This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor by Susan Wicklund and Alex Kesselheim (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This stirring memoir is the story of Susan Wicklund, MD, who performed abortions in multiple states for over 20 years.  It begins with an account of her personal experiences that lead to her decision to do this work and it takes the reader through the course of her tumultuous and dramatic career.  No other type of doctor is hunted and intimidated the way these brave physicians are.  No other doctor is forced to subject their families and friends to the kind of outright brutality that these doctors are — and ironically in the name of God!  They deserve all the recognition that this book begins to achieve.

It truly brings to light the hypocrisy of the protestors who plagued her.  In their urgency to protect “rights” of the unborn, for example, they completely trample over the rights of ACTUAL LIVING PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE PROTECTED!  Staggeringly, some of the people who protested actually came in for services and then went  back out and protested again.  And you can be sure that their sisters, mothers, cousins and friends had probably used the services as well.  But go and shoot at the doctor and go and burn down the clinic so that you can make your empty, cowardly statement.

As you can see, I am passionate about this topic.  But I think no matter what your view on this subject, this book is a fascinating real-life story of a heroine.  An important book for us to be reading especially in the current, right-wing, conservative political climate in which we are, sadly, living.

Thrive by Arianna Huffington (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This non-fiction book by the founder of the Huffington Post,  is a treatise on creating a balance in our lives.  Huffington makes a well-argued point that we are so bent in our society on achieving success as defined by money and power that we lose sight of what can make us actually happy — which she suggests are well-being, wisdom and wonder.

Taking care of ourselves physically and emotionally, she argues, is the most important.  Getting adequate sleep, exercising, meditating, taking time away from our technological tethers are all key factors in fostering actual happiness.  Huffington pushes for a change in culture away from the macho attitude of bragging about all-nighters in the office to one where time off taken to re-charge is respected.  She argues for balance, for spiritual fulfillment, for volunteerism as a means of achieving success as she defines it.

I think Huffington’s ideas are valuable and well-fueled by research.  Maybe I also like it so much because I’ve chosen the less academic route in my career in order to find this balance.  I do think it’s a hard thing to achieve in our high-powered, high-tech world.  But it is an important goal, balance.

I think this book is a good gift for all the workaholics that we know!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This non-fiction book is the story of Henrietta Lacks, made immortal by her cervical cancer cells that were essentially stolen from her and used for medical research without her consent or knowledge.  Known only as HeLa cells for many years, the cancer cells divided at such a steady, rapid pace that they were essentially the earliest and most successful cells to be grown in a lab.  Since they were so hardy, they were able to be cultivated and shipped around the world and used by researchers to conduct studies and develop medical breakthroughs never before even imagined.

Unfortunately, though, the fact that they were taken from a real person with a life and a family was pretty much ignored.  The uncovering of this story by the author became a revelation to both her and to the family and she reveals the impact of this as the story unfolds.  There is, in the telling of this injustice, a chronology of sorts of many other injustices and the resultant development of informed consent for medical research.  (One horrifying fact this book reveals is that our country had developed laws regulating the treatment of animals in research even before we had laws protecting humans!  Imagine that!)

It’s a very personal story, particularly as it relates to Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter, and a very public story as it relates to the history of medical research.  It does jump a bit from topic to topic and the writing is a bit choppy, but it is a fascinating and honest story nonetheless.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

I was really not sure I was going to make it through this one, but a dear friend encouraged me to complete it and I’m glad I did.  This true story is at once disturbing and inspiring, hard to believe and hard to endure.  It is the story of Louie Zamporini, who was an Olympic track hopeful who was drafted into the Air Force, based in Hawaii during World War II.  From a downed plane, to weeks on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to being captured as a POW by the Japanese, his journey took him through years of torment and torture.  Survival was a mixed blessing and his journey afterwards through PTSD brought him eventually to a place where he was able to confront his past and come to terms with it.

The story has parts that are relentlessly heart-wrenching and depressing for the reader.  I nearly gave up because I felt I couldn’t bear to read it anymore.  In fact, I downloaded another, mindless book to read to distract myself and lighten my heart a bit.  I did return to it, though, and I am happy that I did.

What is so inspiring about this story is not only the bravery and the tenacity with which the POW’s lived through their experience, but also the ability to ultimately forgive and relinquish the hatred of the enemy.  I only read about their experiences and I have trouble forgiving the individuals responsible.

This is a painful, torturous book but it does inspire and give hope of healing.  Not advised if you have a weak stomach, though!

P.S.  The movie, directed by Angelina Jolie, comes out in December!

Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon (partially migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This is the ultimate anti-diet book.  I started this book with a cynical eye and was surprised to find it pretty interesting.  The premise is that diets have been shown by research not to work.  Almost every weight loss diet involves restricting one’s intake and this sets off the body’s reaction to restriction which is to reset the “set point” even higher.  This evidently results in one gaining back whatever is lost and then some.  The yoyo dieting that so many Americans practice actually, then, creates more obesity.

The answer, then, according to Bacon, is to give up on dieting and to regain and respect the internal signals that we all have to eat when we’re hungry and stop when we’re full.  She explains further how our brains are less sensitive to the signals triggered by processed foods than those triggered by whole foods and how the food industry cashes in on this difference.  Since we don’t get sated by the processed foods, we crave more and more.  This results in big bucks for the junk food industry and for big numbers on the scales of many Americans.

There is some discussion about the lack of evidence that obesity alone is responsible for certain health  problems, such as diabetes and hypertension.  This is the part where her theories are extremely questionable.  There is an abundance of evidence to connect overweight/obesity with diabetes and hypertension.  There is an abundance of evidence to connect obesity to a whole host of medical problems.  The author really is inconsistent in her research (her references are largely outdated and limited to very few actual studies) and the opinions are extraordinarily biased.

What is good about the later chapters is that the author does not instruct those who are overweight to just give up on being healthy.  She does promote eating healthy, whole foods.  She promotes a more active lifestyle.  And she also promotes being happy with oneself at any weight and trying to bolster weighing one’s own self esteem NOT by the scale.  This part I agree with wholeheartedly.

It’s a pretty radical perspective proposed here and I appreciate the value of self esteem and comfort in one’s body.  But there is incontrovertible evidence that being obese does lead to medical problems.  So it may be that her suggestions about healthful eating and an active lifestyle can lead to a healthy means of losing weight and then to better overall health.

A compromise?

 

 

Brain on Fire (migrated from bookblogger)

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Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

This is an autobiography of a young woman who had a psychotic episode that was caused by an extremely rare disorder of the brain.  Susannah Cahalan was a young, dynamic, outgoing and talkative journalist for the New York Post who suddenly started experiencing hallucinations, seizures and disordered movements.  She deteriorated to the point of catatonia, and was then fortunate enough to have been referred to a neurologist who was essentially her savior.

What is fascinating about this autobiography is that since the author was unable to think in any logical or functional way during the acute period of her illness, she pieced together her experience through interviews with and journals by her family, boyfriend and physicians.  She creates a smooth story from this research and tells the story as if she did remember it herself, always reminding the reader that this is what she was told occurred.  Some of her hallucinations are told first hand, however, because in her mind, these images were what was real.

Of course being a physician, this case is extremely interesting, but I think anyone could appreciate how interesting her course was.  In addition, it gives the reader an insight into how rare medical conditions can masquerade as usual ones and that diagnosis and treatment of medical problems can sometimes be extremely challenging.  While physicians are trained to recognize and treat the more common medical conditions, they are also trained to recognize that when symptoms and signs don’t add up, one has to delve deeper into the medical literature and look for what we refer to as the “zebras” of medicine.  (The saying is that when you hear hooves you should think horses not zebras.  Unfortunately, there are zebras out there as well.)

As Cahalan says, also, she was uniquely fortunate to have both the emotional support of her family and boyfriend (who stayed true to her through the whole ordeal and after) as well as financial support.  This enabled her to not only get through this very difficult time but also to access the medical treatment she required.  It is touching to read about how each of the family members dealt with her illness and stood by her side even while she was unrecognizable, both physically and emotionally.

It’s a tough book to read but very interesting…

Behind the Beautiful Forevers (migrated from bookblogger)

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Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

The “moral” of this book could be “Life sucks and then you die… or kill yourself.”  This is a painfully realistic depiction of life in the slums of Mumbai, derived after the author lived among these real people for four years.  It is written like a novel, focusing on a particular family who lived next door to a woman with one leg.  Fatima, or “One Leg” as she was called, was always jealous of the money the family earned by collecting recyclable trash and in a jealous rage, set her own face on fire and accused the family of triggering her suicide attempt.  Because of this, the family had to confront the unabashedly corrupt criminal justice (or IN-Justice, really) system in order to extricate themselves from this messy nightmare.  Meanwhile, in the telling of this story, the author weaves the pain and the misery of the other surrounding characters into the tale and leaves the reader plainly devastated.

The level of poverty is frightening enough, but the competition and jealousy and the level of corruption that perpetuates the poverty is just overwhelmingly depressing.  Many times while reading this book I found myself yelling at a page in outrage.  Investigators into the supposed “crime” made aggressive advances to extort bribes in exchange for reporting more favorable evidence.  Potential witnesses asked outright for bribes to speak on either side.  Another unrelated example of the corruption was when federal funds were extracted from the government to set up schools to educate these poor children and then this money was pocketed by the officials who set them up (fake accounts made for fake teachers on a fake payroll — the whole 9 yards).  And it was based on truth.

What is so sad is that the people are so disenfranchised and discouraged that they do not band together and revolt. Rather, they compete against each other and push each other down to make themselves feel elevated.  A profound quote on page 254 summarizes this by saying, “In places where government priorities and market imperatives create a world so capricious that to help a neighbor is to risk your own ability to feed your family, and sometimes even your own liberty, the idea of the mutually supportive poor community is demolished.  The poor blame one another for the choices of governments and markets, and we who are not poor are ready to blame the poor just as harshly.”

This book is difficult to read, but very eye-opening into the underbelly of India.

Beautiful Boy (migrated from Bookblogger)

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Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

I put off reading this book for so long because I knew it would be difficult — and rightfully so.  However, I do believe it is worth reading.  It is the harrowing, true story (probably so much more harrowing because it’s true!) of a father whose son is addicted to methamphetamine.  The account is painstaking and painful, recurrent and repetitive, really because the experience is.  He tells of his son, Nic, who is a bright, talented, truly “beautiful” boy who maybe  and maybe not because of his parents’ difficult divorce and their long-distance custody arrangement, begins to use marijuana.  He quickly moves on to alcohol and other drugs and finally finds his true love in meth.  And the drug, as it tends to do, takes over his life.  When Nic is on the drug, he becomes a different person — cold, impervious, resentful and conniving and completely manipulates his friends and family to enable his drug use.

His is a typical story, evidently, and the author peppers the story with actual research statistics and theories and advice for other parents in the same situation.  Mostly, though, it seems to be a catharsis for this father who writes as his way of coping.  He offers frequently that there is no great advice and there is no single answer to what heals an addict.  It seems there are some addicts who cannot be healed.  Even with treatment and rehab there is relapse and it often seems truly hopeless.

Probably most importantly, the author stresses particularly at the end of the book, the importance of the family members to get treatment themselves.  Being that closely tied to an addict can be just as “addictive” and destructive as being the addict.  It can take over your life just as easily.  This is an important message for those close to anyone with such an overwhelming disease.

As painful as this book was to read, I am so glad I did read it.  I learned so much.

The Glass Castle

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

This book has been recommended to me for years and because I knew it would be disturbing, I sort of avoided it.  But I finally resolved to read it and I’m glad I did.  This is a true, autobiographical story about a girl raised by 2 parents who were, to say the least, unconventional in their philosophy on child-rearing.  It begins with Jeanette, at the age of 3 years, trying to make herself a hot dog (because her mother was busy with her art) and burning herself on the stove to the point of needing to be hospitalized for weeks for burns and skin grafts.  When she returns home, she is back at the stove, making another hot dog and cheered on by her mom who claims she should not be afraid of anything!

So begins a life of chaos.  Jeanette’s mother is an artist and writer who does not believe in rules, structure or discipline and who clearly wrestles with depression.  Her father is a brilliant man but cursed with alcoholism and is unable to maintain a job for any length of time.  Whenever the family begins to get behind on paying the few bills that they actually pay, or gets in trouble with the law, the family picks up in the middle of the night, without packing anything, and moves to a new town to begin anew.   The children frequently are hungry and forced to scavenge for food, in dumpsters, in the cafeteria garbage cans at school.  They are frequently the target of derision and even violence by their peers, because of their abject poverty.  What enables her to survive is the powerful bond between Jeanette and her siblings who protect each other fiercely.

And yet, what makes this story so moving and so engaging is the complex nature of the relationships between Jeanette, her siblings, and her parents.  Like all people who do bad things (or make poor decisions), her parents are complicated.  Her father, for example, who often drinks away the family’s money meant for food, also imparts wisdom to his children.  On a particularly touching and moneyless Christmas Eve, he takes each of his children out to look at the stars and “gives” each of them their favorite star as a special present.  There are these very touching moments that he does share with his children that make him a somewhat sympathetic figure.

So while I found myself yelling out loud at her parents and feeling aghast at some of her experiences, I understand why Jeanette had sympathy and love for her parents.  They were still her parents, no matter how neglectful or irresponsible they were.  She tells her story honestly and simply and vert clearly presents her struggle to love them in spite of her knowing even very early on that her parents were often wrong.  Her story is probably more common than we would like to think as is this struggle.

I am glad that I finally made myself read this.  It’s not easy, but I think it’s an important book to read.