The Sunday Salon 5/31/15: What Happened to May?

Well, that was quick. May always seems to be a busy month. Years ago it was First Communions, Confirmations, recitals, concerts, and sporting events. Now we have progressed to graduations and moving kids around. And let's not forget about Mother's Day and Memorial Day.

After attending Twin A's boyfriend's college graduation and party last Saturday, I was thankful for the rest of the long weekend to recover, but Tuesday I was back on the road to help her move out of her apartment. Yesterday we loaded the SUV and my husband drove her (and the guinea pigs!) to Manhattan. She will live with Daughter #1 while working a summer internship at L'Oréal. There was no room left for me, but that means I am enjoying a quiet weekend at home. No complaints!

In the midst of all the packing, unpacking, and repacking this week, we hosted a greyhound sleepover. This  allowed Zelda (on the right) an opportunity to meet Red Angus, a recently retired racer who will be staying with us for 10 days while his new family is on vacation. After a few tense moments (for me) and several growls (from Zelda), they reached a tentative understanding. Zelda remained standoffish, but Angus seemed pretty happy to be here. He'll be back tomorrow... and I am hoping they'll be pals by the end of his visit.


Finished reading//

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (a read/listen combo)

Wow, what a story! Review coming soon.

Current reading//

The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble

Quiet, but enjoyable. It's rainy and cool today, perfect weather this book.

New Books//

Chowderland by Brooke Dojny

From Netgalley. Requested for my husband, who loves seafood in a bowl.

The Tin Horse by Janice Steinberg

Another $1.99 kindle deal. I need to stop buying and start reading these books!

In the kitchen//

I finally tried Trish's Molasses Glazed Chicken Thighs this week. The whole family loved them, and I ended up making more just a few days later!

Today I'm cooking a Boston-Style Creamy Clam Chowder from Chowderland... should be ready by the time hubby gets home from NYC. I'll review the cookbook in an upcoming Weekend Cooking post.

On the blog//

Tuesday Intro: The Sevens Sisters
Beach Bag Recommendations, 2015 Edition
Review: Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

Around the internet//

I'm in a classics mood this week. O's review of Wives and Daughters  by Elizabeth Gaskell and Cat's review of The Kill  by Emile Zola both make me wish I could read a lot faster!

The 2015 Audie Award winners were announced Thursday night. Audible.com provided a live stream of the event, but I was only able to watch part of it. Have you listened to any of the winners?

It seems like it was all BEA, all the time this week. Between twitter, Instagram, and the Armchair BEA blog posts, it was almost as good as being there.

Did you see that  Flannery O'Connor will appear on a new postage stamp?  I was disappointed yesterday when my post office was sold out of the Maya Angelou stamps (despite the misquote), so I'll make it a point to check for these on the June 5 release date.

How was your week? What are you reading?

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

Shotgun Lovesongs
by Nickolas Butler
Thomas Dunne Books, 2014
320 pages
source: borrowed from the library

Audio Version
Narrated by Scott Shepherd, Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Sowers, Gary Wilmes
Macmillan Audio, 2014
9 hours and 58 minutes
source: purchased

Goodreads summary:
Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town — Little Wing — and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. One of them never left, still farming the family's land that's been tilled for generations. Others did leave, went farther afield to make good, with varying degrees of success; as a rock star, commodities trader, rodeo stud. And seamlessly woven into their patchwork is Beth, whose presence among them—both then and now—fuels the kind of passion one comes to expect of love songs and rivalries.

Now all four are home...

There is conflict here between longtime buddies, between husbands and wives — told with writing that is, frankly, gut-wrenching, and even heartbreaking. But there is also hope, healing, and at times, even heroism. It is strong, American stuff, not at all afraid of showing that we can be good, too — not just fallible and compromising. Shotgun Lovesongs is a remarkable and uncompromising saga that explores the age-old question of whether or not you can ever truly come home again — and the kind of steely faith and love returning requires.

My thoughts:
There's no doubt about it, Nickolas Butler can write.
And his writing will make you feel all the feels.

The characters in Shotgun Lovesongs remark that Lee's music evolves over time. So, too, does the reader's understanding of the small group of lifelong friends in Little Wing, Wisconsin - their history, actions, motivations, and life choices. Butler skillfully accomplishes this with crystal clear prose and a series of five alternating first-person narratives.

Not only is this novel evocative of time and place, it's full of insight into friendship, trust, loyalty, love, marriage... indeed, into all of life itself.

My Favorite Quotes:
I know this is excessive, but there are just so many  quotes I loved.

On small-town life:

Here, life unfurls with the seasons. Here, time unspools itself slowly, moments divided out like some truly decadent dessert that we savor - weddings, births, graduations, grand openings, funerals. Mostly, things stay the same.

On summer:

And then summer comes, the green coming in such profusions that you think maybe winter never even happened at all, never will come again.

On winter:

And then snow. Snow to cover the world, cover us. Our world left to sleep and rest and heal underneath those white winter blankets. The forests that in October threw hallucinogenic confetti at the world now withdrawn, bereft, composed, and suddenly much thinner, looking like old people who know their time has just about come.

On wedding bands:

I stood at the front of the room, beside Ronny, holding the wedding bands that had come to him through his grandmother... His grandfather's old ring...almost like the string a forgetful person ties around his finger as a reminder, and hers, this ring I rubbed between my thumb and index finger within the confines of my pocket, felt the softness of the gold, imagined all the places the ring had gone, all the fingers and objects it had touched. I felt the little diamond - this was the wedding ring of poor people, of middle-class America, it was a promise of things to come, not some gaudy galleria ring, some designer monstrosity like the one I bought for Chloe.

On the sunrise:

Lee used to hear music in sunsets - jazz. I don't know about that. And the sunrise? I don't think sunrise has a musical sound. To me, it's like a beautiful woman yawning as she first wakes up, or maybe, I don't know, a baby. A baby opening her eyes. Maybe both.

On marriage:

What he could have said is, I know you better than you know yourself.
And this, I think, is what marriage is all about.

On forgiveness:

Sometimes that is what forgiveness is anyway, a deep sigh.

On America:

America, I think, is about poor people playing music and poor people sharing food and poor people dancing, even when everything else in their life is so desperate, and so dismal that it doesn't seem there should be any room for any music, any extra food, or any extra energy for dancing. 

A note on the audio production:
Many of my favorite audiobooks are multi-narrator productions and this novel is perfectly suited to that format. All five narrators deliver strong, believable performances which lend a distinctive voice to each character. I highly recommend the audio version - it's my favorite so far this year.  But don't be surprised if you end up wanting a print edition, too.

My rating:

Bottom line:
Literary fiction doesn't get much better than this.

Beach Bag Recommendations, 2015 Edition

I'm consistently late with Top Ten Tuesdays these days, but this week's topic is a favorite - beach bag recommendations. My idea of a beach/vacation read usually means a great story, but quality writing is also a must. I most often turn to literary fiction or classics.

This year's recommendations are mostly titles I've read in the past twelve months. I've added a couple of nonfiction titles for the first time this year, too. The links will take you to my review, where available, or to the goodreads page.

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

Family dysfunction in an idyllic setting

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

Can you ever truly come home again? Friendship and love in a small town

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 

Based on an actual murder in New York's Adirondack Mountains

It's long, so be sure to reapply the sunscreen.

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

YA fiction, the title is a play on The Bell Jar  by Sylvia Plath

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The psychological thriller everyone is reading this year

Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Delves into "the gothic underbelly of an idyllic world of privilege and an outsider’s hunger to belong"

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

And Doctor Thorne, too! If you love Jane Austen, you'll love Trollope. 

Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky ...Will change the way you think about hotels

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

A pre-blogging favorite

The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams 

At the top of my summer reading list this year - confident in the recommendation because her earlier novel, A Hundred Summers, is my favorite beach read, ever.

A look back:
My 2014 beach bag list
My 2013 beach bag list

What books are you recommending this summer?

Tuesday Intro: The Seven Sisters

PART ONE

Her Diary

I have just got back from my Health Club. I have switched on this modern laptop machine. And I have told myself that I must resist the temptation to start playing solitaire upon it. Instead, I am going to write some kind of diary. I haven't kept a diary since I was at school. En effet, we all used to keep them. Julia, Janet and I, and all the other girls. It was the fashion, at St. Anne's, in the Fourth Form. Nothing much happened to us, but we all wrote about it nonetheless. We wrote about our young, trivial, daily hopes, our likes and dislikes, our friends and our enemies, our hockey games and our blackheads and our crushes and our faith in God. We wrote about what we thought about Emily Brontë and the dissection of frogs. I don't think we were very honest in our diaries. Blackheads and acne were as far as we got in out truth-telling in those days.

The Seven Sisters
by Margaret Drabble

A quiet, introspective novel about a woman scorned seems an odd choice to kick off my summer reading, but it was cold, damp, and dreary when I brought it home from the library last Thursday. And it's certainly holding my interest. The diary format in this first section is appealing, too. Maybe I'll turn to light and fun next week.

Here's the goodreads summary:

Candida Wilton--a woman recently betrayed, rejected, divorced, and alienated from her three grown daughters--moves from a beautiful Georgian house in lovely Suffolk to a two-room walk-up flat in a run-down building in central London. Candida is not exactly destitute. So, is the move perversity, she wonders, a survival test, or is she punishing herself? How will she adjust to this shabby, menacing, but curiously appealing city? What can happen, at her age, to change her life? And yet, as she climbs the dingy communal staircase with her suitcases, she feels both nervous and exhilarated. 

There is a relationship with a computer to which she now confides her past and her present. And friendships of sorts with other women--widows, divorced, never married, women straddled between generations. And then Candida's surprise inheritance . . .
A beautifully rendered story, this is Margaret Drabble at her novelistic best.

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

Weekly Update 5/24/15: Summer Begins

Here we are, summer at last! Unofficially, anyway. Memorial Day thru Labor Day. Longer days, dinner on the patio, a glass of wine by the lake, cruising on the boat, lounging by the pool, maybe a road trip or two... and so many events!

The season kicked off yesterday with my daughter's boyfriend's college graduation. A three hour drive on either end, plus the ceremony, moving out day, and a celebration barbecue made for a very long, but very happy day. Onward we go.. to Father's Day, high school graduation season, and the 4th of July!

Finished reading//

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

I loved this read/listen combination and will try to post a review this week.

Current reading//

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Another read/listen combination

The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble

very quiet and introspective

On the blog//
Tuesday Intro: Shotgun Lovesongs 
Review: A Taste of Upstate New York by Chuck D'Imperio (Weekend Cooking)

Around the blogosphere//
Here's a post of note that's just too good not to share. In fact, I kind of wish I'd written it myself!

Bibliophiliac's Top Ten Reasons to Read Anthony Trollope

I'll leave you with this photo from one of my walks this week... a beautiful purple mailbox garden. Enjoy the rest of the long weekend. What will you be reading?

A Taste of Upstate New York by Chuck D'Imperio

A Taste of Upstate New York: 
The People and the Stories Behind 40 Food Favorites
by Chuck D'Imperio
Syracuse University Press, 2015
288 pages
source: from publisher via Netgalley

Publisher's summary:
Upstate New York is the birthplace of many of America's favorite food treats. The chicken wing was born in a bar in Buffalo, the potato chip was born in the kitchen of a ritzy hotel in Saratoga Springs, the salt potato got its start along the marshy shores of a Syracuse Lake and Thousand Island Dressing was born in a hotel along the St. Lawrence Seaway. Add to these items black dirt onions, chicken riggies, pink striped cookies, sponge candy, spiedies and the ice cream sundae and many more. This book also introduces the reader to the human faces behind these edible legends. Their stories are inspiring and fun! Each of the 40 plus chapters includes restaurant directions, photographs and other pertinent information to make your self-guided "all you can eat" tour around Upstate New York a sumptuous journey for sure.

My thoughts:

Chuck D'Imperio is no stranger to Upstate New York. He has written several previous books including Unknown Museums of Upstate New York: A Guide to 50 Treasures  and Monumental New York!: A Guide to 30 Iconic Memorials in Upstate New York  and now turns his attention to the "wonders and quirky food facts" of Upstate New York.

In  A Taste of Upstate New York, D'Imperio divides the area into eight regions - from Chautauqua/Allegany in the southwest corner to the Thousand Islands/Seaway in the north, and south to Catskills/Hudson Valley - and regales us with each area's delicacies, lore, and sometimes even a recipe or two.

I was delighted with the inclusion of Turkey Joints (a beloved holiday season confection of chocolate and Brazil nuts coated with spun sugar and shaped to look like - you guessed it - a turkey joint), salt potatoes, Chicken Riggies, and famous Utica Greens. My husband's hometown is mentioned as the the birthplace of pie-a-la-mode... a fact which has always made him inordinately proud.

Cornell Chicken (another personal favorite) is a New York State Fair tradition served at Baker's Chicken Coop since 1949. Dr. Bob Baker was a former chair of Cornell's Department of Poultry and Avian Sciences. D'Imperio shares the famous recipe:

Dr. Baker's Cornell Chicken Marinade 

1 egg
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups cider vinegar
3T coarse salt
1T poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper 

Beat the egg, add oil, beat again. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Use the sauce for basting. While barbecuing, brush sauce on chicken each time you turn it. Makes enough sauce for 10 halves.

In addition to foods from my childhood, I found a few new favorites, like Bread Alone in Rhinebeck, NY. 

D'Imperio also highlights local cookbooks and foodie celebrities, including Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge ( The Fabulous Beekman Boys) and The Moosewood Collective. Iconic restaurants and "fun food festivals" are listed, too, and have provided ideas for countless day trips or weekend getaways.

Bottom line:
This book is chock-full of local food lore, fun food festivals, and legendary restaurants. There are even a few (locally) famous recipes! It's entertaining, nostalgic, and a must read for anyone who has spent time in Upstate New York.

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Tuesday Intro: Shotgun Lovesongs

We invited him to all of our weddings; he was famous. We addressed the invitations to his record company's skyscraper in New York City so that the gaudy, gilded envelopes could be forwarded to him on tour - In Beirut, Helsinki, Tokyo. Places beyond our ken or our limited means. He sent back presents in battered cardboard boxes festooned with foreign stamps - birthday gifts of fine scarves or perfume for our wives, small delicate toys or trinkets upon the births of our children: rattles from Johannesburg, wooden nesting dolls from Moscow, little silk booties from Taipei. He would call us sometimes, the connection scratchy and echoing, a chorus of young women giggling in the background, his voice never sounding as happy as we expected it to.

Shotgun Lovesongs
by Nickolas Butler

I borrowed this book from the library and started reading on Friday. Soon afterwards, I realized there were multiple narrators in the audio version and downloaded that, too. (I'm a big fan of multi-narrator productions.)

"Friendship" novels almost always appeal to me and, so far, this one appears to be a gem. It's also a little out of the ordinary because the primary friendships are between men - childhood friends now in their thirties and reunited in a small Wisconsin town.

Want to know more? Here's the goodreads summary:

Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town — Little Wing — and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. One of them never left, still farming the family's land that's been tilled for generations. Others did leave, went farther afield to make good, with varying degrees of success; as a rock star, commodities trader, rodeo stud. And seamlessly woven into their patchwork is Beth, whose presence among them—both then and now—fuels the kind of passion one comes to expect of love songs and rivalries. 

Now all four are home, in hopes of finding what could be real purchase in the world. The result is a shared memory only half-recreated, riddled with culture clashes between people who desperately wish to see themselves as the unified tribe they remember, but are confronted with how things have, in fact, changed. 

There is conflict here between longtime buddies, between husbands and wives — told with writing that is, frankly, gut-wrenching, and even heartbreaking. But there is also hope, healing, and at times, even heroism. It is strong, American stuff, not at all afraid of showing that we can be good, too — not just fallible and compromising. Shotgun Lovesongs is a remarkable and uncompromising saga that explores the age-old question of whether or not you can ever truly come home again — and the kind of steely faith and love returning requires. 

What do you think of the opening? Would you continue reading?

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

5/17/15 Update: A Week in Barsetshire

 Sunday already? Spring is in full bloom in central New York. My daily walks have become more colorful, people seem more cheerful, and the Saturday Farmers' Market has opened for another season. Local offerings are still scarce, but will grow more plentiful as the season progresses.

Book Sale season is just around the corner, too. Since I'm back on the board of the local Friends of the Library, I have to carve out time for a couple of book sorting sessions each week. I've often thought that with more and more people using e-readers our book donations would be down, but that is definitely not the case. Lots of work to be done there!

This week I was consumed by life in Barsetshire. Every free moment was devoted to Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope, which I finished on Thursday. It was another 5-star read, and I am prepared to declare Mr. Trollope my new favorite author. Now I must decide what to read until July when our #6Barsets Project continues with Framley Parsonage. Do I possess enough willpower to wait six weeks? That remains to be seen.

Current reading//

Shotgun Lovesongs  by Nickolas Butler

I borrowed this book from the library, but also downloaded the audio version when I discovered it was a multi-narrator production... can't seem to resist those!


Up Next//

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

The movie still hasn't opened here. I think I have at least another week.

On the blog//

With all the time spent in Barsetshire this week, there was not much left for blogging. But I did introduce a new series, Pages from the Past. I've kept a reading journal for years and each month I will highlight one year... stand-outs, stinkers, book club favorites, and anything else significant.

This week's post: Pages from the Past: My 1998 Reading Journal

Book Shopping//

I haven't been accepting review copies and am trying to read more from my own stacks and kindle, so there haven't been many new books to speak of lately. But I was browsing in one of my favorite indie book stores on Mother's Day and also succumbed to a couple of kindle deals.

The Secret Life of Violet Grant  by Beatriz Williams

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Pevear & Volokhonsky translation

The White Queen: A Novel (Cousins War Series Book 1) by Philippa Gregory

The week ahead//
...  will hopefully be a little more productive as far as blogging goes. I'm looking forward to my SIL's midweek visit. The other big event is Twin A's boyfriend's college graduation and party coming up on Saturday. They've been together for a few years now... seems like he's part of the family.

Today we have a few outdoor chores - gutters to clean, round-up to spray, herb garden to plant... and then maybe some reading time?

How was your week? What are you reading?

Pages from the Past: My 1998 Reading Journal

I've been a record keeper, note taker, and list maker for as long as I can remember. Is there such a thing as being too organized? Not in my world.

Kay, who has kept a reading journal for that last 22 years, recently started a Bookish Nostalgia series. She consults her log near the beginning of each month and shares what she was reading 20, 15, 10, and 5 years ago. I love those posts!

My own reading journal dates back to 1998, the year my twins started kindergarten. Prior to that, I was too busy to keep a journal or read much. {Here, I must insert my awe of bloggers with young children who manage to both read and  blog!} Inspired by Kay, my monthly offering will be called Pages From the Past and will focus on a specific reading year... stand-outs, stinkers, book club darlings, and other highlights.

Pages From the Past:
My 1998 Reading Journal

Stand-outs//

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil  by John Berendt

She's Come Undone  by Wally Lamb

Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (a one hit wonder?)

I Know This Much is True  by Wally Lamb

The Robber Bride  by Margaret Atwood

Stinkers//

Journal of a Solitude  by May Sarton

I distinctly remembering sneering at what I perceived to be Sarton's excessive self-indulgence. At that time, my days were consumed by the demands of three little girls and I could not even imagine having the ability to consciously decide if my body was "ready" to be awakened by bright morning sunlight. Needless to say, solitude had no place is my life at that time. Over the past five or six years, I've thought about revisiting this book. I suspect my reaction might be quite different. 

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

A little too fluffy for my taste

Book Club Darling//

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood  by Rebecca Wells

Didn't every book club read this in 1998?

1998 Notable// 
I discovered Wally Lamb in 1998. He's still a favorite today.


Have you read any of these books? What were you doing in 1998?
Look for Pages From the Past: My 1999 Reading Journal  coming up in June.

Weekly Update 5/10/15: Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day. Today's post will be short and sweet as we're off to Albany to meet Daughter #1. She's taking the train up from NYC to spend the afternoon with us - a little shopping, lunch, and definitely some book browsing. We'll visit my mother on the way home. I'm a lucky Mom!

Reading, Listening, and Loving//

Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

I've had a wonderful week in Barchester!

Set Aside//

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Every time I picked this book up, I really wanted to be reading Doctor Thorne instead... definitely a question of timing. I may try again later.

On the blog//

• Review: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End 
• Ten Books I Will Never Read
• A Return to Barsetshire

Upcoming event//

Allie at A Literary Odyssey is hosting A Victorian Celebration 2015 in June and July. That fits in perfectly with my trip to Barsetshire. See her post for all the details.


In the kitchen//

I tried a new recipe for Healthy Shrimp Scampi from Smoked 'n Grilled blog... and didn't even miss the butter. (photo from the blog)

The week ahead//
Nothing too exciting... a dental appointment, getting my car serviced, lots of outdoor chores. That should mean plenty of time in Barsetshire!

What are you up to this weekend? Have you read any good books?

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by Atul Gawande
Metropolitan Books, 2014
297 pages
source: library

"This is a book about the modern experience of mortality - about what it's like to be creatures who age and die, how medicine has changed the experience and how it hasn't, where our ideas about how to deal with our finitude have got the reality wrong." 

Summary (from goodreads):

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession’s ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.

Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal  asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.

My thoughts:

Let me be very clear about this - Being Mortal  was not an easy book to read. It challenged me to think about things I'd rather not think about. But I'm certain it will be the most important book I read this year.

It raises important issues about aging, death, and the role of modern medicine. Consider this:

"Medical professionals concentrate on repair of health, not sustenance of the soul. Yet - and this is the painful paradox - we have decided that they should be the ones who largely define how we live in our waning days. For more than half a century now, we have treated the trials of sickness, aging, and mortality as medical concerns. It's been an experiment in social engineering, putting out fates in the hands of people valued more for their technical prowess than for their understanding of human needs." 

It is important, for both physicians and family members, to remember that:

"People with serious illness have priorities besides simply prolonging their lives. Surveys find that their top concerns include avoiding suffering, strengthening relationships with family and friends, being mentally aware, not being a burden on others, and achieving a sense that their life is complete. Our system of technological medical care has utterly failed to meet these needs..." 

That certain measures to prolong life may, in fact, be shortening or worsening whatever time remains often goes unnoticed.

Gawande suggests the posing the question, "If time is short, what is most important to you?"   This could be the perfect starting point for a hard conversation with loved ones or a discussion with health care providers. It's a worthy springboard for deep soul-searching as well.

According to Gawande, as a society

"We've begun rejecting the institutionalized version of aging and death, but we've not yet established our new norm. We're caught in a transitional phase." 

And finally,

"We've been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being."

Amen.

And I've only scratched the surface. There is so much worthy of discussion - with your spouse, your parents, your adult children, and even your book club.

Please... make time to read Being Mortal. You won't be sorry.

My rating:

Ten Books I Will Never Read

I know, I know... never say never. But isn't this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic fun? I had to play along, even if it is a day late. Here are ten books you'll never find me curled up with:

Ulysses by James Joyce

Can't imagine tackling this under any circumstances.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

“Call me Ishmael” is as far as I'll ever get.

The Illiad & The Odyssey by Homer

Epic poetry combined with mythology is totally beyond me, I'm afraid.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Two words: magic realism.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

You know why.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen

How could anyone do this to Jane?

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

Second attempt fail. In my own read-along, no less. Time to cry uncle.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Post-apocalyptic? No, thank you.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

"Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy" Ugh, no. And it's long. 

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The characters are rabbits. Enough said.

Are there any here I should reconsider?
What books will you never read?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Click here for links to more lists.