Book 195: A Case of Need by Michael Crichton

Last week, I mentioned this book to my boss and told him I thought it was one of Michael Crichton's last books written before he died. I was completely wrong: this was one of the first books Crichton ever wrote - and in fact, he wrote it when he was still in medical school.

The book was a quick read, but a good one. It is the story of a pathologist (someone who figures out what kind of illness or cancer or infection a patient has based on evidence) that finds out that a colleague has been arrested on charges of performing an illegal abortion... because the patient died of a hemorrhage. He knows his colleague is innocent of the charges and decides to stretch the boundaries of his job description a bit to solve a murder and clear his friend's name.

I am the Ardent Reader, and I am very fussy about the books I read. I start and put down more than I finish, just because I know life is short and my bookshelf is stuffed with books I must finish before I die. I tell you this because I don't often find books that are as intense and engaging as this one - and it hooked me from the very first page. I don't want to spoil the book for you, but I'll tell you one thing: it definitely had momentum... and a ton of twists. And, like most Michael Crichton books, A Case of Need was filled with all kinds of real science, so I learned a thing or two along the way.

There were some hints here and there that the story was not set in today's modern healthcare setting. For one, the doctors all smoked inside and stowed flasks in their desk drawers. Abortion was also illegal in this book, so I knew it had to be set sometime before Roe v. Wade. In fact, Crichton wrote this book in 1969, which I didn't find out until the end. 

A Case of Need was available on Amazon Prime Reading, so I borrowed it for nothing! I hope you'll put it on your list of books to read. I found it fascinating.

Book 194: Fascism: A Warning by Madeline Albright (Audiobook read by author)

Well, this was one of the most disturbing books I've ever read.

I'm not sure what your political views are, but I have been closely following the insanity documented by the press ever since my world was completely changed in 2016. I'd heard the word "fascism" a thousand times before, but never knew the depth of that term's meaning. I have a lot of respect for Madeline Albright, so I figured if anyone was going to give me the lowdown, it would be her. 

Albright didn't disappoint me - although I did sometimes wish she would have paid a narrator instead of reading the book herself. (At a few points, it was clear that her voice was fatigued, and I sort of felt bad for her.) She presented a historical perspective on the fascists in history and did it incredibly well. Then she turned the tables on me and pointed her attention at today's political environment here in the U.S. 

Fascism is about riling up people, using their anger and nationalist tendencies to build political support. Truth has no place in fascist strategy - lies are much more effective. Fascists play on fears, ignorance, and pride (not good pride.) In her book, Albright profiles Hitler, Mussolini, and many lesser-known world leaders in this book to illustrate how fascism takes hold within otherwise civilized societies. 

Toward the end, Albright provides her readers with a list of questions that people should ask themselves about their leaders. This was enormously helpful for me. 

I hope you'll read this book. Thanks. 

Book 191: The Shape of Water by Guillermo Del Toro and Daniel Kraus (Audio book)

The movie was beautiful, poignant, and well made, but the book had more of an impact on me. I was happy to have it as company on a really long road trip. And it was really good.

This book is unique, because its author was also the director of the movie. Guillermo Del Toro - who made the most disturbing movie I've ever seen (Pan's Labrynth) - has created a book that is engaging on so many levels.

In the book, some of the characters are more well cultivated in the book than they were in the movie. Some characters are more interconnected than I originally thought, and at least two did not exist at all in the movie but appeared prominently and were in fact instrumental to the story in the book.

The story of the Gill God, Eliza, Giles, Zelda, and Strickland and his wife Elaine is an incredible one. It begins in the jungle and ends in Baltimore sometime in the 1960s. On their regular rounds as custodians for a scientific research facility, Eliza and Zelda encounter an amazing creature being held captive in a lab. When Eliza - who is mute - discovers that she can communicate with the creature, they become inseparable. The story that unfolds is one of courage, strength, and resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.

I hope you'll pick up this book because it was worth reading, even after seeing the movie and having a preconceived notion of what things looked, felt, and sounded like.

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Tomorrow, the adventure begins.

I am so excited to present to you, beginning tomorrow, May 1, my guest blog project.

Each day, you’ll find a new blog post from a featured author who may be your neighbor or a bestselling author. They may live on the other side of the world or right down the road. I’m so pleased to be the window through which you’ll get your view of their work.

Some authors have never told their own stories. Some haven't put pen to paper since high school. Nevertheless, their stories are beautiful, unique, and important. In some cases, you’ll learn something completely new.

I hope you’ll come back every day in May to read these fantastic blog posts. I’m so proud to present them to you.

Much love,

Esther Curtis
The Ardent Reader
www.parrotcontent.com

Looking forward to May.

So far I have 25 people signed up as guest bloggers in May. They're going to write and publish a blog post. I've assigned dates for people who want to contribute. The content started to roll in on Wednesday and it's good. I mean, really good. I'm so psyched to share it with you.

I hand picked some of these would-be bloggers and others came to me through the announcements and social media posts.

If you agreed to write something, I'm so excited to have you on board.

If you haven't, why not?

There are six spots left - don't miss this chance to tell your own story!

The Willingness to Expand - Organically.

My blog is not a fancy blog. But it's my blog, and it's a good blog. It's had almost 30,000 views as of today. I'm proud of my blog. It's pretty, and it's chock full of good stuff.

I've had this blog for eight years. I'm almost 39 years old, so I've maintained this blog for almost 21% of the time I've spent on earth. In that time I've read countless books (185 were reviewed here) and explored topics that mean so much to me.

I started The Ardent Reader after my second child was born. I had part time job in a nonprofit and I had extra time every afternoon after work to read. I was married then, I drove a minivan, and I had a dog. That seems like such a long time ago.

For me, this blog is so much more than being about reading. Reading is, of course, important, but when I realized what reading could do for me as a mother, a professional, a woman, this blog changed. It has become something else: evidence of my own deliberate cultivation of myself. I went from a young mother with an newly-earned associate's degree and half decent writing talent to an educated professional writer with two kids both on the path to excellence themselves.

I learned that in all things, I strive to be genuine. The practice of blogging has helped to reveal this particular aspect of my personality. It helped me realize I don't want to compromise my strongest held values, and it led to some of the hardest life choices I ever had to make. Here's a blog post called Living an Authentic Life, which I posted on my shorter-term blog, My Ten Bucks. 

A week or so ago, news broke that Russian hackers had used people's nationalism coupled with their own ignorance to divide us and undermine the validity of our elections. Twitter cut thousands of "bot" accounts overnight, and some folks lost thousands of followers in the process. And that night, I didn't lose a single one. In fact, I gained a few. For me, this was evidence that by cultivating this blog and my Twitter following slowly and organically, I had hit the right people. Real people.

Maybe I don't have thousands of followers on my blog but I know the ones I do have are people I want to have on my team. I want you to know how much you mean to me, dear reader, and that I appreciate your continued readership.

Thanks.

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Book 171: What Happened by Hillary Clinton (Unfinished)

I wanted to finish this book, but I lost momentum halfway through, then my library loan ended, and I wasn't going to buy a $15 digital copy for my Kindle so I could finish it. Truth be told, this book is just too long to read in a few days, so I'm moving on.

Still, this is what I have to say about it.

Whether you love her or hate her, it's difficult to deny that Hillary Clinton has incredible resilience. No one wants to talk about their own failures (and some people ignore them completely), but through this book, Hillary explored her own to understand how and why they happened. She admitted her own shock and humiliation at losing the 2016 election and kept on going. She wrote about her mistakes before and during the campaign and the lessons she's learned because of them. She also wrote about what she did right. For her, I think writing this book was therapeutic. It was also very smart, because the book sold like crazy when it was published.

If you decide to pick this up, give yourself ample time to read it. You'll also need an open mind.

Book 166: White Trash History by Nancy Isenberg (Unfinished)

The loftier the goal, the more dismal the failure. (My failure, not the author's.)

White Trash History was a book I desperately wanted to finish but couldn't because the library loan ended and the book was so damn long. And it's my own stupid fault - I broke my rule - I kept reading long after I should have given up. It didn't hook me in the first chapter, then the second, then the third, and still I went on. I was 35% of the way through the book when the digital loan expired, and I decided to post a partial review because the reading I did accomplish took real effort.

Nancy Isenberg's topic was fascinating, and she gets points for exploring it in such grave detail that I don't know if anyone would ever be able to best her research. I learned about the foundations of American society, slavery, a good deal about the civil war, and more than I ever could have imagined about Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson, and a little bit about Jefferson Davis. (Most of them were two-faced scoundrels.) I learned about the clay eaters of North Carolina, the anti-slavery laws in Georgia, American Indians, land bequests, and the use of America as a dumping ground for England's poor. The book was filled with nuggets of history that I had never come across before. I don't regret trying to read it.

At some point I do expect to pick this up and finish it, but it won't be in this year. Reading two books a week greatly depends on a book's length and momentum, and this one was simply too long and mentally demanding to accomplish in such a short period of time.

Props to you, Nancy Isenberg, for stopping the Ardent Reader in her tracks!

Reflections on Reading, Identity, Career, and Achievement

When I first began this blog, I would read whatever I could get my hands on in time to accomplish my goal of one book a week for that first year. As a result, I read a lot of really terrible books. But that year was not spent in vain; I also read a lot of really good books that I enjoyed and seemed to all fit into similar genres. Eventually I realized that I kept returning to the same sections in Barnes & Noble - the social and behavioral sciences. I visited similar sections in the library - history, medicine, anthropology, biographies, self-help books. So I decided to began exploring these topics even further. 

Flash forward to 2013, when I had to choose a major to finish up my bachelor's degree. Of all of the programs offered at Thomas Edison State University, one topic piqued my interest: organizational leadership. The courses would be applicable to all different career fields, including my own: a nonprofit director. Then, just one month after beginning my classes, I was laid off. Thanks to the fantastic professional network I built while working for the nonprofit, I landed a job immediately and didn't miss a day of work or a paycheck. And I continued to work on my degree. 

It turned out that the science of leadership was a fascinating one. Not every class was easy (MATH REQUIRED) but I felt good about the major I had chosen. Of course, there were many theoretical courses, but others told the stories of previous leaders who had been instrumental in changing the course of business and in some cases, the course of history. In the end, my studies made me even more interested in history, sociology, and anthropology. I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Organizational Leadership in March 2016. 

Before I even finished my bachelor's degree, I decided that I wanted to join the top 12% of Delaware's population by pursuing my master's degree. I enrolled at Wilmington University for my Master of Science in Management and began accelerated classes as soon as I could. (I work for a hospital system in Delaware, so it made sense.) Once again, the study of sociology and anthropology came into play. A great deal of the work required for the degree focused on public health problems, medical ethics, the Affordable Care Act, medicinal marijuana, and economics. I did my thesis on the issues of mental health and substance abuse and recommended the clubhouse model as a solution that could be implemented nearby the hospital where I work. I finished the coursework for my master's degree in June of this year and received word just a few days ago that my degree was conferred.

Books have been part of my personal development for many years, but it was only in the past few that I realized how important a role they continue to play in my professional development. I've read books that have given me clues about how to move forward in different aspects of my life and career. I've read books that have made me more sympathetic to the plight of those less fortunate than me. I've read books that have taught me about the brain and its inner workings and why I am the way I am and why you are the way you are. The path that was set before me as a child has been forever altered because of reading.

 

I urge you to make reading a priority in your life, if for no other reason than because it has done so much for me.