JungleSouljah Member since Sep 24th 2002 14987 posts
Wed May-31-06 02:55 PM
37. "You've convinced me, thanks for reminding me" In response to In response to 27
I have to tell my fiancee to pick that up for me. She buys the books, I take care of music and films.
And if you ever want some 'medically' themed books to read, I'm your man. In fact, I'll give you three of my favorites right now.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman
I feel like I've mentioned this before... in fact, I'm betting you've already read it, but if not, you really should. It's an amazing look at how western and eastern cultures often clash in this country and how modern medicine is sometimes very ill-equipped to deal with the legitimate health practices of other cultures. It's essentially the story of young Hmong girl who has epilepsy and clash between her family and her doctors.
A Case of Need - Michael Crichton (under his pseudonymn of John Hudson)
A nice piece of fiction looking at the abortion controversey in the 70s from the perspective of a pathologist caught in the middle. I haven't read it in a while, but my fiancee picked it up off my shelf and finished it in a few days. It's a pretty quick read.
The House of God - Sam Shem
A satire/parody along the lines of Catch-22 but in a hospital setting. Some great characters and morbid hospital humor. I find it interesting that it still holds a great deal of truth 30 years after it was written.
The Residents - David Ewing Duncan
Duncan is a journalist who's wife decides to go back to medical school and do her residency after they've already had three kids. He gets a lot of interns and residents to talk candidly about the hell they're going through and went through. One of the best parts of the book is when he visits a resident who he had seen a few years earlier as an intern and how much the physician's demeanor and perspective on medicine has changed.
This all seems weirdly deja vu-ish to me. Like I've typed this out before. Oh well. Maybe someone will read it and find it interesting.