is attractive, since the title of the book is attractive and captures people’s immediate attention.

Is there a particular timely nature of the subject area?

Louis:  We live in an era of unprecedented change and are trapped in cycles of crises. In depleting the resources of our planet, we may lose the fragile web of life that sustains us on planet earth. There is more at stake in being happy than our individual happiness, since a commitment to being happy brings about a sense of oneness and perspective to our experience of life. Readers learn that our default way of being is insufficient to deal with our current issues and concerns and that true survival of the human race is only possible inside of oneness.

Are there specific benefits from reading your book?

Louis:  Dwelling in the affirmations of the book, The Choice and The Insight, the reader experiences an authentic freedom to be in whatever circumstance they find themselves in life. A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What! shows how you can defeat day-to-day depression, struggle and unhappiness, or any ordinary bad mood.  A New Language for Life shows you how to weather the winds and storms of life from a deep and abiding source of inner peace.  Some of the benefits that workshop participants of A New Language for Life report are less resentment and more peace.  After the workshop, they were less preoccupied with other peoples’ opinion about them and the freedom to just be.  Participants felt less immobilized and consumed by the circumstances in their lives and were able to give attention to what really matters in their lives.

Describe the audience for your book.

Louis:  The book is for anyone who is in transition in life and has a sense that there is more to life than what they are currently experiencing. The book is for anyone who is committed to a life beyond struggle and suffering, a life beyond a sense of entrapment by circumstances. The book allows you to empower yourself through the challenges you are facing in life. You are led  to a place where you start to trust your own experience of life and begin listening to your own truth again. The book offers a way to reconnect with the essence of your being and a way to live according to your true nature.

What personal experiences led you to write A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What!?

Louis:  In essence, the idea for the book came to me by making the distinction between being, and the “I,” and by recognizing being as a separate, but invisible reality, the only reality that is in keeping with our true nature, despite what our senses, or the “I” tell us that we are. In hindsight, each event in my life has been an integral part of a journey of trusting myself and life, which allowed me to free myself from my self-imposed limitations, realizing that I am much more than what defines me, and come to an authenticity of being.

How do you see A New Language for Life making a difference for people?

Louis:  A New Language for Life is a message of peace and oneness. A New Language for Life is a message of a higher awareness. A New Language for Life  allows you to live a life that is wholesome. A New Language for Life shows you how to defeat day-to-day depression, anger, and unhappiness, or any ordinary bad mood. A New Language for Life, shows you how to weather the winds and storms of life from a deep and abiding source of inner peace.

Where do you see the messages in A New Language for Life going?

Louis:  I see A New Language for Life  becoming part of our daily conversations. People may see in A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What!a simple and elegant design that allows them to release themselves from the entrapment in language and start living their lives in a way that is more wholesome and in an alignment with the true nature of their being.

What do you see is the relevance of A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What! in today’s society?

Louis: The innate nature of being is kindness. How to get in touch with that and how to maintain that in the face of life’s daily occurrences, is the challenge. A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What! could aid people who are already participating in some spiritual practice to stay centered in their being. Now is the time. Now there is a window in the experience that people have of our current times, an opening to look beyond the horizon of what they see. Apart from personal enlightment, there is a narrow window in the next couple of years to change the way we view ourselves and each other to sustain our fragile life on planet Earth.

How do you see A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What! is in keeping with other spiritual teachings?

Louis:  Anyone who has been dwelling in the possibility of A New Language for Life, Happy No Matter What!will recognize similarities with Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Taoism. This book aligns with other spiritual teachings, in fact enriches other spiritual teachings.

What people, philosophers have influenced you in writing this book?

Louis:  I was influenced by the philosopher Martin Heidegger, by Albert Einstein, and Krishnamurti, who all from their own unique perspective dwelled inside of oneness. I am inspired by the message of peace by the Dalai Lama. I have a deep respect for the wisdom of the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, who spoke about unveiling the truth of oneness.

How has writing A New Language for Life influenced your personal life?

Louis:  It allowed for my wife and I to have an extraordinary relationship. It allowed me to live a peaceful life. It allowed me to be more caring for my patients and be in touch with what really matters for them. It allowed me to step a little outside the classical paradigm of practicing medicine, which is predominantly evidence-based, and return to the art of medicine, where true caring makes a difference. It allowed me to have a great relationship with my brother and appreciate his great wisdom. It allowed me to just be grateful for the privilege of being alive.

Who were your biggest teachers?

Louis:  My biggest teachers were my parents, my brother, and my wife and daughter. They kept me straight.

What are your other interests?

Louis: Spending time with my family, traveling, reading and language. I am currently studying Arabic, and welcoming any opportunity to practice speaking Spanish.

Who are you favorite authors?

Louis: My favorite authors are historical novelists like Gabriella Garcia Marquez, John Steinbeck, George Orwell, and Ernest Hemmingway.

To find out more about Dr. Louis Koster, visit his website: http://www.louiskoster.com/

Title: The Midwife of Venice Author: Roberta Rich Publisher: Gallery Books ISBN: 978-1451657470

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

After reading this book, I wonder how anybody survived childbirth in the 16th century.  Ugh!  I found this historical drama about Hannah, a Jewish midwife, fascinating, and couldn’t put it down.  I didn’t find the chapters chronicling Isaac’s captivity on Malta as compelling, but I did find that their alternating POV worked well for this novel. 

Hannah is a Jewish midwife living in the Jewish ghetto of Venice.  Her husband, Isaac, has been captured by at sea while trying to make a fortune trading, and is waiting in Malta to be ransomed.  Desperate to free her beloved husband and have him returned to her, Hannah agrees to help a wealthy Christian deliver a baby, despite the Papal edict prohibiting Jews from rendering medical aid to Christians.  Immediately at odds with the Rabbi, Hannah’s decision could bring disaster to the ghetto.  The Christians don’t need much of an excuse to bring death to the Jews, but Hannah is determined to earn the money to free her husband.

The first few chapters of this book are INTENSE.  Hannah is willing to put the lives of everyone in the ghetto on the line to deliver the Contessa’s baby, and she is going to need a miracle if both mother and baby are to survive.  Lucia has been in labor for days, and is bleeding uncontrollably.  The baby is turned and won’t survive for much longer.  Hannah has a terrible choice to make; save the mother or save the infant?  This entire scene had me on the edge of my seat, and I couldn’t stop reading until I learned the outcome.  The thought of Hannah having to use the crochet was just horrifying!  And the thought that her contemporaries believed