Book Description
NorthBarry Laverty, MD, can barely find the village of Ballybucklebo on a map when he first sets out to seek gainful employment there, but already he knows that there is nowhere he would rather live than in the emerald hills and dales of Northern Ireland. The proud owner of a spanking-new medical degree, Barry jumps at the chance to secure a position as an assistant in a small rural practice. At least until he meets Dr. Fingal Flahertie OReilly. The older physician, whose motto is never let the patients get the upper hand, has his own way of doing things, which definitely takes some getting used to. At first, Barry can't decide if the pugnacious O'Reilly is the biggest charlatan he has ever met, or possibly the best teacher he could ever hope for. Ballybucklebo is a long way from Belfast, and Barry soon discovers that he still has a lot to learn about country life. But if he sticks with it, he just might end up finding out more about life and love than he could ever have imagined back in medical school.
Customer Reviews:
Karon yes, Herriot no.......2007-09-10
The synopsis on the inside cover of AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR compares Taylor's book to James Herriot and Jan Karon. Jan Karon I can see. James Herriot is a bit out of reach.
There's more syrup in this book than in a Smucker's factory. Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly is like a father to the residents of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland. There's a pregnant servant girl, a proud old man who lives in his car, a carpenter's wife with a ne'er-do-well husband, plus his new young assistant, Barry Laverty, who's reminiscent of a lovesick calf. O'Reilly presents a tough exterior, but he's got the proverbial heart of gold.
That's not to say AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR doesn't have some good points. If you love language, you'll love the Ulster dialect. For instance, "A beagle's gowl" is the distance a Beagle can be heard; "Near took the rickets" means had a great shock. There are also some more familiar words and expressions such as "lummuck" and "shite," all of which are defined in Taylor's glossary.
Taylor is also a doctor, so the medical scenes provide some enlightenment. I didn't know, for instance, that halitosis is a symptom of appendicitis.
My biggest problem with the book was the climax. O'Reilly resolves all of the plot conflicts in one fell swoop. But he uses blackmailing and some questionable medical slight of hand to do it. I'm thinking there's no way the villain, a tough businessman, would have believed O'Reilly's ploy for a second.
All in all, if you like Jan Karon, you'll probably like AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR. If not, venture at your own risk.
An Irish Country Doctor.......2007-08-10
For me this book was an easy, quick, read that I could hardly put down. The dry, witty, humor gave me many laughs. I especially liked watching the relationship develop between the old, established, doctor and the young, new doctor. A very good read that I have passed on to others.
A pint of Guinness, a placebo, and call me in the morning........2007-08-09
Travelers to the North of Ireland find wind-swept vistas, fog-blanketed coasts and a land so verdant it looks like it was brush-stroked by Thomas Kinkade. On the occasional clear day you can even see Scotland from the lush Antrim shoreline. A mere twelve miles, `tis, across the North Channel, and a cinch for the marauding Scots giants of lore to breach it in a dozen strides, seeking to do battle with Ireland's own giant, Finn McCool. Saint Patrick first landed somewhere nearby and lies buried beneath an eponymous cathedral in County Down. A land of provos and loyalists, the fervent prayer is that the North of Ireland has also entombed the Troubles.
Nestled astride close-by Beflast Lough, readers are introduced to the make-believe, picture-postcard village of Ballybucklebo. An emerald plucked from the Ireland of yesteryear, herein resides a laughable, affable and pitiable collection of all the Irish caricatures we'd ever want to meet. `Tis where we find our two Irish country doctors in residence plying a common sense and routinely placebo-driven brand of medicine mildly reminiscent of the old joke: A man goes to his doctor and informs him that his arm hurts terribly when he raises it. To which the doctor replies: "Then don't raise your arm. Next patient!"
Our crusty but learned Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly plays mentor, confessor and father-figure to wet-behind-the-ears Doctor Barry Laverty, late of Belfast's Queen's University Medical School. Gambling that rural Ireland might offer a more suitable lifestyle than Belfast, Dr. Laverty arrives in Ballybucklebo ("Bally" loosely meaning "town" in Irish) driving a beat-up Volkswagen, answering O'Reilly's advertisement for a physician to assist him. Following typically whimsical driving directions the Irish are renowned for, Laverty ultimately finds O'Reilly's combination rustic living quarters and surgery (in Ireland "surgery" equals doctor's office) where he's set upon by Arthur Guinness, Fingal O'Reilly's shaggy mutt, a brute armed with boundless affection for the human leg.
The two docs hit it off (without which---no story) and Laverty hires on after passing the muster of the matronly "Kinky" Kincaid, O'Reilly's cook, housekeeper, nurse, confidante, screening-committee and appointment scheduler. Kinky's the glue holding the practice together, protecting our doctoral duo from the likes of: Councillor Bertie Bishop, resident Orangeman and curmudgeon, an equal opportunity Scrooge bent on leaving misery in his path as he cuts a vicious verbal swath through the townspeople. We're soon introduced to the half-dozen or so listless folks who appear daily at the surgery patiently awaiting their turn to receive hypodermic injections of "the tonic", which O'Reilly confesses hush-hush to Laverty is merely vitamin B-12, a placebo which the patients think they cannot live without. We can`t forget about Maggie and Sonny either. He living down the county in his automobile until the roof on his cottage get's fixed. It's been fifty years and the two lovebirds just might get hitched when he gets the roof money together. The good doctors make automobile and house calls to the likes of Sonny and others who can't find a way to the surgery. Which brings us to Major Fotheringham and his wife, a hypochondriac couple who spend days conjuring up imagined maladies, luring a nonplussed Doctor O'Reilly to their house where he plays the game for a bit and takes leave after appearing duly concerned for their fragile health.
Another hapless patient, Seamus Galvin, learns wife Maureen is pregnant again; they're hoping for a turn of financial luck which will allow them to emigrate to Americay. Speaking of pregnant, unmarried Julie MacAteer is praying she's not (But aren't they always?), and none too keen to identify the father.
Spring is in the air and a young man's fancy turns to .....fishing. Not really. Laverty's good with the rod and reel but he's infatuated with a captivating lady he met in Belfast; yet she's unsure, hesitant, all of which leaves our good doctor pining away in Ballybucklebo. And what about Doctor O'Reilly's love life? It's a subject he plays close to the vest, not freely discussing the sad tale behind the one and only love of his life and what happened to her. Keeping his nose to the grindstone, O'Reilly stays steadfast to the task at hand, mindful that the July 12th Orange parade looms and with it the potential for violence and mayhem that accompanies that enduring symbol of the Troubles.
There's more, of course, lot's more: a life-and-death medical emergency; an embarrassing misdiagnosis. In the end of author Taylor's semi-autobiographical Irish charmer the sutures get tied and most, but not all, wounds heal. Some things you can't fix----people die; bad sometimes wins over good. But make no mistake, this is a feel-good anachronistic tale in the stead of The Quiet Man, the Irish heart-tugger that transferred so beautifully to the silver screen over a half-century ago and remains as fresh as it did in the 1950s.
Doctor Laverty's alter ego, author Patrick Taylor M.D., is alive and well, living the good life on Bowen Island off Vancouver, British Columbia, where he reminisces about his days as a physician in his native County Down, Northern Ireland.
I'm sorry but I found this book somewhat dull. .......2007-07-05
I've obviously been spoiled by James Herriot's "All Creatures Great & Small". His vets are lively & memorable.
Also, no one can top Maeve Binchy with her characters that seem so real.
The book, 'An Irish Country Doctor'.......2007-06-27
This book is just a wonderful read. It is set in the 1960's era, and is about a young med-school graduate who takes his first job in a little northern Irish village, joining an elderly doctor in family practice. It is very heart-warming, and holds your interest to the very last page. The author, Patrick Taylor, is a medical doctor himself. I am anxious to read any future books he writes.
Average customer rating:
- The end of pain?
- Second Generation Reader and User
- Folk Medicine: A New England Almanac of Natural Health Care
- bunkum and hooey
- Opened My Eyes!
|
Folk Medicine: A New England Almanac of Natural Health Care from a Noted Vermont Country Doctor
D.C. Md Jarvis
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 General
| Alternative Medicine
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Naturopathy
| Alternative Medicine
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Naturopathy
| Alternative & Holistic
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Alternative Medicine
| Health, Mind & Body
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Naturopathy
| Alternative Medicine
| Health, Mind & Body
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Health, Mind & Body
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Naturopathy
| Alternative & Holistic
| Medicine
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Amazing Apple Cider Vinegar
-
Folk Medicine
-
Honey, Garlic, & Vinegar: Home Remedies & Recipes : The People's Guide to Nature's Wonder Medicines
-
The Healing Powers of Vinegar, Revised and Updated
-
The Folk Remedy Encyclopedia: Olive Oil, Vinegar, Honey and 1,001 Other Home Remedies
Accessories:
-
RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering Device
-
Airborne Effervescent Health Formula, Original Orange, 10 Tablets (Pack of 3)
ASIN: 044920880X
Release Date: 1985-05-12 |
Book Description
"A fascinating book by a distinguished Vermont physician."
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
For centuries the vigorous and healthy families of Vermont have passed down simple commonsense home remedies for all sorts of common aches and pains, from one generation to the next. Dr. Jarvis spent years practicing medicine in the Green Mountains and observed the natural wonders of Vermont folk medicine. He shares that wisdom in this helpful book in order to help you: burn body fat and decrease body weight, improve sleep and overcome chronic fatigue, reduce high blood pressure, and much more.
Customer Reviews:
The end of pain?.......2007-08-24
I found the book most helpfull in my search to alleviate the chronic pain of arthritis and gout. It also gave me hope to clear a breathing problem I have as well as various form of rosacia. An excellent book indeed.
Second Generation Reader and User.......2006-11-24
My mother used many of Dr. Jarvis' remedies with me when I was a child. They worked. We also used traditional medicine of course, but often came back to the folk remedies when the medical remedies didn't work or the doctors had no answer. In turn I used these remedies with my own family--and now with clients who come for help with holistic approaches to healing. I recommend the book to people who are well and want to stay that way, and to those who are ill, have no insurance, and no money for high priced drugs, even if they had the money to go to doctors. No, these remedies will not--and should not--replace western medical care in serious situations, but they will definitely help reduce the number of doctor's visits for non-critical illnesses. I recommend Dr. Jarvis' book because I have forty years of successful experiences with it. He was way ahead of his time.
Folk Medicine: A New England Almanac of Natural Health Care.......2005-08-28
Found the material contained in the book practical and helpful. It gave a lot of info on things you can do to help yourself stay healthy.
bunkum and hooey.......2000-06-16
When I first saw this book at my local pharmacy, my inner skeptic warned me that it would be a load of horse manure. He was wrong, of course; a load of horse manure will fertilize a garden nicely, while Dr. Jarvis' book is too light to even serve as a doorstop.
A great deal of factual inaccuracy is forgivable, since the book itself was written before 1960 (however, his chapter on 'race' is not, especially from an alleged man of science...I gather that if you're not from Western Europe, you don't have anything to gain from it). The decision of Fawcett Crest to publish this as a medical guide rather than as a piece of folklore. (Notice that the prominent blurb on the cover is from the New York Daily News, a tabloid slightly more respectable than the Weekly World News).
There's some value in folk remedies...but there are more of them that simply don't work, or that don't work as well as conventional medicine. While this book contains some interesting factoids about New England folk medicine, there are enough glaring errors and faulty assumptions to make the whole thing questionable, cover to cover.
Opened My Eyes!.......1999-11-29
Once I read this book it opened my eyes to what folk medicine is really about. Just taking what you see in nature and applying it to your health is so simple,yet so perfect.
Book Description
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City saw its first AIDS patient in August 1985. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases who became, by necessity, the local AIDS expert. Out of his experience comes a startling, ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland.
Customer Reviews:
A Doctor's Love for his Patients.......2007-05-30
This based-on the author's true-story details the time he was just starting out as a doctor. He picked a Hospital in smalltown United States where he would be the infectious disease specialist. Suddenly, cases of AIDS appeared even in that small town. It was the 80's epidemic and as it spread from the big cities AIDS victims were met with fear and a lack of compassion from most doctors. Verghese was one of the few who truly listened to and cared for his patients through such a terrible disease.
An excellent personal account of the emergence of AIDS.......2007-04-24
In "My Own Country" Dr. Abraham Verghese tells the story of the emergence of AIDS in rural Tennessee from his perspective as a new foreign doctor. In the process of describing the increased presence of the disease in his community, Dr. Verghese also tells the personal stories of his patients as well as his own story - how working with the disease opens his mind to new perspectives as well as the toll it places on him personally. The author's narrative style is compassionately captivating, managing to entertain and inform at the same time. I'd highly recommend it for those seeking to learn more about what being a good doctor is like or about the difficulties faced by those that had to deal with the disease in its emergent era.
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story.......2007-01-11
This is an excellent story. It is an interesting and informative read.
An Important Chronicle..........2006-10-05
Dr. Verghese's depiction of AIDS in Johnson City is a powerful book about the way this disease first entered the American consciousness. As an outsider - an Indian doctor in the Midwest - writing about his experiences with the gay community and others who were first diagnosed with HIV and AIDS provides a unique perspective into the way people ostrasized and condemned, often in the name of God, those who were first diagnosed. One reviewer commented that the book is dated, but in fact, Verghese's account remains an important one as it not only describes a disease that has shaped and continues to shape our collective consciousness, but is also applicable for the way it reminds us how terrible we can be when faced with an unknown and how easy it can be to attack those we don't understand.
What Verghese does so well is provide a human aspect to almost everything he writes about. I, too, read the Tennis Partner before reading this, and I think the way he is able to juxtapose his own family life and the way it slowly disintegrates, while at the same time doing so much to keep other families together btoh physically and spiritually is remarkable. The individual cases he describes are so vivid and truly provides a face to the diease.
I highly reccomend this book to anyone considering the health profession (along with his other book the Tennis Partner and Gawunde's Complications) as well as people who are curious about infectious disease and its impacts upon society.
Tells an important story, but is too dated for 2006 readers.......2006-03-06
I love to read medical non-fiction, about doctors, nurses and their experiences in the world of medicine. Since I was a fan of Verghese's work from The Tennis Partner, I picked this book up with a lot of enthusiasm.
This book tells a quietly tragic and compelling story about the beginning of the AIDS crisis, and Verghese's personal experiences and feelings as he treats his first AIDS patients. The writing is clear and he is great at observing the small details in life that make you feel like you are living the story.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't feel current anymore. The perspective that Verghese has is still very valuable, but in 2006 the book is more valuable for understanding the history of the disease than it is for understanding the current reality for those dealing with HIV/ AIDS.
He does an amazing job chronicling the incredible stigma and difficulties faced by those with the disease, and the attitudes that were common then about AIDS and homosexuality. But our culture, medicine, and treatment of HIV/ AIDS have all changed so drastically since the eighties that this book really is better as a look backwards at how things used to be than it is a current look at the treatment and care people with AIDS experience now.
I hope Verghese writes more, because he is a powerful writer with some amazing stories to tell. I think this book has an important place in our cultural library, but if you are looking for a book to help you understand how people with AIDS live nowadays, you would be better off looking elsewhere.
Book Description
In this quietly revolutionary work of social observation and medical philosophy, Booker Prize-winning writer John Berger and the photographer Jean Mohr train their gaze on an English country doctor and find a universal man--one who has taken it upon himself to recognize his patient's humanity when illness and the fear of death have made them unrecognizable to themselves. In the impoverished rural community in which he works, John Sassall tend the maimed, the dying, and the lonely. He is not only the dispenser of cures but the repository of memories. And as Berger and Mohr follow Sassall about his rounds, they produce a book whose careful detail broadens into a meditation on the value we assign a human life. First published thirty years ago,
A Fortunate Man remains moving and deeply relevant--no other book has offered such a close and passionate investigation of the roles doctors play in their society.
"In contemporary letters John Berger seems to me peerless; not since Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of conscience."--Susan Sontag
Customer Reviews:
Don't waste your time........2007-09-18
I am required to read this book for Clinical Skills class, but I just quit reading it when I got to part in the middle when the author talks about how ignorant the villagers are: "There are large sections of the English working and middle class who are INARTICULATE as a result of wholesale cultural deprivation. THEY ARE DEPRIVED OF THE MEANS OF TRANSLATING WHAT THEY KNOW INTO THOUGHTS THEY CAN THINK." WHAT?!?!?!?!?!? I am sure there are lessons to be learned from this book, but between the marginal-quality, occasionally cryptic writing and the scorn the author shows in passages like this, they're lost. Forget selling this book back to the bookstore... I'm taking it straight to the recycling bin. If there are good lessons in the end, I don't have the patience to read all the way through to get to them. And Lord help me if I ever become the kind of doctor this book describes.
A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor.......2007-08-06
Beautiful, thoughtful, thought-provoking writing in a fascinating setting, from a sophisticated, personally philosophical point of view. Collaborative writing w/photography.
The world has changed.......2005-08-24
I fully admired the dedication of a country doctor at times when general practitioners were regared as doctors who fallen off the ladder of sucess. However, today's doctor patient relationship are so different from what was in the good old days. You will be sued after you saved someone; you have to prescribe according to HMO's 'evidence based guidelines' and be prepared to be the scapegoat whenever something goes wrong. Things has changed. I miss the days when being a doctor can be such a pleasant and satisfying experience.
A Rewarding Book.......2005-04-04
John Berger is know around the world as a Renaissance Man, one who can write criticism, plays, novels, short stories, and can even paint the occasional work of art. But I humbly submit that this may be his best work, one that examines the relationship between a country doctor and his community. Sadly the time period of the piece, the 1960s, are gone and the entire institution of the general practitioner, complete with house calls and lollipops for the children. But the questions he asks are searching ones that hinge on the very fundamental human relations that modernity is radically changing.
What is a human life worth? He won't give you any answers, because he trusts you to think about all this for years to come. An exceptional work.
The way health care should be.......2003-01-14
I read this book for the first time as an undergraduate in 1987, now as a graduate student in health care, I'm realizing the wealth of information about how an effective system of care looks like. It's not the HMO approach, it's the approach that keeps one close to the ground in their community.
If you care about people and health care systems, read this book!
Average customer rating:
- I am a country doctor
- Inspirational stories of rural doctors
|
Caring for the Country: Family Doctors in Small Rural Towns
Howard K. Rabinowitz
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Health Risk Assessment
| Administration & Policy
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Special Topics
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Family & General Practice
| Specialties
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Health Risk Assessment
| Administration & Medicine Economics
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Family Practice
| Internal Medicine
| Medicine
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Deals
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
All Amazon Upgrade
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Medicine
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Medicine
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Big Doctoring in America: Profiles in Primary Care (California Milbank Books on Health and the Public, 5)
Accessories:
-
Logistic Regression (2nd Edition)
-
Introduction to Nursing Informatics (Health Informatics)
ASIN: 0387209786 |
Book Description
Medical students lack role models in rural primary care, contributing to the severe shortage of family care physicians in rural areas. This unique book addresses that need by profiling ten graduates from the Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP) of Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, who are now practicing rural family medicine. At the heart of this text is a challenge to pre-med undergraduates, medical students, and family physicians to consider rural family practice. An excellent resource for pre-med and medical school advisors, the book brings into focus the true calling of medicine—making a difference by helping others. The text opens by discussing the impact that the PSAP has had on the physician shortage. In-depth profiles advance the topic by revealing the everyday reality of the shortage through poignant stories and candid dialogue. They cover the spectrum of social and professional issues that rural family physicians face, addressing topics such as the meaning of rural family practice, the roles of medical schools and hospital systems, health care policy, rural obstetrics, and telemedicine. The concluding chapter summarizes the professional and personal lessons learned from the profiles and outlines the future of rural family practice.
Customer Reviews:
I am a country doctor.......2007-09-08
This is a book I cherish. It sits on my shelf nearest my desk in my office, and I frequently find myself opening it when I am tired, or worn. Once I've read a little, I get a big lump in my throat, the tears well up, and I feel better. If you are country doctor, please get this.
Inspirational stories of rural doctors.......2005-04-22
After reading this book, I have a greater appreciation and admiration for rural family doctors. As I read each chapter, I was able to experience the doctor/patient interactions as if I was right in the exam room.
All of the doctors profiled in this book possess unique character traits that make them so engaging.
What is unique about this book is that it not only gives you insight into the medical practice of these doctors, but it gives you an intimate look at their lives. It explores how rural medical practice is intimately connected to all aspects of life in a small town.
This book was beautifully written and I highly recommend it.
Average customer rating:
- Long in the Tooth
- by English vet; limited usefulness for American dog owners
|
Mark Evans Animal Care: Dog Doctor (Animal Care)
Mark Evans
Manufacturer: Howell Book House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Breeds
| Dogs
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Care & Health
| Dogs
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Dogs
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Animal Husbandry
| Agricultural Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0876056788 |
Book Description
The Mark Evans Animal Care series provides owners with up-to-date information, reliable, honest advice and simple, practical tips on pet care. Dog Doctor is a must for all dog owners—it could turn an ordinary pet owner into a life-saver. This book gives you the knowledge you need to remain in control at all times. By understanding your dog's behavior and appearance, you will have the confidence to know when to act and what to do.
- Highly practical, comprehensive handbook on dog health and care
- Covers over 60 common diseases and conditions
- Enables owners to recognize instantly when their pet needs medical attention
- Includes step-by-step sequences on first aid and what to do in accidents and emergencies
- Written by Mark Evans B Vet Med MRVCS, experienced veterinary surgeon, published author and television presenter
Customer Reviews:
Long in the Tooth.......2006-12-05
I think this is a worthwhile book to own even though its 1996 publishing date makes it a bit dated. It's worth adding to one's collection, but because of some shortcomings should not be the only book of its type on one's shelf.
by English vet; limited usefulness for American dog owners.......1997-12-22
This dog care book is well written and illustrated but written for an English audience rather than American. Differences in language can be confusing: for example "animal-care assistants" are refered to as "unqualified". In US English, "unqualified" means "incompetent". In the Queen's English, "unqualified" means that one has not been admitted to a profession (eg: vet). More serious problems in the book include the ommission of some diseases that occur in the US, such as "corona virus", a potentially greater killer of puppies. Also, this book has NO information whatever on spaying or neutering a dog. In the US, almost all responsible persons spay or neuter, and the surplus dog population mainly comes from irresponsible low-lifes. In contrast, in England it is much less common for even responsible persons to spay or neuter. Indeed, some vets consider it quite immoral.
Book Description
All of Jewett's best fiction, including her three novels, "Deephaven," "A Country Doctor," and "The Country of the Pointed Firs," and 28 funny, satirical, and poignant sketches and stories. Set against long Maine winters, hardscrabble farms, and the sea, Jewett's stories of gruff, capable farmers and seafolk--and of the rewards and trials of family and communal ties--have a very modern resonance. This comprehensive collection reveals the full stature of the unjustly neglected writer Willa Cather ranked with Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Customer Reviews:
comforting place to visit.......2000-12-18
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)(Sarah Orne Jewett 1849-1909)
Okay, the time has finally come for me to make a horrible personal admission. I've had a secret for years now, one that strikes right to the core of my manhood : of an evening, I enjoy a nice cup of tea. Actually, it's an enormous mug and I steep the tea until it looks like coffee, but I still acknowledge how sketchy it all appears. Nor do I imagine my case will be helped if I state that I most often enjoy said beverage on Sunday nights during Booknotes on CSPAN, though as a general matter I do occasionally partake when I sit down to read, after we get the kids to bed. There--I've said it--that monkey's off my back. Why here? Why now? Because, this book may be the sine qua non of tea-sipping books.
Perhaps the central theme that we've been developing over the course of these reviews is the existence of a fundamental tension in human affairs, between the basically feminine desire for security and the basically masculine desire for freedom. We've examined many examples of the latter--everything from Huckleberry Finn to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--but good examples of the former have been rarer, presumably because I just read fewer women authors. (Though we have found some good examples, try particularly the review of The House of Gentle Men) Now we come to Sarah Orne Jewett's lovely short novel, The Country of Pointed Firs, and the very essence of the book is the value of friendship (particularly female friendship), community, and continuity in providing an atmosphere of security and a bulwark against the encroachments of a changing world.
The semiautobiographical novel tells of a young woman writer spending a summer in the fictional town of Dunnett Landing on the coast of Maine. There she is adopted into a loose knit group of women who weave a web of stories about the town, the surrounding islands and the folks who live, or lived, there. This narrative tradition and the time spent in each others company take on the quality of ritual, and in light of their dismissal of the local pastor, a nearly religious ritual. In addition, Jewett's comparisons of the women to figures out of Greek drama and classical myth gives them a timeless quality. Most of all, there is her portrayal of the women as a phenomenon of Nature, arising organically from, and blending into, the rugged landscape.
The effect of all of this is that as the women speak they seem to be tapping into an eternal tradition. Their voices and stories summoning echoes from the past, not just of Dunnett Landing, but of similar communities across time and space. The term that has apparently been adopted to describe this kind of novel is "fiction of community," and that's a perfect description. There's something wonderfully comforting about the togetherness, shared sense of experience and the act of communal memory that Jewett's stories summon.
The flip side of this however is that the novel, not surprisingly since it is so clearly a response to classic masculine fiction, suffers from some inevitable weaknesses when judged by those standards. It is almost totally formless and plotless, being little more than a collection of reminiscences. It celebrates stasis rather than progress and at some level reflects a genuine and unhealthy fear of human development in general, and of industrialization specifically. Though relentlessly good natured, there is a marked indifference or even hostility to traditional religion. Politics and economics are completely, and unrealistically, absent from the scene.
Just as the "action" of the novel occurs at the very edge of the nation, figuratively outside the bounds of late 19th Century America, so the community it describes is a utopian one that is an alternative to our actual Western culture. Ultimately, that utopia, like most, seems like it might be a nice place to visit but like it would prove stultifying to the human spirit, the longing to discover and to achieve, the desire of the young to create their own place in the world rather than to simply assume a bequeathed place in their parent's. There's always something comforting about maternal unconditional love, but we prefer it in smaller doses; too much becomes cloying and suffocating.
The Country of the Pointed Firs is a comforting place to visit--try it with a big mug of tea by your side--but it's not a place you'd want to live.
GRADE: B
Average customer rating:
- nice chapter book for young girls
|
A Doctor Like Papa
Natalie Kinsey-warnock
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Exploration & Discoveries
| Fiction
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
1900s
| Fiction
| United States
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Country Life
| Where We Live
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Issues
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
A Farm of Her Own
-
Sweet Memories Still
-
Lumber Camp Library
-
The Summer of Stanley
-
When Spring Comes
ASIN: 0060293195 |
Book Description
When the first star twinkles in the evening sky, Margaret squeezes her eyes shut and makes three wishes-one, for a sister; two, for a dog; and three, the most important of all, that Mama will let her study medicine.
But Margaret knows it will take more than wishing on stars to change her mother's mind. "Doctoring's no kind of life for a woman," Mama says. "It's too hard and dangerous." Margaret's papa is the only doctor in the whole Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and he works long, hard hours and faces countless perils every day.
Still, Margaret holds tight to her dream...until a terrible virus breaks out, threatening Margaret's dream, her community, and, worst of all, her family. Suddenly it's up to her to make the right choice.
Customer Reviews:
nice chapter book for young girls.......2004-02-06
Margaret wants is a sister, a dog, and, most important of all, her mama's permission to study medicine so she can be a doctor like her papa. When a deadly flu epidemic threatens the entire state, Margaret must use what she learned from watching her father at work to protect herself and her brother and save a little girl's life.
This is a lovely story that will excite children's imagination. It shows little girls and boys as well that they can be what ever they set their minds to be. This book is great for bringing about discussions on medical history, the 1900's family life, and character lesson on determination.
We would recommed this book to mainly girl readers ages 9-12. If you enjoy the Little House on the Prarie series we feel that you will enjoy A Docotr Like Papa.
Customer Reviews:
Profoundly moving.......2004-08-20
The child of Indian expatriates, himself an immigrant, Dr. Abraham Verghese found a home among the country people of Tennessee and an extended family among this Bible Belt's first AIDS victims.
Verghese, who began his residency in Johnson City, Tenn. in 1980, gives two reasons for specializing in infectious diseases (ID). One, his mentor convinced him it was the only specialty where cure was common. Two, as it was not a glamor field, a foreign ID doctor had a better shot at training at a top university hospital.
Simple, sensitive and scrupulously honest, Verghese's book is alive to the ironies, tragedies and heroism of the first days of the AIDS epidemic.
After training in Boston, where he saw his first AIDS patient, Verghese and his wife returned to idyllic Appalachia in 1985, expecting their first child. Aware of his outsider status, Verghese sets about finding, and making, his place. His rounds encompass two hospitals, the Mountain Home VA, a residence where he sees elderly vets and a lot of lung cancer, and the modern Johnson City Medical Center, the "Miracle Center." The contrast is vivid.
Although Johnson City has no AIDS patients and its single experience with a New Yorker who didn't quite make it home to die is "suppressed like a shameful memory," Verghese sets out to educate the population, to prevent AIDS here if he can.
His first visit to a gay bar to show an educational video is fraught with discomfort on numerous levels. The stiff self-consciousness of his early encounters with gay men in Boston is being consciously replaced with curiosity. "There was an obvious parallel: society considered them alien and much of their life was spent faking conformity." Still, it's a small town and Verghese is a foreigner with a reputation to build.
But his educational efforts bring in his first cases. He is excited, on the cutting edge of medicine. The HIV virus has been identified and a cure is surely just around the bend. He makes house calls, gives patients as much of his time as they need, and in a zealous spirit of medical documentation, friendship and plain human curiosity, elicits histories so personal it's difficult to imagine them spoken aloud.
As his AIDS practice grows, Verghese encounters bigotry and anger among his colleagues and community. But more profound is the bravery and generosity of spirit the disease arouses among the most unlikely people - the poor, the uneducated, the sick. He is touched, humbled, uplifted by the friends and relatives of his patients and often by the patients themselves.
But the hideousness of AIDS cuts a nasty swath. The bravest face a horrible, lingering and disfiguring death, usually in the prime of life. Verghese's descriptions of disease are unflinching.
As his case load grows to 80 and death becomes a commonplace, Verghese is beset by nightmares of infection and feelings of helplessness. His wife, frightened and resentful, withdraws from him. Similar attitudes in the medical community arouse furious bitterness. All around him, his new friends, his self-made family, are dying. After five years his endurance snaps. Plagued by guilt and relief, Verghese leaves Johnson City.
"My Own Country" is an important, passionate book which cannot be recommended highly enough. Verghese's prose draws the reader directly into the complex beauty and brutality of the human heart. It's a cry for our times.
AIDS in America, really.......2001-02-23
I read first this book shortly after its initial publication. The impact was enormous. I even went to a signing event an hour away from where I lived. What made this book great was that not only it talked about the real tragedy in rural, little educated America, that AIDS wrought there, but it was finely written, with feeling, and instructive. Such a rare blend in this type of litterture. This was not a report from the front, it was also the journey of a man whose whole life principles are challenged, and changed in front of other people's tragedy. Today, as I read it again, it has already that flavor of historical witnessing, but its emotion is still fresh. For those of us that are blase about too many tragedies in our lifes, we could read this book again to regain some of the compassion that we might have misplaced as our everyday life demanded our atention.
Full of fun, fear, folk and family stories.......1997-01-10
Dr. Verghese beautifully captures the Appalachian essence of innocence and trust, and the clash that happens when a feared viral intruder puts its mark on relatives and neighbors. The exposure and initiation of a foreigner to country ways and mindset makes for some comical moments. The text is very creative, expressive and easy to read
A compelling view of the onset of AIDS in rural Tennessee........1996-06-11
"My Own Country" combines medical fact with compelling personal history in a way that reveals the true nature of human understanding for what is "foreign" to us all.
Dr. Abraham Verghese comes to rural Tennessee as the foreign graduate of a foreign medical school; rural Tennessee being one of the few areas that will allow him to practice in the United States. At the time of his arrival, the AIDS epidemic arrives as well.
Dr. Verghese relates the stories of the victims and their families in the setting of his own acceptance among these bewildered people. Through careful detail, Dr. Verghese is accepted among the citizens of Johnson City, Tennessee, just as they slowly come to accept the reality of the AIDS virus and its consequences in their lives.
Told in language easily understood by non-medically trained readers, this story becomes a history of our people and their ability to adapt to difficult and heart-rending life experiences. Dr. Verghese celebrates the ability of the human spirit to accept disease and its consequences while he uses his keen sense of observation to show his own acceptance among these "new people." Dr. Verghese's ability for insight into the pain and suffering of patients families and the ultimate triumph of our compasionate nature is beautifully rendered. This book cannot be recommended highly enough for the many areas in which it succeeds. Ultimately, the book becomes a history of AIDS, medicine and the way both interact with victims who little understand the disease itself.
A compelling journey into the heart of the AIDS epidemic........1996-06-09
Few books can transport the lay reader into the center of an epidemic with such honesty, compassion and intelligence as MY OWN COUNTRY. As a specialist in infectious diseases, Dr. Verghese describes the unexpected and insidious advance of the HIV virus into a small Tennessee town. By taking us into the hearts and homes of the victims and their families, he paints an unforgettable picture of the emotional and physical impact of this epidemic while helping us to understand the intricacies of the many ways in which AIDS attacks the body and mind of its victims. More than their physician, Dr. Verghese becomes friend, confidant and healer of both body and spirit to his patients and their loved ones. With painful candor, he also details the terrible personal price he and his family are forced to pay because of his dedication. While displaying both grace and compassion, Dr. Verghese surprises the reader with his gift for lyrical description and his ability to see beyond the techical perimet
Books:
- Babylon Rising: The Edge of Darkness (Babylon Rising)
- Behind the Wheel Italian 1 Revised/Complete 226 Page Illustrated Text & Audioscript/Answer Keys/6 One Hour Multi-Track Audio CDs
- Black's Law Dictionary (Pocket), 3rd Edition
- Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited
- Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
- Business Communication: Process and Product (with InfoTrac®)
- Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 3)
- Code Name God: The Spiritual Odyssey of a Man of Science
- Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
- Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Governing in Europe: Effective and Democratic
- Barbie Fashion, 1959-1967
- Thomas Food & Beverage Market Place, 2002-2003: Food and Beverage Manufacturers, Product Categor
- Victory on the Potomac: The Goldwater-Nichols Act Unifies the Pentagon
- What the Dead Know: A Novel
- Death in Venice: And Seven Other Stories
- Acid Atmospheric Deposition and its Effects on Terrestrial Ecosystems in The Netherlands
- Fundamentals of Risk and Insurance
- Wall Street Secrets for Tax-Efficient Investing: From Tax Pain to Investment Gain
- The Sport of Debating: Winning Skills and Strategies
Whitethorn Woods
Irish Linen: A Nuala Anne McGrail Novel
Family Tree
The Double Bind: A Novel
Obsession (Alex Delaware Novels)
