How Doctors Think

by Jerome Groopman, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. A thoughtful guy! This book gives many anecdotes to illustrate some ideas about the kinds of errors physicians make when arriving at incorrect diagnoses. Things like settling quickly on an obvious (but incorrect) diagnosis for a patient who is extremely unpleasant, or the converse, a reluctance to order very uncomfortable tests for patients they like very much and feel sympathy for. And much more. Not earth shattering, by any means, but some very interesting stories. And, surprisingly, some take-home lessons about questions you can ask your own physician to make sure they do not miss any crucial possibilities. Recommended.

Life on the Color Line

By Greg Williams, the new UC President. What a remarkable, harrowing, touching, and inspiring life this guy has led! His improbable story: born to an Italian-American father and southern belle mom and raised in Virginia in a town fraught with racial tension, until his charming but alcoholic and abusive father ran his restaurant into the ground. After his mother left and the family touched bottom, his father moved Greg and his brother to live with relatives in Muncie, Indiana - BLACK relatives, because the father was an African American passing as white and the formerly white Greg was now a very white African American, scorned by both sides of his heritage. How he suffered, coped and ultimately triumphed is a lesson in American racial attitudes - and the role played by his "truly mother" Dora is deeply moving. VERY highly recommended.

The Age of Innocence

This is the second Edith Wharton novel I've read, in Folio editions. Lovely books, with wonderful illustrations, but Wharton's critiques of Old New York Society are severe, with likable, if flawed, people being directed or even crushed by forces beyond their control. Age of Innocence, beautifully and powerfully written, does end on a more balanced note than House of Mirth, which was truly tragic. Recommended.

Measure for Measure

In my Shakespeare class we recently read the "problem comedy" Measure for Measure. The action of Measure for Measure commences with the Duke’s reflection that due to lax law enforcement in the city of Vienna, “liberty plucks justice by the nose/…and quite athwart/ Goes all decorum” (I. iii. 29-31). Believing himself to blame, the Duke decides that he cannot be the one to discipline the citizens, and thus decides to temporarily leave Vienna and appoint the austere Lord Angelo as deputy in his place, to restore order to the city through strict punishment. In fact, the Duke only pretends to leave the city, but remains behind disguised as a Friar. Angelo’s first act is to sentence a young man, Claudio, to death for fornication. When Claudio’s sister, a young postulant nun named Isabella, comes to Angelo to plead for his release, Angelo becomes passionately enraptured by her. I won’t give away more, but suffice to say, this play is full of surprises, including a “bed trick” and a “head trick.” The play is dark and disturbing but excellent, and I had the pleasure of watching it performed by the Reed theatre. I highly recommend it.

A Year in Provence

Light, wry, humorous and filled with an appreciation of humanity. A sweet read. Highly recommended

The Master of Ballantrae

Just finished this great Robert Louis Stevenson book. The blurb: "Set at the time of the Jacobite uprising, The Master of Ballantrae tells of a family divided". Boy, are they ever! "The intensity of the feud between the Durrisdeers, and the portrait of James - an incubus 'touched with the lurid flickerings from the Pit' - draws upon the deepest, darkest corners of Stevenson's imagination". I loved it. Interestingly, James repeatedly changes from charmer to tormentor - rather like the dramatic but convincing changes in the character of Long John Silver. And this comparison made me realize how strong a theme this is in Stevenson - the entire subject of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - and a particularly fascinating theme for me personally. Gripping tale - great read!

Demons (formerly translated as The Possessed)

Finished reading Dostoevsky's "Demons" (1872) for my Russian lit class. I am huge fan of Dostoevsky, and although this is not my favorite of his works, it was still highly enjoyable. Set in a provincial Russian town in the late 19th century, "Demons" chronicles the banal intrigues of a band of revolutionary conspirators and the madness they incite in the townspeople. The novel is based in part on the real-life political murder of Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov and seeks to deride the various ideologies prominent at the time. Written about 50 years before the October Revolution, Dostoevsky's characterization of the revolutionaries is shockingly prophetic in some places.

Definitely recommend, particularly if you liked:
--"The Master and Margarita" (1940), by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is heavily influenced by this work
--"Petersburg" (1913, 1922), by Andrei Bely, also heavily influenced by Demons