Susan K Reads

Reluctant Intern deserves a place in the ranks of excellent medical novels. Most medical novels are either so far-fetched as to be impossible, or so poorly written as to leave the reader with an intestinal disorder. This book is not in that category. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will be totally taken in by Addison Wolfe and his adventures as an intern.

Addison Wolfe, the reluctant intern in the title of Dr. Bill Yancey's book, fell into medicine when his vision kept him out of NASA's astronaut program. When this story takes place, in the mid-1970's, everyone wanted to be an astronaut, but becoming an astronaut was a far more selective process than medical school, so that's how Addison ends up on July 1, as a new intern in what Dr. Figueroa, the Director of Medical Education at his hospital, calls the worst internship program in the worst hospital in the US (in Florida). Interns end up there because no other hospital want them.

The story starts with a nightmare in the present time, when Addison sits bolt upright in bed having had a terrible flashback of his internship days. He calms himself back to sleep by telling himself that it was just a dream. What follows is a real flashback to Addison's intern year - a year that is full of medical and personal adventure. I think this is the best medical novel I have ever read. Addison's experiences as he rotates through the various hospital departments ring true, and only someone who lived them, as did the author, could write about them with such attention to detail and clarity. Addison's experience in the armed forces and his time spent studying medicine for astronauts serves him well, to his happiness and the surprise of his teachers. We follow his journey as he becomes interested in emergency medicine as a career - a field that was just beginning to emerge as he goes through his internship.

BUT, the story is much more than a case history of Addison's internship and of the cases and patients he encounters. The book is full of interesting characters - his colleagues, the senior residents and attending physicians he works with and learns from, and the bane of the interns' existence, Dr. Figueroa. Dr. Figueroa is a menacing, malignant, ever-present critic of his charges. He takes pride in public humiliation and when an intern challenges him, the intern disappears from the hospital the next day. When Addison and his colleagues go before him for their progress reviews, they are uniformly told that they are not doing well enough, that they need to study more, and that their internship might need to be extended so they can make up for their deficiencies. When Addison finally has the chance to read the progress reviews written by his supervising physicians, he is shocked to learn that they uniformly gave him high praise for his expertise and willingness to jump in when needed - information that Dr. Figueroa mysteriously, but purposely, ignores in order to humiliate the interns who need good progress reports to get into decent residency programs. Addison and his friends hatch a plot to play on Dr. Figueroa's hypochondria, by altering his lab tests so that abnormal values appear, leading Dr. F. down a long, winding road of test after altered test, until he is convinced of his ultimate demise.

Addison has an on again, off again, relationship with one of his fellow interns, Samantha, whose behavior becomes more and more peculiar, ultimately bizarre, as the story unfolds. In the middle of the story, Addison meets a stewardess and begins a relationship with her, sending her to Sam as a temporary roommate. Naturally Sam does everything in her power to sabotage this burgeoning love, and almost succeeds, but ....well, I can't say more about that without revealing what happens.

The book builds to a remarkable, unexpected conclusion that at first I found far-fetched, but ultimately realized that it was a bang-up way to end the story, and sometimes a bit of a leap of faith is necessary.

Dr. Yancey writes in a very comfortable, almost conversational style. The dialogue rings true, as do the experiences of Addison and his friends (and enemies). This is an easy read that won't bore you with too much medical detail - in fact, the medical detail is what really binds the story of Addison's internship year together - and it won't sidetrack you with heaving bosoms with strategically placed stethoscopes, plagues, poison in the anesthesia, or strange surgical deaths that can't be explained, either. That is the stuff of second-rate novels. This is a first-rate novel, written by a physician. While a work of fiction, the details are so accurate that you can't help but think a lot of the story is based on Dr. Yancey's actual experiences.

I entered but did not win the Goodreads giveaway for this book. The author contacted me and offered it to me in exchange for an honest review.

Reluctant Intern deserves a place in the ranks of excellent medical novels. Most medical novels are either so far-fetched as to be impossible, or so poorly written as to leave the reader with an intestinal disorder. This book is not in that category. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will be totally taken in by Addison Wolfe and his adventures as an intern.

Addison Wolfe, the reluctant intern in the title of Dr. Bill Yancey's book, fell into medicine when his vision kept him out of NASA's astronaut program. When this story takes place, in the mid-1970's, everyone wanted to be an astronaut, but becoming an astronaut was a far more selective process than medical school, so that's how Addison ends up on July 1, as a new intern in what Dr. Figueroa, the Director of Medical Education at his hospital, calls the worst internship program in the worst hospital in the US (in Florida). Interns end up there because no other hospital want them.

The story starts with a nightmare in the present time, when Addison sits bolt upright in bed having had a terrible flashback of his internship days. He calms himself back to sleep by telling himself that it was just a dream. What follows is a real flashback to Addison's intern year - a year that is full of medical and personal adventure. I think this is the best medical novel I have ever read. Addison's experiences as he rotates through the various hospital departments ring true, and only someone who lived them, as did the author, could write about them with such attention to detail and clarity. Addison's experience in the armed forces and his time spent studying medicine for astronauts serves him well, to his happiness and the surprise of his teachers. We follow his journey as he becomes interested in emergency medicine as a career - a field that was just beginning to emerge as he goes through his internship.

BUT, the story is much more than a case history of Addison's internship and of the cases and patients he encounters. The book is full of interesting characters - his colleagues, the senior residents and attending physicians he works with and learns from, and the bane of the interns' existence, Dr. Figueroa. Dr. Figueroa is a menacing, malignant, ever-present critic of his charges. He takes pride in public humiliation and when an intern challenges him, the intern disappears from the hospital the next day. When Addison and his colleagues go before him for their progress reviews, they are uniformly told that they are not doing well enough, that they need to study more, and that their internship might need to be extended so they can make up for their deficiencies. When Addison finally has the chance to read the progress reviews written by his supervising physicians, he is shocked to learn that they uniformly gave him high praise for his expertise and willingness to jump in when needed - information that Dr. Figueroa mysteriously, but purposely, ignores in order to humiliate the interns who need good progress reports to get into decent residency programs. Addison and his friends hatch a plot to play on Dr. Figueroa's hypochondria, by altering his lab tests so that abnormal values appear, leading Dr. F. down a long, winding road of test after altered test, until he is convinced of his ultimate demise.

Addison has an on again, off again, relationship with one of his fellow interns, Samantha, whose behavior becomes more and more peculiar, ultimately bizarre, as the story unfolds. In the middle of the story, Addison meets a stewardess and begins a relationship with her, sending her to Sam as a temporary roommate. Naturally Sam does everything in her power to sabotage this burgeoning love, and almost succeeds, but ....well, I can't say more about that without revealing what happens.

The book builds to a remarkable, unexpected conclusion that at first I found far-fetched, but ultimately realized that it was a bang-up way to end the story, and sometimes a bit of a leap of faith is necessary.

Dr. Yancey writes in a very comfortable, almost conversational style. The dialogue rings true, as do the experiences of Addison and his friends (and enemies). This is an easy read that won't bore you with too much medical detail - in fact, the medical detail is what really binds the story of Addison's internship year together - and it won't sidetrack you with heaving bosoms with strategically placed stethoscopes, plagues, poison in the anesthesia, or strange surgical deaths that can't be explained, either. That is the stuff of second-rate novels. This is a first-rate novel, written by a physician. While a work of fiction, the details are so accurate that you can't help but think a lot of the story is based on Dr. Yancey's actual experiences.

I entered but did not win the Goodreads giveaway for this book. The author contacted me and offered it to me in exchange for an honest review.

Reluctant Intern deserves a place in the ranks of excellent medical novels. Most medical novels are either so far-fetched as to be impossible, or so poorly written as to leave the reader with an intestinal disorder. This book is not in that category. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will be totally taken in by Addison Wolfe and his adventures as an intern.

Addison Wolfe, the reluctant intern in the title of Dr. Bill Yancey's book, fell into medicine when his vision kept him out of NASA's astronaut program. When this story takes place, in the mid-1970's, everyone wanted to be an astronaut, but becoming an astronaut was a far more selective process than medical school, so that's how Addison ends up on July 1, as a new intern in what Dr. Figueroa, the Director of Medical Education at his hospital, calls the worst internship program in the worst hospital in the US (in Florida). Interns end up there because no other hospital want them.

The story starts with a nightmare in the present time, when Addison sits bolt upright in bed having had a terrible flashback of his internship days. He calms himself back to sleep by telling himself that it was just a dream. What follows is a real flashback to Addison's intern year - a year that is full of medical and personal adventure. I think this is the best medical novel I have ever read. Addison's experiences as he rotates through the various hospital departments ring true, and only someone who lived them, as did the author, could write about them with such attention to detail and clarity. Addison's experience in the armed forces and his time spent studying medicine for astronauts serves him well, to his happiness and the surprise of his teachers. We follow his journey as he becomes interested in emergency medicine as a career - a field that was just beginning to emerge as he goes through his internship.

BUT, the story is much more than a case history of Addison's internship and of the cases and patients he encounters. The book is full of interesting characters - his colleagues, the senior residents and attending physicians he works with and learns from, and the bane of the interns' existence, Dr. Figueroa. Dr. Figueroa is a menacing, malignant, ever-present critic of his charges. He takes pride in public humiliation and when an intern challenges him, the intern disappears from the hospital the next day. When Addison and his colleagues go before him for their progress reviews, they are uniformly told that they are not doing well enough, that they need to study more, and that their internship might need to be extended so they can make up for their deficiencies. When Addison finally has the chance to read the progress reviews written by his supervising physicians, he is shocked to learn that they uniformly gave him high praise for his expertise and willingness to jump in when needed - information that Dr. Figueroa mysteriously, but purposely, ignores in order to humiliate the interns who need good progress reports to get into decent residency programs. Addison and his friends hatch a plot to play on Dr. Figueroa's hypochondria, by altering his lab tests so that abnormal values appear, leading Dr. F. down a long, winding road of test after altered test, until he is convinced of his ultimate demise.

Addison has an on again, off again, relationship with one of his fellow interns, Samantha, whose behavior becomes more and more peculiar, ultimately bizarre, as the story unfolds. In the middle of the story, Addison meets a stewardess and begins a relationship with her, sending her to Sam as a temporary roommate. Naturally Sam does everything in her power to sabotage this burgeoning love, and almost succeeds, but ....well, I can't say more about that without revealing what happens.

The book builds to a remarkable, unexpected conclusion that at first I found far-fetched, but ultimately realized that it was a bang-up way to end the story, and sometimes a bit of a leap of faith is necessary.

Dr. Yancey writes in a very comfortable, almost conversational style. The dialogue rings true, as do the experiences of Addison and his friends (and enemies). This is an easy read that won't bore you with too much medical detail - in fact, the medical detail is what really binds the story of Addison's internship year together - and it won't sidetrack you with heaving bosoms with strategically placed stethoscopes, plagues, poison in the anesthesia, or strange surgical deaths that can't be explained, either. That is the stuff of second-rate novels. This is a first-rate novel, written by a physician. While a work of fiction, the details are so accurate that you can't help but think a lot of the story is based on Dr. Yancey's actual experiences.

I entered but did not win the Goodreads giveaway for this book. The author contacted me and offered it to me in exchange for an honest review.

In Heaven's Child, A true story of family, friends, and strangers, Caroline Flhor describes the tragic death of her daughter, Sarah, in an automobile accident. She describes that moment we all are hardwired to fear - the knock on the door, the ring of the doorbell, the telegram, the middle of the night phone call - the sinking feeling we get when these things happen because we know that something terrible has happened - in her case, two local officials arriving at 5:30 the morning of August 23, 2003, and hearing the words of a firefighter saying words that can never be forgotten: "There's been an accident and Sarah has been killed."

At that moment, Ms. Flhor's life, and those of her family members, changes forever. In a voice that is honest, pure, raw, full of feeling, she describes how she, her husband, her ex-husband, Sarah's grandparents, and each of the surviving children coped (or didn't) in the wake of this tragedy. Certainly time stood still for a while, and when the clock started to tick normally again, all was not right for a long time.

This is a heart-wrenching but ultimately uplifting story of grief and how it changes and transforms us, if we will let it. Sarah was a twin, the mirror image of her sister Caiti, and she had three younger siblings, two of which were under two years old when she died. The grief and heartbreak of her death are told interspersed with the story of her life, parts of which are not revealed to her mother until she finds a personal narrative written by Sarah not too long before she died. Each chapter begins or ends with a timely, moving quotation from a poet or author, quotations carefully chosen and perfectly inserted into Ms. Flhor's personal narrative.

This book was very, very difficult for me to read, because there was a Sarah in my life who died tragically at the age of 18 in a freak automobile accident, fifteen years ago, and every time I read "Sarah" I was catapulted back to the time of my own grief. One of the beautiful quotations in the book is from Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," which was the last play "my" Sarah performed in when in high school. Chills ran up my spine and goosebumps rose on my skin when I read that. When I finished Heaven's Child, I was so overcome that I had to take to my bed, and when I woke up, I burst into tears. While I was overcome by the constant reminders of the Sarah I knew, I think I was even more overcome by the brilliantly written, brutally honest, story that Caroline Flhor tells. Even without a similar personal loss, I think this story would do that to any reader. Ms. Flhor is a gifted writer, and she tells a story that any parent, anyone who has ever loved and lost anyone, can relate to. The circumstances of loss are not what matter: death is a universal truth that touches us all in many ways, and this moving, bluntly honest, story will touch the heart of every reader.

I entered the Goodreads giveaway for this book but did not win; Ms. Flhor graciously asked me to read it in exchange for a review. I am so glad that I met her and her family.

In Heaven's Child, A true story of family, friends, and strangers, Caroline Flhor describes the tragic death of her daughter, Sarah, in an automobile accident. She describes that moment we all are hardwired to fear - the knock on the door, the ring of the doorbell, the telegram, the middle of the night phone call - the sinking feeling we get when these things happen because we know that something terrible has happened - in her case, two local officials arriving at 5:30 the morning of August 23, 2003, and hearing the words of a firefighter saying words that can never be forgotten: "There's been an accident and Sarah has been killed."

At that moment, Ms. Flhor's life, and those of her family members, changes forever. In a voice that is honest, pure, raw, full of feeling, she describes how she, her husband, her ex-husband, Sarah's grandparents, and each of the surviving children coped (or didn't) in the wake of this tragedy. Certainly time stood still for a while, and when the clock started to tick normally again, all was not right for a long time.

This is a heart-wrenching but ultimately uplifting story of grief and how it changes and transforms us, if we will let it. Sarah was a twin, the mirror image of her sister Caiti, and she had three younger siblings, two of which were under two years old when she died. The grief and heartbreak of her death are told interspersed with the story of her life, parts of which are not revealed to her mother until she finds a personal narrative written by Sarah not too long before she died. Each chapter begins or ends with a timely, moving quotation from a poet or author, quotations carefully chosen and perfectly inserted into Ms. Flhor's personal narrative.

This book was very, very difficult for me to read, because there was a Sarah in my life who died tragically at the age of 18 in a freak automobile accident, fifteen years ago, and every time I read "Sarah" I was catapulted back to the time of my own grief. One of the beautiful quotations in the book is from Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," which was the last play "my" Sarah performed in when in high school. Chills ran up my spine and goosebumps rose on my skin when I read that. When I finished Heaven's Child, I was so overcome that I had to take to my bed, and when I woke up, I burst into tears. While I was overcome by the constant reminders of the Sarah I knew, I think I was even more overcome by the brilliantly written, brutally honest, story that Caroline Flhor tells. Even without a similar personal loss, I think this story would do that to any reader. Ms. Flhor is a gifted writer, and she tells a story that any parent, anyone who has ever loved and lost anyone, can relate to. The circumstances of loss are not what matter: death is a universal truth that touches us all in many ways, and this moving, bluntly honest, story will touch the heart of every reader.

I entered the Goodreads giveaway for this book but did not win; Ms. Flhor graciously asked that I read it in exchange for an honest review.

In Heaven's Child, A true story of family, friends, and strangers, Caroline Flhor describes the tragic death of her daughter, Sarah, in an automobile accident. She describes that moment we all are hardwired to fear - the knock on the door, the ring of the doorbell, the telegram, the middle of the night phone call - the sinking feeling we get when these things happen because we know that something terrible has happened - in her case, two local officials arriving at 5:30 the morning of August 23, 2003, and hearing the words of a firefighter saying words that can never be forgotten: "There's been an accident and Sarah has been killed."

At that moment, Ms. Flhor's life, and those of her family members, changes forever. In a voice that is honest, pure, raw, full of feeling, she describes how she, her husband, her ex-husband, Sarah's grandparents, and each of the surviving children coped (or didn't) in the wake of this tragedy. Certainly time stood still for a while, and when the clock started to tick normally again, all was not right for a long time.

This is a heart-wrenching but ultimately uplifting story of grief and how it changes and transforms us, if we will let it. Sarah was a twin, the mirror image of her sister Caiti, and she had three younger siblings, two of which were under two years old when she died. The grief and heartbreak of her death are told interspersed with the story of her life, parts of which are not revealed to her mother until she finds a personal narrative written by Sarah not too long before she died. Each chapter begins or ends with a timely, moving quotation from a poet or author, quotations carefully chosen and perfectly inserted into Ms. Flhor's personal narrative.

This book was very, very difficult for me to read, because there was a Sarah in my life who died tragically at the age of 18 in a freak automobile accident, fifteen years ago, and every time I read "Sarah" I was catapulted back to the time of my own grief. One of the beautiful quotations in the book is from Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," which was the last play "my" Sarah performed in when in high school. Chills ran up my spine and goosebumps rose on my skin when I read that. When I finished Heaven's Child, I was so overcome that I had to take to my bed, and when I woke up, I burst into tears. While I was overcome by the constant reminders of the Sarah I knew, I think I was even more overcome by the brilliantly written, brutally honest, story that Caroline Flhor tells. Even without a similar personal loss, I think this story would do that to any reader. Ms. Flhor is a gifted writer, and she tells a story that any parent, anyone who has ever loved and lost anyone, can relate to. The circumstances of loss are not what matter: death is a universal truth that touches us all in many ways, and this moving, bluntly honest, story will touch the heart of every reader.

I entered the Goodreads giveaway for this book but did not win; Ms. Flhor graciously asked me to read it in exchange for a review. I am so glad that I met her and her family.

Queerly Beloved is a well-written memoir about two people in a long-term, committed, originally lesbian, relationship starting at the point when one of the partners realizes in mid-life that she is transgender. The partnership remains stable as the trans member embarks on and completes the process of female-to-male transition. Written by both partners, the book details the complex physical, and, moreover, mental and emotional process of this transition, and the effects on the partners' relationship. This is a courageous, revealing memoir that fearlessly goes into great detail the intimate details of their relationship, the challenges of supporting one's partner as the partner goes through a life-changing process, and the "facts of life" that the transition process entails.

This is a fascinating read that provides the intimate details of queer relationships in general and the transgender transition process in particular. However, I must admit I have a hard time relating to the authors and the queer culture in general. I am definitely straight, and while definitely not at all homophobic, I have long grappled with understanding queer relationships and culture beyond an intellectual and empathic understanding. I think it is impossible for me to fully understand what it is like to walk in the author's shoes because I don't wear those shoes, just as I do not walk in the shoes of other cultures or religions. It is like a Jew (which I am) trying to understand what it is like to be Catholic: I value diversity but I cannot fully share the experience. Yet, it is a privilege to have been invited into their lives and I appreciate the candor with which they tell their story.

Queerly Beloved adds a great deal to the gender spectrum conversation. My own relationships are not defined or limited by gender identity and I commend the authors for enriching and enhancing my knowledge of the emerging science of gender and its multiple, nuanced meanings. I  have gay friends and relatives who I respect and love dearly, including one relative who has undergone top surgery.  I first learned of the gender spectrum concept from that person and at the time was very confused. My love and respect for this relative never changed, though, and reading Queerly Beloved helped me better understand gender diversity. 

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

It is difficult to review Dale M. Kushner's The Conditions of Love without resorting to gushing hyperbole. This book is a staggering work of genius. It is the story of Eunice, from her childhood in Wild Pea, IL to her old age on a farm with her husband, Mr. Fox. That is the story. Abandoned by her father and raised by a lackluster mother, Eunice is swept away by a flood as a young teenager, rescued by a Rose, a mysterious woman with whom she lived for a few years until she is put into foster care with a decent family. While working in the family soda fountain, Eunice is mesmerized by a laconic, handsome stranger named Fox. And that is when things really get interesting. And that's what you will have to find out for yourself.

Eunice is a metaphor for anyone who has been abandoned and spends their life craving love, being disappointed over and over again, and finally finding a love worth sticking with. The people she meets on her journey are often mysterious, mystical people, and they are also people with deep wounds and flaws. Tossed around and abandoned early in life, then abandoning her own mother as she tries to save both their lives in the flood, Eunice knows only the loss associated with loving. When she meets Fox, she discovers that love IS abandonment, but it is also commitment, tolerance, understanding, and plain hard work. Fox is a tight-lipped fellow with secrets and stories that torment him, and Eunice is tormented by his mercurial nature and the secrets that she thinks stand in the way of a real relationship, but her life has taught her how to bend and sway in the wind without breaking.

The book is much, much more than this short story summary. This is a breathtaking first novel of staggering brilliance, significance, and importance. Laden with beautiful, striking imagery and poetic language, The Conditions of Love is a book about love. The title is a multiple entendre: we desire unconditional love, but that never happens; all relationships have conditions attached to them; and at times, being in love or experiencing unrequited love can make one ill - as though love itself were a condition. Ms. Kushner, a poet, writes prose as though it were poetry. This is a long, complicated story without an extraneous word. Every line builds on the last line, every action has a reaction, every encounter is both straightforward and complicated. Every single character, including Eunice's turtle, Eunice Turtle, is an Everyman or Everywoman. I know that I was breathing as I read this book, but i felt as though I had taken one big inhale and the beginning and then held my breath until the very last word. Eunice's life journey is the journey many of us take without knowing it, or recognizing that we are on a journey.

Layered with nuance, sadness and wit, The Conditions of Love is an experience. Ms. Kushner is a magnificent writer. Don't miss it.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Cocoa at Midnight, which I won as a Goodreads giveaway, is the true story of Kathleen Clifford's life "in service" in mid-twentieth century Great Britain. It is part of the series The Life of Servants.

Written in Ms. Clifford's own voice, her memoir of the "downstairs" life sheds light on the strange institution that was British domestic service, a real-life look at what we've seen on "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey." Ms. Clifford shares her childhood poverty in Paddington, West London, and her early realization, as a young teenager, that the only way out for her was to enter service and make her way up the very long ladder from lowly maid to the highest female service rank of housekeeper. She regales us with the unusual habits of her employers, letting us in on secrets that only someone who was there could know.

This is an easy read, written in a colloquial style. One feels like one is having a conversation with Ms. Clifford about her life, and I am grateful to have "met" her and discovered the ins-and-outs of the institution of British service and absolute oddities of the British upper class.

Imagine waking up to find a giant, mechanical, robot chicken pecking into your window. Imagine that your parents and many of your loved ones have disappeared because these giant robot chickens have somehow landed in your town, Aberdeen, Scotland, and are running amok chomping up everything in their mad path. Imagine this, and you have Jesse, Sam, Noah, Rayna, Lizzie, the Library Gang, and a few other young survivors on a quest to destroy this fowl plague that has attacked not only your town, but other places around the world as well. And that is Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall.

Prepare to embark on a journey both serious and ludicrous as this intrepid band - with one adult who thinks he can figure out how to diswing (disarm) these vicious dumb clucks - take on a foe that is larger than life. Better than zombies, better than aliens, better than a poison gas miasma that wipes out everything in their wake, these chickens pose a corny threat to every living thing. In fact, they have managed to co-opt some children into the Brotherhood of the Egg and dressed them in chicken costumes to do their bidding.

Can Jesse and his pals vanquish the giant robot chickens and bring order back to their part of the world and the world at large? Well, of course. HOW they do it is what makes this book, and you have to read it for yourself, because no review could do justice to the story that Alex McCall tells in this tail.

This book is for middle-schoolers, but this adult who loves a good chicken joke was rolling on the floor of her coop clucking her sides in hysterics. Read it and cheep.

WARNING: Contains bad puns, chicken jokes, and fowl language.

And, there are no spelling errors in this review.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Annaleise Carr is the youngest person to swim across Lake Ontario, and this book is her story. Already a competitive swimmer, she was inspired to raise funds for Camp Trillium, a camp for children with cancer and their siblings, in Canada, when she was told she was too young to volunteer at the camp. This is the story of Annaleise's remarkable swim across the lake, how she derived strength on this arduous journey by thinking about the kids she was helping, and what she learned about herself during the swim. She was very resourceful in raising money for the camp, learned how to be a good public speaker while seeking donations and sponsors, and was blessed to have the total, unwavering support of her family and coaches as she prepared for and actually completed the swim. The book is interspersed with interesting facts about cancer, the Great Lakes, nutrition, Marilyn Bell - "The Lady of the Lake"- and other timely observations, and contains some lovely photographs of Annaleise and her family. The author's voice shines through this tale, and by the end of the book, I felt privileged to have had the opportunity to meet this dedicated, and friendly!, young woman. Her dedication to her cause is an inspiration to any who read her story. While the book is appropriate for middle and early high school age students, it is appropriate for all ages. As an adult, I was captivated. It would make a good read aloud chapter book for middle school classrooms, and it is a book that could be read aloud to younger children. This young woman will go far. She will achieve anything she sets her mind to, and I await her next adventure.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley

This simple book combines instructions on yoga and meditation to help people align their bodies (and spirits). The title, Sit With Less Pain, has a dual meaning: the first, obvious meaning is this book will help the reader sit on chairs and go about the activities of daily life with less physical pain. The second meaning refers to "sitting" as the term for meditation practice. Sitting during meditation can often be a cause of great distress for meditators, and following the easy instructions in this book can help alleviate the physical discomfort often experienced during meditation, thus enhancing the meditation experience. While the yoga poses, breathing, relaxation and meditation guidance is not new, this book is the first I've seen that puts all of this in one, easy to follow, book. The yoga poses are not advanced - if you are looking for a yoga book, this is not the book for you - there are plenty of detailed books on every style of yoga imaginable on the market. The meditation practices are also simple, but "sitting," either in meditation or just because one is a desk jockey or sits in a chair a lot, can wreak havoc on the entire body, and this book will help anyone who "sits," well, "sit better." The tone of the writing is loose and easy, very welcoming and friendly, and the gently drawn illustrations are very helpful.

I received this book from NetGalley

The Night Before College is a clever little book using "The Night Before Christmas" poem as the rhythm for "The Night Before College." It tells the tale of the agony of SATs, Common Applications, FAFSAs, and of waiting to hear if one got in to the school of one's choice. After the acceptance, it moves into the angst of packing and leaving home, and the rapid assimilation into college life that most college freshmen experience. The illustrations are clever and the rhyme is snappy - it is amazing how such a long, painful, heart-wrenching experience can be captured in a few stanzas of verse. It is, naturally, a fast read, but it will stick with you because it is so clever.

I won this book as a Goodreads first read, and, as my youngest niece is off to college in the fall, I am sending it to her. Any college-bound student or parent of a college-bound student would enjoy this little tale.

I adored The Good Dog, which I received as an advance review copy from NetGalley.

I am a 63 year-old woman with no children of my own, but I am passionate about children's books. The Good Dog is one of the most precious and adorable book I have seen in a long time. While the story is not new - little Ricky Lee finds abandoned puppy, parents let him keep it as long as the dog is "good," family encounters misadventures and blames them on dog, but dog saves the day - the way this story is presented is marvelous. The sometimes "visual onomatopoeia,"when the text reflects what is happening in the story, e.g., "boyonabikecamezooning down the hill ..." is a spectacular technique. What impresses me most about this book is the illustrations. I don't know if they are watercolor, colored pencil wash, or ink wash, but the detail and care that went into each drawing is mesmerizing. The characters seem so real, and not at all cartoonish, and the careful shading and detail of the drawings are what tells the story. One endearing image is of Mrs. Lee and the two toddler daughters, who seem to be twins, painting the wall of the Happy Bakery: Mrs Lee is painting with a roller and the girls are using brushes, and one of the little girls has painted a tiny blue stripe on the back of her sister's onesie. I loved this book so much that I almost cried at the end - it was that beautiful - and this is one of those books that a Kindle cannot do justice. I will definitely buy this when it is published.

Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross is a fasten your seat belt, hold on to your hat, put on a helmet, even, and don't forget to breathe fast-paced, complex, thrilling thriller, which I won as a Goodreads first read.

The book starts with a mysterious prologue that becomes clear as the story progresses. The first line of the first chapter hooked me right away: "I read somewhere that every life is the story of a single mistake, and then what happens after." A book that starts with a teaser like this is either going to be very good or very bad. This book is extremely good. This line, spoken by Hilary Cantor, divorced mother of a seven-year old son who walks on the precarious line between autism and Asperger's Syndrome, sets the stage for a very wild ride. "One wrong decision can't be taken back," she says, "And thinking back on that night, on the backcountry road between Westchester County in New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, my own life starting to come down around me like the intensifying drizzle that glared through the oncoming headlights, I could look back where I had run headfirst into mine."

Hilary is driving this back road, a route she normally doesn't travel, to confront her ex-husband about his failure to pay child support (their son, Brandon, goes to a very expensive school that is able to meet his needs and has turned him into a child far more connected than he was before attending). She rounds a bend and sees a car ahead of her swerve to avoid hitting a deer. This car spins, the back end drifts off the shoulder, and plunges over the embankment. Thinking perhaps she can help, Hilary goes down the hill and finds the car a total wreck, with the driver dead. And, there is a bag containing $500,000 on the front seat. Hilary's sense of moral values leaves her as she realizes this could be the answer to her prayers, and, without much thought, she hurls the bag into the woods, and comes back later and takes it. This is the backbone of the story. To say more would reveal what you need to discover, indeed, experience, by yourself.

The story is narrated by several characters with different, but connecting and connected, roles in the story. The shifting narration and complex tale require careful attention or you will lose track of the story. What appear to be unrelated stories and incidents become clearly connected, the mysterious prologue begins to make sense, and the end reveals what the prologue describes. Everything to Lose is a tale of suspense, danger, murder, the Ukrainian Mob, kidnapping, graft, love and loss, and Hurricane Sandy all wrapped up in a cohesive, slowly, dangerously, unraveling tale. Will Hilary keep the $500,000 and will it solve all her problems? It is not giving anything away to say of course she does and of course it doesn't. How that evolves is what grabs the reader. Gross is a stunning writer who adeptly builds suspense, typing what appear to be loose ends and unrelated events into a cohesive, tightly woven tale.

I could not put this book down and I read it in a day and a half. All of the trite cliches - blockbuster, roller coaster ride, breathtaking - apply, but for this book, they are not cliches but accurate descriptions. It is a brilliant, compulsively page-turning descent into hell and back. The story unfolds like a symphony, starting with relatively calmly, then builds to a thundering conclusion. The sensation of reading Everything to Lose is akin to listening to Ravel's "Bolero" - there is a simple theme throughout the piece, a rising pace and more and more complex variations on the theme, and an elaborate crescendo at the end. It is simply marvelous

The Biology of Luck  by Joseph M. Appel , is a magnificent, intriguing, funny, and thought-provoking book. I adored it. I think you either love it or don't like it. There are no adjectives that can adequately describe it without sounding trite and over the top gushing. Jacob Appel is a master of farce, caricature, compelling language, unique stylistic devices, and extraordinarily beautiful descriptive language. He is a master fabulist. I laughed out loud at times, and I sighed at times, and at the end, I wanted to cry because it was over. Not that the story itself made me want to cry - the masterful way that the story is developed, revealed, and resolved (or not resolved) made me hungry for so much more.

The Biology of Luck is a book within a book, and it is difficult to review without spoilers. The story is about one day in the life of Larry Bloom, a tour-guide in New York City. The book within the book is a also called The Biology of Luck, which Larry has written. The underlying theme, propounded by an Armenian florist, is that “Luck” or “Good Fortune” is biologically determined - you either have the right genes or you don't - and we see this theory in action throughout the story. Wonderful things happen to some people and terrible things happen to others. Some of the things that happen are pure chance, although the Armenian florist would disagree that anything that happens to us is chance. The characters in Appel's story and Bloom's book overlap, so that Bloom's book is about characters that Appel introduces, which can be confusing at first, but if read carefully, an order and logic to both are apparent. Larry is in love, at a distance, with Starshine, a mysterious and enigmatic woman, and has written The Biology of Luck about her and other characters. Larry has submitted his book to several publishers, been rejected by all but one, and on the day we meet him, he has received a letter from the last publisher; a letter he carries with him all day until the day ends with an actual date between Larry and Sunshine.

On the day we meet Larry, he is leading a tour for Dutch visitors; a tour that is marked with bizarre occurrences. If this day is anything like Larry's other days, he certainly lives an interesting, bizarre, and, in my observation, fabulist, life. The adventures and misadventures that occur during this day seem, at first, quite believable, but as time goes on, they take on the tone of satire, farce, and caricature. Things that occur on this particular day have also occurred in Bloom's book, which adds another element of wonderful ridiculousness to the story - Larry has already written about what happens on the day he shepherds his group of Dutch tourists through the boroughs of New York. How can this be? You just have to suspend disbelief and plunge in and let the current of the story carry you through.

It did not take me long to realize that the characters in this book are caricatures. At first glance, they appear to be ordinary people leading ordinary lives - people you might actually meet in your daily activities and find relatively charming. As I got deeper into the book, the dark underbelly of each of the major characters was revealed, and I found myself disliking all of them intensely. The characters in Appel's and Bloom's stories are not at all likeable. They hide meanness and deep character flaws beneath an apparently ordinary surface, and these flaws are fatal flaws. They show no insight into who they really are; their lives unfold and things happen to them without them understanding that what happens to them may be not only a matter of chance, but of their own doing (or, undoing).

In retrospect, I think the ways the characters evolve is a commentary on human nature: we all have shadow selves and dark sides that we don't necessarily reveal to others because we find them shameful. (Jacob Appel, in addition to being a certified New York City tour guide, is a psychiatrist, and certainly intimately familiar with the complicated aspects of individual personality.) Jacob Appel is a remarkable writer - witty, insightful, enigmatic, and hysterically funny. Sometimes you read books and you want to meet the characters. I found none of the characters in The Biology of Luck interesting enough to want to meet. However, I DO want to meet Jacob M. Appel, because his book so captivated me.