The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees

My mom loaned me her copy of this book.  I liked the story, and I think it's cool that someone would attempt to fill in some of the unknowns about a beloved author.  The idea of researching all they can, finding holes, then using facts and imagination to fill them in appeals to me.  I think that's why I liked this book.

The story is exactly what the title says.  It takes place during the summer of 1955 when the Bronson Alcott familymoves to Walpole, New Hampshire.  Louisa comes alive as a young woman who desperately wants to be a writer and struggles with society's rules and expectations for her. "Why would God give a woman talent if He meant her to be confined to the kitchen and washtub?"  Her character is of course similiar to Jo, and the story for awhile seemed too much like a Little Women copy cat.  But then as I got more into the romance, and the inner struggle that Louisa wrestles with, I felt like it did have merit of its own.

I loved studying the transcendentalists in high school and college, but I don't remember a whole lot about Bronson Alcott.  It was interesting to read the author's ideas, which are probably fact-based, about the effects that having a highly philosophical father might have had on his daughters.  Bronson refused to work for money, and so the family was always poor, however their mother Abagail thought constantly of those less fortunate, and gave away anything they might store up.  I hadn't really thought about how living those transcending ideals would work in a family.  Thoreau could go live at Walden without depriving anyone but himself, but the Alcott daughters didn't have a lot of options themselves.  This theme is mentioned a few times throughout.  Emerson is portrayed well here, and it made me wonder how many of his friends he helped keep afloat!

Joseph Singer is introduced as a young man who might be a intellectually stimulating match for Louisa.  They  connect over Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, so of course now I've got to read it.  Louisa describes it,
"Her father would say that the chaos of life, its unpredictability, existed to challenge one's commitment to improvement, that one must extract himself piece by piece out of the wildness and assemble a spirit that transcends the sum of mere body parts.  Mr. Whitman seemed to say, rather, that the wildness itself was the thing to cultivate.  For him, the spirit and the flesh were one, the physical experience of the world was divinity."
Then she says that men will go on arguing these matters forever, "The women, meanwhile, would continue to peel the vegetables and soak the linens in boiling tubs and mend the torn seams and bring new lives into the world."

Another thing this book reminded me of was how much work there was to be done in 1855.  These young women spent so many hours of each day doing menial tasks.  I feel that way a lot, but reading this made me so grateful for my leisure time.  For not having to mend clothing each day, or wash dishes by hand, and glad to have vacuum cleaners.

As a reader, I wanted Louisa to fall in love, to believe Joseph when he says, "There are some men out there who are charmed by an independent woman, who feel that marriage can be an equal partnership of head and heart.  Who would love you just as you are..."  But I do like her choice at the end better than her choice in the middle.  I don't want to spoil much, but if you read this, lets talk!

I also thought this comment was insightful, because haven't you heard people try that excuse before?
"I think this real love you talk about is only an excuse for selfishness.  It is the love of an inpatient boy, not a grown man.  A grown man knows that in life we may not always simply have whatever we want."

I liked this book and I think it was a fun idea for a story.  I think this qualifies as a fun, light summer read.

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

I'm pretty sure I put a hold on this book after hearing about it from my cousin Betsy, but I can't remember.  I haven't written a review for awhile.  I'm still working my way through The Optimistic Child, which I am really liking, and it's just been a busy end of school-start of summertime around here!

This book was a nice dive back into novel reading for me after taking a few weeks off.  You know how I love a spunky 12 year old girl protagonist!  Abilene has been sent to live with strangers while her father works on the railroad for the summer.  She is brave and knows how to take care of herself, but is still lonely for her father that loves her and worries that their separation might not be temporary.  She has a sweet voice, and talks about "universals," the things you can count on in any town.  Things like snobby rich girls, chalky classrooms and things "everyone knows" except the new girl.

Abilene is anxious to learn more about her father's life in Manifest, and is searching for any stories about him.  There's a really poetic part where she notices footprints all over the wood floors, and wonders if any might be her father's from when he lived there.  She sets off to discover the mysteries hidden in a box of letters and mementos she has found.  As she reads the letters, her neighbor Miss Sadie fills in more stories.  So the book switches back and forth from 1936 when Abilene is living in Manifest, to 1918 when her father was living there.  I think the two stories weave together well.

I liked how the characters were nice!  The circumstances were often sad surrounding both Abilene and Jinx, but you could feel that they felt safe and loved in Manifest.  My favorite part was when the town (in 1918) worked together to outbid the coal mine bosses for some property.  It was a perfect example of coming together and making something good out of what seems like a hopeless situation. (Even if it did involve alcohol and a con!)

"'Amen,' they said in unison, these citizens of the world, and they held their breath as the many and varied ingredients that had been simmered and stewed, distilled and chilled, were combined to make something new.  Something greater than the sum of its parts."

There were times when the story felt a little slow to me.  Like there were a few threads going, and many of them weren't going anywhere.  The search for "the rattler" for instance, seemed to go by the wayside, then was wrapped up at the end without much to do.  And Sister Redempta, who I loved, seemed to fade away too.

I liked the characters in this book, but didn't really fall in love with them the way I hoped.  The small town setting, characters trying to discover more about their past, growing up, working together, these are the kind of themes that endear books to me, but this one fell a little short for me. 

BUT, I would recommend this.  It is a good read.  I think it would be great for anyone who likes heart-warming stories, and especially if you like historical fiction.  I would recommend it for kids too.  Maybe 9 and up?  This is Clare Vanderpool's first book and it won a Newbery medal! I'm looking forward to reading the next books she writes and I hope I like them even more!

The Honey Thief by Elizabeth Graver

I think this book was OK. Because the characters and the story had so much potential, I think it could have been a really great book, and it fell short. (Mine had different cover art, but I couldn't find the image)

The chapters alternate between three different characters' perspective, but their stories are wrapped up together.  Miriam is mother, whose husband died a few years ago, and she has just moved her daughter out of New York City because she is worried about her. Eva is her 11-year-old daughter who had started shoplifting small items, and is lonely in their new house out in the country.  Burl lives near Miriam and Eva, and runs a little farm.  Eva begins hanging out around his place, and as he teaches her about keeping bees, they become friends.

I really liked reading the dynamics between Miriam and Eva.  They were sad and even painful at times, but you feel like there is hope for their relationship.  You want to sit them down and mediate!  Both were interesting characters.  In Miriam's chapters, she goes back and explains her whole relationship with Eva's father, Francis.  I think that may have been my favorite part, even as it ended in tragedy.  Burl was interesting too, but I got a little distracted by his relationship with Alice.  I felt like I wasn't always getting enough information to really understand who the author intended him to be.

I was also annoyed by what seemed like unneeded little sexual details.  Little shocking phrases or moments.  And there is this one scene that is so unnecessary and so uncomfortable.

The writing was really beautiful at times.  I liked when Miriam heard her deceased mother give her instructions, advice and courage.  I liked the self-reflection in each of the characters. 

Here are a few good quotes: (Which I just realized are all from Miriam's chapters!)

"Watching him, she felt an almost painful tenderness for all the muffled parts of people, all the far, far parts."


"Later, when she thought back on that night, Miriam would be struck by how time was the most elastic, the most flexible of properties, a year in a minute, an hour in a second."


"It's over, she had said, but it was over and not, just like he was Francis and not, just like this was a life she could want an regret at the same time."

I think ultimately, I wanted to find out more about Eva. Is she just going through a tough time in her life, or is she teetering on the edge of mental illness. Is anyone going to try to figure out? Will she please open up to someone about her fear and compulsions? I didn't need a perfect, tidy ending, but I needed more than the writer gave.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I was given this book for my birthday by my fabulous sisters.  When I first read the back of the book, I thought the topic was very interesting, and I would definetly like to read an article about it.  At the same time, I kind of worried that an entire book might be a little too much.  BUT, I was pleasantly surprised.  I would have read this all in one sitting if I lived that sort of life!  I did read it as much as I could during the day, and way later into the night than I should have.  The book focuses more on the human story of HeLa, than the scientific importance.  The science is definitely there, but it is explained in a way everyone can understand and relate too.  I think maybe because I can relate to Rebecca Skloot (really just being the same age and race) more than the Lack family, I enjoyed that her efforts to get the information and write the book were also included in the story.  (I read a couple reviews that did not appreciate this aspect.)

Henrietta was a poor black woman who grew up working on a tobacco farm with her extended family.  Shortly after the birth of her fifth child, she found out she had cervical cancer.  This was in 1951, she was treated, but the cancer spread and she died.  Samples of both her healthy cells and cancer cells were taken by scientists at John Hopkins when she was treated, and the cancer cells were the first human cells to survive and keep reproducing outside the body.  This was revolutionary, and the cell line called HeLa changed the world in many different ways.  Everytime Rebecca Skloot lists off scientific advances that have used HeLa, it is impressive. 

 Even though they were responsible for taking the cells without asking or informing Henrietta and her family, I really enjoyed reading about George Gey and his wife Margaret.  I liked that Gey built his labs out of scrap metal and  invented amazing things for scientific research without patenting them.  He sent the HeLa cells to anyone who was using them for scientific research.  I feel like his motives were good, he wasn't looking for fame, he was just a really smart guy that was obsessed with science.  I enjoyed the simplified explanations of how cells were used, and how specifically HeLa's cells allowed scientists to study so many different things. 

Henrietta's family really suffered after she died.  Her children were mistreated and abused by the cousin who came into take care of them.  I actually skipped a couple of pages that went into detail about this.  Three of her kids were still really young when she died, and an other one had been institutionalized for epilepsy and other illnesses.  Luckily, the oldest brother married a woman, Bobette, that figured out what was going on and rescued the kids.  Sadly, the damage had already been done.  Add to that poverty, un-diagnosed hearing problems and struggles with the law, and her children had really hard lives.  When they were asked for blood samples years later, bits and pieces of the history of their mother's cells were explained to them.  But not explained well.  They each struggled with it in different ways.  I think their reactions are well-justified, and as they slowly confide in the author and explain their experiences, you can really understand why they each reacted they way they did.  Some of the descendants wanted financial retribution, which is also understandable since they are all struggling with different illnesses, and many don't have health insurance.  Ultimately, they just want people to know who their mother was, and better understand themselves.

Much of the story comes from Deborah, who was only 2 or 3 when her mom died.  She has a lot of spunk, and definetly grows on you as she searches for information about her mom.  I think the biggest tragedy in the book is not that the cells were taken, but that those 5 kids lost their mom when they were so young.  I'm sure they would have still had struggles, but if they had had Henrietta to love them and teach them, I think things would have worked out better.

Rebecca Skloot explains different advances in patient privacy and disclosure.  She outlines different agencies' attempts to prevent what happened to the Lacks family from happening again.  But doctors can still store and use your cells without you knowing.  As I read the different issues and concerns, I wondered how I would feel if I found out 20 years later that my cells had been used.  Honestly, if anyone asked me, I would happily donate blood or tissues for scientific research.  I know when different kids of mine were born, we were asked to participate in different studies.  I find that kind of stuff fascinating.  One of them is in a data base for hearing loss, when my last baby was born we were finally able to donate cord blood.  I'm sure if it isn't used for a transfusion, they'll use it for research, and I'm really OK with all that.  One study even says that my appendix that was removed a while back could still be around in a lab somewhere.  But I'm OK with that.

I recommend this book.  It will be different than anything else you've read.  It is very interesting, educational and thought-provoking.  It seems to be very popular, so I'd love to hear what you thought of it.

Wish You Well by David Baldacci

I really liked this novel and recommend it.  I realized about 30 pages in that I had read this book before.  I went a little crazy trying to remember when, and who had recommended it to me.  I still haven't figured it out.  I enjoyed reading it again, and found I already had all the imagery of the setting in my head.

Lou is 12 and her brother is 7 when they are in a tragic car crash that leaves their mom in a catatonic state, and they move to live with their Great-grandma high in the mountains of Virginia.  Of course Lou is spunky, smart and endearing.  You love her from the start, faults and all.  Oz is a sweet little boy who teaches Lou through his limitless faith and ability to love.

The story is predictable (even if you haven't read it before), but it's still nice.  The main characters learn what you hope they will learn, and their relationships grow as they have to rely on each other.  Life is hard, there's a very real "enemy," and the poor kids have to deal with loss after loss.  BUT overall you leave with a good feeling.  It reminds me most of To Kill a Mockingbird.  And it has a nice storybook ending.

In his Author's Note, David Baldacci says: "Once we reach adulthood, most of us assume we know all there is to know about our parents and other family members.  However, if you take the time to ask questions and actually listen to the answers, you may find there is still much to learn about people so close to you."  I had this type of experience right before my dad died.  My sisters were filling out a little Grandpa book, and I learned some great stories about my dad's life as a child that somehow I hadn't ever heard before.  So I agree with his sentiment.

Here's a quote from one of the new friends they make on the mountain: "See, that why I ain't go to church.  Figger I got me a church wherever I be.  Want'a talk to God, well I say, 'Howdy-howdy, God,' and we jaw fer a bit."

Another one I liked:  "________ had had no material possessions to his name and yet had been the happiest creature Lou had ever met.  He and God would no doubt get along famously."

My favorite, that choked me up a bit:

"One day you're gonna get bigger than me, then I'm going to be running to you when I get scared."

"How do you know that?"

"Because that's the deal God makes between big sisters and their little brothers."

There's an afterward titled, Today, which kind of felt like those updates on the characters that sometimes roll at the end of movies.  It seemed a little unnecessary to me.  I did really like the Letter from the Author, which followed it, that included old photographs of his ancestors that lived in the mountains.

Have any of you read it?  Did you recommend it to me years ago?  Like 6 or 7?  I hate when I can't remember stuff!

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I saw this book on my cousin Betsy's blog, then a few places after that, but I was way down the list on the library hold request.  Luckily, on Saturday I saw a copy in the teen section of the library!  Yay!  It is a Newberry winner, and the back says it is for 8-12 year old readers.  Because of that, you can read it quick.  Probably one sitting.  I liked it very much. 

I was a little put off in the beginning with all the references to the past, or future, or whatever.  But after getting over that, there wasn't anything else I didn't like in the book. 

Miranda is the main character.  She is 12, and lives with her mom in an apartment in New York.  She learns a lot about friendship and being nice through the course of the book.  She is smart, relatable and likable.  I liked Rebecca Stead's easy writing style.

Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, and hopefully you've read it because she does reference it a lot.  If you love A Wrinkle in Time, there's even more of a chance that you will really like this book. She has a bit of an mystery to solve herself after notes that seem to predict the future start appearing.  She feels nervous about them.  In fact, she is scared about a few things, and I like that.  I feel like she seems very normal, and even though she has a good life, nothing is too perfect.  She starts the story talking about how her best (only) friend had decided to take a break from her.  Because of that, she starts making new friends.  I thought that those relationships were portrayed really well.  I also liked the clever backdrop of helping her mom prepare to go on The $20,000 pyramid.

Here are a few quotes I really liked.

"It's all still there, like a movie I can watch when I want to.  Which is never."

"Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean. It's like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten.  And the way you usually act, the things you would have normally done, are like these ghosts that everyone can see but pretends not to."

"They were circling each other and laughing and racing around and I wanted to be part of it so much that my heart almost broke watching."

The Blue Castle by L.M.Montgomery

I really liked this book!  Having re-read Anne of Green Gables recently, I was excited to read something else by L.M.  While the story is different, it leaves you with a similiar happy feeling.

Valancy is 29, in the 1920's in Canada.  She is part of a stuffy, snobby and controlling family.  She lives in an ugly room, does the same boring things each day and takes the brunt of rude behavior from her mother and extended family. "As far as she could look back, life was drab and colourless, with not one single crimson or purple spot anywhere.  As far as she could look forward it seemed certain to be just the same...."  The beginning felt kind of slow to me.  I didn't really want to try to keep all the relatives straight.  I did think it was funny when Valancy plays out in her head what each relative would say and do because her life and the people in it are so predictable.

Then, bom-bom-bom, she gets some news after a sneaky visit to a doctor, and Valancy decides to start living her life for herself.  She will say and do only what she wants.  Then her life really begins. 

And as in any good fairy-tale, there is a sweet romance.  (Although I don't love how it gets started.)   I love this description, "When he said good evening you felt that it was a good evening and that it was partly his doing that it was.  Also, you felt that some of the credit was yours." 

The Blue Castle is the imaginary home that Valancy used to escape to as a refuge from her boring, controlled life.  Her fantasies about it remind me of Anne.  But I also loved how when her life improves, she refers to her new home as The Blue Castle.  Not because it was what she had imagined, but because it made her dreams come true.  As she is reflecting on her happiness, she thinks, "It was amazing to be able to sit up half the night and look at the moon if you wanted to...Dawdle over meals as long as you wanted to....Sit on a sun-warm rock and paddle your bare feet in the hot sand if you wanted to.  Just sit and do nothing in the beautiful silence if you wanted to."  Sounds good to me.

I found this a charming little book.  I would recommend it for a quick fun read.  I think Disney could make it into a cute cartoon princess movie.  It's that kind of book.

Swimming by Nicola Keegan

I picked this up from the "Best Bets" shelf at my library.  I chose it based on the cover (see image right), and this description on the back, "Keegan's energy jumps off the page....Swimming is a wonderful coming-of-age story, a richly detailed account of a young woman channeling her rage, grief and insecurity into a passion to win.  The voice Keegan has invented for Pip is sarcastic, thoughtful, elegant, irreverent."  Plus, Judy Blume said, "I loved Swimming.  It's the most original novel I've read all year.  I can't get Pip's voice out of my mind.  Give yourself a treat this summer--read this book."  Seems like a book that I would like, right?  And while I didn't hate it, I wouldn't really recommend it.  There are so many better books.

I haven't ever read a book written in exactly this style.  It's first person, kind of stream of consciousness and all in Philomena's head.  The dialogue is only differentiated with italics, and chronology, ages, even settings, are often vague.  Sometimes she is telling you an old memory and then switches to what's happening now without any transition.  I thought it was interesting, and for me it worked sometimes, but other times it didn't.

Philomena is an interesting character.  You like her, then she and her friends are so mean and vulgar that you don't, then you feel bad for her and her falling apart family, then you feel proud, then annoyed.  I'm just not sure if over all I like her.  And even though you are in her head the whole time, it still feels detached. 

The story is really sad.  Her sister dies of cancer, a little later her dad dies in a plane crash, her mom stops leaving the house, her dog dies, and another sister ODs.  It has some good moments (like 11 Olympic gold medals!!) and some family reconciliations.  I enjoyed all the swimming stuff and also some insights the characters make.  I also liked how she uses "nervous breakdown" instead of "anxiety attack"  because, that's what they were called in the 80's.

Here are some quotes I thought were worth sharing:

"I feel the immense power of the dead, as if someone's flipped a switch and now I can see what's been making the shadows."


"If you move an atom, somewhere else an atom stops and starts twisting in the opposite direction.  Something like that has happened; things are exactly the same but twisting.  This is the opposite of joy."


"I only appreciate drama when it happens to fake people.  Roxanne doesn't like drama unless she's creating it.  Dot accepts drama as the weight she has to carry as naturally as her bones, but drama open a third eye in my mother, who now sees the drama in all things."


"So I opt for an English major with a French option.  English is better than perfect.  I sit around listening to real people talk about fake ones."


"There are two sea turtles swimming in front of her, an old one and a new one, with green froggy faces, two marble eyes, a round snout.  I feel my heart flood with love.  I am at one with everything as my breath bubbles out my tube into the hot dry air."


"Babies are...I've never thought...I stop mid sentence, filled with a dose of terror so intense my palms start to weep...What if you forget about it for a second and it rummages around in its bed until it buries itself in a blanket?  What if you leave it on the bed and it rolls on to a knife?"

So, I enjoyed parts of this book.  I'm interested to see what Nicola Keegan will do next.  I think she's a pretty good writer.  But I think there are enough other, better books for you to read.

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag By Alan Bradley

Griff brought this purple beauty home from the library.  It's the next Flavia de Luce Mystery, and it didn't disappoint me.  If you liked The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I think you'll like this.  She's still 10 going on 11, her family is the same and she solves another murder.  I thought it was another fun read, but the crime is a bit more tragic this time around.  Also, one of the things I liked about the first book was discovering Flavia's spunk and charm, but this time I already knew and loved her so that spark wasn't there. Even so, I loved reading her next adventure and I'm looking forward to A Red Herring Without Mustard.

Here are some quotes to further devote you to Flavia:

"Very well, then, I thought.  Actually, I thought more than that, but since I'm trying to be a better person..."

"You are unreliable, Flavia." he said. "Utterly unreliable."
Of course I was!  It was one of the things I loved most about myself!"

"At this, a great laugh went up from the children in the audience, and I have to admit I chuckled a little myself.  I'm at that age where I watch such things with two minds, one that cackles at these capers and another that never gets much beyond a rather jaded and self-conscious smile, like the Mona Lisa."

"All was in readiness.  The house lights had already been lowered to a level of delicious expectation.  Incidental music floated from backstage, and from time to time, the red velvet curtains on the puppet stage gave an enticing twitch."  I think this shows the perfect amount of description and adjectives.

If you were worried that the next book wouldn't be as good as first, you might be right.  But it's not far behind.  I recommend picking it up.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

It's been a couple weeks and a fabulous vacation since I finished this book, so I've kind of struggled to focus my thoughts into a review. 

I liked Cutting for Stone, I got into the characters and their lives, and couldn't put it down.  But it is long, it is sad and it includes a lot of details that can be hard to read.  The book centers around doctors working in a charity hospital in Ethiopia.  There are a lot of surgical procedures, medical conditions and social interactions described in great detail.  To me it didn't seem too graphic, it seemed more National Geographic, but I didn't take the time to really visualize the gory details.  If you are looking to commit to a good, long story, I think you should try this book.

Now that I've got my warnings out of the way, it's important to say that the real story is more about family, loyalty and decisions the characters make.  Marion and Shiva are twins whose mother dies during their birth.  They are then raised by another man and woman at the hospital.  This all unfolds so sweetly, that I hate too summarize to much.  I really like the way Verghese writes and introduces his characters.  He also has a cool way of dropping hints, not quite foreshadowing, that I loved.

"But now, when her newborns, her Shiva and Marion, cried, it was like no other earthly sound.  It summoned her from sleep's catacombs and brought shushing noises to her throat as she rushed to the incubator.  It was a personal call--her babies wanted her! 
She remembered a phenomenon she'd experienced for years when she was about to fall asleep: a sense that someone was calling her name.  Now she told herself it had been her unborn twins telling her they were coming."

Isn't that pretty?  I think maybe Verghese could be edited down a bit.  But I feel that way about a lot of LONG novels.  He gives a lot of background to each of his characters, and some people might find it tedious. 

There's a part where Ghosh is teaching Marion about what to listen for when checking a patient's pulse.  As Marion begins to understand he reflects, "How exciting to be able to touch a human being with one's fingertips and know all these things about them.  I said as much to Ghosh, and from his expression you would think I'd said something profound."  The philosophies that each of the doctors adopt and explain through out the book are fascinating to me.

I really liked Marion, he chose to be a moral person when he was young.  Then there were moments when others assume he has done something his brother did, and he doesn't set them straight.  I wanted to scream at him to clear his name and explain what was really going on.  But of course he doesn't.  That drove me crazy, but also drove the plot for good and bad.  I felt like the main characters were really noble, and I thought about them when I wasn't reading.

In the prologue, it says "Life, too, is like that.  You live it forward, but understand it backward."  I liked thinking about that too.

Here's another part I liked, "When Ghosh emerged from the house, running as fast as he could, and when he grabbed me, fear and concern in his eyes, the last of my illusions vanished.  The adults weren't in charge."  I can remember that feeling when you are young and you realize that your parents can't control everything.

On a lighter note, he describes his parents bridge nights.  "A burst of conversation like a collective sigh signaled the end of a round. I loved to observe them play."   I remember hearing the exact same thing during my parents' Nertz parties!

And I LOVED this,  "I spent as much time as I could with Ghosh.  I wanted every bit of wisdom he could import to me.  All sons should write down every word of what their fathers have to say to them.  I tried.  Why did it take an illness for me to recognized the value of time with him?  It seems we humans never learn.  And so we relearn the lessons every generation and then want to write epistles."

And this, "He sat self-consciously on the edge of the bed.  He touched my hand.  His lips parted.
'Wait,' I said.  'Don't say anything yet.'  I looked out of the window at the clouds, at distant smokestacks.  The world was intact now, but I knew once he spoke it wouldn't be so.'"  This reminds me of a quote from Spanglish.  Something like, "can you repeat that because I couldn't hear anything after the crack in the planet."  Both referring to horrible life-changing moments when you know having heard something, nothing will ever be the same.  But I think it's beautifully written here.

I liked Verghese's writing style.  I can't read book after book that is this detailed and involved, but every now and then I like a really meaty novel.  I thought there were some really good character traits illustrated, and I loved the way that the doctors at the hospital functioned as a family.  Even when the events were heartbreaking, I loved reading how they handled them.  I also felt there were really profound statements thought and spoken through the characters. 

This is definitely a thought-provoking discussion-worthy book.  Tell me what you thought about it!