kidzdoc in 2013: Old World, New Imports part 5

Atlanta Botanical Garden, June 2010













Currently reading:



Pow! by Mo Yan
Health Care for Some: Rights and Rationing in the United States since 1930 by Beatrix Hoffman

Completed books: (TBR = To Be Read book, purchased prior to 1/1/12)

January:
1. Quiet London by Siobhan Wall (review)
2. The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul (review)
3. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif (review)
4. The Eleven by Pierre Michon (review)
5. Pediatric Advanced Life Support Provider Manual by Leon Chameides, MD (review)
6. Communion Town by Sam Thompson (review)
7. Damascus by Joshua Mohr (TBR) (review)
8. The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash (review)
9. Inspiring Quotes: The Greatest Quotes of Martin Luther King Junior by Martin Luther King, Jr. (review)
10. A Happy Death by Albert Camus (review)
11. Place of Mind by Richard Blanco

February:
12. Great House by Nicole Krauss (TBR) (review)
13. In the House of the Interpreter by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (review)
14. Bill Veeck's Crosstown Classic by Bill Veeck with Ed Linn (review)
15. Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski (TBR) (review)
16. Big Machine by Victor LaValle (TBR) (review)
17. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (review)
18. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (review)
19. The Other City by Michal Ajvaz (TBR)
20. A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson
21. Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey
22. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
23. Vertical Motion by Can Xue (TBR)

March:
24. Liquidation by Imre Kertész (TBR)
25. Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman (TBR)
26. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (TBR)
27. Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke (TBR)
28. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
29. The Jokers by Albert Cossery

April:
30. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (review)
31. Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey (review)
32. Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey (review)
33. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (review)
34. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (TBR)

Books acquired in 2013: (✔ = completed book, bold = purchased book)

1. The Eleven by Pierre Michon (5 January; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔
2. Place of Mind by Richard Blanco (21 January; Kindle e-book) ✔
3. A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson (29 January; Kindle e-book) ✔
4. Old Man Goriot by Honoré de Balzac (15 February; Kindle e-book)
5. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (15 February; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔
6. The Return by Dany Laferrière (1 March; Alibris)
7. Brazil Red by Jean-Christophe Rufin (7 March; Alibris)
8. Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey (9 March; free e-book) ✔
9. Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam (16 March; Kindle e-book)
10. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (16 March; ARC copy received from avaland) ✔
11. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens (17 March; Barnes & Noble) ✔
12. Burmese Days by George Orwell (17 March; Barnes & Noble)
13. Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora by Emily Raboteau (17 March; Barnes & Noble)
14. Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (17 March; Barnes & Noble)
15. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (19 March; LT Early Reviewers book)
16. The Outsider by Albert Camus (21 March; The Book Depository)
17. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (24 March; Kindle e-book)
18. The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (24 March; Kindle e-book)
19. Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey (1 April; free e-book) ✔
20. El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
21. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
22. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
23. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
24. Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Bible (7 April; Barnes & Noble)

2013 reading goals (✔ = completed goal):

1. Booker Prize group
     a. Finish reading the 2012 longlist
          Communion Town by Sam Thompson
          The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
     b. Read the entire 2013 longlist by year's end, and the shortlist in advance of the award ceremony

2. 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature ✔
     a. Finish the shortlist in advance of the award ceremony in late January
          Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
          The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash

3. Orange January/July group
     a. Read the shortlist of the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction (WPF) in advance of the prize ceremony, and participate in the LT Shadow Jury
     b. Read 8-12 or more books nominated for the Orange Prize or the WPF in any year, or novels written by women which would be eligible for the prize
          Great House by Nicole Krauss

4. Reading Globally group
     a. Read 3 or more books for each 2013 quarterly challenge
          *Central & Eastern European literature
               Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
               The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
               Liquidation by Imre Kertész
          *Southeast Asian literature
               Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
          *Francophone literature
          *South American literature
     b. Read 6 or more books for the 2012 4th quarter challenge, China & neighboring countries
          Vertical Motion by Can Xue
          Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke

5. Author Theme Reads group
     a. Read 4-6+ books by Simone de Beauvoir

6. Literary Centennials group
     a. Read books by Albert Camus throughout the year
          A Happy Death

7. Patrick White 100th 101st Anniversary challenge
     a. Read at least 1 of the 3 books that I own and was supposed to have read last year

8. Medicine group
     a. Read 12 or more books on medicine, science and public health throughout the year
          A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson
          Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey
          Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey

9. African/African American Literature group
     a. Read 12 or more works of fiction from the African diaspora
          Big Machine by Victor LaValle
          Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman
          Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
          All My Friends by Marie NDiaye
          Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

10. Read Mo Yan group
     a. Read 4-6 books written by Mo Yan

11. Other
     a. Read books longlisted or selected as finalists for these other literary prizes:
          * Wellcome Trust Book Prize (medicine in literature)
               Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
          * National Book Award
          * Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards (African diaspora)
     b. Read more books spontaneously from my TBR collection:
          The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
          Damascus by Joshua Mohr
          The Jokers by Albert Cossery

Planned reads for March (I probably won't finish more than half of these books this month):

Stuart Altman and David Shactman: Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle (5)
Tash Aw, Five Star Billionaire (11)
Honoré de Balzac, Old Man Goriot (21)
Albert Camus, Exile and the Kingdom
Noam Chomsky, Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire (21)
Michael Frayn, Skios (21)
Witold Gombrowicz, Bacacay (21)
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise (19) - completed
Beatrix Hoffman, Health Care for Some: Rights and Rationing in the United States since 1930 (5)
Imre Kertesz, Liquidation - completed
Yan Lianke, Dream of Ding Village (21) - completed
Lawrence N. Powell, The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (6) - reading
Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories (11)
Wole Soyinka, Of Africa (12)
John Edgar Wideman, Philadelphia Fire (6) - completed
Mo Yan, Pow! (21)

Planting my flag.

Planting my dizzy panda! Lovely photo of Atlanta's botanical gardens, and an ambitious March reading list. As I typed that, I realize we're well past halfway through March already!

Just checking in here so that I can keep up with new posts. I am on Spring Break--which isn't much of a break considering all the work I am catching up on and the meetings that have been called. I recently finished Colm Toibin's The Heather Blazing and am working on a new audiobook, 'The Memory of Love by Linda Olsson and inprint The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan, a novel about the Brontes.

The gardens look lovely, and that building to the left looks like it could be made of lego, Im sure its not. Maybe it was cleaned the day the photo was taken :)
Lovely lists- you are active on so many groups Darryl! I am struggling to grow out of my status as a one-group-wonder.

>1 kidzdoc: Oooh, how pretty. I love the composition of that pic - the big city looking down at the big, peaceful garden.

Oh good, another Darryl thread. :-)

Darryl - just finished Train Dreams by Denis Johnson - just glorious. My first Five Star for the year. Small book - epic sweep. I'm pretty sure it won a National Book Award. Deserved the bloody Pulitzer, too, if the judges had decided to award one. Gggrrr.

I'm sorry we missed the Botanical Gardens on our last trip to Atlanta. Jim's sister has moved to Florida, and while I have a cousin in the suburbs, I don't know that we will get back for some time.

Regarding the availability of bookstores in my area, we do slip into the B&N on 17th Street from time to time, although I'm trying my best not to buy physical books. And for that reason, I've been avoiding the Strand (alas). One of our book groups used to meet at McNally Jackson bookstore in Soho - that's a very gracious and well-curated place you might stop at the next time you are on a trip to NYC.

Reading has fallen by the wayside a bit for me. I blame the new job.

Oh good, a new thread I can try to keep up to date on. Hallo Darryl!

Lovely new thread.

It's National Poetry Day, and I was expecting some grim, cheerless gloomfest from you in "celebration" of same. You must still be wringing out the hankies and looking for the pistol.

I've had a lovely past 24 hours. I've been dealing with an acute asthma exacerbation for the past couple of days, which I thought was due to the increased amount of pollen in metro Atlanta. I coughed off and on all night, so much so that I made myself hoarse by morning (I've had strained vocal cords since my last year of residency, when I contracted pertussis, and any bad cold or significant asthma attack leaves me to sound like Froggy from The Little Rascals for a few days). When I woke up I could barely breathe until I took a couple of puffs of albuterol, and I had chills and possibly a low grade fever (I couldn't find my thermometer, unfortunately). I thought about taking a sick day, the first one I would have had in over five years (when I was hospitalized due to a self limited case of atrial fibrillation), but I was on call today and I decided to suck it up and see if I could get through today and tomorrow, particularly because we continue to have a very high patient load. I felt like crap for most of the morning, but by the afternoon I felt much better, and I made it through the day without incident (fortunately it was a light day, with only two admissions and one inpatient consultation).

Good news: I only have one more day to work before I have a four day break, including my birthday on Sunday. Bad news: I've cancelled my trip to San Francisco from Saturday through Tuesday, as I'm nowhere near well.

Worse news: I reinjured my torn rotator cuff while I was examining the last patient I saw in the ED tonight. It was throbbing for a bit, but it feels better after two naproxen tablets. Hopefully it's just a temporary setback.

And, oh yeah, Pitt lost its first game today in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. My two brackets are in complete tatters.

Oh Darryl, that sounds bad. You must be exhausted. I hope you're all better by your birthday and that tomorrow isn't too bad at work. Take it easy and take tomorrow off if you need to!

I second the motion that you take the day off prn.
A doctor who can't find his thermometer. OH! The irony! Hope you feel better soon!

>4 richardderus: I love the flag, Richard!

>5 lit_chick: I'm glad that you liked that photo, Nancy. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is within walking distance of where I live. I really should go there more often.

I won't come close to reading the books on my list of planned reads for the month. If I'm lucky I'll finish 3-4 books from Saturday-Tuesday, but even if I do it will be a subpar reading month.

>6 Cariola: I'm glad to hear that you're reading some good books, Deborah. I haven't read a thing since Sunday, due to a busy week on service and administrative responsibilities, but I hope to have a much better reading weekend starting on Saturday, if not Friday.

>7 LovingLit: That building is the Bank of America Plaza, which is the tallest building in Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and I think it's still the tallest building in the US outside of NYC or Chicago. Its spire is quite unique, as it isn't a solid structure but consists of girders covered in gold leaf that permit a see through view during the day, and a beautifully golden exclamation point to the Atlanta skyline at night:

>8 avidmom: Exactly, avidmom. That's what I liked best about that photo, too: a garden oasis adjacent to the tall skyscrapers of Midtown Atlanta.

>9 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen!

>10 PrueGallagher: I'm glad to hear that you liked Train Dreams, Prue. I haven't heard much about that book, after it was nominated for but not chosen for last year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. BTW, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalists and winners (if any) will be announced on April 15th.

>11 ffortsa: One of my partners is collecting books this week for her church's (or her son's school's) project to provide books to homeless families. I donated 20-25 old books this week, and I'll continue to donate my completed and unwanted books in good condition to her throughout the year. Hopefully I can rid myself of a few hundred more books over the year, and reduce my library significantly. So, I'll be able to make room for more physical books.

>12 flissp: Hi, Fliss!

>13 Samantha_kathy: Hi, Samantha!

>14 richardderus: I was too busy (and sick) to notice that today is National Poetry Day, unfortunately.

>16 phebj: You're right, Pat; I am exhausted. I nodded off to sleep as I was composing the previous message, and my iPad fell onto the floor. Fortunately it's carpeted, so no damage was done. I'll go to bed just after I finish this message.

I'll almost certainly go to work tomorrow, unless I feel absolutely horrible, and significantly worse than I felt this morning. I do have a very good third year pediatric resident from Emory working with me this week, which has made a huge difference in my workload.

>17 avidmom: We rarely take sick days; I've worked for Children's for over 12 years, and I've only called out four or five days in that period. It would be a lot tougher if I didn't have a good resident, or if I felt like this at the beginning of a long stretch of days.

>15 kidzdoc: I've had a lovely past 24 hours.
I kept reading waiting for the lovely part.....got to the end and realised I should have diagnosed a touch of sarcasm a lot earlier on :)
Sorry for your rough day or so Darryl. It sounds pretty bad to me! (Ive never had asthma thank goodness and I dont intend to- as I have witnessed an attack and it was just awful).

....and my iPad fell onto the floor. Fortunately it's carpeted
I have lost 2 cameras to not having carpeted floors now. Well, technically I just lost the lenses, but the camera is pretty useless without the use of a lens :)

Sorry your SF trip was cancelled- I hope your birthday weekend brings you a much better health report. And that your shoulder is given some birthday R&R. In preparation for my (3rd?) Thingaversary, I will be stocking my wallet with cash and excusing myself from family life at some point to seek out a quiet and well-stocked second hand book shop *excited*
I shall wish you a happy birthday with each one I buy!

Sorry you're feeling rough Darryl and that you've had such a rubbish 24hrs - fingers crossed everythign starts to clear itself off before your break and in time for your birthday!

...btw, finally got round to posting some photos on my thread (albeit not very many - the facebook selection is better), but they include one of you and Zoe outside City Lights. Hope you approve!

Aw, poor Darryl. I hope today is better!

I don't know if I should love you or hate you for posting that photo of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. As I look out my window to the park and woods across the street, I only see a frozen tundra with about two feet of frozen snow, and I think it's terribly unfair that anybody is enjoying blooming flowers! Well, I shouldn't be egotistical, you should enjoy them.

Sorry to hear about your sicknesses- hope you are well by Sunday and can enjoy your birthday.

Sorry you're not feeling well, Darryl. Take care of yourself, Doctor!

I echo the enthusiasm for Train Dreams. I really liked it too. I keep meaning to read more Denis Johnson as I was amazed by Tree of Smoke, and enjoyed Nobody Move too. All very different, except for Johnson's wonderful writing.

Sad news: The Nigerian author Chinua Achebe died in Boston this morning, at the age of 82.

Novelist Chinua Achebe dies, aged 82

Darryl, so sorry you had such a horrid day and have been unwell. Be kind to yourself and rest up on your days off. Will you be able to reschedule you SF trip soon?

Hi Darryl. I'm checking in to say I hope you feel better today.

Gentle hugs sent your way.

Hi Darryl, sorry to hear you had to cancel SF. Get better! You have a birthday coming!

I hope you feel better soon and have a great birthday, even if not in SF.

That is sad news about Achebe. He was an excellent writer, and also so influential for younger writers in Africa (and elsewhere). I just yesterday read an essay about him in Caryl Phillips' Color Me English.

Sad about Achebe. :(

I'll make sure to read There was a Country soon...I have it sitting around somewhere. Will have to dig it out. Have you read it yet?

The only book of Achebe's that I've read is Anthills of the Savannah, which I seem to remember I enjoyed, but it was probably about 20 years ago and I don't remember much about it.

The longlists for this year's Orwell Prize were announced on Wednesday:

Carmen Bugan, Burying the Typewriter (Picador): One quiet day when her mother was away from home, Carmen Bugan’s father put on his best suit and drove into Bucharest to stage a one-man protest against Ceauşescu. He had been typing pamphlets on an illegal typewriter and burying it in the garden each morning under his daughter’s bedroom window. This is the story of what happened to Carmen and her family, isolated and under surveillance in their beloved village home. It is an intimate piece of our recent history, the testimony of an extraordinary childhood left abruptly behind. Above all, it is a luminous, compassionate, and unflinchingly honest book about the price of courage, the pain of exile, and the power of memory.

Marie Colvin, On the Front Line (HarperPress): A fearless, passionate veteran reporter of conflicts from around the world, Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin was killed in February 2012, covering the uprising in Syria from the besieged city of Homs. On the Front Line is a collection of her finest work, a portion of the proceeds from which will go to the Marie Colvin Memorial Fund.

Marie Colvin held a profound belief in the pursuit of truth, and the courage and humanity of her work was deeply admired. On the Front Line includes her various interviews with Yasser Arafat and Colonel Gadaffi; reports from East Timor in 1999 where she shamed the UN into protecting its refugees; accounts of her terrifying escape from the Russian army in Chechnya; and reports from the strongholds of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers where she was hit by shrapnel, leaving her blind in one eye.

Typically, however, her new eye-patch only reinforced Colvin’s sense of humour and selfless conviction. She returned quickly to the front line, reporting on 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and, lately, the Arab Spring.

Immediate and compelling, On the Front Line is a street-view of the historic events that have shaped the last 25 years, from an award-winning foreign correspondent and the outstanding journalist of her generation.

Chrystia Freeland, Plutocrats (Penguin): The rich really are different …

There has always been some gap between rich and poor, but it has never been wider – and now the rich are getting wealthier at such breakneck speed that the middle classes are being squeezed out. While the wealthiest 10% of Americans, for example, receive half the nation’s income, the real money flows even higher up, in the top 0.1%. As a transglobal class of highly successful professionals, these self-made oligarchs often have more in common with one another than with their own countrymen. But how is this happening, and who are the people making it happen?

Chrystia Freeland, acclaimed business journalist and Global Editor-at-Large of Reuters, has unprecedented access to the richest and most successful people on the planet, from Davos to Dubai, and dissects their lives with intelligence, empathy and objectivity. Pacily written and powerfully researched, Plutocrats could not provide a more timely insight into the current state of Capitalism and its most wealthy players.

Ben Goldacre, Bad Pharma (4th Estate): WARNING: THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY HAS SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS. These include: flawed clinical trials followed by the suppression of unfavourable results, poor regulation, diseases invented purely for profit, swollen marketing budgets, doctors and academics in the pay of pill manufacturers.

If you find this hard to swallow, please seek the urgent medical advise of Dr Ben Goldacre as he dissects the drug industry, offering a simple and effective remedy for the sick business of Big Pharma.

Ioan Grillo, El Narco (Bloomsbury): The world has watched, stunned, the bloodshed in Mexico. Forty thousand murdered since 2006; police chiefs shot within hours of taking office; mass graves comparable to those of civil wars; car bombs shattering storefronts; headless corpses heaped in town squares. And it is all because a few Americans are getting high. Or is it part of a worldwide shadow economy that threatens Mexico’s democracy? The United States throws Black Hawk helicopters, DEA assistance, and lots of money at the problem. But in secret, Washington is at a loss. Who are these mysterious figures who threaten Mexico’s democracy? What is El Narco?



El Narco is not a gang; it is a movement and an industry drawing in hundreds of thousands, from bullet-riddled barrios to marijuana-covered mountains. The conflict spawned by El Narco has given rise to paramilitary death squads battling from Guatemala to the Texas border (and sometimes beyond). In this “propulsive … high-octane” book (Publishers Weekly), Ioan Grillo draws the first definitive portrait of Mexico’s cartels and how they have radically transformed in the past decade.

Richard Holloway, Leaving Alexandria (Canongate Books): At fourteen, Richard Holloway left his home in the Vale of Leven, north of Glasgow, and travelled hundreds of miles to be educated and trained for the priesthood by a religious order in an English monastery. By twenty-five he had been ordained and was working in the slums of Glasgow. Throughout the following forty years, Richard touched the lives of many people in the Church and in the wider community. But behind his confident public face lay a restless, unquiet heart and a constantly searching mind.

Why is the Church, which claims to be the instrument of God’s love, so prone to cruelty and condemnation? And how can a man live with the tension between public faith and private doubt?

In his long-awaited memoir, Richard seeks to answer these questions and to explain how, after many crises of faith, he finally and painfully left the Church. It is a wise, poetic and fiercely honest book.

Pankaj Mishra, From the Ruins of the Empire (Allen Lane): Viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, the Victorian period was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe.

As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire or burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, it was clear that for Asia to recover, a new way of thinking was needed.

Pankaj Mishra re-tells the history of the past two centuries, showing how a remarkable, disparate group of thinkers, journalists, radicals and charismatics emerged from the ruins of empire to create an unstoppable Asian renaissance, one whose ideas lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to the Muslim Brotherhood, and have made our world what it is today.

Paul Preston, The Spanish Holocaust (HarperPress)
: The culmination of more than a decade of research, The Spanish Holocaust seeks to reflect the intense horrors visited upon Spain during its ferocious civil war, the consequences of which still reverberate bitterly today.

The brutal, murderous persecution of Spaniards between 1936 and 1945 is a truth that should have been told long ago. Paul Preston here offers the first comprehensive picture of what he terms “the Spanish Holocaust”: mass extra-judicial murder of some 200,000 victims, cursory military trials, torture, the systematic abuse of women and children, sweeping imprisonment, the horrors of exile. Those culpable for crimes committed on both sides of the Civil War are named; their victims identified.

The Spanish Holocaust illuminates one of the darkest, least-known eras of modern European history.

Raja Shehadeh, Occupation Diaries (Profile Books): It is often the smallest details of daily life that tell us the most. And so it is under occupation in Palestine. What most of us take for granted has to be carefully thought about and planned for: When will the post be allowed to get through? Will there be enough water for the bath tonight? How shall I get rid of the rubbish collecting outside? How much time should I allow for the journey to visit my cousin, going through checkpoints? And big questions too: Is working with left-wing Israelis collaborating or not? What affect will the Arab Spring have on the future of Palestine? What can anyone do to bring about change? Are any of life’s pleasures untouched by politics?

Clive Stafford Smith, Injustice (Harvill Secker): In 1986, Kris Maharaj, a British businessman living in Miami, was arrested for the brutal murder of two ex-business associates. His lawyer did not present a strong alibi; Kris was found guilty and sentenced to death in the electric chair. 



It wasn’t until a young lawyer working for nothing, Clive Stafford Smith, took on his case that strong evidence began to emerge that the state of Florida had got the wrong man on Death Row. So far, so good – except that, as Stafford Smith argues here so compellingly, the American justice system is actually designed to ignore innocence. Twenty-six years later, Maharaj is still in jail. 



Step by step, Stafford Smith untangles the Maharaj case and the system that makes disasters like this inevitable. His conclusions will act as a wake-up call for those who condone legislation which threatens basic human rights and, at the same time, the personal story he tells demonstrates that determination can challenge the institutions that surreptitiously threaten our freedom.

Daniel Trilling, Bloody Nasty People (Verso Books)
: The past decade saw the rise of the British National Party, the country’s most successful ever far-right political movement, and the emergence of the anti-Islamic English Defence League. Taking aim at asylum seekers, Muslims, “enforced multiculturalism” and benefit “scroungers”, these groups have been working overtime to shift the blame for the nation’s ills onto the shoulders of the vulnerable. What does this extremist resurgence say about the state of modern Britain?

Drawing on archival research and extensive interviews with key figures, such as BNP leader Nick Griffin, Daniel Trilling shows how previously marginal characters from a tiny neo-Nazi subculture successfully exploited tensions exacerbated by the fear of immigration, the War on Terror and steepening economic inequality.

Mainstream politicians have consistently underestimated the far right in Britain while pursuing policies that give it the space to grow. Bloody Nasty People calls time on this complacency in an account that provides us with fresh insights into the dynamics of political extremism.

A.T. Williams, A Very British Killing (Jonathan Cape): On 15 September 2003 Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, was killed by British Army troops in Iraq. He had been arrested the previous day in Basra and was taken to a military base for questioning. For forty-eight hours he and nine other innocent civilians had their heads encased in sandbags and their wrists bound by plastic handcuffs and had been kicked and punched with sustained cruelty.



A succession of guards and casual army visitors took pleasure in beating the Iraqis, humiliating them, forcing them into stress positions in temperatures up to 50 degrees Centigrade, and watching them suffer in the dirty concrete building where they were held. Other soldiers, officers, medics, the padre, did not take part in the violence but they saw what was happening and did nothing to stop it. Some knew it was wrong. Some weren’t sure. Some were too scared to intervene. But none said anything or enough until it was far too late and Baha Mousa had been beaten to death.



This book tells the inside story of these crimes and their aftermath. It examines the institutional brutality, the bureaucratic apathy, the flawed military police inquiry and the farcical court martial that attempted to hold people criminally responsible. Even though a full public inquiry reported its findings into the crimes in September 2011, its mandate restricted what it could say. The full story, told with the power of a true-crime expose or court-room drama, shows how this was not simply about a few bad men or ‘rotten apples’. It shines a light on all those involved in the crime and its investigation, from the lowest squaddie to the elite of the army and politicians in Cabinet. What it reveals is devastating.

The shortlist will be announced on April 17th, and the winner will be announced on May 15th.

More info: http://theorwellprize.co.uk/longlists/

I did go to work today, and got through it just fine, with the help of the sharp resident working with me. I still feel like crap, so I won't go to San Francisco, and I'll stay inside and rest for the next day or two, at least. I'll catch up on posts later or tomorrow; right now I need a nap (and I'm too tired to make dinner).

Some interesting ones on the long list this year - thanks for posting ......

Take care of yourself as well

Hope your days off lead to your feeling much better very quickly, Darryl.

Sorry you're feeling so lousy, Darryl. I know you're disappointed to miss your trip to SFO.

I'm also sorry about Pitt losing. You said your "two brackets" are in tatters. Did you fill out two separate brackets for separate pools or do you also fill out a women's bracket? On the men's side, I'm cheering for Gonzaga. I don't actually expect them to take the championship, their late season #1 ranking notwithstanding, but it would be cool to see. On the women's side, I expect Baylor to win it all but I will be rooting for Stanford.

Sometimes even I can't believe what a west-coast girl I have become.

Meanwhile, my Montana conference (and snow shoe excursions) has limited my recent reading time, but I have a week in Hawaii coming up and that's always a good week of reading for me.

Adding Denis Johnson to my list.

>21 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. I felt better this morning (make that Friday morning, since it's just after midnight here) than I did on Thursday morning, but I feel considerably worse now. I woke up from my naps with chills again, but I'm not running a fever (37 C (98.6 F), yay). It seems as though I'm having an intense reaction to an allergen, presumably a tree pollen, which has triggered this asthma attack. I forget to take an allergy pill (Zyrtec) this morning, and I could tell the difference after I arrived at work, as I had a lot of nasal congestion, clogged Eustachian tubes with muffled hearing, watery eyes and frequent sneezing. The pollen in Atlanta normally doesn't bother me, so I hope that this is a one time problem.

I'll need to get more medications later today. Fortunately I can call in my own prescriptions for routine meds.

I've never had asthma thank goodness and I dont intend to- as I have witnessed an attack and it was just awful.

Thankfully none of my asthma attacks have been bad enough to warrant a visit to my internist or ED. And, fortunately I do respond very quickly to albuterol when I can't breathe well, as I'm able to take deep breaths within a few seconds after that first puff. And, my worst attacks are relatively infrequent compared to several of my colleagues at work, as I generally only have 1-2 significant exacerbations per year; this is the first major attack I've had since I was in London last September. Some of the kids I admit to hospital due to severe asthma attacks (status asthmaticus) require several hours of albuterol, IV steroids and other medications to achieve the same level of comfort that I experience after 2-4 puffs of albuterol, so I consider myself lucky in comparison.

I expect that I'll feel significantly better by Monday, if not sooner. Unfortunately I seem to have strained my rotator cuff again, as it's not as stable as it was before last night. It's nowhere near as bad as it was when I first injured it, though, so I think it will be fine in the long run.

TYIA for the birthday wishes! And Happy Thingaversary! If I'm feeling up to it I may go back to Barnes & Noble on Sunday to buy more books, especially Chinua Achebe's last book There Was a Country.

>22 flissp: Thanks, Fliss. Fortunately it will be rainy and cool for the next two days, which should wash away the pollen that presumably led to this flare up.

I did look at your thread, and enjoyed your lovely photos! I definitely approve of the photo of me & Zoë in front of City Lights last year, and, considering that she is or was using it as her LT profile photo, I assume that she does, too.

I finally exchanged my clunky "dumbphone" (BlackBerry Bold 9700) for a new smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S III); I love it so far!

>23 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. This weekend will be better, since I don't have to work for the next four days. Hopefully I'll be in much better shape when I return to work on Wednesday, although I doubt that I'll be completely back to normal.

>24 xieouyang: Manuel, the new blooms on the trees here is pleasant to look at, but I'd be in much better physical shape in pollen free Wisconsin.

>25 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. I'll have to read Tree of Smoke, which I'm certain that I have although it isn't in my LT library.

>27 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah. I hope to be able to go to San Francisco in a couple of weeks, but I'll have a lot of hospital committee and administrative meetings to attend in the next couple of months, which will likely impact my travel plans. I won't be able to attend the PEN World Voices Literary Festival in NYC as I had hoped to do, as there will be two committee meetings that week.

>28 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda; I'm feeling cruddy at the moment, mainly due to allergy symptoms and chest wall pain from coughing, but I'm very glad that I don't have to work or prepare to go to the airport today.

>29 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy. This will certainly be a low key birthday, but that's fine with me. Sunday will be the worst day of the next four, so I probably won't go outside much and hopefully I'll feel well enough to venture out on Monday and Tuesday.

>30 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda. I learned about Achebe's death from a text message on my cell phone this morning at work. It was a surprise to me, but I guess it shouldn't have been, considering his age and compromised health due to the 1990 automobile accident in Nigeria that left him paralyzed from the waist down. I'll definitely read some of his books very soon, and I may re-read Things Fall Apart in the next month or two, as it's been a long time since I first read it and I don't remember much about it.

>31 The_Hibernator: I haven't read There Was a Country yet, Rachel. I had meant to buy it when I was in San Francisco last year, but I either forgot to do so or it wasn't available yet. I'll almost certainly buy it when I go to Barnes & Noble tomorrow or Monday.

>32 SandDune: Rhian, I own Anthills of the Savannah, but I haven't read it yet. I'll plan to get to it very soon.

>35 roundballnz: You're welcome, Alex. There are several books on the Orwell Book Prize longlist that look especially interesting, particularly Bad Pharma, El Narco, From the Ruins of Empire and The Spanish Holocaust, but most of the others are enticing as well. I'll look to see which of them are available in the US, and hopefully buy or download a couple of them in the next day or two.

>36 ronincats: Thanks, Roni. I need to catch up on rest, as next week promises to be busier at work than this week was, as I won't have the luxury of working with one of the pediatric residents (who are near the end of their residency and are closer to being colleagues than trainees).

>37 EBT1002: I am a little bit disappointed to have to miss my SF trip, Ellen, but I'm more relieved and grateful that I have four days off to recuperate and that I don't have to get up later this morning to go to work or to the airport.

My main NCAA tournament bracket is in the cardiology group's legendary mega-pool through Yahoo! Sports, which has 271 participants this year (one entry per person, $20/bracket, winners donate their prizes to their favorite charities). In that bracket I had Pitt beating Wichita State and Gonzaga, before losing to Wisconsin, which was one of my Final Four teams along with Louisville (champion), Indiana (runner up) and Marquette (my second dark horse, along with Wisconsin). I'm currently in a 61-way tie for 108th place, although my possible points remaining puts me closer to the bottom of that pack, thanks to losses by Pitt, Wisconsin and New Mexico.

The second bracket is being run by one of my partners (through ESPN). She had nearly a dozen participants last year, but only she & I are active this year, as everyone else migrated to the cardiology pool. Unfortunately I'm 30 points behind her, and I rank #7,388,674th overall, just behind the brackets of Mrs. Martin's Pre-K class and the Society for the Criminally Insane. I chose New Mexico as one of my Final Four teams; they managed to lose to Harvard yesterday (ack).

There are so few upsets in women's basketball that it makes their tournament boring in comparison, especially if Rutgers isn't chosen for it (I forget to check, but I assumed that they weren't chosen, and I can't remember if they had a winning record that would qualify them for the Women's NIT). I'll start paying attention when the women's tournament gets to the Elite Eight or Final Four, when the games will truly be competitive.

Have a great time in Hawai'i!

Darryl, As a fellow sufferer I sympathise with your recent attack. Get better soon dear chap.
Looking forward not to my UK trip for the havoc it wreaks upon my respiratory system. Will take some anti-histamines and steroids and hopefully I will get through with little issues.

Have a great weekend with loads of great gulps of air being imbibed as regularly as you like.

btw The Orwell list looks mighty interesting.

I think Harvard's and Florida Gulf Coast's upsets killed a lot of people's brackets :-)

>42 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I feel considerably better now than I did earlier this morning, but I'm still wheezy and coughing quite a bit. I can now take regular breaths without difficulty, but if I try to take a full expiration I cough and wheeze, due to the thick mucus that is in my bronchioles (the smaller airways, as opposed to the bronchi, which are the larger airways).



I hope that your upcoming trip to the UK doesn't affect you too badly. Do you take any preventive medications, such as Symbicort or Advair? Both of these inhaled medications contain a long acting bronchodilator (albuterol is a short acting bronchodilator, which relaxes the smooth muscle in the walls of the bronchi) and an inhaled corticosteroid. They aren't useful for acute attacks, but they do help to ameliorate the chronic symptoms of asthma. I'm currently taking albuterol every 4-6 hours, prednisone (day 4 of a 5 day burst) and Symbicort. I'll hopefully be able to go back to taking albuterol on an as needed (prn) basis in the next couple of days, but I'll continue to take Symbicort twice a day for the next couple of months, at least. I'm also taking Zyrtec (oral antihistamine), and I'll prescribe myself a nasal steroid such as Flonase or Nasonex this weekend.

Right; the Orwell Prize longlist is very interesting, and I'm certain that I'll buy several of those books in the near future.

>43 katiekrug: Definitely, Katie. There can't be many brackets that had both Harvard and FGCU winning their first games!

I'm currently in a 61-way tie for 108th place
Ah, the joys of "bracketology."
The women's tournament has developed more parity in recent years, but I agree that it gets most interesting in the later rounds.

I think I will add a couple of the Orwell Prize nominees to my list for my nonfiction challenge. Thanks for the link.

Nice list of Orwell contenders. There are several I'm gonna look into.

Sorry to hear of your health troubles of late but glad you have 4 days to rest & recouperate! Take care of yourself ...

Darryl, sorry to read about your awful day Thursday and continuing breathing troubles. Rest and enjoy your days off, and I hope you feel better soon!

Darryl, I know how much you were looking forward to your trip to San Francisco. Sorry you had to cancel your trip. Feel better soon.

Happy Birthday Darryl!
I hope its a restful and calm one for you, with a comfy chair, plenty of fluids and a book every way you turn :)

Happy Birthday! I hope you feel much better soon! Sorry about your trip.

Happy Birthday Darryl. Hope you have a great day.

Ugh. I'm still feeling about the same as I was on Friday and Saturday, and possibly a bit worse than I was two days ago. I woke myself up just after 4 am due to frequent cough and associated musculoskeletal chest pain; fortunately I can still breathe at rest without difficulty. I'm still not running any fevers (Tmax 99.4 F), but I may start myself on an antibiotic if I'm not feeling better by tonight or tomorrow. I'll make a quick trip to the supermarket a little later, and then stay inside for the rest of the day, as I'm in no shape to be out in public. Atlanta is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 8 am, and it's been raining all night, so it won't be a great day to be outside anyway.

I didn't get much reading done yesterday, but I've enjoyed what I've read of Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke so far. Hopefully I'll finish it today.

>43 katiekrug: I think Harvard's and Florida Gulf Coast's upsets killed a lot of people's brackets :-)

After those two upsets none of the 8.1 million plus brackets submitted to ESPN were perfect after Friday's games.

>44 kidzdoc: Ah, the joys of "bracketology."

Somehow I moved up in the cardiology pool yesterday, after I slipped to 205th place by the afternoon. I'm now in a 35-way tie for 62nd place, although my possible points remaining has me ranked 90th. I assume that my bracket suffered less carnage than everyone else's, thanks to Marquette's gutty comeback win over Butler (the best game of the tournament so far) and Oregon's upset of Saint Louis. My other bracket in my partner's pool continues to plummet; I'm now in 7,494,667th place overall in ESPN's Tournament Challenge, and 90 points behind her for second (and last) place. I probably have a better chance to win the cardiology mega-pool than to catch her, unless Michigan (her alma mater) and Michigan State start losing.

The women's tournament has developed more parity in recent years, but I agree that it gets most interesting in the later rounds.

Yep. Apparently there have been two 10/7 upsets and one 12/5 upset in the women's tournament so far. It doesn't seem as though any of the top four seeds in any of the brackets who have played have been tested so far; UConn destroyed Idaho in its opener 105-37, and the closest game appears to be Cal's 90-76 win over Fresno State.

Rutgers (16-14) declined an invitation to the Women's NIT, due to injuries that befell many of their players.

>45 EBT1002:, 46 It seems as though many of the books longlisted for the Orwell Prize are currently available in the US, fortunately. Bad Pharma is also available for the Kindle, although it's more expensive than the paperback edition.

>47 TinaV95:-49 Thanks, Tina, Terry and Donna. I'm very glad that I have three more days off to recuperate; I'm not sure I would be ready to go to work by tomorrow. I'm also very glad that I decided not to go to San Francisco yesterday; hopefully I can reschedule this trip in the next month or two.

>50 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. Comfy chair: check. Plenty of fluids: check (although I'll go to the supermarket for more tea and raw honey shortly). A book every way I turn? That goes without saying. ;-)

>51 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel. I hope that I start to feel better today!

>52 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian. I'll settle for an uneventful and improved day.

Happy birthday, Darryl. Sorry you aren't feeling better for it, but you can always celebrate it some other time!

Rebecca is right. Birthday celebrations are at the discretion of the birthday incurrer. I hope you feel better soon, and can treat yourself to a fun time later on.

Happy Birthday,- you can always make your birthday last for about a month with events and nice things-
Herbal tea is good- try mint or something with ginger ( an acquired taste)

Darryl, I'm sad you are under the weather on your birthday! That stinks. I hope you have a restful day and are back to your normal jovial self soon.

>55 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. Right; I can always celebrate my birthday at some point in the future, and I'm not disappointed at all that I'm not in San Francisco this weekend.

>56 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy. A quiet Sunday at home with the NYT, a good book and a comfy chair is a very acceptable birthday celebration, especially since I won't have to go to work on Monday. I did go to Publix earlier this morning to pick up comfort food, including a small red velvet cake; Publix is the one supermarket which makes very good cakes and desserts, as Jill (mrstreme) and others will attest to.

>57 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel. A postponed prolonged celebration sounds perfect to me.

Ooh, ginger tea! Rats, I wish I had seen your message before I went out. I did buy Twinings Earl Grey tea and I'm brewing hot water to make green tea with raw honey, but ginger tea would have been perfect. I'll pick up some if I go back out later today.

>58 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. However, this could be much worse on several different levels, so I have no right to complain about anything. I felt better after I took a shower and went outside, even though it was cool and wet after a long night of rain, so I feel very upbeat and chipper at the moment (it could be that I'm a bit delirious from taking prednisone, though).

>60 richardderus: Hmph. Well, I was feeling upbeat and chipper. I shall spend the day plotting my revenge against the ole curmudgeon (no kittens, though).

Reading that you were moving up in the cardiology pool had me thinking you were in line for some kind of bypass or transplant, not sports! *whew* as I read further.

I am so sorry that you are having a crudoid birthday, Darryl, with ye olde bronchioles gasping for air. Bah humbug. Well, you'll just have to postpone the good meal until you can taste it. Hope you have a year full of good reads and happy travels, m'dear. Many happy returns!

>61 kidzdoc: Wise, very wise...I have a *dilley* of an emergency eye surgery all cued up.

Upbeat and chipper? Did aliens transreverse your brain stem? Or have you simply not read any of your own books lately?

Happy Birthday Darryl, hope you'll start feeling better after putting your feet up for a day or so. Red velvet cake sounds like a yummy birthday treat.

A very Happy Birthday to you Darryl. I hope that you are feeling better today on your special day. Your quiet birthday celebration sounds like something I would appreciate as well :)

Great picture for your thread topper. I really wish spring would come here as well. I love the snow, but I am really tired of the cold, dark and wet now :(. I want sun, colour and the sound of the birds, a blue sky and the sounds of the insects in the garden. *sigh*

Thanks for posting the longlist for the Orwell prize. Some very interesting candidates.

Nice pic of the lungs *smile*. I probably have to start for some time on inhalers as well, as I still don't seem to have quite recovered from the pneumonia. I actually, don't think I have a wheeze but I constantly feel tight when breathing and get very easily short of breath and everytime I try to take a deep breath, I am coughing like a trooper. However, my English GP explained to me that the pneumonia I had can cause Asthma like symptoms for several month, which need to be treated accordingly. Well, I am also the lucky "owner" of cryoglobulines and was also told that these could be aggravated by the pneumonia. Hence, so many other tests coming up. I felt a bit down after my GP visit, but have recovered since, back to being my usual self.

Again I would like to wish you a fab remaining Birthday Sunday *smile*

Feel better Darryl -- and happy birthday.

Happy Birthday Darryl! Feel better soon. :-)

>62 tiffin: Sorry to scare you (again), Tui! The cardiology group at Children's hosts a large pool for the men's college basketball tournament (also known as March Madness), in which 68 teams compete in a single elimination format for the national championship. The people who participate in the pool fill out brackets by selecting the teams they think will win for every game, and they earn progressively more points the further their favored teams progress in the tournament. President Obama, a former high school basketball player and solid college basketball fan, also fills out a bracket every year; this is his 2013 March Madness bracket:



Yep, my bronchioles are gasping for air at the moment; I'm audibly wheezing on deep expiration, due to constriction and inflammation in those small airways.



I think this is the worst asthma attack I've ever had; I've been on medications for nearly five full days, but I'm still very symptomatic.

>63 richardderus: Richard, I've seen enough Google images of eye surgeries to know that the one you posted on Ellen's thread is relatively tame.

Yep, I'm upbeat and chipper, as I can breathe comfortably at rest, although I'm nowhere near well, I don't have to work today or the next two days, I have plenty of good food and drink, and I'm enjoying my current book and watching the NCAA basketball tournament games, including a great ending to the Ohio State-Iowa State match a few minutes ago.

>64 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry. My improvement has been slow, but I hope that I'll turn the corner by tomorrow. The red velvet cake was quite good; I had a slice of it with lunch (beef Singapore noodles).

>65 drachenbraut23: Thanks, Bianca! Considering that the tree pollens are the most likely trigger for this asthma exacerbation I'm much less excited about spring than I was at this time last week. This past weekend was glorious in Atlanta, with high temps in the mid to upper 70s (23-25 C), but it's been a cool and rainy weekend, and tomorrow it will only top out in the upper 40s (9 C), and drop below freezing Monday and Tuesday nights.

I agree; the Orwell Prize longlist is particularly enticing this year.

At the moment I can take a full inspiration without difficulty, and I can hold it with no problem (although I couldn't do this the past two mornings, when I woke up after 4 am due to shortness of breath and cough). I can exhale fine, within the limits of a normal breath (tidal volume), but it's when I take a deep breath out and expel the air in my bronchioles that I start to wheeze and cough. So, my inspiratory reserve volume and tidal volume are fine, but it's my expiratory reserve volume that is affected, which is what you would expect for an obstructive lung disease like asthma, as opposed to a restrictive lung disease like ARDS that would prevent you from achieving full inspiration.

Which phase(s) of respiration are you having difficulty with? And, does your GP think that your past history of heavy smoking is playing a role in your current symptoms? Are you taking a preventive medication like Symbicort or Advair?

>66 plt:-67 Thanks, Peg and Roberta!

Happy Birthday Darryl!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Darryl! Hope you have a great celebration when you're feeling better.

Darryl sending you Happy Birthday wishes and I hope the gift to you will be clear air passages. Have a great day mate.

>66 plt: now they are cool cupcakes, and probably a lot of work to create.

Darryl, do you know Sandy Springs? Im reading about it in The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It seems to me a little unbelievable that a town/city can operate independently from local government, and therefore relieve itself of the burden of paying taxes that everyone benefits from. The book is written in 2007 (I think) and from what the author says, it was a trend that was looking to grow. Hm, any thoughts?

Hope the honey buying went well, stock up as it never goes off!

Sending birthday wishes to you Darryl. Terrible that you're not feeling up to snuff. Hope you improve soon.

Stuffy air passages be gone! Happy happy birthday, Darryl !!

>70 brenpike:-73 Thanks Brenda, avidmom, Deborah and Paul!

>74 LovingLit: I certainly do know Sandy Springs, Megan; the hospital I work at is located there, just north of Atlanta. It was part of unincorporated Fulton County for decades, until it won a vote to form its own government recently. According to the Wikipedia article the vote took place in 2005, and a local government and municipal services began operations the following year. The largely white residents of Sandy Springs, which is or was one of the 10th wealthiest communities in the US, resisted annexation by Fulton County and the city of Atlanta, as they believed the majority of their tax dollars were going to support the poorer black residents of the county, who live in the southern part of the county and south of Atlanta, and they received little in the way of service or support from the largely black government of the city and county in return. (And, from what I've read, the residents of Sandy Springs did have numerous legitimate concerns.) However, it wasn't until Republicans took control of the Georgia legislature and the governor's office that a vote could be held to allow Sandy Springs to form its own city and government. Other wealthy communities in metro Atlanta have followed Sandy Springs's lead, most recently Brookhaven (I saw a story on the TV news this morning about its efforts to select a police chief for the new city).

I'll have to read Shock Doctrine to find out what Naomi Klein has to say about this. As far as I know Sandy Springs residents still pay taxes to Fulton County, as the city resides within the county, but its residents also pay for their own government and municipal services, so they have a greater say in the management of the city. I am all but certain that Sandy Springs is paying less money to Fulton County as a result, which used to provide these services to the unincorporated community, and I'm certain that its residents are benefiting from better and prompter service overall.

There is, unfortunately, a lot of racial politics and distrust between the white and black residents of metro Atlanta, between Democrats and Republicans (which are so far apart that they can be considered to be different species), and between city residents and those who live in the suburbs and exurbs. Frequently there are claims of systemic racism by blacks against whites here, which is all too often a shallow response to concerns from the residents of the nicer areas about the ills that befall the region, including shoddy municipal services, government corruption and red tape, substandard public schools and crime. Much of this use of the race card IMO is reflective of an old pre-civil rights mentality, in which whites did treat blacks like third-class citizens, and fails to take into account that there are tens of thousands of middle- and upper-class black professionals who live in cities like Sandy Springs and Brookhaven and in some of the nicer neighborhoods in Atlanta alongside white neighbors, who share the same values and concerns. That's not to say that white racism doesn't still exist, but it clearly is a tiny fraction of what it was before the 1970s.

Thanks for the honey reminder. I did buy raw honey this morning, and I want to drink a mug of tea with honey before I go to bed, as it does help soothe my irritated throat.

>75 brenzi: Thanks, Bonnie!

>76 cameling: Thanks, Caroline! Unfortunately my bronchioles are still as stuffy as they have been for the past couple of days.

Happy Birthday! Sorry you are still feeling poorly. I recommend a little brandy in your tea.

And lots of chicken soup, of course.

Happy belated birthday !! - not much fun spending your birthday with Problematic Asthma though !!! ( know that feeling been there got the T-shirt) ... mine always plays up on the seasonal cusp.

Hope there was a decent cake for the day

A late late happy birthday, Darryl. I really hope your asthma gets better soon, and you can rest up for a few days.

Happy belated! Interesting comments on Sandy Springs. I can see both sides. I live in a mid-sized city close to the border of one of the wealthier suburbs - and yes, the suburb gets there streets plowed better and faster, has better funded schools etc etc AND they pay significantly lower property taxes - so it makes me start wondering what inefficiencies are going on at the city level. ??? It isn't simply wealth vs lack of wealth, although there is some of that. It's complicated enough without race being involved. Yikes!

>77 kidzdoc: wow- that is what I love about LT! I have a query about a "town just north of Atlanta", I think of you living nearby and then hey presto- you not only know all about it- you work there!

The author was talking about the town in the context of the outsourcing of the functions of government. Also in relation to the trend that, now, there is more money to be made by contractors in times of public fear and economic uncertainty, than there is in peace or economic stability. (It used to be the case that stable economies led to economic growth).

The firm, CH2M Hill Inc., that was contracted to build Sandy Springs was active in Iraq's (so called) reconstruction where it received millions of government money to oversee other contractors (who often sub-contracted their contracts out to cheaper firms, with everyone in between taking their cut). CH2M Hill Inc. also received millions of aid dollars in the wake of the 2004 Sri Lankan tsunami (dollars that people had donated worldwide to help tsunami victims) to dig deep sea trenches to facilitate deep sea fishing for industrial fishing fleets. This of course went directly against the livelihoods of the locals whose houses were destroyed in the tsunami who were languishing in tin shed slums while hotel chains opened up on what was their land.

Klein makes a good case that the people heading these contracting businesses had firm connections with the government departments who were handing out the money, and were more than willing to be the face of the economic reform that was snuck in under "emergency" conditions. And now these companies are building cities.

The Shock Doctrine really is a fascinating read, I am just up to the conclusion now, so will be reviewing it soon.

>78 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda. Hmm, brandy would be a good addition to tea and raw honey. The honey did help with my cough last night, though.

>79 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex. I'm feeling better this morning, but I think it will be several days at least before I'm completely cleared up. I'll call myself in the higher strength of Symbicort later today, as I still have a lot of mucus in my bronchioles and I need to increase my inhaled corticosteroid dose.

The red velvet cake I bought yesterday was good. I only had one slice of it, so there's plenty left.

>80 cushlareads: Thanks, Cushla. Fortunately I have two more days to rest before I return to work on Wednesday. I haven't had a complete night of sleep since Thursday, as I continue to wake up coughing at least once or twice between midnight and 6 am, and I rely on afternoon or early evening naps to catch up.

>81 cammykitty: Thanks, Katie. The distribution of government and municipal services to different communities is very complicated, with so many competing interests and priorities, and it serves no purpose for some people to claim that the hard decisions that are made are based entirely or largely on racial or socioeconomic differences.

>82 LovingLit: Megan, I should have also said that I'm only moderately familiar with Sandy Springs, even though I work there, as I live in Midtown Atlanta, about 10 miles to the south. Rush hour traffic there can be hideous, due to the three major hospitals, dozens of medical offices and numerous major businesses that are located there (which include the corporate headquarters of United Postal Service (UPS) and AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless) and major regional offices of IBM, Cisco Systems and other companies), so I usually escape the city after work. I know nothing about the contractors that the city employs to provide government services, so I'll be eager to learn more about them when I do read The Shock Doctrine.

I did buy two Kindle books yesterday, both from the Orange Prize longlist: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber. I'll go out later today, and if I go to Barnes & Noble I'll buy two books from the Orwell Prize longlist that are in stock there, Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre, and El Narco by Ioan Grillo.

Darryl, from your synopsis in post 77 you presented a lot of information to me that wasnt covered in the book. It is always interesting to hear as many sides as possible, as that gives you the fullest picture.
Eg, in the Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein mentions a book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalisation, by Thomas Friedman. I had understood him to be a proponent of fair reporting, after his book I read on the Middle East (From Beirut to Jerusalem) seemed to be to present a balanced view. The quotes she has put in from Friedmans book have made him out to be a hard core right wing free-market-at-any-cost fan. So now I am left wondering. I will read his book too, as I own it already, and make my own decisions. As much as is possible for me, anyway, as I am unashamedly a left wing idealist ;)

I hope you are feeling better, Darryl. Adding birthday wishes to all the others. Maybe you'll feel like celebrating once your coughing subsides.

Happy belated birthday Darryl. Sorry you spent it feeling like poo. The huge drop in temperature probably hasn't helped either. :(

I have a feeling this won't make one of your top ten all-time birthdays, Darryl. Sorry you aren't feeling better. However, my Kansas Jayhawks will attempt to mess up your colleague's brackets on Friday!

Ugh. I'm still not feeling any better than I did at the end of the week, and if anything I feel worse than I did this weekend. It's been over a week since I first got sick, and I should at least be making some improvement by now. I'm still coughing frequently, breathing a bit more rapidly than I should be, and have a lot of mucus in my lower airways, which is persistent and seems to be increasing. I just switched to a new internist, who I haven't seen yet, so I think I'll go to the ED at the hospital closest to me for a quick check, and hopefully a chest X-ray. I'll check back in later.

Sorry I missed your birthday, Darryl. I know it wasn't "Happy" in the usual sense with your bronchial discomfort. Ugh. So I guess what I can say is that I hope you have a good year ahead of you! I hope the X-ray is clear, or at least brings clarity with regard to treatment and recovery.
Take good care.

Oh, dear...sorry you're battling with the bronchioles. Breathing is fairly fundamental to the enjoyment of life. I hope you can get some relief soon. I'll keep my birthday wishes separate and in reserve for a day (not too far off) when you'll feel more like celebrating.

Sounds awful! I hate it when I can't breathe well. Hope you get better soon before it turns into something nasty like pneumonia.

:( Sending good vibes your way!

Oh rats about the asthma flare-up, Darryl. Just rats. I have only been that asthmatic once but it is really scary on some level. Yes, the inhale is ok but exhaling is a problem. So glad you are getting over it and kicking back for a bit. Do take care!

Very glad that you haven't had to be admitted. I hope this all clears up quickly and you feel better soon!

I'm now back home, after spending several hours in the ED. I was much worse off than I realized, as I didn't have good air movement on arrival and was in respiratory distress, with a low blood oxygen level (but not low enough to require supplemental oxygen). I was given three breathing treatments (albuterol), an IV steroid (dexamethasone), IV magnesium sulfate (which is used when the breathing treatments aren't helping much, which they weren't initially) and IV fluids. I was a bit concerned when the ED doctor told me that he recommended magnesium sulfate, as the kids we see in our ED who get that are almost always admitted to the hospital for at least overnight observation. He didn't think that I was in that bad of a shape, though. After the dexamethasone and the second albuterol treatment kicked in I could move air better, although I was still very wheezy. The ED doctor & I thought that I was better enough to go home after all of that, although I'll have to be more aggressive with my management at home to keep from having to return there. I'll definitely take off from work tomorrow, and possibly Thursday as well if I'm not significantly better.

Wow! Good thing you went to the ER. Asthma is really a cruddy thing. Hope you feel better soon!

Darryl, I'm so glad you took action, it sounds like you really needed it. Rest up and focus on recovery!!

I am so so sorry, Darryl, to hear of the respiratory distress. That is my personal definition of hell. *there there, pat pat*

Hi Darryl - also sending 'get well' wishes across the oceans.

Darryl, very glad you went to ER and that you will take tomorrow off, as well as Thu if necessary. Take care!

Oh dear ... I do wish you had decided to stay for a night at the hospital so they could keep you under observation just to be sure all is well with your breathing, Darryl. Any chance you can go back with your pjs and bring a good book with you?

Commiserations Darryl! A trip to the ER mustn't have been much fun :(
*short break to intercept Lenny heading towards the car with a hammer*
Time off sounds good- even if you arent used to being the patient! I hope you can get some good rest and relaxation. Take care Darryl!

I'm still moderately ill, about the same as I was yesterday but not as bad as I was this morning. Hopefully the IV, oral and inhaled steroids I've had today will really kick in by the evening, so that a return trip to the ED won't be necessary. I definitely won't go to work tomorrow, and probably not on Thursday unless I'm back to normal or nearly so.

>84 LovingLit: Megan, I'm pretty sure that I own one or two books by Thomas Friedman, but I don't think I own anything by Naomi Klein, although my opinion of her is highly favorable. I do read Tom Friedman's columns in the NYT fairly regularly, and I certainly wouldn't characterize him as a "hard core right wing free-market-at-any-cost fan". Clearly I'll have to read The Shock Doctrine soon.

I'm definitely left of center politically, but I suspect I'm closer to the middle than you are. :-)

>85 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. It will be awhile before I'm ready to celebrate anything, though.

>86 TinaV95: Thanks, Tina. If I'm right in my assumption that a tree or other plant pollen led to this asthma attack then this weekend's rain and today's cold temperatures should be helpful. I subscribe to the free Daily Pollen Count e-mail from the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic, and today's pollen count (31) is much lower than it was at this time last week (I think it maxed out at 235).

Did you see the snow flurries here today? I saw them as I left Piedmont Hospital this morning. What crazy weather we're having!

>87 ronincats: Nope, this is far closer to the bottom of my all time favorite birthdays, Roni.

I have Kansas in the Final Four in both of my brackets, but I have them losing to Indiana in the national semifinal game. I'm in 103rd place in the cardiology pool, and I'm getting smoked by my partner in her two member pool. Unless the wins by Harvard, Florida Gulf Coast and Wichita State are forfeited due to point shaving scandals I have about as much chance to win either pool as Sarah Palin has to become the next mayor of Berkeley, CA.

>89 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. Hopefully this asthma attack, which is far and away the worst one I've ever had, will be a distant memory in a week or two. I've never needed to see my internist or go to the ED for one of my attacks, although I received breathing treatments when I was on service in the hospital or ED once or twice during residency. I never needed more than one treatment, though; I've had seven today already. I didn't request a CXR, since I didn't and haven't had any fevers, although the ED doctor offered to order one if I wanted it (he didn't think it was necessary).

BTW, frequent albuterol treatments will lower your serum potassium level. So, I've had two bananas and two glasses of carrot juice so far this afternoon.

>90 laytonwoman3rd: Breathing is fairly fundamental to the enjoyment of life. I hope you can get some relief soon.

Definitely, Linda. I've cared for hundreds if not thousands of hospitalized kids who sought medical attention because they weren't responding to albuterol at home. I had never felt that way until this morning, and that was what made me decide to go to the ED. In retrospect I hadn't been responding well since at least Sunday, and I probably should have gone then instead of assuming that I would eventually start breathing better with time and more albuterol.

>91 cammykitty: Thanks, Katie. I was partially concerned that I might have an atypical pneumonia (which is casually referred to as "walking pneumonia"), because my symptoms weren't improving and were getting worse, and because I could hear fine rales (crackles) in my lungs on inspiration. I did have atypical pneumonia in 2000, as a secondary infection that followed a horrible case of pertussis (whooping cough) that lasted for 3-4 months, but I wasn't as sick then as I am now, and I did have a low grade fever for several days at that time, which I haven't had this time.

>92 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel!

Sorry to hear what a bad attack this has been and still is, and glad you went to the ER. Take good care of yourself, Doc!

>93 tiffin: Thanks, Tui. You're right, it was a bit scary yesterday and this morning that I wasn't getting any relief from albuterol. When I decided to go to the ED this morning part of me thought that I was overreacting, and that I just needed more time for my symptoms to get better. As it turns out the exact opposite was true: I was in far worse shape than I thought, and I should have sought medical attention much sooner.

>94 lunacat: Thanks, Jenny! Unfortunately I missed out on Piedmont Hospital's fabulous food, though. I was hospitalized there in January 2008 for a self limited case of atrial fibrillation, and the last meal I had just before discharge was a delightful spinach salad with grilled salmon, along with a slice of key lime pie. If I remember correctly I asked to be discharged after lunch, even though I was ready to go home by late morning, so that I could have that lovely meal before I left.

>96 banjo123:-100 Thanks, Rhonda, Laura, Richard, Kerry and Nancy. I've now started to feel noticably better over the past hour or so, and hopefully I'm starting to turn the corner toward improvement.

>101 cameling: Caroline, I definitely can and certainly will go back to the ED if I get worse. There are two major hospitals with large EDs within 2 miles of home, which are both open 24 hours a day, so I can get to either one quickly if need be. EDs in general are far less crowded in the early to mid morning hours, say from 4-10 am, than they are at other times. I arrived there just before 7:30 am this morning, and I was taken to a room immediately after I registered, as there were no patients in triage or the waiting room, and the ED doctor saw me as soon as I was transferred from triage to an ED room. If I went now I'd probably have to wait 1-2 or more hours to be seen and receive any treatment, unless I was in really bad shape.

>102 LovingLit: Megan, going to the ED today wasn't that bad, ATC. Fortunately it's a short drive from home, and I've always received prompt and excellent care from Piedmont Hospital the three times I've gone there since I moved to Atlanta in 1997 (for appendicitis in 1997, and atrial fibrillation in 2008; I was admitted to hospital both previous times, and my last sick day at work was the day after I was discharged from the last hospitalization). I was pleased and reassured that the staff (triage nurse, charge nurse, respiratory therapist, physician) took my symptoms seriously (which was easy, since I was in respiratory distress and had very decreased breath sounds in my lungs when they listened to me with their stethoscopes), and treated me aggressively and appropriately. I felt I was in good hands from the minute I entered the ED, and my symptoms improved once the medications began to work.

Yikes! I hope that you caught Lenny before he decided to "repair" your car!

>105 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca!

>103 kidzdoc: that's OK Darryl, some of my best friends are only slightly left of centre ;)
I may have been overstating Klein's assessment of Thomas Friedman as a "hard core right wing free-market-at-any-cost fan". Milton Friedman, however, she definitely classified as such!

>106 kidzdoc: I hope that you caught Lenny before he decided to "repair" your car!
lol! yes, I was pretty fast out the door when I saw him with the hammer. Which was lucky as he was certainly heading to do some panel beating- toddler style. I could see the look in his eye.
My sister recently had her new car scratched all around each panel with a stone by her 3 year old. A nice little line all around. When questioned (through grinding teeth) why he would do such a thing, he stated that he didn't like the colour of the new car. Presumably he was intending on repainting as well!

>107 LovingLit: I certainly agree with Naomi Klein's characterization of Milton Friedman as a hard core right winger! I'm a bit ashamed that he and I are fellow Rutgers undergraduate alumni; I'm much more proud of Paul Robeson, Junot Díaz, and, of course, the incomparable Mr. Magoo.



Clearly Lenny and his cousin are destined to become famous automobile designers.

Mr Magoo! I had no idea he was...um. Learn-ed ;)

It has taken me this long, from the completion of my last post here, to this one, to write my review of The Shock Doctrine PHEW- I need a coffee now.

>109 LovingLit: According to Wikipedia's page about Mr. Magoo:

Mr. Magoo is an alumnus of Rutgers University, Class of 1903 (or "aught-three" as Magoo would say). The reason behind this is that his creators wanted him to be "a college alumnus who was still fired up with the old school spirit {and they felt} Rutgers was the embodiment of the 'old school tie' in America."

*puts on alumni hat, shares way TMI about alma mater*

Rutgers has a long and rich history, as it's the eight oldest college in the US, and it's one of the nine colonial colleges, all of which were founded before the Revolutionary War. Columbia University, founded in 1754, was originally named King's College, after King George II; Rutgers was founded as Queen's College in 1766 in honor of Charlotte, the Queen consort of King George III. It was renamed Rutgers College in 1825, in honor of Revolutionary War hero Colonel Henry Rutgers. Unlike the other eight colonial colleges, seven of which became Ivy League schools (including nearby Princeton and excluding only the College of William & Mary), Rutgers became a land grant college, incorporating several other nearby colleges, and ultimately became the state university of New Jersey (although no one except for some deluded non-alumni state politicians would ever suggest changing its name to the University of New Jersey).

Off to check your review of The Shock Doctrine...

Sounds like you are doing all the right things Daryl, with all the drugs everything shd start working as it shd soon.

Rest & read some good books .....

Read The Shock Doctrine some time ago when the book came out- definitely a good thought provoking read not matter where you sit on the spectrum No logo is also a good read.

>111 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex. I had a better night last night, as I didn't wake up in the middle of the night due to a coughing attack for the first time since Sunday. And, as you said, the medications, particularly the inhaled and oral corticosteroids, are starting to kick in. I still have a moderate amount of expiratory wheezes and my bronchioles are still clogged with mucus, but I'm now starting to cough up chunks of this lower airway phlegm. I'm still a bit short of breath after coughing episodes and when I walk around the house, but at least I can breathe comfortably at rest, which I couldn't do early yesterday morning.

I'm off from work today, and I'll probably stay out tomorrow as well, as I'm scheduled to work this weekend (Friday through Sunday).

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed The Shock Doctrine as well. I'll check out her book No Logo as well.

I forgot to mention that I did finish two books on Monday, Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke, and Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, which were both very good. I'll review them later today or tomorrow. I started The Jokers by Albert Cossery yesterday, which I should finish by this afternoon.

Jeesh, I'm behind, Darryl. Glad you're doing better with the airways. Both our kids are coughing asthmatics (under control), so I know to some extent whereof you speak. Can't believe you had to go to the ER.

I wanted to add my belated Happy Birthday! Not the easiest one this year, sounds like.

>113 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. This is far and away the most severe and longest lasting asthma attack I've ever had, which started last Monday night. I just took another albuterol treatment, three hours after my last dose, as I was getting short of breath again and felt tight.

I think did myself a disservice by stopping oral prednisone on Saturday and not increasing my Symbicort dose over the weekend, so that I would get a higher dose of inhaled corticosteroid. My asthma attacks are still infrequent (1-2 significant episodes per year), but each one seems to be worse than the last one. This is the first time I've ever sought medical attention for asthma, and I certainly needed emergency care yesterday.

I (think I) know how to manage asthma in kids, but clearly it's time for a professional to oversee the care of this big kid's condition.

I'm sorry to hear that your kids also have asthma, but glad that they are under good control.

Thanks for the birthday wish! I had a very depressing 30th birthday, but that's the only year that I can think of that was worse than this one.

Just checked in after long hiatus.. Wow, Daryl, that's a long time for an asthma attack to be ongoing! Any idea what the trigger was on this one?

I have trouble with my asthma in wet weather when the temps are in the 40's. And of course pollen...but spring is delayed here, so I have a couple weeks before the pollen arrives. I suspect Atlanta is in the middle of tree pollen season?

Hope it all resolves soon!

Yeah, our kids got better and more under control as they got older (our daughter medicates daily, our son only once in a while when it gets bad). It sounds like yours has gotten worse - what a drag (literally!) It does sound like time to get that professional help. I'm sure you'd like to avoid going through what you're experiencing if possible. Sorry you had a lousy birthday; I know a bunch of us would take you out to make up for that if we were in Atlanta.

I hope the resting is going well, and the reviewing is adding to the pleasures of not being at work.

Glad you're starting to get better, but you have my sympathy for the "oral steroids." My allergist at one time gave me an "at will" prescription for prednisone because he knew I'd have to be worse than miserable to take it. It makes me so crabby and jittery that I'd almost (note the almost) prefer to be ill. I hope you've got something really interesting to read while you recuperate.

Checking in on you to see how you're feeling now?

My sinus infection has raised its ugly head again so I'm joining you in the feeling crappy party.

I hope your treatment in the ER and thereafter has made significant improvements in how you are feeling.

>115 tangledthread: Right, tangledthread. This is day 10 of my attack, and I assume it will be at least another 3-5 days at least before I'm completely back to normal. I assume that an allergen, presumably a tree pollen, led to this attack. What's odd is that the spring pollens in Atlanta normally don't bother me very much, even when the pollen count is astronomical here. Very weird.

>116 jnwelch: Definitely, Joe. I had environmental allergies in childhood, with my worst trigger being pet dander (cats, gerbils, etc.). I was active in sports in junior high and high school (junior high football, HS cross-country and spring track), and I developed chest tightness, cough and sometimes post-tussive emesis after XC meets, especially ones held at my suburban school that was surrounded by woods and farms. I was fine for several years, but my symptoms worsened when I was in grad school and working in a molecular biology lab at NYU Medical School, after I graduated from Rutgers and before I started medical school at Pitt. I worked with mice several times per week, and initially my symptoms were consistent with allergic rhinitis (sneezing, itchy eyes and nose, clear rhinorrhea). After several years I began to have cough and some chest tightness, which would resolve some time after I returned the mice to the mouse lab. When I went to Pitt I had a couple of mild attacks in my first year, triggered by my friends' cats on cold wet days. I had one more significant attack during my Internal Medicine inpatient rotation as a third year medical student, after the residents and medical students noticed on hospital rounds that I had a tight cough when we were in the room of an asthmatic patient (As one of my classmates said, "Damn, Darryl, you sound worse than she does!"). My team listened to me, noticed I was wheezing worse than the patient, and one of the residents wrote my first prescription for albuterol. I didn't have any other attacks until I moved to Atlanta (the worst metropolitan area for people with chronic respiratory illness) for residency in 1997. I had some minor flareups for the first 10-12 years, nothing that required a visit to my internist or ED, but it seems as though my symptoms have significantly worsened over the past 2-3 years.

I took another breathing treatment at 2 pm, as I was tight and SOB with frequent cough, so I'm back to needing albuterol every 3 hours; we don't send kids home from the hospital until they are able to tolerate nebs no more often than every 4 hours.

I appreciate the offer of a birthday party, but can we do it somewhere other than Atlanta? ;-)

>117 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. However, even though I've posted several messages on LT, I have spent several hours "working" today, including calling into our 1-1/2 hour monthly administrative meeting by phone, reviewing literature for a new hospital committee that I'll join next month, looking over Power Point slides for another committee meeting that I'm supposed to attend (but probably won't) tonight, and sending 15-20+ e-mail messages to various people within and outside of my group. Those reviews will probably have to wait until tomorrow, assuming that I take off from work tomorrow, but I should finish The Jokers today.

>118 cammykitty: Thanks, Katie. I'm a little better now than I was at this time yesterday, but I'm not as well as I was last night and this morning. I don't like taking prednisone either, which was part of the reason I (unwisely) stopped taking it on Saturday. I have three more days to take them (40 mg once a day for 5 days, which I started yesterday), but I may put myself on a taper to stretch out the dose (maybe 40 mg tomorrow, and then 20 mg once a day for the next four days, instead of 40 mg once a day for two more days).

I have plenty of good books to read, including my current book, The Jokers. That's the least of my problems. :-)

>119 TinaV95: Thanks, Tina. I've been having a fair amount of sinus pressure and thick whitish nasal discharge the past few days, but it isn't yellow or green in color and I don't have any fever, so I'm not convinced that I have a sinus infection yet. The ED treatment definitely got me to a point where I can manage my symptoms at home, but I'm nowhere close to normal yet.

>120 kidzdoc: I have spent several hours "working" today
Oh dear, Darryl. You really cant get a proper day off to rest can you?

Ill look forward to the review of Mortality by Hitchens. I liked his memoir. I thought you were trying to pass this birthday off as your 30th, but no, just comparing them for their fun levels, which werent high as it seems. Bad luck, and fingers crossed for a far better birthday next year!

Glad you are starting to feel better, Darryl, and that you've realized that even a doctor needs a doctor sometimes! Is The Jokers your first Cossery? I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been my first rather than than my third.

>122 LovingLit: You really cant get a proper day off to rest can you?

Not today, anyway. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, in terms of work responsibilities anyway. I've gotten progressively worse during the day, so I definitely won't work tomorrow, and possibly not on Friday unless I'm considerably better. One of my senior partners, who will cover for me tomorrow, and Friday if need be, has just called in an antibiotic for me (azithromycin, or Zithromax), as she suspects that I may have atypical pneumonia (and I don't disagree).

I'll probably review Mortality tomorrow, or Friday at the latest if I don't work that day.

My 30th birthday was a long time ago! I may not look my age (52), but I don't look that young, either (although most people who don't know me think I'm in my late 30s).

>123 rebeccanyc: I was feeling better, Rebecca, but I've progressively worsened as the day has gone on. My partner who called in an antibiotic listened to me wheeze over the phone this afternoon too, and she agrees that I sound worse (when I exhale it's easy to hear the wheezes, even over the phone).

The Jokers is my first Cossery. I bought it at my local Borders in 2011, just before it closed, due to a recommendation from someone on LT (I thought it was you, but it may have been someone else).

Off to CVS pharmacy; back later.

Go to bed, Darryl!! I never would have guessed you to be over 50, but I'm still old enough to be your big sister, and Mom said to take care of you, so you better listen to me!!!

Oh this sounds like a really miserable time for you. So sorry.

I saw an ENT guy a few years ago, the mildest of men, who ended up ranting about global warming, allergies and asthma. Jim has been suffering with constant nasal congestion now for weeks. I'm considering a move to Yellow Knife if we all keep getting sick. I wonder what grows there.

After a decade and more in Atlanta, you may have developed an allergy to the local flora. Have you considered seeing an allergist? I wouldn't want this triggered for you every year. That would be awful. And a justification for an annual fortnight or more in San Francisco. &;->

Darryl, Thinking about you and sending get-well wishes . . .

*Back from CVS, new medications now on board (Zithromax, Singulair, Nasonex).*

>125 laytonwoman3rd: Go to bed, Darryl!! I never would have guessed you to be over 50, but I'm still old enough to be your big sister, and Mom said to take care of you, so you better listen to me!!!

*pouts indignantly, stomps up stairs, favorite stuffed bear in tow*

*turns on night light, hides under covers with five books*

>126 ffortsa: This has been a miserable illness, mainly because I've sick for 10 days and essentially am no better than I was this weekend. I tried to convince myself that I didn't have atypical pneumonia, due to my lack of systemic symptoms (especially fever), but that isn't always a consistent finding in older children and adults. Atypical pneumonia can certainly cause prolonged wheezing in asthmatics, so it would make sense that I could have it. The charge nurse in the Piedmont ED yesterday said that she heard decreased breath sounds in my right lung base after I finished with the breathing treatments and IV medications, which would go along with pneumonia, but the ED doctor didn't make the same comment. He offered to order a CXR after he initially listened to me, although he didn't think I needed one, and after I improved I didn't think I needed one, either. I wish I had gotten one now. No matter now, though, as I'm on the proper antibiotic for atypical pneumonia.

One of my very lovable but intensely evil partners, who is working the night shift and was sitting beside my partner who called in the new medications tonight, also endorsed the idea of taking Zithromax, in case my symptoms were due to a disseminated STD like gonorrhea or chlamydia. I threatened to come into work tomorrow, for the sole reason of kicking her butt before her shift ended (although she is very athletic and far healthier than I am at the moment, so I'd probably get my butt kicked all over the hospital instead).

Does Yellow Knife have coffee shops, bookstores, theater companies, museums, or other essential features of urban living? If not, I'd rather live in San Francisco or London. At this point I'd gladly take Madison, despite the 5-6 month long winters in southern Wisconsin.

I was subscribing to the pollen theory, and it still may be the primary reason for this asthma attack. I've been communicating with several friends who are primary care pediatricians in metro Atlanta, and they have all been seeing kids come to their offices with intense inflammatory reactions to what they presume is a tree pollen or other environmental allergen. Oddly enough, though, they have been seeing far less sick kids than they did last week, and our inpatient census has ~20-25 fewer kids than this time last week.

I may end up seeing an allergist, especially if the antibiotic doesn't seem to do much. I sincerely hope that this isn't a new allergen, as I would hate to have to go through this again every year, or ever again for that matter.

>127 brenpike: Thanks, Brenda! I'll gladly accept all prayers and good wishes.

Dear wonderful knowlegeable Doc. The problem with living by yourself, is that sometimes you need someone with eyes on you as it's so easy to understimate how sick you are.

I'm in the same boat, and even with friends and family calling and talking to me on the telephone, I darn near waited too long a couple years ago. As I walked across the parking lot to go to the ER, I stumbled and knew that if I went down, I would have to lie there until someone noticed and fetched me because I wouldn't be able to get back up. (Cancer treatment, picked up H1N1, went into atypical pneumonitis, prednisone shut down the ole pancreas). And all the while me saying, no no I'm fine, no one needs to drive me in, I'll go in in the morning if I'm still feeling rough.

Give in and go be seen again. How many times have you told patients if it's not better, get to the ER?

>129 streamsong: Thanks, streamsong; stubborn should also be added to the list of adjectives.

ETA: Cancer plus H1N1 induced pneumonitis is a frightening combination. I'm glad that you pulled through that illness. My best friend's wife's mother in Belgium contracted H1N1 a couple of years ago, not long after she received a bone marrow transplant for a rare form of leukemia, but unfortunately she did not recover.

My partners have been concerned about me, and they have been checking on me several times per day. Several of us are single, and we do try to keep an eye on each other. I'm feeling a little better this morning so far, and definitely better than I felt on Tuesday morning when I went to the ED. If I get significantly worse today I'll definitely go back there. At this point, though, I don't think there's anything else they could do for me, as I'm already on breathing treatments (albuterol), oral and inhaled steroids (prednisone and Symbicort), an antibiotic (Zithromax), a secondary anti-inflammatory medication for asthma (Singulair), an oral antihistamine (Zyrtec), and a nasal steroid spray for sinus inflammation (Nasonex), along with OTC nasal saline spray. I'll definitely stay home today, but hopefully I'll be well enough to go to work tomorrow.

Darryl, you've been hit so hard by this -- ugh! I keep thinking about how you almost went to San Francisco and at the time (at least based on what you were posting here), you didn't seem as sick as you clearly are. I'm glad you decided not to travel!

>131 lauralkeet: Same here, Laura. In retrospect I downplayed my symptoms, both here and within my own mind, especially over the weekend, and I should have taken them more seriously and sought medical attention sooner.

I agree about the living alone thing. I have a cousin who is a widow, and although she has a son who technically lives with her, he has a job that keeps him away from home a lot. She just dragged herself to the doctor yesterday after putting it off, thinking "I'll be better tomorrow". Too many tomorrows later, diagnosis: pneumonia. I think if Will had been around, he would have insisted she get treatment sooner. I'm glad you have partners who care, Darryl.

Well, as long as you know that if you disappear off LT, a search party will be organized. I'm glad you're feeling a bit better. Perhaps your rotator cuff is at least getting some rest with all this?

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's wife and know that I was lucky. The bug I do the most research with (Chlamydial LGV strain) also causes nasty atypical pneumonitis among lab workers, so when I presented with atypical pneumonitis, all the alarms went off and the entire machinery of the NIH threatened to leap into action. Ugly (and embarassing) until it all got sorted out. Because of the BSL 3 & 4 labs, all workers who show up at the ER with strange symptoms get the full isolation treatment. It's probably part of the reason that I was reluctant to go in.

I just finished State of Wonder last night which was on the Wellcome's 2011 shortlist and also Orange nominated. Skip that one. Believe all the one star reviews on Amazon that say the science is all so wrong that the premise fails. There are doctors over there saying the medicine is all wrong, too--which I can't make a judgement on, but I'm willing to believe. A novel about bad medical research where the writing research is faulty-- that tickles the ironic funny bone, but although the story was fairly engaging, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief. I wonder who makes the selections for the Wellcome prize.

Crud. I actually closed Firefox, just as I was about to finish my reply to the previous two messages.

>133 laytonwoman3rd: Right, Linda. It's all too easy to fall into the "I'll be better tomorrow" mindset, unless your symptoms get worse, as mine did on Tuesday morning, or unless someone else is looking over you with an unjaundiced eye. Fortunately my partners have been keeping in close contact with me, and they are encouraging me to stay home tomorrow as well, so that I'll be ready to work my weekend shifts. There is a backup doctor available every weekday and the inpatient census is relatively light as compared to last week, so it hasn't been and won't be a problem for me to stay home yesterday, today and Friday, but if I can't work on Saturday and Sunday someone would have to come in on an emergency basis, which would be difficult. I'm off for most of next week, so I'll have time to fully recuperate then.

>134 streamsong: I corrected my post, streamsong; it was my best friend's wife's mother who succumbed to respiratory failure from H1N1 pneumonitis two or three years ago.

I'm familiar with Chlamydophila pneumoniae (formerly Chlamydia pneumoniae) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae as common causes for atypical pneumonia. I took care of several kids who had pneumonia in the hospital last week, so it's possible I acquired either organism from one of them. Neonates (infants less than 28 days of age) can acquire Chlamydia trachomatis, the organism that causes LGV, from infected mothers, so it makes sense that it could cause atypical pneumonitis or pneumonia in adults who are exposed to it.

I've already read State of Wonder, which could have been titled State of Disbelief, as that would have been required for those with a medical or biomedical scientific background to read the medical information without howling in protest. I did like the characters and the story, so I gave the book 3½ stars. I thought it was an appropriate selection for the Orange Prize longlist, but a curious choice as a finalist for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize, which is supposed to select the best fiction and nonfiction books that portray "medicine in literature". The judges have been a mixture of clinicians, scientists, medical historians, and journalists and authors with no scientific or medical background, so the latter group probably wouldn't be able to pick out medical inaccuracies or absurd plots in the way that the others should be able to.

Oh, that's such a pity about State of Wonder. I hate bad science in good stories.

>136 ffortsa:: I was just thinking the same thing! When the book first came out I read a very favorable NYT review and thought "oh, must read that!" But of course it always takes me a while to get around to it. And now I'm glad it did, because I can strike that one from my list.

Hi Darryl, glad to see that you are starting to feel better after your horrible attack, also I think that 10 days is quite a long time.

Just stopping by to wish you a fab Easter weekend!

If I am not mistaken you should be off for that?

>136 ffortsa:, 137 Judy and Laura, to be fair I wasn't put off by the inaccuracies in State of Wonder anywhere near as much as I was by Annabel by Kathleen Winter.

>138 drachenbraut23: Thanks, Bianca. I'm feeling much better today than I was at this time yesterday, as the phlegm in my lower airways is starting to break up and I'm breathing much more easily, although I still have end-expiratory wheezes and an occasional cough. I'm planning to work tomorrow, and I'll be on long call (10 am to 10 pm) on Saturday and short call (8 am to 10 am) on Easter, so hopefully I'll be able to get out by early to mid afternoon on Sunday. I'm off all of next week (Monday-Sunday), except for a backup call on Wednesday, so I'll be able to fully recuperate then.

After this quick turnaround within 24 hours of starting the antibiotic azithromycin I'm more suspicious that I do have atypical (walking) pneumonia, likely due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which led to this prolonged and relatively severe asthma attack. The pollen count in Atlanta has been steadily dropping since last week, down to 9 today from a high of at least 235 last week, so it now seems far less unlikely that an allergen is to blame.

I finally finished The Jokers this evening, which was very good.

Sorry, to hear that Darryl unfortunately not a very nice. I have noticed that the (walking) pneumonia has been quite a bit of a problem this year. Several of my collegues have been treated for it and all of them have ongoing problems with coughing and a tight chest. Three of them have also been started on Salbutamol.
I do hope that azithromycin is going to work for you. Is that your first choice antibiotic you use in adults? The UK seems to prefer clarythromycin.

I'm glad you're feeling better!

Here's my biggest problem with State of Wonder.

Everything has to be kept secret because the scientist is working on a malarial ''vaccine'' (which isn't a vaccine by any stretch of the imagination). This has to be done secretly so that the money will not dry up because no big drug company would shell out money to prevent tens of thousands of third world's kids' deaths from malaria each year. Everyone is supposed to say, "Oh mean, nasty drug company that doesn't care about dying kids."

Duh. The reality is that millions of dollars are currently being spent each year on malarial vaccine research. The bottom line is that, even if there was absolutely no humanitarian interest (ignoring the fact that the US NIH funds huge research projects that will benefit third world kids), a malaria vaccine is of interest to the US military not to mention other militaries worldwide. The drug company would make sooooooooo much more money from the malarial vaccine than the silly fertility drug allowing 70 year old women to have babies.

>140 drachenbraut23: Bianca, I don't know anyone else at work who has contracted walking pneumonia, but my partners who are also asthmatic have not had exacerbations these past two weeks to the extent that I have, as far as I know. BTW, albuterol is the same medication as salbutamol; I'm not sure why the US uses a different name for it than the rest of the world.

Azithromycin is one of the first line treatments for atypical pneumonia, although other macrolide antibiotics such as erythromycin and clarithromycin are acceptable as well. We generally prefer to use azithromycin because it only has to be given for 5 days (for adults, two 250 mg pills QD on the first day, followed by one pill QD for each of the next 4 days), it has less GI side effects than erythromycin and possibly also clarithromycin, and because it is a generic medication which is, I think, no more expensive than clarithromycin. I paid $6.05 out of pocket for azithromycin through my insurance plan, which was the second cheapest of the six prescriptions that I was provided this week. Clarithromycin has to be given for 7-14 days, either once or twice daily, and erythromycin, which we almost never use, has to be given every 6-8 hours.

>141 streamsong: I had forgotten about that ridiculous fertility drug, streamsong! Why would any sound minded 70 year old women want to have babies?

OK I have to weigh in on State of Wonder. Here's a bit from my review:

Yes this could have been a five star read if we just considered the writing which was just so lovely. But it’s the preposterous ideas that fly in the face of logic that I had a problem with. It wasn’t even the idea that a major drug company would keep pouring money into a scientist working in the Brazilian jungle for years on end without any oversight (which is just plain crazy!). I could certainly suspend disbelief for that. But come on, the drug company sends not just one, but two individual employees into the jungle to look for a renegade scientist?? Really? And then, when Dr. Swenson established for all to see the real work that she was doing in the jungle, I was gratified that it made so much sense but then she turns around and does something so totally out of character for the character that has been developed over the course of the book, I said to myself, “Why? Why would Patchett do that?”

Of course if you read the book you know what she did with the native boy. There was so much preposterous stuff in that book I could never understand how it got so much attention.

Darryl, I am SO glad you are finally starting to feel better. This has been a doozy. P has relatively mild asthma which started (out of the blue from her perspective) as exercise-induced asthma. There was more than one softball game after which we ended up at the ER. Controlled well now but there were some scary moments along the way.

Nothing about your thread is making me want to read State of Wonder.

On the other hand, I'm really enjoying Brothers and Keepers which I should complete tonight. It is one for which I will definitely write a "review."

Aloha. Take good care of yourself.

Yay to feeling much better - and thanks for removing State of Wonder from my book radar forever. Seeing everyone's bad comments at once has been quite effective!

That is really too bad about State of Wonder. I haven't read Ann Patchett in a couple of years, but I really loved some of her earlier work.

Glad you are feeling so much better -- take care of yourself.

Funny that you're removing State of Wonder from everyone's radar, and here I was having just the opposite reaction. You've made me curious about the book (though I'd certainly go into it prepared to be disappointed which is the first step towards disappointment). Still, I'm sure I'll get to it some day. :)

>144 brenzi: Nice comments about State of Wonder, Bonnie. I agree, it was a very well written and enjoyable book, and if I could have ignored the medical and scientific flights of fancy it would have earned a much higher rating from me.

>145 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. I did go to work today, and I got through it fine, although I was noticeably short of breath with some associated lightheadedness. The inpatient service has been much lighter this week than it was last week, with far fewer hospital admissions, and I hope that this continues through the weekend.

Have a great holiday in Hawai'i!

>146 cushlareads:-147 Thanks, Cushla and Rebecca. Despite its flaws I did enjoy reading State of Wonder, and I'd be willing to give Ann Patchett another go.

>148 The_Hibernator: Rachel, I'd encourage you to read State of Wonder, in order to form your own opinion about it.

Planned reads for April:

All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (completed)
Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by Ben Goldacre
Burmese Days by George Orwell
Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds & E.M. Tansey (completed)
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (completed)
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Health Care for Some: Rights and Rationing in the United States since 1930 by Beatrix Hoffman (reading)
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Marlowe Papers by Ros March
Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy & E.M. Tansey (completed)
Pow! by Mo Yan (reading)
Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire by Noam Chomsky
The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo
Skios by Michael Frayn
There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (completed)

I hope that you are feeling better- I recommend soup, bananas, and maybe chicken ( baked - plain- no sauce or heavy spices.)
and lots of tea-herbal and some mystery novels- the best thing when you are not feeling well.

>151 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel. I'm getting slowly better every day, although I'm still wheezing at baseline and short of breath with minimal exertion. The worst work day of the weekend is now behind me, and hopefully I'll be able to finish up by mid-afternoon tomorrow, so that I can partake in your suggestions (except for mystery novels).

I will be very interested in your reaction to Pow!.

>153 EBT1002: I hope that I can find time to read Pow! in April, Ellen. If not I'll plan to read it in May, which should be an easier month, with fewer hospital shifts, committee meetings and administrative responsibilities than April will be. It will be a minor miracle if I read all of the books I've posted for this month, including the ones I've carried over from March.

I had hoped to finish the advance review copy of All My Friends by Marie NDiaye that avaland sent me on Sunday after work. However, after I came home from an exceptionally busy day at work I took what was intended to be a brief nap after dinner that lasted for over 4 hours. So, it will be my first book of April.

I know Im not alone in saying this (at least I hope Im not!). But I find your list of planned reads for April very exciting! I love seeing a list in blue, and scanning it to see what is on the menu. :)

Good luck with it- do you foresee many books jumping the queue and messing with your plan? It always happens to me.

Hi Darryl I need to borrow your pistol because Ellen The Vacationer in Paradise is eating macadamia nuts and NOT posting pictures of hot beach bunny boys in my thread. I don't need the hankies, just the pistol. I'll leave instructions with my executrix to return it afterwards.

*sits with vacant hopeless expression awaiting mercy killing*

Ha.

*munch munch*

Besides, Richard, they are not just macadamia nuts. They are chocolate covered toffee macadamia nuts.
Some people are indifferent to them.

Hi Darryl!

157/158 - this will end in tears before bedtime ..... well unless ......

I finished the uncorrected proof of All My Friends by Marie NDiaye, the French-Senegalese novelist whose novel Three Strong Women won the Prix Goncourt, making her the first woman of African descent to win the leading French literary prize. This new book, which will be published in English translation by Open Letter Books next month, is a collection of short stories about people in a variety of flawed and troubled relationships, each of which is at a point of crisis and separation. The writing and translation were superb, but I found the characters to be far less interesting, so I'll give it 3½ stars for now. I'll review it in the next day or two, and start to catch up on my outstanding reviews from last month.

>155 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. It's very possible, if not likely, that one or more books from my library will catch my eye this month and replace one of my planned reads. And, there are several new books I've recently heard about that I may end up buying and reading ASAP.

>156 richardderus:-159



Richard! Ellen! Come to the front of the class now!

Richard, there will be no playing with guns or viewing of beach models during class time. Ellen, do you have enough macadamia nuts to share with everyone? If not, please put those away!

Sheesh. Kids these days...

>160 roundballnz: I think that they both need to be in detention this week, Alex.

LOL!

Them naughty kids got tooold oooooooff! na na na na na.

>161 kidzdoc: *toe in dirt* Yes sir. Sorry sir.

You tell 'em, Darryl! Just plain BAD, them kids!

Woo, you've had better luck getting RD under wraps than anyone I know, Darryl. See if you can get him to lighten up on Dickens while you've got him in detention.

Ha good job telling off those naughty students!

Hope you are feeling better! Is it normal for allergies to last this long with medications?
Looks like you have a great April reading list!

>165 jnwelch: Shyeah. That'll be happenin'

LOL!

For cursing in class, Richard, you have earned yourself a two week suspension from school. In addition to your regular homework assignment, you must turn in a 50 page report (typed, double spaced, no White Out) on the following books:

Thanks, Chelle. I'm almost completely back to normal, as I'm no longer wheezing, can breathe easily, and only have a mild intermittent cough to clear the greatly reduced amount of mucus from my lower airways. I've finished taking prednisone and Zithromax, and I haven't used my albuterol inhaler since Sunday night. I'll stay on Symbicort (preventive medication for asthma), Singulair (adjunct medication for asthma and allergies), Zyrtec and Nasonex (nasal steroid spray) daily for at least another 1-2 months, as I'm still having symptoms of allergic rhinitis and persistent asthma. Compared to this time last week, when I had just returned home from my local ED, I'd say I'm at least 95% better.

ETA: To answer your question: I think my symptoms were mainly due to a Mycoplasma pneumonia which triggered an intense inflammatory response that led to the longest and most severe asthma exacerbation I've ever had. Those symptoms can last for 2-3 weeks, and it's been 16 days since they started. Many of the trees in Atlanta are blooming now, especially the dogwood and cherry trees, so the pollen count has risen again this week, and it will only continue to rise over the next week or two. The pollens here normally don't bother me, but they seem to be at the moment.

I like today's Google Doodle, which is in honor of the artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian's 366th birthday:

>169 kidzdoc: *bwaaaaahaaaahaaaa* Never, ever, ever happen, ever. I have Suffered Enough at the Hand of Chuckles the Dick.

>172 richardderus: Sigh. That's the problem with these 47th grade remedial students; they never do what the teacher tells them to.

Book #30: All My Friends by Marie NDiaye

     

My rating:

In this collection of five unrelated short stories, which was originally published as Tous mes amis in 2004 and will be released in English translation by Two Lines Press in May, Marie NDiaye portrays the lives of several ordinary but deeply flawed and emotionally distant individuals who are at crises in their relationships with those closest to them. In the opening story, "All My Friends", a divorced schoolteacher employs one of his former students as his housemaid and becomes infatuated with her, her Arab husband, and another former student who vows to reclaim the woman by any means necessary. "The Death of Claude François" concerns a woman who leaves her privileged existence in Paris to return to her impoverished childhood banlieu, where she confronts an old friend over a man that they both loved intensely. "The Boys" is set in a rural village, in which an abandoned boy seeks to escape his hopeless plight by following in the footsteps of a neighbor's handsome son, who was sold for profit to a mysterious woman by his mother. In "Brulard's Day", a former bit actress returns to the setting of one of her most famous movies, but she is treated with indifference and scorn, as she loses grip with reality. Finally, "Revelation" describes a woman and her "appallingly stupid" son as they prepare to take a bus trip, for which she buys a round trip ticket for herself and a one way pass for him.

The characters in these stories are generally unsympathetic figures, due to their emotional frigidity and, in some cases, mean-spirited behavior toward those closest to them. Each story lacks a definitive denouement, similar to the stories in her 2009 Prix Goncourt winning novel Three Strong Women, which often leaves the reader suspended in mid-air and filled with a sense of foreboding. All My Friends isn't as accomplished a work as her later novel, but it effectively features NDiaye's compelling and unique writing style and is definitely a worthwhile read.

..which often leaves the reader suspended in mid-air and filled with a sense of foreboding..
As bad as that sounds, it sounds a clever technique, and one I'd like.

>175 LovingLit: I'd encourage you to give Three Strong Women a try, Megan.

Earlier in this thread I spoke highly of my undergraduate alma mater, Rutgers University. I had always been a proud alumnus of Rutgers, until today. The sports station ESPN aired a story about men's head basketball coach Mike Rice, who was suspended earlier this season for abusing the players on his team during practices. The details of these abuses weren't made available until today, when video of these practices was shown on ESPN. Coach Rice can be seen hurling basketballs at players' heads, and yelling at them using the most vile language, including homophobic slurs. Despite knowledge of these behaviors, the university's athletic director did not fire him immediately, as he should have done, and as a result this has now become a major scandal and a huge blemish on the university. I am absolutely sickened by the reprehensible behavior by the coach and the cover up by the athletic director, as I assume that the rest of the Rutgers community also is, and I would expect and demand that the coach and AD resign immediately, or be fired by the end of the week.

Story: Video shows Mike Rice's ire

Awful about Rice. Just awful.

And too bad about NDiaye. Think I'll ride right past that one.

#177 Sounds all too familiar, Darryl. You'd think there would have been serious house cleaning in sports programs all over the country after the Penn State debacle.

Too much of that in sport - very grateful we don't see too much of it down under but then we have the binge drinking culture to deal with ......

Glad you are in the land of the healthy/nearly healthy now! I may look for Three Strong Women. NDiaye sounds like an author to watch for, but All My Friends sounds like it might wear on one after awhile.

As for the macadamia nuts, she totally needed disciplining! ;) I haven't been able to find my dark choc covered macadamia nuts for awhile so that taunting was below the belt!

>178 richardderus: I expect that Mike Rice will step down or be fired within the next 48 hours. There is no way that he can continue as head coach and, more importantly, to represent Rutgers in any capacity after that video was made public. I'm not sure that the athletic director will be able to survive this scandal, and even the university president will come under scrutiny and intense criticism, as he also witnessed the video in November and agreed with the AD's decision to suspend and fine the coach instead of firing him on the spot.

>179 laytonwoman3rd: Exactly, Linda. I cannot fathom how the athletic director could have thought that there would not have been an uproar after the release of this video, especially at Rutgers, which is one of the most diverse universities in the country, whose student body and staff are very politically active and intolerant of prejudice, mistreatment and unfairness on campus. Unless Rutgers has changed dramatically since I was a student there this story will not go away quietly, even if the coach steps down this week, and the athletic director and university president will be held accountable for their actions.

>180 roundballnz: Right, Alex. There has been far too much of this boorish and homophobic behavior in the sports world, especially recently.

>181 cammykitty: Thanks, Katie. I'd definitely recommend Three Strong Women, but I'd only suggest All My Friends to those who liked the novel.

Ellen has been a bit out of control lately, especially in her repeated and cruel taunting of Richard. He is a gentle and innocent soul, and should be treated with the utmost respect and tenderness.

Book #31: Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010, edited by Caroline Overy & E.M. Tansey



My rating:

This book is part of the Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine series, a collection of transcripts of Witness Seminars in which "significant figures in twentieth-century medicine are invited to discuss specific discoveries or events in recent medical history." All of the books in the series are available for purchase or as free PDF downloads from the Wellcome Witnesses web site from Queen Mary College, University of London at http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/.

The focus of palliative medicine is the relief of pain and suffering of patients with serious illness. It can be applied to any stage of an illness and for illnesses which are curable as well as terminal. The modern palliative care movement originated in post-World War II England, in response to the lack of attention paid to seriously ill and dying patients by physicians, who often neglected those whom they could not cure. Many of those who chose to enter the field personally witnessed inadequate or inhumane treatment of these patients, and they were inspired to find better ways to treat them as human beings and members of families, rather than a diseased organ system and in isolation from loved ones.

Palliative care began as a grass roots movement within hospice care, which deals with incurably ill or dying patients, and it included a variety of clinical and non-clinical professionals, who provided a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach that was individualized to the patient and family. The initial efforts to provide compassionate care took place in established hospices in the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1967 St. Christopher's Hospice was founded by Dame Cicely Saunders, a nurse, social worker and physician who is considered to be the most important figure in the modern hospice and palliative care movement. Through the diligent work of Dame Saunders and others standardization of the management of pain and suffering of patients was accomplished, and palliative medicine became a recognized and respected medical specialty, which was adopted in the hospital setting, hospice and long term care centers, and within communities for patients who wished to spend their last days at home surrounded by their families.

Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 provides an interesting oral history of the palliative care movement from those who helped to found it and others who were essential in its development over the past half century, particularly the late Dame Saunders, along with the challenges that lie ahead to provide comprehensive care in the face of National Health Service cutbacks and the fragmentation and specialization that has become increasingly prevalent in 21st century Western medicine. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in palliative care or the history of medicine.

In-home palliative care makes all the sense in the world to me.

I agree completely, Richard. The hospital is no place for a person to spend their last days, and one of the main goals of palliative care is to allow death to occur in the home, with the patient kept comfortable and free of pain, surrounded by family members. One of my partners is the director of palliative care at Children's, and several times a year a patient with an incurable illness that is well known to our service dies at home, instead of spending their last days receiving futile and unnecessary medical care in the hospital. The families that we're closest to normally lets us know when the child has passed, and they are very appreciative of the help and support that the palliative care team has given them.

As expected, the men's basketball coach at Rutgers was fired this morning. It's pretty bad when something like this becomes a CNN Breaking News story.

CNN: Rutgers coach fired after abusive video broadcast

ESPN: Rutgers fires coach Mike Rice

It was *appalling* how that man sounded, and what he said was flat inexcusable. He should have been fired the instant his boss saw that video, no need for the AD to take it any higher. Doesn't matter if the AD *agreed* with what he said...today's world has (thankfully) no room for such public idiocy to go unpunished.

What a dope.

>186 richardderus: Absolutely, Richard. The coach should have been called in and fired on the same day that the AD saw this video in November. However, Rice was Pernetti's first major hire once he became the AD at Rutgers, so he was his boy, so to speak. From what I've read so far, the Rutgers community is incensed by this story, and the coach's firing won't come close to quelling the building uproar. Most of the comments I've read from fellow alumni say that the AD should also be fired (and, of course, I agree), and some are even calling for the president's head, since he also saw the video in November and agreed with the decision to suspend and fine the coach. President Barchi has only been in the job a few months, and he is a highly respected researcher and clinician with a strong academic background who was a fantastic hire, at least on the surface, so I'm very reluctant to see him get the axe over this. Pernetti, on the other hand, has to go. Now.

The president is caught in the blowback. Still...he saw the video...how can he not have overruled the AD and simply said, "This will get out and it will make Rutgers look very bad if we don't fire him." I mean...this isn't something that, in the internet age, will stay swept under the rug. Simply not happenin'. As we see.

I've been intentionally missing the news of late; sorry to hear about the Rutger's men's basketball debacle. I feel so badly for the players; they put their trust in a coach, make a commitment to a school and a program...... it just shouldn't go this way for them.

I promise never to bring macadamia nuts to class again, by the way. :-|
I don't know what got into Richard and me!

Adding Three Strong Women to the wishlist (and that's not even what you reviewed!).

>189 richardderus: President Barchi is definitely on the hot seat. The statement he released today would seem to indicate that he only recently reviewed the video that was made public yesterday ("Yesterday, I personally reviewed the video evidence, which shows a chronic and pervasive pattern of disturbing behavior."), whereas the reports on ESPN and elsewhere indicate that he was aware of the events that were portrayed on it. I can't find anything that states that he saw the video in November, though. It seems to me as though he is trying to cover up his actions and make Pernetti take full responsibility for this scandal. I'm sure we'll find out more, a lot more, as the week progresses, but I'll be surprised if Pernetti is still the AD at this time next week, and if President Barchi engaged in a willful cover up, his job may also be at risk.

>190 EBT1002: Agreed, Ellen. The players deserve a lot of sympathy for having to undergo this abuse for years, with no support from the athletic department, and it's understandable that at least five players transferred from Rutgers to another college in the Mike Rice era.

In stark comparison to the women's team, the men's basketball program at Rutgers has been an embarassment for the past 30 years, despite the wealth of talented players in New Jersey and nearby NYC and Philadelphia and despite the school's membership in the Big East Conference, arguably the best basketball conference in the country. The team rarely signs a top level recruit these days, and the few who do come to Rutgers often transfer to a better program after a year or two (including Mike Rosario, who transferred to Florida after two years at Rutgers). Now that Rutgers will join the Big Ten Conference in 2014 it's even more important that the school hires a top level coach with a high level of credibility, integrity and committment to the program, and the athletic department must focus on long term stability rather than short term results.

You and Richard are forgiven for your behavior, and Richard's suspension and Dickens assignment have been repealed. For now.

#184, 185 My Dad died at home, with the attendance of wonderful nurses from a Hospice facility, and I agree with you completely. Their professionalism, compassion, wisdom and experience went way beyond seeing to his comfort; they were caring for the whole family. They made all the arrangements to remove equipment (hospital bed, oxygen generator) and unused med's, and generally eased the awkwardness of the day after as well.

>192 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for sharing that story about your father, Linda. My parents are in relatively good health but they are both nearing 80, as are my mother's two sisters, so end-of-life care is important to me personally as well as professionally.

Two sad stories from the literary world today. First, the novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, whose novel Heat and Dust won the Booker Prize in 1975, died today at the age of 85.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala obituary

Second, the Scottish writer Iain Banks announced that he has metastatic gall bladder cancer, which is expected to claim his life within one year.

Iain Banks diagnosed with gall bladder cancer

Such a shame about Iain Banks. At least Ruth Prawer Jhabvala got to a decent age.

That is very sad news about Banks ......

Death is inevitable, but I still resent how early it claims some of the best and the brightest.

>194 SandDune: Right, Rhian. If I remember correctly Iain Banks is only 59, which seems very young to this 52 year old (and I assume that you would agree). I haven't read anything by him; which book is a good one to start with? From what I've read so far, I'm inclined to go with The Wasp Factory, his debut novel.

>195 roundballnz: I agree, Alex. I don't know much about him, but there has been a large outpouring of sorrow and support after this sad news became known to the public.

>196 richardderus: I couldn't agree more, Richard.

I assume we will perhaps have an Iain Banks TIOLI challenge for May......
Being one quarter Scottish, myself, I do think I would like to read one (or more) of his works.
I will see about finding a copy of The Wasp Factory.

197 > A salutary lesson to us all, as gall bladder cancer is very curable if caught early - a great talent, have read all his SF & most of his literary fiction as well ..... always fun to watch lit jounos/bloggers deal with the duality I think your choice is a good one to begin... but for SF I would start with Consider phlebas or Player of games

#197 I haven't read The Wasp Factory but The Crow Road is one that I've really enjoyed. The Bridge is another favourite of mine, but it's probably not particularly representative of his work: it's not one of his SF ones but there are definite fantasy elements.

The shortlist for this year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction was announced today:

Zoo Time by Howard Jacobson: The tale of Guy Ableman, a writer in torment, both over his affections for both his wife and mother-in-law, and the terminal state of literature.

Skios by Michael Frayn: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2012, Skios is a farce about a case of mistaken identity, which plays out on the fictional Greek island of the title.

England's Lane by Joseph Connolly: A "darkly humorous" (Time Out) account of three couples who own shops on a street in north London in the late 1950s and the secrets hidden behind their shop fronts.

Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach: From the author whose novel These Foolish Things was adapted into The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, this is the story of an old actor who inherits a Welsh guesthouse.

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt: An "uproariously funny" (Wall Street Journal) tale following failing salesman Joe as he launches a plan to stamp out sexual harassment in the workplace.

The winning novel will be announced ahead of the Hay Festival in late May, and, as usual, a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig will be named for it.



More info:

BBC: Michael Frayn and Howard Jacobson up for Wodehouse prize

The Guardian: Wodehouse prize for comic fiction reveals 'exceptionally strong' shortlist

Today's Guardian includes a tribute article to Iain Banks written by Val McDermid, who grew up within several miles of him:

In praise of Iain Banks, storyteller extraordinaire

>198 EBT1002: I had the same thought, Ellen! I also plan to look for The Wasp Factory. I'm planning to go to my local Barnes & Noble today to pick up three of the books that I plan to read this month, namely Life After Life, There Was a Country and Bad Pharma; unfortunately it doesn't have The Wasp Factory in stock.

>199 roundballnz: Thanks for mentioning those two books, Alex. Based on your comment I'll start with The Wasp Factory.

I know that gall bladder cancer is very rare, but I don't know what its early symptoms are. I'd guess that signs of blockage of the common bile duct, such as abdominal pain after meals with radiation to the back and right shoulder, would be most common. I'll look this up in a bit.

>200 SandDune: The Crow Road sounds interesting, Rhian. Unfortunately my local Barnes & Noble doesn't have it in stock either.

Here's information from the American Cancer Society about gall bladder cancer. It often isn't diagnosed until late, due to symptoms that can be seen in other illnesses and its rare incidence.

Gallbladder Cancer

I am shamelessly stealing from an article that Fliss posted on Facebook earlier this morning, entitled 18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style, which appeared in the online magazine Death and Taxes. These words were taken from the book The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten by Jeffrey Kacirk and the blog Obsolete Word of the Day.

Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance.

Pussyvan: A flurry, temper.

Wonder-wench: A sweetheart.

Lunting: Walking while smoking a pipe.

California widow: A married woman whose husband is away from her for any extended period.

Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them.

Jirble: To pour out (a liquid) with an unsteady hand: as, he jirbles out a dram.

Curglaff: The shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into the cold water.

Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger, what we would today call a columnist

Tyromancy: Divining by the coagulation of cheese.

Beef-witted: Having an inactive brain, thought to be from eating too much beef.

Queerplungers: Cheats who throw themselves into the water in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each, and the supposed drowned person, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, is also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket.

Englishable: That which may be rendered into English.

Resistentialism: The seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects.

Bookwright: A writer of books; an author; a term of slight contempt.

Soda-squirt: One who works at a soda fountain in New Mexico.

With squirrel: Pregnant.

Zafty: A person very easily imposed upon.

*off to search for a beef-witted wonder-wench*

Multiple sources are reporting that Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti, who decided to suspend and fine men's basketball coach Mike Rice after he watched videotape of him physically abusing and uttering curses and homophobic slurs at his players in November, has either resigned or been fired. There will be a news conference on campus at 1 pm, with further details. In addition, one of the assistant basketball coaches who was also seen abusing the players on the videotape was fired, and the university's general counsel, who advised Pernetti to suspend and not fire Rice, resigned his position on Wednesday. Several faculty members and New Jersey state legislators have also called for the resignation of university president Robert Barchi, and Governor Christie has called for an investigation into this scandal. As you can tell from my earlier comments, I thought that Pernetti would lose his job this week and that President Barchi would be in trouble as well.

Tim Pernetti out as Rutgers athletic director in wake of Mike Rice scandal

"beef-witted" didn't disappear, it was merely overtaken in popularity by its synonym, "meathead", which had a better PR man in Archie Bunker.

I have often experienced curglaff and resistentialism!

I like the page Grandiloquent Word of the Day on FB whih illustrates these wonderful and much-needed words. "Wonder-wench" can, I suppose, be repurposed for me as "wonder-wain."

Ian Banks: I thought Crow Road was pretty good, Darryl, and you might like it better than I did. It does have one of the great opening lines for any book (forgive me if someone already mentioned this): "It was the day my grandmother exploded."

I read one of his sci-fi-ers, Use of Weapons, and that was pretty good, too. You can tell I didn't become a big fan, but it's a shame we're going to lose him so young.

Wouldn't you be looking for a beef-witted snoutfair wonder wench, Darryl?

Love that list of obsolete words and you're right, some of them are just too wonderful to be made obsolete. I think we should take it upon ourselves to keep these words in use.

Thanks for the Bollinger short list. They all sound wonderful and I've just had to add them to my obese wish list. I wonder how long I'll be able to resist before heaving a sigh and just ordering the ones I can't find at the library or on bookmooch. You are a cad!

btw, how are you feeling today? ;-)

Oh and I don't think I'll be able to join you guys in Philly after all. I have to fly to Melbourne on May 20. :-(

Darryl - I haven't read as much Iain Banks as I'd have liked to, but endorse the rec for The Wasp Factory and just want to add that I very much enjoyed the audio of his latest book Stonemouth last year. I also enjoyed the two Culture novels that I've read. I'll probably pull out The Crow Road to read.

will come back to look at the word list, it looks pretty interesting.

>206 laytonwoman3rd: "beef-witted" didn't disappear, it was merely overtaken in popularity by its synonym, "meathead"

Sure, that makes sense. And who would dare argue with Archie Bunker? I like beef-wit(ted) better, though.

>207 ronincats: Cur-glaff also seems to be an appropriate sound for that phenomenon. And mean-spirited inanimate objects are the bane of my existence, especially the pocket of air (or was it a speck of dust?) that led to my fall and subsequent rotator cuff injury earlier this year. (BTW, it's almost back to its pre-injury state, except that I can occasionally feel an internal clunk, which is fortunately now painless, when I fully abduct and rotate it.)

>208 richardderus: "Wonder-wench" can, I suppose, be repurposed for me as "wonder-wain."

I suppose that your use of the word wain is not in reference to 'a usually large and heavy vehicle for farm use'.

>209 jnwelch: Thanks for mentioning The Crow Road, Joe. I did read about that opening sentence earlier this week, which certainly caught my attention!

>210 cameling: Wouldn't you be looking for a beef-witted snoutfair wonder wench, Darryl?

Not exactly. I plan to add The Lunting Snoutfair to my formal title, and introduce myself to patients and families using that phrase when I first meet them.

I agree, those words are far too good to be left obsolete! I shall commit them to memory, and use them whenever possible (except possibly for wonder-wench, unless I want my lips smacked off).

The Wodehouse Prize shortlist (no longlist) does look interesting. I'll read Skios this month, but I don't own any of the other shortlisted books.

I feel great! I'm still having some mucus production in my lower airways from residual inflammation, which is relieved by an occasional cough, but my sinus inflammation has nearly completely resolved. I'm just coming back in after I ran several errands, and the pollen didn't bother me at all. It did help that the pollen count this morning was only 5, after yesterday's near steady rain that lasted for over 24 hours.

Oh and I don't think I'll be able to join you guys in Philly after all. I have to fly to Melbourne on May 20. :-(

Aw! I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully we can meet up later this year.

*uncrosses painfully cramped fingers*

>211 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry. Unless someone beats me to it I'll almost certainly post an Iain Banks TIOLI challenge in the next month or two, and I'll plan to read The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road.

Book #33: Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw

          

My rating:

Shanghai is a beautiful place, but it is also a harsh place. Life here is not really life, it is a competition.

Shanghai is the world's largest city, with a total population of over 23 million. It can arguably claim to be the city of the 21st century, similar to 19th century London and 20th century New York, as it is a booming financial, commercial and entertainment center that attracts emigrants and visitors from every continent, and it is the leading symbol of the new China and its growing influence on Asia and the rest of the world.

Tash Aw was born in Taipei to Malaysian parents, grew up in Kuala Lumpur, was educated in the UK, and lived in London before he moved to Shanghai after he was chosen to be the first M Literary Writer in Residence in 2010. In this superb novel, he portrays five Malaysian Chinese who have moved to Shanghai to seek the wealth and prestige that the city seems to offer to each of its newcomers.

Phoebe is a naïve and uneducated young woman from the Malaysian countryside, who emigrates illegally to China on the suggestion of a friend, but soon after she arrives she finds that the dream job she was promised has suddenly vanished. Justin is the eldest son of a wealthy real estate tycoon, charged with purchasing a property in Shanghai that will save his family from ruin in the face of the Asian financial crisis. Gary is a pop mega-star who performs in front of thousands of adoring fans, while battling internal demons that threaten to destroy his career. Yinghui is the daughter of a prominent family in Kuala Lumpur who transforms herself from a left wing political activist into a hard nosed and successful businesswoman. Finally, Walter is a secretive and shadowy figure who has risen up from the ashes of his father's ruin to become a prominent developer and the anonymous author of the best selling book "How to Become a Five Star Billionaire". The first four characters are all interlinked with Walter, the only person given a voice in the first person in the book, in an intricately woven web that slowly tightens around each of them.

Through these characters, Tash Aw provides a fascinating internal glimpse into modern Shanghai, a city filled with ambitious but often lonely and desperate people from all over Asia whose singular focus on material goods and wealth outweighs the attainment of love and personal happiness. Anything and anyone is fair game for exploitation and deceit, and the widespread availability of counterfeit watches, purses and clothing mimics the superficiality of the city's high stakes capitalist culture. Self help books such as the one written by Walter are the bibles of the young up-and-comers, and traditional Chinese culture is viewed as outdated and stifling to young people like Phoebe.

Each one attains some degree of success, but several meet with sudden and spectacular failure, in the matter of a climber that reaches the summit of a mountain only to be blown off of it entirely by a sudden gust of wind.

The city held its promises just out of your reach, waiting to see how far you were willing to go to get what you wanted, how long you were prepared to wait. And until you determined the parameters of your pursuit, you would be on edge, for despite the restaurants and shops and art galleries and sense of unbridled potential, you would always feel that Shanghai was accelerating a couple of steps ahead of you, no matter how hard you worked or played. The crowds, the traffic, the impenetrable dialect, the muddy rains that carried the remnants of the Gobi Desert sandstorms and stained your clothes every March: The city was teasing you, testing your limits, using you. You arrived thinking you were going to use Shanghai to get what you wanted, and it would be some time before you realized that it was using you, that it had already moved on and you were playing catch up.

Five Star Billionaire is a captivating work about Shanghai and the new China, and the lives of five talented and determined people who seek wealth and fulfillment but find loneliness and misery instead. I read nearly all of this novel in a single sitting, and I was quite sorry to see it end. I also loved Tash Aw's previous novel Map of the Invisible World, and I look forward to reading The Harmony Silk Factory later this year.

Very well done review Darryl and thumb from me. It's hard to resist those 4 1/2 stars so onto the WL it goes.

When I posted my review for Geek Love several weeks ago I heard from several LTers who are not in the 75 group and I didn't know at all but they all said the same thing, "Read The Wasp Factory!" so, knowing what kind of a freak show (literally) Geek Love was, I can't imagine what the Rankin book will be but I will be reading it.

>213 kidzdoc: Thumbs-upped! Resisting! Yes! Resisting!!

Superb review of Five Star Billionaire, Darryl. Thumb-up from me, too!

>214 brenzi:. Thanks, Bonnie. Five Star Billionaire is currently available in the UK, but it won't be published in the US until July 2nd.

I just read your excellent review of Geek Love (and gave it its 25th thumb!). Part of it reminds me of Swamplandia!, a book I disliked, but your review makes it sound like a much better novel. I won't go out of my way to get it, but I'll file it in the memory bank in case I see it in a local library or the discount rank of a bookshop.

>215 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! It isn't a cheery read (not that you would expect me to read any uplifting books), but it's a superb one. Map of the Invisible World was also superb. I'd put him a tiny notch below his Malaysian counterpart Tan Twan Eng on my list of favorite living Asian authors.

>216 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy!

Good Evening Darryl

I'm checking in to see how you are feeling.

Happy Belated Birthday!!

I look forward to the May meet up in Phila.

Hi, Linda! I'm almost completely back to normal, thanks for asking. I still have an intermittent cough, due to persistent inflammation and mucus production in my lower airways, but I'm no longer wheezing and I'm breathing easily. I'll stay on my preventive asthma medications, Symbicort and Singulair, for at least another 1-2 months, and my allergy medications, Zyrtec and Nasonex, until the worst of the spring pollen season is over.

Thanks for the belated birthday wish!

The Philadelphia meet up will be here before we know it. I've made my flight and hotel reservations, and several of us (Belva, myself, Judy, Jim, and probably a few others) will likely meet up for dinner on Friday in the Rittenhouse Square area. Those of us who are planning to go to the Barnes Foundation on Saturday should probably think of buying tickets soon. I'll look into this tomorrow and post information in the meet up thread about it.

LT member & book blogger @gaskella has set up an Iain Banks forum for an indepth read of Banks works with fellow readers in May.
Her blog post is here: http://gaskella.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/banksread-celebrating-the-novels-of-iai...

I will be sure I have a copy of The Wasp Factory and perhaps one more for a May Iain Banks Group Read!

>220 avatiakh: Thanks for mentioning gaskella's blog, Kerry. I just looked at it, and I'll plan to at least follow along and probably participate next month.

>221 EBT1002: Sounds good, Ellen!

15,44,68,95: Yikes, what an ordeal! Difficulty breathing sounds frightening. Nice that you can prescribe medication for yourself. Appreciate the medical illustrations. A belated happy birthday, though seems you’ve been happier in the days since.

Book #32: Childhood Asthma and Beyond (Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine) by Lois A. Reynolds and E.M. Tansey



My rating:

Similar to Palliative Medicine in the UK, this book is an oral history of asthma in the UK during the 20th century, through the words of the clinicians and researchers who studied its pathophysiology and developed the medications and delivery systems that allowed asthma sufferers to manage their illness at home, rather than in the hospital or mountainside resorts.

The name asthma, the Greek word for "panting", was originally coined by Homer. Although it was originally described over 3000 years ago, it was poorly understood until the twelfth century, when the rabbi, philosopher and physician Moses Maimonides wrote his Treatise on Asthma, which emphasized clean air, a healthy diet (including chicken soup), and the avoidance of emotional turmoil and sexual activity to combat the disease's symptoms. The pathology of asthma was initially elucidated during the 18th and 19th centuries, and the first successful treatment came in 1900, when Solomon Solis-Cohen injected extracts from adrenal glands (which contain corticosteroids, one of the mainstays of asthma treatment) into patients with asthma or allergic rhinitis ("hay fever"). In the 1920s, injected and aerosolized adrenaline (epinephrine) was found to be beneficial, as it relaxed the smooth muscle in the bronchi that is constricted during asthma exacerbations. Later researchers found that medications such as aminophylline, potassium, stramonium, prednisone and even morphine provided some benefit, but asthmatics required hospitalization to receive these medications and there was no standard method to treat their symptoms. Interestingly, most of these early and mid-20th century researchers were asthmatics themselves, several of whom died from severe attacks of the disease.



The Medihaler, the first metered dose inhaler (MDI), a delivery device for the home treatment of asthma, was created in 1956 by Riker, using the drugs isoprenaline (known as isoproterenol in the US), which affects the smooth muscle of the bronchi and the skeletal muscle of the heart, and epinephrine. Tragically, the overuse of isoprenaline led to the deaths of over 3000 asthmatics in the UK, which remains a controversial and not completely understood phenomenon that was heatedly discussed in this gathering. Isoprenaline was subsequently replaced by salbutamol, known as albuterol in the US, which remains the primary bronchodilator used throughout the world. Sodium cromoglycate (known as cromolyn sodium in the US), an inhibitor of the activity of mast cells, a cell type that is important in the inflammatory response, was subsequently found to have modest benefit as an adjunct to salbutamol. In later years, inhaled corticosteroids, long acting bronchodilators, and leukotriene inhibitors were developed as preventive medications for use by patients with chronic asthma symptoms.

This gathering, led by Professor Simon Godfrey, was spirited and humorous, although its occasional abrasiveness and ready dismissal of the knowledge and contributions of clinical scientists outside of the UK was a bit off-putting to this reader. The discussion was rather disjointed at times, which made it a less than satisfying read. However, this does serve as a valuable historical document on the knowledge and treatment of asthma in the post-war years in the UK, and would be of interest to readers interested in the history of medicine as well as those who have asthma themselves.

>223 qebo: Thanks, Katherine. Right, although I didn't do it this time, I can prescribe my own medications, with certain limits; no reputable pharmacist would fill a self prescription for OxyContin! I'll only call in new prescriptions for asthma or allergy medications for myself, which still have to be verified by my insurance company before it will be covered under my prescription plan.

Thanks for the belated birthday wish!

224 > Interesting review - for one i do appreciate the prescriptions we now have as asthmatics - even more when I talk to my mother who was a UK war baby & lived with asthma in Northern England without these .....

>226 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex. I agree; I'm glad that these rescue and preventive medications are available to us.

Hi Darryl, going through your thread is always informative. I recently read Bank Shot by Donald E. Westlake and was laughing all the way through. That makes me extremely interested in the Wodehouse prize and will check out the books.

On your asthma front, being a chest physician, I see many patients like you who think they have intermittent seasonal asthma. But recurrent exacerbations affects lung functions. So I strongly advice you to do your pre and post bronchodilator pulmonary function tests and take controller medications on a long term basis.

>224 kidzdoc: Oh wow Darryl. Such a giggle-fest of a topic. Why I am almost sure I broke an ankle getting to the store for this.

But the subject is important, and any conversation about the advances made in treatment is worth knowing about. Duly upgethumbed.

>228 mausergem: Thanks for your advice, Gautam. I talked with two of the pulmonologists I work with last week, and they also gave me the same recommendations. Currently I'm on high dose Symbicort (160 mcg budesonide/4.5 mcg formoterol) 2 puffs BID and Singulair 10 mg QHS, along with Zyrtec 10 mg QHS and Nasonex 2 sprays BID for allergic rhinitis. I'll stay on this regimen for the time being, and make an appointment to see a pulmonologist that one of them recommended for PFTs in the next month or so.

Did I mention to you that Oxford University Press recently published a history of TB? It's titled Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum, a freelance historian of medicine and a former researcher for Wellcome. I haven't purchased it yet, but it's high on my wish list. Here's a link to the PDF file of its first chapter:

http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/13/9780199542055_chapter1.pdf

>229 richardderus: Childhood Asthma and Beyond isn't a book for most people, because of the topic and the highly technical discussion of the medications and delivery devices. I pulled out what I thought was the most interesting information about the book for a general audience, though, knowing that only a few people, particularly Alex and Gautam, would consider reading this book.

One treatment option that was mentioned by RidgewayGirl in my Club Read thread but not in this book was asthma cigarettes, which were prescribed by physicians and "quacks" in North America and Europe as a home remedy. As I mentioned on my thread, "Asthma cigarettes actually were beneficial, as many of them contained herbs that relaxed the smooth muscle of the bronchi, including atropine (which is similar to ipratropium, or Atrovent, a bronchodilator that is frequently used along with albuterol in the acute management of asthma exacerbations), stramonium and belladonna. The following blog post describes the history of asthma cigarettes:"

1800-1985: Asthma Cigarettes



ETA: Thanks for the thumb!

Asthma cigarettes.

Just. Well.

Wow.

I think that the asthma cigarettes contained little or no nicotine. They were primarily herbal concoctions, but the most reputable ones contained drugs which did help relieve asthma symptoms. OTC (over the counter) non-prescription medications have been available in the US for years, particularly Primatene Mist, an epinephrine metered dose inhaler that was pulled from the market in 2011 because its accelerant contained chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are banned in the US due to their adverse effects on the ozone layer. The manufacturer is currently working on a version of the MDI that contains hydrofluoroalkanes (HFAs), which is used in the albuterol MDIs that are currently on the market (e.g., ProAir HFA).

That is sad news about Iain Banks, Darryl. I've been curious about his books but haven't read anything by him yet. I will probably start with Crow Road. I think a tribute group read of his books will be a great way to honor him while he is still alive.

So glad you are feeling better. You gave us a scare!

Thanks for the review and the recommendations on Tash Aw

Asthma cigarettes. I'm speechless. Thanks for the review, Darryl, and for your always-informative thread. Appreciated.

ETA: I wonder do the asthma cigarettes bear any resemblance to the "herbal cigarettes" one hears about occasionally today?

Jeesh, I'm late to the game again, but i thoroughly enjoyed the Five Star Billionaire review, Darryl. Thumb and onto the tbr it goes.

I went out for breakfast (bagel sandwich & coffee at Einstein Bros.), then drove to my local Barnes & Noble, where I bought four books from the top of my wish list (three of which I plan to read this month), and a cookbook:

El Narco: Inside Mexico's Insurgency by Ioan Grillo (2013 Orwell Prize longlist)
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre (2013 Orwell Prize longlist)
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013 Women's Prize for Fiction longlist)
Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Bible (from one of the sale racks)

>233 Donna828: Rats...I forgot to see if B&N had The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road. Checking...neither book is in stock there, so I ordered them from bn.com (which provides free shipping for B&N members).

Thanks, Donna. I gave a lot of people a scare with that asthma exacerbation, particularly when I let them know that I was in the ED. My partners and the nurses I worked with were surprised that I was bad enough to require IV magnesium sulfate, which we use for asthmatics who don't respond well to albuterol and Atrovent, to get them to turn the corner in a positive direction and/or to keep them from having to be admitted to the PICU (pediatric ICU).

I was freaked out for a moment when the ED charge nurse asked me if I had ever been intubated (placement of a breathing tube into the trachea for patients who are in respiratory failure) just before she hung the mag sulfate! I nervously replied "I'm not that bad, am I?", and she laughed, and said that I wasn't, but she just wanted to get a sense of how brittle of an asthmatic that I was.

>234 torontoc: You're welcome, Cyrel. BTW, you'll notice that the reviews of Five Star Billionaire by LTers and book reviewers have been mixed, but I liked it a lot.

>235 lit_chick: You're welcome, Nancy; thanks for your kind compliment! BTW, I've corrected my rating of Childhood Asthma and Beyond, which I had intended to give 3-1/2 stars, not 4-1/2 stars as I had originally posted.

I looked up herbal cigarettes on Wikipedia; these do not contain any beneficial medical substances, or nicotine for that matter, so they wouldn't be similar to asthma cigarettes.

>236 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! Five Star Billionaire wasn't as good as The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, Tash Aw's countryman, but it was significantly better than the similarly themed How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid.

Thanks, Darryl. It would be hard to match the superb TGOEM.

Just popping in to say hello Darryl. I hope your lungs are in top order very soon. Asthma is tough to get under control.

>204 kidzdoc:, Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them.

I have been known to behave groakily, in fact I excel at it. :)

>237 kidzdoc: speaking of crock pots, I have a delicious (smelling, anyway) shin beef stew cooking at the moment. I have made extra to take some to a friend who's husband is away for a 2 week hunting trip....but there might still be leftovers for and groakers out there :)

Your review of the Palliative care book makes me want to track it down to read. It looks obscure enough to elude me though. I might have to resort to an un-Darryl-endorsed one instead!

Oh, and btw, I finally found a 2nd hand copy of one of the Cairo Trilogy books, which I first heard about on your fine thread. So I will be working backwards in the purchase of them, but not in the reading.

>239 jnwelch: I agree, Joe. The Garden of Evening Mists was an extraordinary novel.

>240 luvamystery65: Hi, Roberta; thanks for the good wish. I did take a step backward yesterday after I spent the morning outdoors, probably because of the extremely high pollen count in Atlanta (1691 yesterday, 2093 today). I started coughing and wheezing at work today, and I had to use my albuterol inhaler for the first time in over a week. This exacerbation has been very difficult to get under control, even though I was off from work all of last week and stayed home for the most part to recuperate. I'll be very happy when the trees stop blooming and the pollen count returns to double digits.

>241 LovingLit: So, can we call you Megan the Groaker, then? ;-)

Shin beef stew sounds good. I didn't make the pork tenderloin stew as I had intended to yesterday, and it's way too late to make it today (it's after 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time here). I should get home earlier tomorrow, so I'll plan to make it then.

Palliative Care in the UK is available as a free PDF file, as are all of the books in the Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine series; here's the direct link:

http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/Publications/wit_vols/92239.pdf

Good to hear that you found the Cairo Trilogy book. I bought the Everyman's Library version, which contains all of the books in the trilogy. Is this series available in New Zealand?

I saw on your thread that you saw Paul Simon in concert; well done! You may remember that I had mentioned that he will give this year's Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature at Emory University, my pediatric residency alma mater, which is a couple of miles from where I live. He had to cancel his appearance in February, but last week it was announced that this year's lectures have been rescheduled for September 22-24. It will consist of two original lectures, a public conversation with former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, and a music performance with Mark Stewart. All of the events are free to the Emory community and the general public, and tickets will be available on September 9th. More info:

http://www.emory.edu/ellmann/schedule/index.html

Needless to say I don't expect to see you here in Atlanta! However, I posted this info here instead of your thread, in cases any of the other Atlanta area 75ers (markon, TinaV95) were thinking of going. In past years the contents of these lectures were published in a book; this definitely happened when Mario Vargas Llosa appeared at Emory in 2006, and when Umberto Eco came in 2008. Margaret Atwood gave the lectures in 2010, and Salman Rushdie, who is a visiting professor at Emory and is in town for at least 1-2 months per year, appeared in 2004, but I don't know if their lectures were published.

The shortlist for this year's International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was announced today:

City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
Pure by Andrew Miller
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón
The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti Skomsvold
Caesarion by Tommy Wieringa

The winning novel will be announced on June 6th. More info:

Ten books in the running for the 2013 Award – Shortlist announced

Swamplandia!

for real

for an award

naaaaaaah can't be. Just Doc tryin' to make a joke, poor bastage hasn't read one in so many years what with all those Self-Harm Trigger titles he reads....

nnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh can't be

Seriously...I couldn't even finish Swamplandia!, and I don't give up easily.

I did likeThe Tragedy of Arthur

>244 richardderus: Ha! Sad, but true. I disliked Swamplandia!, and I was surprised to see that it made the IMPAC Dublin shortlist. I've been less than impressed with the books that are selected as finalists or winners for this award, so I don't follow it very closely.

>245 laytonwoman3rd: I did finish Swamplandia!. I wish I didn't, as the ending was disappointing and very strange.

>246 torontoc: I haven't heard of The Tragedy of Arthur, so I'll look into a bit more closely since you liked it, Cyrel.

From the IMPAC Dublin shortlist I've read 1Q84 and The Map and the Territory, and I own Pure but still haven't read it yet.

Back to work...

Asthma cigarettes.... Who knew!!

IQ84 and The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am would be my #1 and runner-up. I detested Swamplandia! and can't understand how this could have made it to the short list.... but then again, Buddha In the Attic is on the short list, and while I liked the book, I'm not sure it's award-worthy. *Gee.... I just realized how snobby I sounded , especially seeing as I couldn't write anything one-eighth as good as the worst in that list*

How are you feeling today, Darryl?

>248 TinaV95: Yep. However, compared to most of the commercially available remedies of the 19th and early 20th centuries, asthma cigarettes were far more beneficial.

>249 cameling: 1Q84 was an excellent choice for the IMPAC Dublin shortlist. The Map and the Territory was a decent choice, but I liked it considerably less than the Murakami. Based on the reviews I've read Pure also seems to be a great choice. I didn't dislike Swamplandia! as much as A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore, which I loathed, but Karen Russell's novel is a disappointing choice for this shortlist. I don't own and I'm not familiar with the other longlisted books.

I'm feeling better today than I was two days ago, as I'm only slightly short of breath with exertion, although I'm still coughing on occasion.

I'm nodding off as I'm typing this, so I'll start a new thread tomorrow or Friday.

Darryl I hope you improve quickly.

Sleep well!

I'm way behind . . . sorry I missed your birthday, Darryl; and so very sorry to see that you've been so very ill. I'm glad to read that you're improving. Take care of yourself!

No, I still thing Richard is right and you are joking about Swamplandia!. I had read all the great things people had to say about it and it sounded unique, but when I finally got the book out of the library, I pearl ruled it around the third chapter. It was just annoying.

>251 luvamystery65: Thanks, Roberta. I'm almost completely better now.

>252 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. I did sleep well the past two nights, so I'm not as tired this morning as I normally would be after a busy work week. Next week will be an easier one; I'll work Monday through Wednesday, and unless I'm needed for backup call on Thursday and the following Tuesday I'll be off for a six day stretch.

>253 tymfos: Thanks, Terri!

>254 cammykitty: My inner completist urged me to finish Swamplandia!, Katie. I wish I hadn't.

I finished Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe earlier this morning (5 stars), and I hope to complete Pow! by Mo Yan tomorrow.

New thread here!