5 comments about My Father's Heart: A Son's Journey.

1. I heard about the book, "My Father's Heart: A Son's Journey" during an interview with the author, Steve McKee. The reason for the interest was loosing my husband suddenly last July 30, 2007 to a massive heart attack.
   We have 4 children, 2 boys then 2 girls. They range in age 41 - 47 years old.
   
   The children have become very conscious of making sure that they are getting thorough doctor examinations every year, something that, especially the men, have not been faithful in doing. They all do exercise. So this part is good. However, they are all having a very difficult time in the grieving process because of the closeness to their father. He was a very animated and loving man, so the void is great.
   
   When I listened to the interview on the Today Show, I thought that this book might just be something that the children should read to help them in their loss. I purchased 4 copies and gave a copy to each one on Valentine's Day.
   
   I have started to read the book and have found many similarities that I know they will be able to relate to.
   
   I was very happy to have found the book on Amizon.Com. The cost was a lot more reasonable then if I had bought these copies at a book store. I received the books 3 days after I ordered them.
   
   This book depicts the love of family and the loss of a very dear member of that family, even though the father, knowing his condition, did not take care of himself as he should have.



2. The number one killer in the United States has a personality. In Steve McKee's family odyssey--as with most people's--heart disease is very personal. It can snatch the life of your father, turn your world upside down, make you obsessively interested in your family tree, drive you to swear oaths of healthy eating and exercise, wring your worried hands over living long enough to see your own children make it to adulthood, curse the universe because you got what your father got, and finally understand that the life you want is up to you. "My Father's Heart" is as much about healthy hearts and loving hearts as it is about hearts under siege.



3. A touching book that brought me back to my own childhood...I am thankful to the author for impressing on me a very important lesson, that is, even though our fathers may pass on physically, their memories continue to live in our hearts forever influencing us in very important ways. Even though I was fortunate to have my father until he was 84 years old, it will always feel that he too was taken from our family too soon. My father's death, like the author's, from a heart condition, taught his children how very important it was to take better care of ourselves physically before it was too late. I especially appreciated the author's depiction of his childhood years, growing up in a neighborhood similar to my own in suburban Detroit. The author brought it all alive for me. This book is a GREAT read and I highly recommend it...



4. As a teenager author Steven McKee watched his father die of a heart attack in their living room, part of a family chain of heart disease and death caused by lifestyle and family heritage. Disappointed by his father's ignoring of his disease, the author vowed to keep his heart in top condition - yet a lifetime of dieting and exercise didn't change his own diagnosis of serious cardiovascular disease. McKee's probe into a family heritage of illness makes for a moving story blending health and genetic insights with his own discoveries of motivations for change and health, making for a moving, engrossing survey hard to put down. Both health libraries and general-interest collections will find it involving.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. Steve McKee has written a touching, nostalgic and informative book that will appeal to everyone.
   My Father's Heart is about Mr. McKee's family's experience of his father's fatal heart attack that came in the prime of his life. The book explores the personal and biological legacy of Mr. McKee's father's death. Cutting back and forth in time and geography Mr. McKee creates an engaging story that weaves themes of family and community relationships, coming of age and how he has come to terms with his father's heart attack and death.
   The book is also very informative about the current state of medical arts concerning healthy heart care and healthy living; the interplay of biological predispositions and the impact and control we can have on our own medical destinies. Mr. McKee leaves us with the reaffirming message that we are capable of influencing the course of our physical wellbeing and our life outlook.

1 comments about Sir Harold Ridley and His Figth for Sight: He Changed the World So That We May Better See It.

1. David Apple spent nearly 20 years documenting the story of Harold Ridley and the development of the intraocular lens. The story is fascinating and inspiring, how Mr. Ridley perservered despite overwhelming opposition from the medical establishment, to develop the lens implant, which restores normal vision after cataract surgery. As a bonus Dr. Apple relates the fascinating history of ophthalmology, World War II, and his own pioneering research into intraocular lens pathology.
   
   In an age where Dr. Christian Bernard is a household name for pioneering the heart transplant, Sir Harold Ridley should be a hero, as well, for improving the lives of the hundred million people who have benefited from his gift.

1 comments about Inventing Personality: Gordon Allport and the Science of Selfhood.

1. I do not have time now to write comprehensively about all the wonderful treasures I found in this book. There is the history of the industial mid-west around the turn of the last century, the intellectual climate of Harvard and Europe, especially Germany during the 1920s, also an account of an encounter between young Allport and Freud. What is revealed is the factors leading to the intellectual formation of Gordon Allport, a pre-eminent American psychologist. Unlike most others in his field, he was motivated by a deep and intense spiritual commitment. It is a great read, and should be of interest to many thoughtful people in general as well as to those psychologists, such as myself, who have been influenced by Allport's ideas.

1 comments about Doctor of the Heart.

1. After reading other books authored or co-authored by Dr. Baars, (Healing the Unaffirmed - Baars & Terruwe; Born Only Once - Baars; Feeling & Healing Your Emotions - Baars) I enjoyed reading the extraordinary story of his life. The book relates details of how Conrad "Koert" Baars was involved in WWII and then imprisoned at the hands of the Nazis in Buchenwald Concentration Camp for almost two years. It shows how that experience had a powerful effect on the rest of his life and gives the background for his delving into the psychology of healing and affirmation. After discovering the works of Dr. Anna Terruwe and collaborating with her - together they brought to the world the understanding that every person needs affirmation and love. They introduced and promoted the concept of the healing of the *whole* person - mind, body, and spirit. I highly recommend this book and the others written by these authors. They promote the wholeness and well-being of all men and women.

5 comments about One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew.

1. This is an excellent story on both Charles Drew and the power of myth in the African American community. I too grew up on the story of Charles Drew being refused treatment at a segregated hospital. Given the history of African Americans and the medical establishment, this was easy to believe, especially by those living under the oppressiveness of Jim Crow. For example, the sad story of WW II veteran Maltheus Avery being turned away by Duke University Hospital shows us why the Dr. Drew hospitalization refusal story took on a life of its own.
   
   The book also gave me some additional insight into just who Dr. Drew was as a man and as a physician. He truly was an outstanding man who exemplified manhood, scholarship, perseverance, and uplift. If I'm not mistaken, there is no comprehensive biography of Dr. Drew that has been written outside of the dozens of children's books about him. That's very surprising to me, given his accomplishments and his legendary status in medical circles and in the African American community.
   
   I applaud Ms. Love for writing a truly fascinating story that needed to be told, both of Dr. Drew and the stories that surrounded his death. This is non-fiction writing at its best.



2. Too often, what passes as "Black History" to the public on radio shows, the internet, etc. consists of myths and conspiracy theories as the "Willie Lynch Letter," The first president being Black, African-Americans being descended from Ancient Egyptians, ad nauseum. Spencie Love performs a well-needed service by debunking one of the most common (albeit one of the more plausible) of these myths-the idea that Black blood plasma pioneer Dr. Charles Drew bled to death because he was refused admission to a segregated hospital. Fact was, as she carefully demonstrates, this actually happened to another Black person named Maltheus Avery around the same time while Dr. Drew was treated responsibly at the time of this death.

   As a Black scholar, I have long decried the use of fabrication in the telling of Black history as something a people starved for true knowledge could ill-afford. Thank you Miss Love for showing people that REAL history does matter.




3. I decided to look up the Amazon site for Spencie Love's book "One Blood," because I recently wrote a review of Phillip Roth's "The Human Stain, where I point out the erroneous information provided by a character about the death of Dr. Charles Drew. The character claimed that Drew bled to death because he was refused admission to a Caucasian hospital due to his race. Lo and behold I look up this Amazon site and read the Ingram review of "One Blood," only to discover that it too, has erroneous information. The review claims that Drew was refused admission to one hospital, then treated in the emergency room of a segregated hospital, after which he bled to death. Apparently, the reviewer didn't read Love's book either. That's not what she describes as happening. Drew was IMMEDIATELY admitted to the emergency room of Allamance County Hospital in Allamance County, North Carolina, where doctors couldn't save him because he was entirely too injured to be saved. Love makes this VERY CLEAR in the book. The Ingram review implies that first Drew was taken to one hospital and refused admission, then taken to a "segregated" facility where he was treated, but couldn't be saved. No!!! This is not what Love says happened. In the book she describes how it was JUST ONE HOSPITAL ALL ALONG where Drew was taken and treated. Part of the point of her book is to correct the long held fallacy that Drew bled to death due to the refusal of a hospital to admit him. Please someone at Amazon, GET THE BOOK. Then read what she wrote. Then post my review of Roth's novel, where I express my dismay that Roth got away with furthering a myth that is still well entrenched among those who should research such matters before commenting about them (or having characters comment about them).



4. This wonderful book not only includes accurate, scholarly historical research, it tells a gripping story of two fine black families and their experience with health care for African-Americans in our society. Very readable.



5. Spencie Love has written one of the few genuinely biracial explorations of the history of black-white relations in the United States. She uses the story of Charles Drew to illustrate the ways in which white Americans have misunderstood and distorted the contributions of black Americans to their shared culture--whether science, politics, education, medicine, or daily life. THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW called this a "superb book" and their review was spot on.

1 comments about The Good Doctor Is Naked: Finding the Human Beneath My Mask.

1. What a vital message!
   "The Good Doctor is Naked" is Bob Barnes' personal story; but for me this book is so much more. For me, it speaks of what I have come to believe: I believe that if we, as a society, are to save ourselves from the terribly sad and neurotic existence we lead, we must re-define the word success.
   Here is a medical doctor who has achieved it all; society would say, "This guy made it... big!" I say that Bob Barnes has "made it...big",too. But I say it for different reasons: I say it because he has dared to be vulnerable, I say it because he has dared to be honest, I say it because he has dared to challenge his own definition of the word "success."
   Bob Barnes is saying to me that he could not find personal success until the "Real Bob Barnes" stood up. He is saying to me that his achievements stand; but that he is not the measure of his achievements. He is saying to me that he is the measure of his self knowledge, the measure of his self love, the measure of his honesty, the measure of his empathy and the measure of his service to his fellow man.
   What a wonderful definition of success.
   
   Louise Pluymen

4 comments about When Clowns Cry.

1. Due to the nature of the diseases, FSH, Cogenial, Limb-Girdle, and Mysenthia Gravis, all of the Muscular Dystrophy family, the medical profession failed to recognize the symptons of these debilitating diseases and diagnosed this condition as depression which resulted in being in several state mental hospitals for years and given powerful anti-psychotic drugs causing hallucinations which reflected to a beautiful childhood. However, with the quick response of a didicated team of drs. from California the correct diagnosis of MD was discovered and treatment was given and the book tells of a beautiful love story as its ending. Not always the easiest read because of such a trauma but it shows the reader the awful consequences resulting from a physical illness such as muscular dystrophy mistaken by outstanding doctors for a mental illness.



2. I have just finished reading this book and am anxious to see it go to the top of every reading list and a movie, too. It is such a captivating read and also such a revealing study of personal experience in a mysterious world of the mind out of control because of mind altering drugs even if they are being prescribed by doctors. It was so very incouraging to see there is hope and life afterward. Frank Wray, I applaud you!



3. I found this book to not only be uplifting but also very rewarding. For those who face obstacles in their life, this book will surely be uplifting and rewarding!



4. It is one thing to have the courage this author has to have survived such a truama and, another to have written this true story and, yet another and most importantly to have the courage and stand up and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. This inspirational book is one that will touch many lives and will live forever in ones heart. It is also a most beautiful love story that will make grown women and men cry.

3 comments about Che: A Memoir by Fidel Castro.

1. Now in a new edition which includes Fidel Castro's speech on the return of Che's remains to Cuba 30 years after his assassination in Bolivia in 1967, Che: A Memoir By Fidel Castro is a classic political memoir and biography of revolutionary and intellectual Che Guevara. Che: A Memoir By Fidel Castro is not structured like a standard biography; chapters jump back and forth through time, reflecting on key events in Che's political life, his implacable struggle for transformation, his martyrdom, and his legacy. An inset section of black-and-white photographic plates round out this unique appraisal of a complex revolutionary figure (whose impact continues to inspire men and woman to political resistance and activism long after his own death), as seen through the eyes of a national leader who admires him. Students of Che's live and work would be well advised to visit the Ocean Press website for a complete listing of all their Che Guevara related titles.



2. Yes, Old Fidel did write this. No, he didn't sit down at his word processor and bash it out over a quiet weekend. It is a collection of Fidel's speeches, writings and interviews about Che. Some of them are very interesting. Some of them go on and on and on. This bloke can talk! It is hardly an intimate portrait, it doesn't reveal anything new, but it is still a worthwhile read - if only to highlight the relationship between Che and Fidel and the circumstances surrounding Che's disappearance from Cuba.



3. An intense and interesting look into Cuba's political sphere and also at Castro himself. Che Guevara is brought down from myth status and shown in a very human light. If only Che was still around...I know he would've solved that whole Elian Gonzalez episode...

1 comments about L'Etudiant Etranger.

1. Etudiant Etranger is a must-read for those studying French who can read at an advanced or high intermediate level. It tells about Philippe Labro's exchange experience when he leaves France to study abroad in the US (in Virginia). View the US from the eyes of a Frenchman.

   Philippe Labro in France is the equivalent of Peter Jennings in the US.

No comments about Dr. Mary: The Story of Dr. Mary Fulstone, a Nevada Pioneer.