bookshelf

HOPE FOR A COOL PILLOW

Name: HOPE FOR A COOL PILLOW
Author: Margaret Overton
ISBN: 978-1-937402-90-7

by Margaret Overton ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016

A timely, informed contribution to the ongoing debate over our nation’s health care policies.

bookshelf

A moving argument for the reform of end-of-life care.

In 2010, as her mother declined from dementia, anesthesiologist Overton (Good in a Crisis, 2012) enrolled in a nine-month Executive Education course at the Harvard Business School called Managing Healthcare Delivery. She was searching for answers about the failures of the health care system, particularly about ways in which practitioners treat dying patients. In a patient’s last year of life, she discovered, “nearly one in three had surgery”; in the last month, “nearly one out of five”; and in the last week, “nearly one out of ten….Those are astounding numbers,” she admits, and believes the profit motive—on the parts of drug companies and hospitals—is driving unnecessary and expensive interventions. Patients who undergo such treatment do not live longer than those in hospice, where the cost is about one-third of that in hospitals. Interwoven with her reflections on the Harvard course and her own medical work, the author sensitively recounts her parents’ last years. Her father endured bouts of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery for metastasized cancer, each time told by physicians that he would not suffer. But he did: “is lying easier than telling people the truth?” Overton asks. “We routinely make people suffer for no clear benefit except to ourselves,” she writes, and communicate in “euphemisms and circumlocutions.” Eventually, her father experienced excellent hospice care, but her mother had a less positive experience. With hospice now “big business,” Overton strongly recommends comparison shopping. She also advocates setting up medical directives, making wishes known to loved ones, and being aware of such organizations as Compassion & Choices and the Final Exit Network. Based on her personal and professional experiences, the author is convinced that neither legislation alone nor the health care industry can solve its complex problems. Capitalism, she concludes has “ruined healthcare.”

A timely, informed contribution to the ongoing debate over our nation’s health care policies.

Pub Date: March 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-937402-90-7

Page Count: 196

Publisher: Outpost19

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.