It's taken me a while to read this book, but since it's a collection of blog entries it's easy to 'dip in and out' without losing the plot.

Tom Reynolds is an Emergency Mediecal Technician (Ambulance crew to you and me!), who lives and blogs in London.

I've been reading his blog for sometime thanks to the recommendation of Liz, and he writes extremely well; often about difficult or sensitive situations that he's had to deal with.

Pulling no punches, Tom describes his working days (or nights); the frequent flyers (often alcoholics), the false alarms, calls for colds, headaches and other non-emergency patients - along side the descriptions of real emergencies, the frustrations of working for a 'failing' NHS, the politics and the crazy pedestrians who think nothing of trying to 'make a dash for it' in front of his speeding vehicle!

I've really enjoyed this book, but then I knew I would as I still follow his blog!

Visit the blog here - http://randomreality.blogware.com/

This was a quick read which I really enjoyed. It was interesting to parse the differences between American and British behavior and health care. I think that people who work in emergency medicine see both the best and worse that humans are capable of...on a daily basis. The humor was fresh and the author's voice rang true. ( )

I received this book from the Early Reviewer's club. While this isn't a book I would normally select for myself to read, I am so happy I stumbled upon it. All I can say is what an interesting book! I really like how Mr. Reynolds included a variety of blogs throughout the book. The content ranged from sad, to depressing, to informative, to just plain hilarious. Mr. Reynolds has a fantastic sense of humor, which makes the book highly entertaining. ( )

Warning: I got this book as part of the early reviewers program so I might be a little biased. This is the kind of book for people interested in medicine and health related stories. It also may serve well for people who like 'believe it or not' Ripley's type true stories. An easy read. I found it entertaining and informative, if sometimes unbelievable.

Blood, Sweat, and Tea by Tom Reynolds (a pseudonym - the author's real name is Brian Kellet) is a collection of entries from his Blog, Random Acts of Reality.. In some cases, he has added additional comments that bring home his point or provide a little "what happened next."

This was an enjoyable book, a fairly fast read. It was actually nice to learn that a London ambulance driver's patients are much the same as pretty much any patient I've encountered here in the US as a nurse - which is to say, I guess, that they're all human and subject to the same fears and frailties.

This is a very good blog, but I wish there had been more than that to the book. Mr Reynolds would have done well to re-organize these posts into chapters, each of which told a story or underscored the points he wanted to make. As is, it's a hodgepodge of experiences that may accurately reflect his day-to-day job but that do not accurately reflect the nature of his work.

It is clear that Mr Reynolds is both witty and kind. He insists that he is a misanthrope, but his actions speak louder than his words. He claims repeatedly that he "hates everyone equally," but all of his patients get the care that they need and deserve. It's nice to know we have men like him out there. ( )