How do you like Have a Little Faith?5=I love it!
4=I really like it.
3=I like it.
2=It's just okay.
1=I don't like it.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Sunday Survey
How do you like Have a Little Faith?5=I love it!
4=I really like it.
3=I like it.
2=It's just okay.
1=I don't like it.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Saturday Spotlight
Today's author is Abraham Verghese.
1. He was born in Ethiopia in 1955 to Indian parents.
2. He went to medical school in Ethiopia and India.
3. He came to the US to complete his medical residency in Tennessee.
4. He did his fellowship at Boston University School of Medicine.
5. He has much experience working with HIV/AIDS patients.
6. Needing a change, he attended the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.
7. Soon after, he became Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center.
8. While in Texas, he wrote his first bestselling book, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, about his experiences in residency.
9. His second book, The Tennis Partner: A Story of Friendship and Loss, is a story about his friend as well as his first wife.
10. In 2002 he became founding Director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
11. He was recruited to Stanford University in 2007.
12. His writings have appeared in various publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
13. His first novel, Cutting for Stone, was published in 2009.
Have you read any of his writings?
1. He was born in Ethiopia in 1955 to Indian parents.
2. He went to medical school in Ethiopia and India.
3. He came to the US to complete his medical residency in Tennessee.
4. He did his fellowship at Boston University School of Medicine.
5. He has much experience working with HIV/AIDS patients.
6. Needing a change, he attended the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.
7. Soon after, he became Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center.
8. While in Texas, he wrote his first bestselling book, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, about his experiences in residency.
9. His second book, The Tennis Partner: A Story of Friendship and Loss, is a story about his friend as well as his first wife.
10. In 2002 he became founding Director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
11. He was recruited to Stanford University in 2007.
12. His writings have appeared in various publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
13. His first novel, Cutting for Stone, was published in 2009.
A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.
An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
Have you read any of his writings?
Friday, May 7, 2010
Feature Fridays
Today's classic is Of Human Bondage (1915) by W. Somerset Maugham.
'It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham,' wrote Gore Vidal. 'He was always so entirely there.' Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle. Philip yearns for adventure, and at eighteen leaves home, eventually pursuing a career as an artist in Paris. When he returns to London to study medicine, he meets the androgynous but alluring Mildred and begins a doomed love affair that will change the course of his life. There is no more powerful story of sexual infatuation, of human longing for connection and freedom. 'Here is a novel of the utmost importance,' wrote Theodore Dreiser on publication. 'It is a beacon of light by which the wanderer may be guided. . . . One feels as though one were sitting before a splendid Shiraz of priceless texture and intricate weave, admiring, feeling, responding sensually to its colors and tones.'
You can read Of Human Bondage online for free at The Literature Page.
Did you know? Much of the novel is actually autobiographical.
Have you read Of Human Bondage or anything else by W. Somerset Maugham?
'It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham,' wrote Gore Vidal. 'He was always so entirely there.' Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle. Philip yearns for adventure, and at eighteen leaves home, eventually pursuing a career as an artist in Paris. When he returns to London to study medicine, he meets the androgynous but alluring Mildred and begins a doomed love affair that will change the course of his life. There is no more powerful story of sexual infatuation, of human longing for connection and freedom. 'Here is a novel of the utmost importance,' wrote Theodore Dreiser on publication. 'It is a beacon of light by which the wanderer may be guided. . . . One feels as though one were sitting before a splendid Shiraz of priceless texture and intricate weave, admiring, feeling, responding sensually to its colors and tones.'You can read Of Human Bondage online for free at The Literature Page.
Did you know? Much of the novel is actually autobiographical.
Have you read Of Human Bondage or anything else by W. Somerset Maugham?
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Thoughts for Thursday
Is there a book genre that you tend to avoid completely?
For me it would probably be romance. I can read romance if it's just a subplot or more minor part of the story, but I don't really read straight romance. There has to be something else going on in the story for me to stay interested.
For me it would probably be romance. I can read romance if it's just a subplot or more minor part of the story, but I don't really read straight romance. There has to be something else going on in the story for me to stay interested.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Wednesday Wish List
With exquisite sensitivity, Edgar-finalist Nancy Pickard probes a smoldering cold case involving the Linders, a cattle ranching family that's ruled the small, tight-knit community of Rose, Kans., for generations. One stormy night in 1986, someone shoots Hugh-Jay Linder dead, and Laurie, his discontented young wife, disappears. The authorities arrest Billy Crosby, a disgruntled ex-employee of High Rock Ranch with a drunk-driving record, in whose abandoned truck Laurie's bloodied sundress is found. In 2009, Billy's lawyer son, Collin, who's certain of his dad's innocence, secures Billy's release from prison and a new trial. Father and son return to Rose, where 25-year-old Jody Linder, the victims' daughter, works as a teacher. Collin's pursuit of justice will force Jody and other members of her family, including her three uncles and her grandparents, to finally confront what really happened on that long ago fatal night and deal with the consequences.
If you're interested, read an excerpt here. It came out yesterday.
