Five Days At Memorial by Sheri Fink

   

  Life working at a hospital is a vocation. Only the dedicated should do it.

   In every hospital the doctors and nurses have an obligation to maintain the standards set. Sometimes this contract is tested. It was during Hurricane Katrina.

   They should have been ready for it—the hurricane. They should have known the water would rise and the electricity would fail. They should have known supplies would be strained.

   Sometimes things happen and people die who shouldn’t.

   You shouldn’t have to ask for sainthood under pressure.  Yet most of us expect too much from our caretakers and then we bring charges against them if they don’t act as we have been prepared to expect.

   Fink, who has both an MD and  PhD, has written an account of five days under pressure and the outcome.

   When it was over, the blame started and the charges of murder were circulated. It was investigated and court action was brought against some doctors.

   I was sent this book without cost from blogging for books.com to be reviewed. I was not required to give a positive review.

   All view points are mine and don’t reflect those of the publisher. I am responsible for them all.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

  Every year for the past 14 years The Santa Monica community has held what has come to be known as Santa Monica Reads. This is a time when the library chooses a book the general public will be reading and discussing for a period of time.

   This year the book is of the genre science fiction. It takes place sometime in the future when the world is being invaded by a strain of virus referred to as the Georgia flu. Not everyone is killed but the world is altered.

   The story centers on a female called Kirsten Raymonde yet is told in the third person. It is layered as it moves between time and characters. It always returns to Kirsten who at the start of the story is seen as a young child playacting in King Lear. She is part of a group called the Symphony. As the story develops we are carried along as she strives to understand what has happened.

   The story is a search motif or maybe a quest.

   The story is told in both the present and the future covering a long stretch of time.

   The title Station Eleven refers to a place where life can start over, a place of rescue.

   The story appears to be not an optimistic one. A strain of flu sweeps through the world. Societies are broken up. Those left are trying to find each other to start over.

   But it ends in hope as a new community is seen through a spy glass-- Their station eleven.

This Is Awkward by Sammy Rhodes

   

There are moments when you feel awkward. It seems you want to mention something but it just doesn’t seem to be the time or place to do so. You feel there is a gap between what you actually are and what you should be.

   You struggle to hide it.

   There are some subjects you feel should not be discussed in public. These subjects include divorce, depression, and pornography. And those were just a few.

   This book is published by Thomas Nelson and is written by a campus minister so it covers issues most young people face.

   Rhodes gently handles with humor subjects that most often are not handled in public. It took humility to do so.

   The area of the pornography addiction often is not spoken about. It needed to be aired. Rhodes does a good service by including it. He tells it like it is. For someone from the millennial generation he is okay.

   Rhodes is a big presence on the Internet and has written for the Huffington Report, Salon and Christianity Today. So he knows how to write. He connects well with his readers.

   This book was sent to me without cost by booklookbloggers.com to be reviewed. There was under no  obligation to give a positive review and I was allowed to express my own opinion.

How To Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb

   

  There is a saying, as a man thinks so he is. Our brain’s perception of things determine how we respond.

   We react autonomic to phrases as never, always, but.. even without thought.  It is part of what is called our automatic brain. We react without thinking.

   We can train our brains to react a certain way. The point of training our self to perceive differently is to make ourselves happier and healthier. There is a right way and a wrong way to handle daily stress.

   Webb suggests there are seven building blocks we encounter each day and she presents three sections on how to transform the tasks you will confront each day into a good day.

   She walks us through to the solution by using scientific evidence along with practical techniques and real examples from real people. She uses behavioral science to point out what can be done.

   The book contains twenty one chapters with three appendix. Suggested readings follow the appendix.

   The main trust is we have a two system brain which contains a deliberate system and an automatic system.  We do our reasoning in our deliberate system. When we react in the area of shortcuts we are using the automatic system.

   I found this book to be very informative and would recommend it for all who are interested in behavior.

   This book was sent gratis from the publisher to me as a member of the blogging for books review team. I was not required to slant my review. All viewpoints are those of the reviewer and not those of the publisher.

The Confessions of X by Suzanne M. Wolfe

In the Confessions written by Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, a nameless woman is mentioned who was his concubine. No name is given but there was some reason he never forgot her.

This fiction retelling told in first person also follows the custom of not giving her name. It recounts what may have happened. The story line shows  research was needed as to the society of that time period.

Augustine was promised to another. For him to marry a woman from a different social economic was frowned upon. But to take her on as a concubine, that was okay.

You have to understand in that period a concubine was a common law wife. The term was not used for the prostitute.

The story is plausible. Augustine, according to history, did live a self centered lifestyle before he became a Christian and one of what is now known as a Church father. It is known that in his confessions is mentioned an unnamed female.

This is the benefit of fiction. A writer can use imagination in constructing an answer. She still does remain nameless but we see through her actions her love for Augustine.

This is another book to add to the romantic genre. It is well done and female readers will find it enjoyable.

This book was sent to be gratis from the publisher through booklookbloggers.com <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program.to be reviewed and posted to my blog. All opinions expressed are those of the reviewer and not the publisher.