Nonfiction November ~ a favorite book

This quote is from page 259.

This week, folks who are doing Nonfiction November are talking about what makes a book you've read (specifically, a nonfiction book) one of your favorites.  A book that immediately came to mind when I read what Helen posted on her blog was Atul Gawande's Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (2014).  I read this book in February and rated it 10 of 10 because I couldn't put it down.  I've recommended it to several people since then, both online and in person.  I notice  that I saved several quotes from it in my list of books read in 2019 (scroll down to #14), but I've never shared them in a post here on my blog.  Now's a good time to do it.

"Research has shown that loss of bone density may be a better predictor of death from atherosclerotic disease than cholesterol levels" (p. 30).

"The three primary risk factors for falling are poor balance, taking more than four prescription medications, and muscle weakness" (p. 40).

"Three Plagues of nursing home existence:  boredom, loneliness, and helplessness" (p. 116).

"Four crucial questions.  At this moment in your life ... :
1. Do you want to be resuscitated if your heart stops?
2. Do you want aggressive treatments such as intubation and mechanical ventilation?
3. Do you want antibiotics?
4. Do you want tube or intravenous feeding if you can't eat on your own?" (p. 179).

"What were her biggest fears and concerns?  What goals were most important to her?  What trade-offs was she willing to make, and what ones was she not?" (p. 234).

"For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. ... And in stories, endings matter" (pp. 238, 239).

"People want to share memories, pass on wisdoms and keepsakes, settle relationships, establish their legacies, make peace with God, and ensure that those who are left behind will be okay.  They want to end their stories on their own terms" (p. 249).

The vital questions:  "What is your understanding of the situation and its potential outcomes?   What are your fears and what are your hopes?  What are the trade-offs you are willing to make and not willing to make?  And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?" (p. 259).

Why is it a favorite?  I live in a retirement center, so I see lots of elderly people daily.  One of my friends died in July, while I was in Montana.  Another died in October.  A friend who eats at my table in the dining room is in another hospital getting chemo, and a neighbor on my floor is in another hospital.  I'll be 80 in April, so end of life is on my mind, too. 

Yesterday, some of us took a survey about senior housing administered by Washington University students inquiring about what's offered, what's needed, whether we have those things here, and to what extent.  The Crown Center is for independent living, but HOW independent are we?  Do we need help dressing? taking medicine? cooking? bathing? shopping? cleaning our own apartments?

Being Mortal is a book for people ready and willing to face their own mortality, but I think it's equally important that physicians and medical people read it.  As a doctor speaking to other doctors, Gawande says they've been focused on the wrong thing:  keeping people alive, even if they are miserable and maybe tied into a wheelchair in the hallway of a nursing home.  He advocates asking people what THEY want out of what's left of their lives.  I agree wholeheartedly.

This single book is enough about nonfiction favorites for me today, but maybe I'll write about another book or two later.

If you click this link, you can read what others have written about nonfiction this week.

Two novels on TWOsday

Postcards From a Stranger by Imogen Clark?  Or The Memory Tree by Linda Gillard?  Which should I read next?  Last night, I finished reading A Fire Sparkling by Julianne MacLean and wanted to read more fiction.  I decided either of these two novels I recently put on my Kindle looked promising.  But which?  Choices, choices.  Click on the titles to read about the two books.  I picked "Postcards" and started reading it, but if it doesn't grab me, I may put it aside for the other novel.  Have you read either one?

Why are we here?

     A mother and baby camel are talking one day when the baby camel asks, “Mom, why have I got these huge three-toed feet?”
     The mother replies, “Well, son, when we trek across the desert your toes will help you to stay on top of the soft sand.”
     “OK,” said the son.  A few minutes later the son asks, “Mom, why have I got these great long eyelashes?”
     “They are there to keep the sand out of your eyes on the trips through the desert.”
     “Thanks, Mom,” replies the son.
     After a short while, the son returns and asks, “Mom, why have I got these great big humps on my back?”
     The mother, now a little impatient with her son replies, “They are there to help us store water for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without drinking for long periods.”
     “That’s great Mom, so we have huge feet to stop us sinking, and long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes, and these humps to store water, but Mom...”
     “Yes, son?”

     “What the heck are we doing in the zoo?”

Beginning ~ twice

Part One: GILLIAN ~ November 2011

"I should have seen it coming — felt the tremors before the big quake."

Part Two: VIVIAN ~ May 1939

"In the hours before Theodore Gibbons met the great love of his life, he was riding by train in a first-class carriage, on his way back to London while contemplating how best to propose to quite another woman altogether."

A Fire Sparkling ~ by Julianne MacLean, 2019, fiction

After a crushing betrayal by the man she loves, Gillian Gibbons flees to her family home for a much-needed escape, but when she finds an old photograph of her grandmother in the arms of a Nazi officer, Gillian’s life gets even more complicated.  Rattled by the discovery, Gillian attempts to unravel the truth behind the photos, setting her off on an epic journey through the past.

In 1939, England is on the brink of war as Vivian Hughes falls in love with a handsome British official, but when bombs begin to fall and Vivian’s happy life is destroyed in the blitz, she will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves.

As Gillian learns more about her grandmother’s past, the old photo begins to make more sense.  But for every question answered, a new one takes its place.  Faced with a truth that is not at all what she expected, Gillian attempts to shine a light not only on the mysteries of her family’s past, but also on her own future.

My thoughts:  I'm kind of tired of novels that jump back and forth from the past to the present, but I bought this for my Kindle anyway.  Why?  Because it looks interesting to me.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Click this link for more book beginnings.

Mindy is a happy kitty

Mindy being petted today.

Do you consider these words obsolete?

I still use lots of these words.  To begin with, "shenanigans" is at the top of this blog!  And Clawdia, who's much younger than I am, used the word "caterwauling" a couple of years ago.  Bookfool regularly posts "Monday Malarkey" on her blog.  Nancy (the Bookfool) and I both wonder if this is a legit compilation of words, since we use so many of them ourselves.  It's originally from Vintage, Paint and More on Facebook, who wrote:

"This list of 'obsolete words' came up in my feed and I had to laugh.  Oh, so many of them come from my youth, and I still use a lot of them today.  How many of them have you used or still use?  Or are they words you've never heard?" [edited]

Some are words I've never seen, and at least one is not spelled correctly.  "Nucklehead" should be "knucklehead," which means "a stupid person" according to the online dictionary.  I've never heard "whosemegadget" or "skewwiff."  My nephew called his grandmother (my mother) "gallivanting granny" when she took him to visit relatives in another state.  Merriam-Webster spells "rigmarole" with another a:  "rigamarole," which is the way I say it.  The other spelling is also correct, apparently.  "Audacity" doesn't seem old at all, and I need "whatchamacallit" frequently, now that I'm getting old and forgetful.

Thinking outside the box

Hmm, you could say I moved from the pan (Tennessee) to the shirt (Missouri) five years ago.  Tell us a story about one of those highlighted states.  Do you live in any of them?  Yesterday's snow is still on the ground in St. Louis, part of the white shirt.  Is it white up there in the chef's hat state today?