The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy

Humorous and True

  Enjoyable story.

   I am in the habit of reading books on the first few years of a medical professional. It gives me a feeling of security knowing the struggles and successes of the dedicated people who care for my body.

   This one can also be read as an autobiography of Dr. McCarthy covering his first year as a practicing intern. But it is best read as a memoir.

   He has a sense of humor which is needed in the profession. There is pressure and rewards. For the new doctors there is a lot to learn. Not everything was covered in the curriculum of the medical school. Much has to be learned one on one in the hospital training.

   Medicine is both a science and an art. The science is the knowledge you acquire and the art is the patient interaction.

   Doctor McCarthy presents us with a window to gaze through. You follow him through the ups and downs of caring for patients and also getting along with other medical personal.

   You will see how he handles bad news and good news. He doesn’t present himself as a saint on a pedestal.

   This book was sent free from blogging for Books (http://www.bloggingforbooks.com) for the purpose of reviewing. No requirement to give a positive review was stipulated.

   The views expressed are the reviewer’s and not the publisher’s.

Man, Myth, Messiah by Rice Broocks

   

What? Another book on apologetics? Do we really need this?

   Yes. Because unfortunately, once again the skeptic is trying to shake up the believer.

   We are told to always be ready to give an answer for our belief. That is what the realm of apologetics is all about. It is not apologizing for something but giving facts to back up what you believe.

   Broocks seems to feel a need to once again prove the existence of a man called Jesus and the resurrection story. He sees skeptics again trying to say Jesus is a myth.

   A common accusation of skeptics is that Christians believe in the resurrection merely because the Bible says so. And if they can disprove the Bible account, they feel they have won the battle.

   There are proofs. All proofs can be found in history. His crucifixion by a man called Pontius Pilate, a Roman leader, is historical. There is an empty tomb and that also is historical.

   I felt the author was fair with the discussion. The facts are presented in an easy to understand and digest manner. The reader will have to stop from time to time in the reading and think through the conclusions. Whether you agree with the facts or not, the way it is set down will give you much to consider.

   This book was sent to me gratis from booklookbloggers.com (www.booklookbloggers.com) for the purpose of this review. I was not required to give a positive review and the conclusions reached are mine and not those of the publisher.

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.