Last books of 2011, continued from yesterday

This completes the post I started yesterday.  It is as though I have saved the best for last.    Rating from  * lowest to ***** highest  but here I have included more commentary and photos. 

The Scalpel and the Soul  by Allan J Hamilton MD, FACS, paperback, 

published in 2008, 241 pages, *****

This was another selection from our local book club and an outstanding read.  Based on the medical experiences of a neurosurgeon who specialized in brain tumors and the science of psychoneuroimmunology at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center.  He explains the difference between a doctor and a surgeon and beginning with his trip down the Ogoue River in Africa as a Schweitzer fellow, we learn about the link between the supernatural and medicine. He emphasizes the importance of connecting with a medical professional and of bedside manners.   The writing is exceptional, pg. 28, "Some folks never listen to the little hairs when they stand up on the back of the neck.  I listen hard to those hairs, because they're my intuition.....There's a distinction between a decision and choice.  ...superstition, I choose to believe it."   Through stories based on actual patients we learn so much about what lies beyond  modern medicine and its miracles. My favorite patient tale is the gypsy queen, whose family takes her to the roof of the hospital so that her spirit may leave and be free from the body a process facilitated by Dr. Hamilton after the nurses complain about all the candles the family set up in the patient's room.  His patients are  terminal, at the best he buys them some time with surgery  but often these tumor recur.  This is an amazing read, very different than anything else I've read in years, when I started it I feared it might be too technical with medical terminology that would lose my intetest, that was an unreasonable suspicion.  

His final chapter has 20 rules for patients with explanations of each one; here are 1--10:
1 Never under estimate luck--good or bad;
2 Find a doctor who cares about you; 
3Never trade quality for quantity of life; 
4 Live your life with death in it;   
5 You cannot dodge the bullet with your name on it,   
6 Ask your doctor to pray with you,
7 Never believe anyone who says "nothing will go wrong"
8 Don't be turned into just another patient
9 Listen to your favorite music
10 Never let hospital rules interfere with patient visiting hours

 Pg. 167, "What one is to become is largely predetermined by forces beyond our control, ...we ride our destiny....the sensibility of discipline and self determination draws its inspiration from an earlier stage in life for which we are hardly able to assume responsibility."   He explains that luck and hope are flip sides of a coin and gives a harrowing example of what occurs in medicine when hope is removed.  However he does not advocate sugar coating nor deluding oneself in a terminal status, he acknowledges there is a time to not pursue further treatment.   I am purchasing  another copy of this book to give to our wonderful family physician at Mayo.  I hope he will be as intrigued as I was.  It is brave and different  for a prominent physician to write such a book, especially in these times of health care reform; his acceptance of the unknown and alternative medicine makes him distinctly different. 

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, 

published 2011,   343 pages  ****

I bought this at a Border's Bookstore that was closing in PA and when I opened it to read, I was surprised to see that it is actually  targeted to young readers.  This novel is based on a true but dismal part of history, 1941  in pre World War II Lithuania when the Russians invade and incarcerate the peopless  of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.  The world ignores their deportation  to concentration camps and worse in Siberia.  How some endure and how many do not rivals the holocaust.  The world looked on and turned its head, concentrating on Hitler and ignoring Stalin's brutality.  This is the author's first novel and is a page turner, narrated by the 15 year old Lina who is preparing to study art when the doors t o their home are broken down and the family  taken away.  I am donating this one to our local library. 

The Greater Journey  Americans in Paris  by David McCullough    published 2011,  

460 pages,  +76 pages source notes, +19 pages Index      ***** 

The front  jacket

If I selected one book to be my very top nonfiction read of the year this marvelous, wondrous book must be it.  I enjoy everything that McCullough writes with his intense research, reminiscent of James Michener.  This book details  the stories  of the prominent and aspiring American artists, writers, doctors, pre-med students, politicians, architects and other professionals who go to Paris between 1830 and 1900 to study, learn and fine tune their skills while experiencing the broadening they believe can only come from Europe.  The go to experience the "prestige of age"  and they do so in a different way,  Pg 20.."Even without the impertinence, the whole requirement of passports--the cost, the vexatious ceremony of it all was repugnant to the Americans.  ....no one carried a passport in America, not even foreign visitors. " There is such a difference between the Europeans and the Americans and many of these travelers had never been away from home before, never experienced  the older cultures, there was no guarantee of success.   On pg 67 Nathaniel Willis describes his fascination with faces and how one could "always recognize an American.There was something distinctive about the American face, something he had never noticed until coming to Paris....the distinctive feature ...,the independent self possessed bearing of a man unused to look p to anyone as his superior in rank, united to the inquisitive, sensitive, communicative expression which is the index to our national character."

Inside  the book cover

I learned so much reading this book that covers history of the time, the arts, artists and more about authors, for example James Fenimore Cooper was an advocate for Polish freedom. The famous pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk launched his career in Paris at age 15. The experiences of  George PA Healy, Samuel FB Morse, Elizabeth Blackwell, Oliver Wendel Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain and Henry James  are only a few of what we read in this volume.  It is interesting to live through the popular rise of the automobile.  I wondered why McCullough emphasized Augustus Saint Gaudens, the sculptor and on pg 455 in the Epilogue I learned that Homer St. Gaudens  was  the director of arts at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, PA.  Likely more data was available through that resource and McCullough is from Pittsburgh.  I could not pick one favorite tale in this book, the world's fair, the Eiffel tower, the revolutionaries. I shuddered  reading about  the early days of medical practice and how poor it was, even in Paris, where they went to learn.  I wonder how much worse it was here in the states, lack of sanitation and so on at that time.  This is a book I will keep and read again sometime, there is so much here. It is McCullough's latest contribution to the history and art lovers among us.  

Front of the book

A local friend, a retired high school teacher told me about  a favorite history book she used in her class for advanced seniors literature, "My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House"  by Lillian Rogers Parks,  published  first in 1961.  It has been out of print and Cheryl advised me if I ever saw it to grab a copy.  I found it was republished with  annotations by Sam Sloan  in 2008 and now own it.  A fantastic read about the history of the  White House presidents and first ladies  from the Tafts to the Eisenhowers, from 1909-1960 and told by Lillian a seamstress and personal maid with notes and stories from her mother, Maggie, who was the chief White House maid.  They cherished their "full time" employment and served with honor although their compensation was always meager.   Summary intro  by Sam Sloan, page 9 and Pg  98 in the book: "After 30 years in the White House, Lillian's final take home pay was $103.60 for two weeks.  A single mom in the kitchen was supporting wo children on $48 per week.  Lillian was supporting her mother,  Maggie, whose pension was $111 per month.  During all these years Lillian and her mother had been supplementing their incomes through the tips they received.  Whenever there was a party or an event in the White House, Lillian or her mother would work the coat check rooms and would recieve tips.  Mrs Truman always made sure that the guests left tips and if they did not,  Mrs. Truman would cover it herself.  ...it was a cruel blow when Mamie Eisenhower decreed that the White House servants were not allowed to receive tips.  Many of the servants had to take outside jobs in order to be able to afford the honor of working in the White House "    I thought  the 1981 TV miniseries, Backstairs at the White House, was based on this book but learned it was not as it had historical privilege while the original 30 Years is all fact.   All 346 pages of this book are resplendent with history, tidbits, humor, reflections and personal anecdotes all perspectives from the domestic servants although all very discreet. 

Lillian worked for 30 years at the White House, beginning as a seamstress in the days when mending and alterations were the norm, her mother, Maggie Rogers,  preceded her with 30 years service and for 10 years their service overlapped.  Maggie often brought the young child, Lillian along to work because she had no place to leave her.  Lillian, born in February 1897,  had polio at age 4 and walked  the rest of her life with crutches as  shown on the book cover photo; she lived to be 100.  She does not say much about her retirement or even the date/year although it is assumed to be 1960 during the Eisenhower time. If there is any presidential family of disappointment it is the Eisenhowers.  She thought he would be friendly after the "I like Ike" campaign slogan, but infact he was not and Mamie reveled in running a formal military like household with perfection, even requiring the carpets be sept to not show any foot track prints.  That kept the help quite busy sweeping each time someone entered and left a room.   The stories are accompanied with historical photos, and backstairs wisdom, it precedes the current "The Help" in a far grander setting.   It's a book I will keep and browse through again.  ****





Before I found "30 Years..." I found an old copy of Upstairs at the White House, My Life with the First Ladies by J.B.West who served as assistant and Chief Usher of the White House between 1941-1969, published in 1973,  368 pages.  I read this book first and absolutely enjoyed it.  I recall hearing about it when it was released but hadn't read it then.  As I have said before, there are plenty of wonderful old books to be read, it  need not be a current best seller.  I frequent  book sales where  $1 to 50 cents are top prices for these books; and I volunteer at our local used "bookshelf room" where we accept and sell used books to raise $$ for our local library.  Working there gives me  pick of the litter that we accumulate between monthly sales.   This book is a warm anecdotal, historical look at the lives of six Presidents and First Ladies,  Roosevelt's through  Nixon's, from a very discreet gentleman, Mr. West.  It is a perfect companion to "30 Years...."   I learned a lot about the White House workings and the duties of a chief usher, a position that  remains today and how the usher announces all who meet with the president.  Photos of the bedrooms of the presidents and first ladies are inside the cover front and back and many other photos are throughout the book, "profusely illustrated with photographs" as the jacket inside reads.  The book is historic itself because the inside original price is only $8.95 a fine hardback first edition!  Between both books, reading about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt was the most amusing to me although the funniest stories were about the temperamental French chef's brought in by Jacqueline Kennedy.  

Sometimes we forget the drama and accomplishments of the first ladies but  Mr. West does not.  Page 367, "All the First Ladies I've known have been exceptionally strong in spirit.  They came in that way, because they'd been able to share their husbands' grueling political road to the White House......And each of them has performed a great public service to the people of America, filling a role that is nonappointive, nonelective, certainly nonpaid, the most demanding volunteer job in America."  After reading both books, about the families, the personalities, their friends and pets, I wonder if some staff could carry these forward with a sequel, or if it has been politically banned.  Both books are written with dignity; avoiding sex and scandals although the 2008 update to "30 Years." acknowledges the Roosevelt mistresses.  Both books reflect history from a close internal perspective and I recommend both as great comfortable  reads.  *****