The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber

I picked up this page turner on my birthday, while I was away from home at a conference, my traveling companion was busy doing other things, and my family was far away.  I needed something to draw me in and help me forget that I was missing birthday among friends.  I am not sure where I first heard about this, but the minute I saw it on the shelf I knew it would be my birthday present to myself.  I love reading journalistic accounts of real life events.  I am interested and amazed to watch a writer recreate complex events and turn them into elegant narrative despite the fact the he or she was no where near the events of the story. This write especially was able to see and hear and interpret all that happens with his clever imagination and in the eye of his mind. The transformation and writing can be miraculous.

This story of an angel of death, a nurse who begins killing his patients, is a  difficult story to tell for a host of reasons.  Charles Graeber recreates the events of 16 years by reviewing police reports, hospital reports and interviewing the many many people why were involved, even the killer himself. The story is told in an exciting manner, first by following the nurse who is perpetuating the crime, and then by following the police who eventually clue in to his crimes. The difficult mitigating factor is the fact that the hospital was fighting the police who were investigating the crime. Hospital officials would never be complicit in investigating the system that allowed a nurse to kill multiple patients over and over. How bad would that look for the hospital?

The Good Nurse is a true life crime thriller complete with good guys, bad guys, and real heroes. It is scaring me away from hospitals for the foreseeable future.  Who know how easy it would be to get away with murder? I highly recommend this true crime/hospital drama.  

Found Book

A friend found this on a book swap table in my office, and when I expressed interest she handed it over to me.  It was a short, sweet, afternoon read.   Nora Ephron wrote a lot of award winning screenplays and books, most notably, one of my favorite movies: When Harry Met Sally. The observational every day humor she uses in the movies comes through in her short essays.  The last few chapters clearly point to the fact that she knew she was dying, so finishing the book leaves a little lump.  Her humor addressed aging, technology and memory and parts left me laughing out loud.

Ms Ehpron died this past summer of pneumonia brought on by leukemia with which she was diagnosed in 2006.

Fun side note from wikipedia: Nora was married for a few years to Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame.  She always knew who deep throat was and would tell anyone who asked. No one believed her.

Good airplane read or rainy day on the porch.  I remember Nora Ephron.

Once Upon a Secret by Mimi Alford

I needed some light reading before my trip home from Scotland.  I bought this book to keep me company, and it was so interesting I finished it before I even got onto the plane.

Mimi Beardsley, 19 years old, gets a job as an intern in the White House Press office. Within a few days of starting this prestigious job, she become JFK's lover. This affair lasts for over 18 months and ends when JFK is assassinated.

The story of Mimi's ringside seat to history is interesting enough, but the second half of the story, how she kept this secret for more than 30 years, is also very compelling.  It is testament again, to how telling our truth, our own story, is powerful and healing and of course how keeping secrets can nearly destroy us.

Writing is pretty good and it did keep my attention.  It is most likely available at the public library.

The Time Together by Carol Burnett

I'm so glad we had this time together

Just to have a laugh and sing a song

Seems we just get started and before you know it

Comes the time we have to say, "So Long!"

                  -from the Carol Burnett show

As a kid, I loved watching the Carol Burnett show on Saturday nights with my parents.  I was old enough to appreciate the zany humor of Carol and friends, especially the talented Tim Conway.  I laughed aloud along with my parents at Carol when she made fun of Gone with the Wind.  Her dress was made of curtains with the curtain rod still inserted.  The dress was  the classic television funny moment, and no one else but Carol could pull it off.  The dress now resides at the Smithsonian, testament to the wacky days of the Carol Burnett Show and her brilliant costume designer Bob Mackie.  

Carol tells many many tales of coming of age in the entertainment industry and all the people she met on the way up the ladder.  These stories are not literary feats or a great philosophy on life, rather just funny moments behind the scenes with some of America's most beloved entertainers and actors.  

It took me on a trip down memory lane.  Many of the sketches she writes about you can relive on youtube.  If you enjoy Carol Burnett, and want to take out a quick evening for some fun stories and funny reminiscences of a great comic lady, this would be a good book to pick up at the library.  I wonder if we could get her to host Saturday Night Live?

Meanwhile enjoy this old Carol Burnett sketch:

We the Animals by Justin Torres

This lovely book--novella really--made a lot of must read lists for 2011.  I heard the author interviewed on NPR last fall and have been trying to get to it for awhile.

Three boys come of age in an abusive, slightly crazy household.  The boys have an unquestionable love and regard for each other even as they fight and endure abuse and begin to ask the questions all boys ask.

You should read this book because it is simply very very fine writing.  It is, in a nutshell, why we read: to discover lyrical passages, profound insights, concise metaphors, and description that can take your breath away.

You can read We the Animals in one sitting.  You may want to re-read it just to experience the imagery and story again. The second to the last story/chapter is guaranteed to make you want to pick up a pen and tell your own true story.

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness by Brianna Karp

Top 10 Things Never to Say to a Homeless Person

10.  You are living in a trailer in a Wal-mart parking lot, how can you call yourself homeless?

9.  How can you be homeless, you have a job?

8.  If you can afford a lap top and a cell phone...

7.  Can't you just crash on someone's couch?

6.  But you are clean and you have a business suit!

5.  How dare you splurge on yourself!

4.  Just call your parents.

3.  Look at the bright side, no bills to worry about.

2.  You shouldn't have a dog.

1.  How can you be homeless, you don't do drugs, do you?


PS Girls Guide is a fresh original memoir which is either about being homeless while in a  relationship gone awry, or the tale of a dysfunctional relationship between a couple who happens to be homeless. I found it to be quite a page turner and I highly recommend it.  I do note--that the story seems sort of young.  My frequent complaint about memoirs of late is they feel like they need to sit in people's minds and hearts for a few more years before they get written.  This whole story happened two years ago. (But I guess when you get a book deal, you get a book deal.)

PPS  I learned that things going viral is not necessarily an accident. Good to know.

PPPS  Wal-mart had one redeeming quality for a few chapters.

Please read this book and tell me what you think!

I just finished The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan and it was absolutely one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read/ideas I have even come across.  Mr. Levithan doesn't present a chronological picture of a relationship, rather he presents an alphabetical list of definitions as if from a  dictionary.  Each word and idea is written like a short prose poem and all add up to create this marvelous kaleidoscope of a story about two people in love. 

It reads as a kind of puzzle, and I guarantee you will fall in love with this couple and want them to stay together.  She: wild and crazy and fun. He: stable, down to earth, and pragmatic.  They fight and split over an affair?  Or do they stay together?   IS she an alcoholic?  Pregnant?  Does he stay or does he go?  Please read this and let me know what you think.  I guarantee it is an absolutely a breathtaking look at love and a perfectly fascinating relationship especially with the patchwork observations.

Here is one of my many favorites:

Juxtaposition, n.

It scares me how hard it is to remember life before you. I can't even make the comparisons anymore, because my memories of that time have all the depth of a photograph.  It seems foolish to play games of better and worse.  It is simply a matter of is and is no longer.

I have been interested for some time in interesting ways to organize thought and writing that are beyond the usual first to last chronology. This is a brilliant example of of a non-linear story.  If you read it let me know what you think.  Please.

Being Grateful for a New Year

I received the book 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life by John Kralik  just a week or so after Thanksgiving.  In this year in which I have been counting my blessings daily, it seemed a very apt and profound memoir.  Mr. Kralik writes a very earnest account of his life which was sinking to new lows every day:  two marriages gone, rocky relationships with his kids, girlfriend left him, failing business and a pending lawsuit.  In the midst of his despair one New Years day he makes a commitment to be grateful for what he has and resolves to write a thank you note (a real hand written note put in and envelope with a stamp and an address) to someone every day.  Thus 2008 unfolds for Kralik as a drama of turning your life around by the simple act of of being thankful.  


I loved some of the simple observations he made.  For example, when Kralik traveled he took the time to learn people's names so he could thank them later.  He observed that he couldn't change the behavior of his clients who did not pay their bills but he could thank the ones who did and be grateful.  Even though it is an easy lesson, I am still amazed by what a hard time most of us have learning it.   It took Kralik the physical act of writing a note every day to help him remember all that is good in his life. 


There is nothing earth shattering here, and all the lessons are applicable to all of us. It should inspire people to consider their many blessings even in the bleak midwinter.   What do you have to be thankful for and how can you show that during this year?  Maybe we could all write about about how gratefulness  can turn our lives around. 


Happy 2011 to my readers near and far. I'll look forward to hearing about your next 365 days of blessings.  Keep in touch.

Point of View

A friend gave me a hand me down copy of Against Medical Advice by Hal Friedman and James Patterson and told me I would enjoy it because it was readable, and it would remind me of some similar struggles I have had with doctors while trying to understand and treat my son's epilepsy.  I avoided the book for weeks because, as many readers know, I often judge books by their covers and this one smacked of the "disease of the month club" genre.

Finally, I needed some light easy to read plane fare, and I decided to swallow my fear of the genre and picked it up.   It was compelling because the whole story, save the prologue and epilogue, were written from the point of view of the boy who was experiencing the illness.  The reader goes inside Cory Friedman's head to begin to understand what is going on as he struggles to understand his own complex case of Tourette's Syndrome and OCD.

It is a very quick read and Cory makes for an interesting narrator and tour guide through his hellish childhood.  I could relate to the feeling of hopelessness that parents feel when all doctors seem to offer is drugs, and I shed a tear or two when he finally seemed to overcome this horror that had beset him for his whole life.  Tourette's really stole his childhood.

The only complaint I had was that the POV perhaps got a bit too sympathetic toward Cory, and I really wanted to hear from the mom and dad or the teachers in his school or the doctor who treated him.  Toward the end the POV started to work against Cory.  He seemed whiny and entitled and even though I knew he had been through a lot, I suddenly stopped feeling sorry for him.  Then again, this was supposed to be a disease of the month club book and not necessarily great literature. 

Anyway, I am interested if hearing reader's comments on point of view.  What works and what doesn't work?  Who is your favorite trustworthy narrator?  For an excellent novel that is all about POV check out this favorite of mine and let me know if you would like to borrow Against Medical Advice.