Archive for October, 2009

T.R. Reid begins The Healing of America with the premise that a nation’s health care system is a reflection of it’s basic moral values.   Instead of dry lists of statistics or muddled ranting he offers an insightful journey through the four basic models of health care delivery and how they are practiced around the world.  He uses an old shoulder injury causing pain and limited range of motion as the vehicle to compare how health care is provided in Europe, Asia and the United States.  He not only talks with the doctors he sees, but other patients, people in government and related health care fields.  He suggests possible alternatives to the current state of American health care in a well reasoned, organized manner.  By offering examples that include the things that are satisfactory as well as those that are not, he shows how other systems change and adjust over time.  No system is perfect, but other systems deliver more and better care for less money than the American system, and leave no one at risk of death or financial ruin due to lack of insurance.  It is a pleasure to read this book, both for style and content. ~Marla Vandewater

Beginning in the waning years of Victorian England, following the lives and intermingling of five families and many acquaintances through the end of the first World War, The Children’s Book by A. S. Byatt is a sprawling novel of people in a world of art and social upheaval.  Olive Wellwood is a very successful writer of children’s literature.  In addition to her published works, she keeps an ongoing fairy tale, the center of their relationship, for each of her seven children.  She and her husband Humphrey consider themselves freethinkers.  They associate with artists, writers and intellectuals.  While Olive’s sister Violet lives with them and manages the household, the children are mostly left to raise themselves.  Through the lives of her characters, Byatt paints a picture of a society in a swirl of creative and intellectual ferment, of stories and beautiful objects and cafes full of intellectual exchange.  Below this surface of energy and creativity are many uncomfortable and ugly secrets and nothing is left out as the world of the parents overlaps the world of the children with complex and sometimes devastating consequences.   As always with A.S Byatt, the writing is superb, the scope impressive.  I loved this novel. ~Marla Vandewater