Non-fiction: Memoir, Medical, Science
All That Moves Us: A Pediatric Neurosurgeon, His Young Patients, and Their Stories of Grace and Resilience by Jay Wellons
This is a fascinating, insightful and reader-friendly book on a complex topic – brain surgery. The author, Jay Wellons, is a pediatric neurosurgeon. He makes lightning-quick decisions on intricate surgeries to save his young patients. But, more importantly, he is a highly compassionate human being.
He has written an account of a neurosurgeon's journey through
grief, drawing inspiration from the innocence, and hopefulness of his young
patients. Wellons masterfully intertwines his patients’ stories and anatomical
explanations with his own experiences of navigating the profound, haunting
realm between life and death.
All That Moves Us is a testament to the power of human connection and
the indomitable spirit of those facing immense challenges at such a young age.
I think there’s a lot that can be learned from the unwavering dedication of
doctors like Wellons, as well as the perseverance of these patients and their
families.
Non-fiction: Psychology
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
Why do we choose to do what we do? Probably no one (or very few people!) read my monthly booknotes and no one pays me for my writing. So why do I do this? Drive explains the answer. I do it for me. I do it for intrinsic reasons. I do it because it challenges me to contemplate and then summarize what I read. I derive personal pleasure from it. Plus, perhaps most importantly, I am free to write whatever I want. Now THAT'S incentive!
So, what did I think of this book? This book is a good summation of a lot of science and theories. Plus, it includes a lengthy book review section at the end. The main point of Drive is that rewards don't work as a motivating factor. People are positively motivated by internal drives, as opposed to external forces. Drive discusses workplace motivation, which will be of interest to managers and “bosses.” Basically, if you want the best work out of people, let them have freedom and flow, don't micromanage, and don't use money as an incentive for creative output.
Ultimately, I found the self-determination theory extremely interesting. I suspect that Drive will have me thinking about what I do and how I do it especially as I am retired and have a spectrum of activity choices.
Non-fiction: Memoir, Spirituality
Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good by Tina Turner
*NOTE: This book has been published in 44 countries and 16 foreign-language editions including Spanish, French, Italian, Finnish, German, Portuguese, Dutch, and Swedish. Happiness Becomes You became a global best seller upon its publication, including eight weeks on the Top 20 of the Spiegel best seller list for Germany, Austria, Holland, and Switzerland. It also reached the No. 1 best-selling spot in the spiritual-themed book category.
Tina Turner (1939-2023) wasn’t just a talented singer and performer; she was a true spiritual warrior whose experience of overcoming abuse to become one of the most famous solo performers is well known. But not everyone knows about her deeply personal, spiritual journey. In this book, Tina gives us an intimate glimpse into the practices that grounded her for nearly half a century, helped her “turn poison to medicine,” and guided her toward becoming her truest and best self.
In Happiness Becomes You, Tina encourages us to overcome life’s obstacles and transform our lives. She explains how to use specific spiritual tools and sage advice. Drawing on the lessons of her own experiences, Tina illuminates the practical principles of Buddhism and how, since 1973, they helped her rise above despair and adversity to joy and stability.
Non-fiction: American History
The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
I met, fleetingly, David McCullough years ago at a National Book Festival in Washington, D. C. There he graciously signed a book that I gave to my mother. Both my mother and I loved his books, especially Truman!
The Johnstown Flood was his first book, published in 1968. McCullough spent time speaking with people who lived through the flood, and he also completed other, intensive research in preparation for writing this book. Upon its publication The Johnstown Flood rekindled national interest in the flood and was the catalyst to McCullough's accomplished career as a writer of American history.
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam broke and sent the contents of Lake Conemaugh careening down the valley toward Johnstown, Pennsylvania, stripping away everything in its path. McCullough recounts what happened before and after this preventable disaster. As in many tragedies, those in charge were warned ahead of time, and remediation suggested, but these remedies were ignored. This account tells of the contributing factors of business decisions, scientific principles, weather, and a club of wealthy people who were not interested in taking advice.
International Fiction:
Poland, a Green Land by Aharon Appelfeld, Stuart Schoffman (Translator - from Hebrew)
This is a fascinating book about a Tel Aviv shopkeeper who visits his parents’ Polish birthplace to come to terms with their complex legacy. He travels to Poland to see and experience the small village of his ancestors. He learns about the Jewish persecution by the Polish people within the village and the brutality of how his ancestors were murdered by the Nazis. Fortunately, some Jews survived by living in the forest or hiding in Polish homes and that’s how his parents survived. The book is slow and deliberate, allowing the anti-Semitism to creep out bit by bit in the idyllic Polish countryside – lending great believably to the story.
Poland, a Green Land meanders along and I wondered where it was going, but then I hit a certain point when I just had to put the book down and think. Contemplate. Wonder about the significance of the book. I asked myself, “Does Poland, a Green Land speak to today's world? How?” As I read and pondered, I found myself immersed in a small Polish town where there once were Jews, but now there are none.
This book digs into the Holocaust and why the Jews were (and still are!) so hated. The continued animosity between opposing religions is evident - why can’t we just be kind to each other and allow people to have their own views, beliefs, and faith without forcing ours on them? We do so much harm by focusing on “being right” instead of “being kind”.
Fiction: Mystery
The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves
When Jem Rosco, a sailor, adventurer and local legend, arrives in the village of Greystone, Devon the residents are delighted they have a celebrity in their midst. Staying in a local cottage, Jem regals the locals with stories nightly in the pub and hinting of an upcoming rendezvous with some unknown person. A couple of weeks into his visit, Jem disappeared. Then an SOS call is received, and a body is found in a dinghy anchored off Scully Cove – a place that holds its own mysteries and legends.
The case brings Detective Inspector Matthew Venn and his team to Graystone. Their investigation reveals facts and possible motives throughout the community and in Jem’s history, keeping the team very busy searching for more evidence and details. Then a second body is found. As Matthew and his team continue to investigate, his judgment becomes clouded. This leads to the realization that that no one is safe, not even Matthew himself from Scully Cove's dark secrets.
Fiction: Fantasy, Magical Realism
Shadowbahn by Steve Erickson
*This is one of the weirdest books I have ever read!*
The sudden appearance of the Twin Towers in the Badlands of South Dakota decades after 9/11 captures the attention of millions, creating a pilgrimage to the “American Stonehenge.” The buildings are empty except for Jesse Presley, the twin brother of Elvis who, in our reality, was stillborn. Jesse awakens on a conference room table inside one of the Towers while multitudes of people standing outside the Towers hear music, but each person hears something different.
Meanwhile a brother, Parker, and sister, Zema, are driving across country to view the Twin Towers in the Badlands. Their father has given them a twin set of playlists to inspire them on their journey. He has also included notes explaining the songs and their significance.
Music and explanatory notes about songs play a large part in the narrative. I have knowledge of only a small fraction of the music referred to, but the notes about the song pairs in the father’s playlist are comprehensible. I felt I was getting some significant glimpses as to how a song becomes embedded in our culture at a particular time and place. I thought the notes were attempting to explain how music can capture both our past and present while directing us to the future.
My favorite example of the song-pair-music notes: “A Change is Gonna Come” and “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” The first song because any national discography that excludes it invalidates itself, and the second because when the singer sings, “As I walk this land of broken dreams,” it becomes clear that the thing breaking his heart is the very land itself that he walks.
It is VERY apparent from the git-go that things are different in the Shadowbahn world. To add to my feeling of confusion, the author constantly flips the narrative from the “real” world we know to the “magical” world that might have been. In the “magical” world John Kennedy never became president because he was murdered while in a “den of iniquity” and the United States is divided into the nations of Union and Disunion.
I didn’t understand all of Shadowbahn but I kept reading. The text was laced with long stream-of-consciousness diatribes that became extremely tedious. The characters were blah - unbelievable. I kept hoping to find some logic in the plot, but it never appeared.
Fiction: Contemporary Realism
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
“Yellowface” is a term referencing when a white actor dons “Asian-esque” stage makeup and costuming to play an Asian character. (Most recently a black-wigged Scarlett Johansson was cast as the Japanese protagonist, in the film The Ghost Shell.) This novel, Yellowface, offers a literary exploration of cultural appropriation taken to a new level.
Yellowface is about a young white author who steals the manuscript of her dead Asian friend, finishes it, and publishes it as her own. Throughout the novel, June Hayward, publishing as Juniper Song, works to maintain the lie that her first big hit novel The Last Front, a story about Chinese workers in the British Army during WWI, is indeed her work and her work only.
👉"That's been the key to staying sane throughout all of this: holding the line, maintaining my innocence. In the face of it all, I've never once cracked, never admitted the theft to anyone. By now, I mostly believe the lie myself," - June tries to convince herself.
Not only does she face accusations of theft and plagiarism, but the optics of a white woman possibly profiting off the work of an Asian woman also create a platform for accusations of racism and "yellowface."
As the public continues to challenge the authenticity of June's novel and June herself, she finds herself at the center of online harassment and death threats that sends her into a downward spiral. As June becomes more erratic, her life falls apart trying to maintain the lie. The online vitriol exposes June’s life, and she is beat up in the public court of opinion with words, memes and half-truths.
By the end of the novel, more questions arise about the role social media plays in shaping an authors' career since, "reputations in publishing are built and destroyed, constantly, online." Yellowface also raises questions about desire and greed, and about privilege on both sides of the spectrum for white writers and diverse writers. As the protagonist says, "It all boils down to self-interest. Manipulating the story...If publishing is rigged, you might as well make sure it's rigged in your favor."
*NOTE: The beauty and irony of this novel is that the author, Kuang, herself is an Asian writer telling this story through the eyes of a white writer! *
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