justprerna's reviews
473 reviews
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2.0
Read this in March. Not anything great. Barely remember anything.
Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward
4.0
A dreadfully clever book. Each chapter starts with a philosophical thought experiment that is to be addressed in the succeeding pages. I found each chapter to be better than the last. The seemingly unrelated narrators were nice, and then once understanding dawns and you realize how the stories connect, it is quite a treat. The stories themselves are endearing, very much for our new world.
Upon sleeping on my thoughts, I see no reason why not to give this book 4 stars instead of 3.
Upon sleeping on my thoughts, I see no reason why not to give this book 4 stars instead of 3.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
5.0
When I started reading this book, I asked myself, “what am I hoping to get out of this reading?” I knew what was going to happen in the book. I had already been familiar with the life of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, and I knew, knowing me, and perhaps read this book for this reason alone, that I would be devastated. I thought I wanted to maybe know more about Dr Kalanithi’s life, or maybe I wanted to have more insight about his experience as a doctor and patient and his insights about the doctor-patient relationship.
Whatever I had thought going in, I got, but in less abundance than the personal parts of the end of his life. I had to read this book at times as a fictional novel, rather than a memoir, to alleviate the too real nature of the tragedy. However, any time I did this, I felt extremely guilty for being selfish and reductive in my reading of Paul’s story.
The larger parts of the takeaway for me were the human-ness of illness, and the personage of the patient. The parts that impacted me were Paul’s struggle with his death sentence, his hope to leave his wife taken care of, his rueing of his brilliance as a neurosurgeon and his trying to bridge the gap between doctor and patient. This is a story of the state of healthcare and the nature of the beast that is terminal illness, told via the personal and powerful experience of a doctor and husband. I wanted very badly to deduct a star from the rating for the slump this book put me in afterwards, but the important messages that Paul wanted to transmit stayed with me through this writing, and I am sure will stay with me in the future, and positively impact me, hence I abstain from such pettiness.
Whatever I had thought going in, I got, but in less abundance than the personal parts of the end of his life. I had to read this book at times as a fictional novel, rather than a memoir, to alleviate the too real nature of the tragedy. However, any time I did this, I felt extremely guilty for being selfish and reductive in my reading of Paul’s story.
The larger parts of the takeaway for me were the human-ness of illness, and the personage of the patient. The parts that impacted me were Paul’s struggle with his death sentence, his hope to leave his wife taken care of, his rueing of his brilliance as a neurosurgeon and his trying to bridge the gap between doctor and patient. This is a story of the state of healthcare and the nature of the beast that is terminal illness, told via the personal and powerful experience of a doctor and husband. I wanted very badly to deduct a star from the rating for the slump this book put me in afterwards, but the important messages that Paul wanted to transmit stayed with me through this writing, and I am sure will stay with me in the future, and positively impact me, hence I abstain from such pettiness.