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Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Narnian” by Alan Jacobs

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I’ve read biographies of soldiers, of statesmen, of starlets. I’ve read biographies of philanderers, philanthropists, and even families. But until The Narnian, I’d never read a biography of a mind.

Unlike the more traditional biography, which seeks to relate the events of an individual’s life first and foremost, The Narnian chooses to focus on how the events of C.S. Lewis’s life shape and are shaped by Lewis’s powerful imagination and thought life.

As a fan of Lewis’s fiction dating from my early elementary years, later turned a lover of his more philosophical works, I took great delight in reading The Narnian. Unlike the misnamed C.S. Lewis: Chronicler of Narnia (My Review), The Narnian is shot throughout with references to Lewis’s imaginative works.

It has now been months (unfortunately) since I read The Narnian, and the fine details of the book have faded from my mind. I cannot remember the specific points that Jacobs makes better than other biographers or the characteristic manner in which he made his points. I cannot give details of his writing style. Such details have been lost in the hubbub of moving.

But one thing has not been lost—my sense of deep gratitude to Jacobs for his fine biography of a mind that has so shaped my own mind through his writings, both fiction and philosophy. Jacobs treats Lewis respectfully as he seeks to describe Lewis’s life and the development of his imagination. Jacobs does not blindly bow before Lewis’s memory as though Lewis were incapable of doing wrong—but he also avoids the trap of pigeonholing Lewis into one or another category, suggesting that he was a master at X (philosophy or apologetics or criticism of Medieval literature) while pooh-poohing the rest of his life and work.

This is truly a wonderful biography of Lewis, presented in an engaging and honest manner. I definitely recommend it.

Janet also read and reviewed The Narnian over at Across the Page. Her review is a bit more in-depth with hints of what can be found within the book. Check it out!

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Biography
Synopsis:A biography of C.S. Lewis that focuses on his inner life–his mind and imagination.
Recommendation: If you’ve read and enjoyed Lewis, be sure to check out this book for a fantastic look at the man behind the books you’ve read.

Visit my books page for more reviews and notes.

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (December 2010)

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It’s the last Nightstand of 2010 and with my move complete, I’m switching things up a bit (Read “What’s up with my nightstand?” for more information.)

So, without further ado, my nightstand:

On my nightstand

Yes, I stacked the books double deep on that first shelf–and had an overflow crate in my closet.

On my nightstand

Adult Fiction
6 Christian, 6 secular, 2 literary

  1. Another Homecoming by Oke/Bunn
  2. Return to Harmony by Oke/Bunn
  3. Tomorrow’s Dream by Oke/Bunn
  4. Munich Signature by Bodie Thoene
  5. Danzig Passage by Bodie Thoene
  6. Jerusalem Interlude by Bodie Thoene
  7. Simon the Coldheart by Georgette Heyer
  8. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (Review by Colloquium)
  9. Living dead girl by Elizabeth Scott (Review by S. Krishna)
  10. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer
  11. The inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
  12. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  13. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  14. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Adult Non-Fiction
At least two from each of the following categories: theology/Christian living, biography, craft/project, and cookbooks.

  1. Confessions by St. Augustine
  2. If the church were Christian : rediscovering the values of Jesus by Philip Gully
  3. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams by Lynn Withey
  4. Winston Churchill : a Penguin life by John Keegan
  5. Super quick colorful quilts by Rosemary Wilkinson
  6. Tie-dye : the how-to book by Virginia Gleser
  7. The pioneer woman cooks by Ree Drummond
  8. Quick cooking for two by Sunset
  9. Composting by Liz Ball
  10. The complete idiot’s guide to stretching illustrated by Barbara Templeton
  11. Bright-sided : how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  12. How to save your own life by Michael Gates Gill
  13. Einstein’s refrigerator : and other stories from the flip side of history by Steve Silverman
  14. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
  15. The woman’s fix-it car care book by Karen Valenti
  16. The science of sexy by Bradley Bayou
  17. The pocket stylist by Kendall Farr
  18. Women’s wardrobe by Kim Johnson Gross

Juvenile Fiction
“Chapter” books, middle grade fiction, and YA fiction.

  1. Secret of the lost tunnel by Franklin Dixon
  2. Much ado about Anne by Heather Vogel Frederick (Review by 5M4B)
  3. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelley
  4. Freaky Friday by Anne Rodgers
  5. She’s so dead to us by Kieran Scott
  6. The mystery of the hidden painting created by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Juvenile Non-Fiction
Two books per state, 1 state per week for the entirety of 2011–plus a few extras for fun.

  1. Ask me anything a Dorling Kindersley book
  2. Maine by Ann Heinrichs
  3. Maine by Terry Allan Hicks
  4. Massachusetts by Ruth Bjorkland
  5. Massachusetts by Sarah DeCapua
  6. Massachusetts by Paul Joseph
  7. Massachusetts by Trudi Strain Trueit
  8. Massachusetts: The Bay State by Rachel Barenblatt
  9. New Hampshire by Terry Allan Hicks
  10. New Hampshire by Deborah Kent
  11. Rhode Island by Susan Labella
  12. Rhode Island by Rick Petreycik
  13. Vermont by Christine Taylor Butler
  14. Vermont by Megan Dornfeld
  15. Vermont by Ann Heinrichs

Picture Books
75 titles from author “BAR” to author “BAT”
to make a total of 128 titles

Then I checked out 14 CDs and 5 DVDs to bring my library total up to 148–two under the max!

Catch-up Reviews:

For any of you interested in the reviews I promised I’d be catching up on…here are the ones I’ve done over the past month…

…and the rest of these are written and are set to post within the next week…

  • The Narnian by Alan Jacobs
  • Boiling Mad: Inside the American Tea Party by Kate Zernicke
  • Justice that Restores by Chuck Colson
  • Radical by David Platt

What's on Your Nightstand?

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

Categories Books

What’s up with my nightstand?

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One of my first thoughts when it became apparent that I would be moving from Lincoln to Columbus was to ask about the Columbus public library system.

What I discovered was less than exciting. Columbus’s library is approximately the size of the branch library I used as a pre-teen—the library that I abandoned for the main library once my bookish appetite outgrew endless re-readings of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Furthermore, the Columbus library has a lending limit of 15 titles, a far cry from the 150 I’ve acclimated myself to at the Lincoln Public Libraries.

Taking into account these variables, and considering the goal I’ve been working on for four years (of reading every book in my Lincoln branch library), I decided to investigate the costs of purchasing an out-of-county subscription to the Lincoln Public Libraries.

I’d previously calculated the “worth” of my local (Lincoln) library at more than $5000 per year (using the cost of purchasing my average annual usage rather than borrowing it from the library). Compare to that, the $60 cost of purchasing an annual subscription is chump change.

With an annual subscription in hand, I will drive into Lincoln once every six weeks to load up on the library’s limit of 150 items. Each of these items will be checked out for three weeks and then renewed electronically for an additional three weeks.

This is unlikely to change my standard library usage by much, as my average is slightly higher than 150 items per 6 weeks. However, it will alter my library usage PATTERNS significantly.

While living in Lincoln, I was used to visiting the library once or twice a week, checking out ten to twenty items per visit. I returned items as soon as I had read them, meaning that I rarely had more than fifty items checked out at a time (except during that one summer when I intentionally kept books around in order to max out my card at 167—with 17 in the drop box). I had no system for what books I checked out when. I merely checked out what looked interesting at the moment—and if my reading mood changed, I could always take a ten-minute run to the library to check out something new.

Now, with the library an hour and a half away—and limiting myself to one visit per six weeks—I need a system to ensure that I have enough variety to keep me interested for the entire six weeks.

So, in true Type A fashion, I’ve developed a library-visit rubric for myself.

During each library visit, I will check out:

  • 75 children’s picture books
  • 6 juvenile fiction books (includes both Middle grade and YA fiction titles)
  • 15 juvenile fiction books (12 of which will be exploring six of the fifty states, as I intend to take a brief book tour of the 50 states through juvenile titles in 2011)
    14 adult fiction titles (6 Christian, 6 secular, and 2 which classify as “literature”)
  • 15 adult nonfiction titles (at least 2 in each of the following categories: theology/Christian living, biography, craft/project, and cookbooks)
  • 15 compact discs
  • 5 DVDs

That takes me to 145 titles. I imagine that the majority of these will be predetermined—picked before I even walk into the library, possibly even placed on hold so all I have to do is check them out. The final five are my wildcard picks, to be picked at the library simply based on what I feel like.

In less than 600 words, that’s what’s up with my nightstand.

Tune in tomorrow to see what’s ON my nightstand after my first visit following the above rubric.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande

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I’m quite fond of checklists myself. I use them for practically everything. They save me time, money, and energy–but did you know that checklists can save LIVES too?

And I’m not being facetious.

Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto tells the story of how simple checklists save lives–in the building of skyscrapers, the flying of planes, and in the running of operation rooms.

Gawande is a surgeon, and the bulk of the book concerns how he and a number of colleagues in the WHO developed and implemented a checklist to reduce surgical complications–with stunningly positive results.

As a dietitian (and sister and roommate of a physician assistant), I was fascinated by Gawande’s stories of operating rooms, emergency rooms, and public health campaigns. But this book isn’t just for people who like medicine. Gawande stretches outside the constraints of medicine to discuss how checklists are used in architecture and aeronautics, in disaster relief (well, by Walmart during Katrina, at least) and in investment.

Gawande makes a compelling case for the necessity of checklists, even among highly trained professionals, to deal with the problem of extreme complexity. He argues that in the world in which we live, there are hundreds (even thousands) of opportunities for something to go wrong. Even the most advanced practitioners need only forget one thing for a fatal error to occur. Checklists can be used to reduce these errors by ensuring that all of the most important considerations are made.

As I read, I found myself thinking of ways I could use checklists in my own work. Maybe checklists for weight loss interventions (I find myself typing the charting shorthand “wt” instead–I think I may be spending too much time charting at work) or for tube feeding initiation. I toss around a half dozen ideas, start compiling mental checklists. Yes, I’m going to be implementing checklists soon.

The Checklist Manifesto isn’t a self-help book or a “how to” manual–but I can almost guarantee it’ll get you thinking about how you can use checklists to make your life and your work better, faster, and more efficient.

I read this book on recommendation from Lisa Notes. Check out her review.

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Medical(?)
Synopsis:A history and defense of the checklist as a life-saving tool for modern days.
Recommendation: Definitely of interest to medical types, probably of interest to quite a few more. A fascinating story told well.

Visit my books page for more reviews and notes.

Categories Book Reviews

Two Views of Nebraska

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It had been a while since I last read something about my native state, so I figured I’d pick up some quick reading from my local library.

As I’ve mentioned before, I use children’s books as a “Cliff’s Notes” to introduce me to a topic before reading about it more in depth. Of course, having grown up in Nebraska and lived here all my life, I probably didn’t need a Cliff’s Notes, but I chose to read some children’s books anyway.

The two books I picked up–Ann Heinrichs’ Nebraska (part of Scholastic’s “America the Beautiful” series”) and Ruth Bjorklund’s Nebraska (part of Benchmark Books’ “Celebrate the States” series)–couldn’t have been more different.

Nebraska by BjorklandI read Bjorkland’s book first. By halfway through the book, I had to figure out who this author was. Surely, she had to be a native Nebraskan, I thought. She described Nebraska so accurately, so fully. The back cover informed me that she was not a Nebraskan.

Nevertheless, she did a fantastic job of laying out Nebraska’s history AND present. The first chapter gives a quick tour of Nebraska’s geography, from the Missouri River Valley to the Panhandle. From there, we take a look at Nebraska history, from ancient days to modern times. Then we learn of the government and economics, the cultural components of Nebraska cities and towns, and famous people from Nebraska. The book comes back to a full circle, ending with the “touristy” components of Nebraska geography. Appendices list the typical state report fare: state bird and motto, flag and major rivers, basic history and brief bios of famous people. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive look at Nebraska for the elementary-school audience.

But it isn’t the main topics that set this book apart. It’s the attention the author pays to details, the journalistic accuracy in portraying real Nebraskans. The book regularly quotes Nebraskans talking about themselves, their state, their history. And it doesn’t just quote “famous” Nebraskans. It quotes everyday people. Rather than just summarizing the same old Department of Tourism schlep, Bjorkland finds out what real Nebraskans think about things. She discusses the divide between the relatively prosperous, densely populated Southeastern corner of the state and the much more rural rest of the state–the tensions over taxation and how many rural Nebraskans feel that too much money is funneled to the Southeast corner, the feeling that some in the Panhandle have that they have more in common with the ranching Colorado or Wyoming than the rest of farming Nebraska. Bjorkland doesn’t dwell on these topics or hype them into a drama that isn’t there, but she honestly addresses issues like these–issues that real Nebraskans are interested in.

Nebraska by HeinrichsHeinrichs’ Nebraska, on the other hand, reads as though it came straight from the Nebraska government website, giving the facts and the nicely sanitized details specifically designed to sell our state rather than accurately portray it. What’s more, unlike Bjorkland’s book, this book patronizes students, talking with the “twaddle” tone Charlotte Mason devotees so abhor.

Furthermore, whenever Heinrichs’ attempts to add some “real Nebraska” flavor to her writing, she gets it wrong. She writes that “when the stadium is at capacity, its population is higher than Nebraska’s second-largest city”, attempting to share one of the factoids Nebraskans love to gloat about. The problem is, there isn’t a single Nebraskan who wouldn’t catch the error here. When the stadium is at capacity (in other words, during every home game), the Husker stadium DOESN’T hold more people than Nebraska’s second largest city (Lincoln). It holds more people than Nebraska’s THIRD largest city. Nebraska’s second largest city, Lincoln, has a population of over 200,000–while the stadium contains something a little less than 100,000. HUGE error.

Then there’s the little blurb about Nebraska’s state hero, former Husker football coach (and current Husker athletic director) Tom Osborne. According to Heinrichs, Tom Osborne “ran for Nebraska governor in 2006, capturing 45 percent of the vote.” Except that he didn’t. He did run for governor, but lost in the primaries, capturing 45% of the vote IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES. BIG difference.

Heinrichs’ Nebraska is more colorful, more graph-filled, more “teacher-friendly” than Bjorkland’s Nebraska–but it also completely fails as a source of information about Nebraska. If you’re a mother traveling with her children through the 50 states, take my advice and use Bjorkland’s book to introduce your children to the REAL Nebraska–decidedly less flashy, but ultimately much more attractive.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Nina Garcia’s Look Book

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Confession: I am not a fashion plate.

Surprised?

Why ever not?

Despite my not-so-fashionable tendencies (inwardly, I’m really a denim jumper and birkenstocks-with-socks wearing Mom, with a patchwork vest thrown over top for good measure), I adore reading books on fashion, “style”, what-have-you.

Books like Nina Garcia’s Look Book.

Garcia’s Look Book tells the reader “what to wear for every occasion”–from when you’re asking for a raise to going on errands around town to Easter dinner to jury duty. Garcia covers it all.

Pick this book up, stick a sticky note in the most often used sections, and hope that you have a REALLY large clothes budget.

Maybe some women have this many clothes, but I certainly don’t. I briefly contemplated making a list of each of the items “called for” in each of Garcia’s “recipes”, but it took me only two or three pages to let go of that notion. It’d take forever.

So it’s not exactly the most practical book.

But it can’t be denied–it is a fun book. It’s fun to revel in the options one has with clothes, to imagine having to decide what to wear to a black-tie dinner, to read little anecdotes about others’ fashion faux pas and brilliant successes. And Garcia does have a good feel, after all, for the “vibe” you want to put off in different scenarios.

No discussion of this book would be complete without a mention of Ruben Toledo’s illustrations: lipstick tubes, fun shoes, and complete do’s. These illustrations are just great.

Yes, this is just the sort of book for a not-so-fashion-forward gal such as myself, who nonetheless likes to sink into a world of glamor through the pages of a book. Glossy illustrations, out-of-my-world scenarios, and just the tiniest touch of celebrity.

It’s the kind of book I love to check out of the library but would never dream of buying for myself.

Take it or leave it according to your preference.

Rating: 2 stars
Category: Fashion Advice
Synopsis:Garcia tells you “what to wear for every occasion.”
Recommendation: Not so useful for what it’s billed as (unless you have an enormous wardrobe), but fun if you like perusing glossy illustrations of glamor.

Visit my books page for more reviews and notes.

Categories Books, Memes

More than six?

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Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Which I, by the way, think is a ridiculously small number. If you haven’t read at least six, you’d better start reading!

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety; italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or from which you’ve read an excerpt.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6. The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

There we go–I’ve got six. I can stop now, right?

8. Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell

9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare

15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch – George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34. Emma -Jane Austen

35. Persuasion – Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
Totally cheating by having The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe count twice (see #33)

37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

41. Animal Farm – George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50. Atonement – Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52. Dune – Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65. The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72. Dracula – Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses – James Joyce

76. The Inferno – Dante

77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal – Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession – AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94. Watership Down – Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So my original 6 out of 7 number doesn’t hold true through the end, but I’ll still say I’m decently well read.

At least I’ve read more than 6.

Interesting side note. I saw this in a friend’s Facebook notes and filled it out. Then, in the same sitting, I was going through my Google Reader and discovered that Hope in Brazil had done the same meme. Fun!

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (November 2010)

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On last month’s nightstand:

On my nightstandOn my nightstand

What I actually read this month was…
Considering the craziness of this month, what with moving and traveling and still living and working in two different towns, I read quite a bit. But I had very little access to internet, so I’m far from caught up with reviews. I have at least a dozen items on my “TBReviewed” list!

Fiction

  • A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
    I finally called it quits on this after 3/4 or so. I just couldn’t get interested in the story.
  • Love’s Abiding Joy by Janette Oke
  • Love’s Unending Legacy by Janette Oke
  • Love’s Unfolding Dream by Janette Oke
  • Love Takes Wing by Janette Oke
  • Love Finds a Home by Janette Oke

Nonfiction

  • The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande (TBReviewed)
  • Nasty, Brutish, and Long: Adventures in Eldercare by Ira Rosofsky (My Review)
  • Nina Garcia’s Look Book by Nina Garcia (TBReviewed)
  • Radical by David Platt (TBReviewed)
  • Will This Place Ever Feel Like Home? by Leslie Levine (TBReviewed)

Juvenile

  • Children’s Picture Books author BANG-BANKS (partly)
    including BANG The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart (My Review)
  • Nebraska a “Celebrate the States” book by Ruth Bjorklund (TBReviewed)
  • The Old Motel Mystery created by Gertrude Chandler Warner

This month’s nightstand is a bit different since I’m in the middle of moving and I haven’t got a nightstand (or any other place for my library books)–and because I’m trying to finish up these library books so I can start anew in my new city.

Currently in the middle of… or going to start soon (?)

On my nightstand

  • 30-Minute Get Real Meals by Rachael Ray
  • Ask Me Anything a Dorling-Kindersley book
  • Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America by Kate Zernike
  • Business Casual made Easy
  • Desiring God by John Piper
  • Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris
  • The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy
  • Making the Big Move by Cathy Goodwin
  • Nebraska an “America the Beautiful” book by Ann Heinrichs
  • The Secret of Skull Mountain by Franklin W. Dixon
  • Miscellaneous children’s books, fashion/wardrobe books, and Boston guidebooks (leftover from my trip this month)

Drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading.
What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Nasty, Brutish & Long” by Ira Rosofsky

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Working in a nursing home isn’t easy. There are cantankerous residents, sleep-deprived coworkers, and governmental forms to be filled out in triplicate. There are hoops to be jumped through to provide care–and hoops to be jumped through that inhibit care. There’s the pecking order of doctors, nurses, therapists, and other care staff. There’s the often contradictory demands of residents, family members, physicians, and government regulations. And then there’s the emotional toll of caring for people who inevitably die.

Living in a nursing home isn’t easy. There are bossy staff who insist that you can’t get out of your wheelchair but must wheel yourself on the long way to the dining room. There are buzzers and beepers and lights going off everywhere at all hours of the day or night. You can’t pick your neighbors–you can’t even pick your roommate. You’re constantly being interrupted by staff who insist on interviewing you about the same old stuff–or who keep asking you if you know your name and where you’re at. Staff insist that you go to “activities”; but the one activity you’d really like to enjoy–spending time with your children and grandchildren–isn’t available. And then there’s how everybody inevitably dies.

Ira Rosofsky’s Nasty, Brutish & Long: Adventures in Eldercare tells just some of the stories of life in a nursing home. Rosofsky, a consultant psychologist for a variety of long term care facilities, writes of life on both sides of the nurse’s station. He sympathetically shares the stories of the elders he’s met (fictionalized, of course, per HIPAA). He tells of the processes and paperwork that come along with working in long term care. And he reveals his own story as a son placing his father in a long term care facility.

As one who has had a lengthy acquaintanceship with long term care (considering my relatively young age), I found Rosofsky’s story to be… true. His writing resonates with the girl who went to assisted living facilities to conduct Sunday afternoon worship services–who gladly sang the old hymns at the top of her lungs and then listened as the residents told her about their parents, their children, and their grandchildren. His writing resonates with the girl who served coffee and wiped tables and fell in love with her elderly residents. It resonates with the girl who still remembers sitting with an elderly woman, reading her Psalm 23, explaining to her the gospel, describing how she can have assurance of salvation. It resonates with the girl who later that week removed that same woman’s tray ticket from the stack before meal service–she wouldn’t need a tray anymore. She was dead. Rosofsky’s story resonates with the girl who grieved as her grandmother moved from a retirement community to assisted living to a nursing home–a girl who felt increasingly helpless as her grandma’s dependence on the nursing staff grew. It resonates with the girl who is now a nursing home dietitian, loving to care for her residents, hating how hard it is to care for her residents.

The tale Rosofsky tells in Nasty, Brutish & Long is a true story–and it’s a story that’s being played out in nursing homes around the nation.

This is a memoir. It describes but doesn’t necessarily explain. It raises questions but doesn’t necessarily give answers. You’re not going to find the solution to the long-term-care crisis within the pages of this book. But you will find a powerful description of the realities that face many of those working or living in long-term-care.

I feel like everyone should read this–but then I wonder if I’m just being selfish. Maybe I just want everyone to read it so they can understand my world. Maybe that’s it. But the truth is that even if this isn’t your world now, long-term-care will likely be your world in the future. Maybe you’ll place a parent in a LTC facility. Maybe you’ll find yourself in one when your recovery from a surgical procedure takes longer than expected. Maybe you’ll find yourself in one long term. Or maybe you just need to be reminded of how vital your visits and prayers are to your church’s elderly. At any rate, I think this book is a valuable tool for understanding the challenges of life in long-term-care.

You should probably read it.

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Memoir
Synopsis:Ira Rosofsky paints a picture of life in long-term-care from the perspective of residents, staff, and family members.
Recommendation: This is a great intro to the challenges and pressures of life in long-term-care. It’s worth reading–if long-term-care doesn’t affect you now, it may very well affect you tomorrow.

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Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma”

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I was thrilled with Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society (My Review). Not quite as much with The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (My Review). Both were great stories. I’d highly recommend either. But The Mysterious Benedict Society is not just a great story–it has the additional benefit of being profound.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a great middle betwixt the two–and a great cap to a marvelous series.

“The Prisoner’s Dilemma” refers to a famous test the children are given at the beginning of the book. They’re being given the test as a school exercise–and they manage to find a way out without resolving the tricky ethical questions the exercise was designed to force them to grapple with.

Yet life will insist that they wrestle with the same question yet again.

When Ledropthe Curtain renews his attempts to regain the Whisperer, the children must make difficult decisions. Will each child choose to act in his own interests or in the interest of another–even at a high cost to self?

Stewart artfully weaves the Prisoner’s Dilemma throughout the story, never heavy-handedly insisting on recreating the exact predicament set up in the first scenario–but still managing to test the children multiple times (and to renew the question in the reader’s mind as well.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a potent love story–not the story of romantic love, but of the love of a father for a daughter, a daughter for a father, a devotee to his idol, a brother for his brother, and four friends for each other.

Rating: 5 stars
Category: Young Adult General Fiction
Synopsis: Four children find themselves in tricky positions as they must repeatedly choose between personal gain or what’s best for their friends and loved ones in this adventure to stop the evil Ledropthe Curtain.
Recommendation: Nothing can quite top the first in the series for a thought-provoking read that’s also a great story–but this third volume comes close. A must read.

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