5 comments about Anatomy Of Deceit- An American Physician's First-Hand Encounter With The Realities Of The War In Croatia.

1. In the canon of conspiracy theories and hate mongering, Blaskovich's work stands as a classic. His contribution to historical dialog and insight is what Jeffrey Dahmer was to quality childcare.
   
   Anatomy of Deceit is little more than a half-baked rationalisation for Croatian sponsored ethnic cleaning and a twisted apology for Franjo Tudjman's quasi-fascism. Substitute Tudjman's name with Pavlic's and we would be dismissing this work as Ustache state propaganda.
   
   Add Blaskovich to the long list of reality-challenged doctors, poets and professors who have blighted the Balkans; maybe more effort should be given to analysing the combined effects their delusions have had on the region.



2. Under-researched, unedited, full of typos and errors. A right-wing physician returns from California to his native Croatia and writes a book about how evil Serbs are. Just racist nonsense by an outsider who really doesn't know much about the Balkans. Give it a pass. There are so many other books out there on the Yugoslav wars.



3. It is clear that Jerry writes the truth. He clearly captures and articulates the horror caused by the SERBS in Croatia. Serbophiles of course will have great disdain for such honesty. So if you are a Serbophile this probably is not the book for you, however if you want to gain a strong understanding of what took place in Croatia this book is for you, if you prefer a film please watch Harrison's Flowers (French Directed) it too will provide you with a disheartening sense of what the SERBS did in Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, as well as Kosovo, finally the world knows what they are capable of, although they did hide it well under the auspices of COMMUNISM.



4. This is not a serious book. The author clearly has a pro-Croat Serb-hating axe to grind. Living in California and making a couple of adventure tours to Croatia, he knows little about the region, its politics or history. The book is full of errors, factual, spelling, characterization, and historical. There are literally dozens of books out there about the 1991-95 wars that broke up Yugoslavia, and this may be the weakest. Try Marcus Tanner's, Laura Silber's, or Misha Glenny's. The biases and lack of serious scholarship, the self-absorbed authorship, and the Croat nationalist leanings of this text make it one to avoid.



5. As an American born child growing up in a Croatian household, I always felt my parent's passion for Croatia. I had a deep longing to understand my parents and what they suffered as Croatians in Yugoslavia.

   Throughout school and college I referred to myself as an American-Croatian. Many wouldn't know where or what that was, and some would question, "Don't you mean you're from Yugoslavia?" It was at that point my Croatian passion, knowledge and experience would be shared and told to all around me.

   Jerry Blaskovich's, Anatomy of Deceit, is about his personal experience, passion and knowledge on Croatian history, the vicious war and what the distorted "Yugoslavian" government represented to Croatians in the United States and in Croatia.

   Anatomy of Deceit takes the reader into the complicated realities of Croatian history and suffering. It disects the truth behind the distorted creation of Yugo and the Anti-Croatian propaganda machine. The reader is then launched into the atrocities of war. The destruction, killings, mass graves, and rapes by the Serbs come alive in these pages. The reader feels, sees, and smells the war through the eyes of a phyisican trying to makes sense, and escape the sreams of war. You hear these screams and feel the deep pain that lingers long after the book is finished.

   As far as the proof reading errors, the publisher is responsibile and not the author, for editing of final proof. The content and message of Anatomy of Deceit goes beyond human spelling and grammar errors, it grips and ripes at the heart.

   Croatians will never forget what they had to go through to be able to scream their name and not fear for their lives.

   Zivoli Hravti!

5 comments about A Mindful Life: A brain surgeon's personal experiences and philosophical reflections on living fully.

1. Dr. Palavali routinely sees patients whose lives have been shattered by severe injury or disease. The surprising thing is when this happens to his own wife. Fortunately in her case it turns out well. Carpe diem. Still this book is a good reminder of what we know but don't practice.
   
   My only quibble is that on page 87 he indicates that he finds humanism to be the ultimate standard for judging human behavior and dismisses religion. I don't understand religious extremists either (including those from my faith) but one can't really fairly assess a faith by observing a few of its adherents.



2. Dr. Palavali tells stories of real life medical dramas. These dramatic and touching stories convey the book's theme which is to be mindful of cherishing all that life offers us in the present, as "human life" can be gone in an instant. Compelling and sensitive reading.



3. I enjoyed reading this book, I work in the field an found his refections to be enjoyable to read. Makes one think about your life and to enjoy everything you have.



4. Written by Vivekanand Palavali, MD, A Mindful Life: A Brain Surgeon's Personal Experiences and Philosophical Reflections on Living Life Fully is a profound memoir written by a medical expert who deals with the realities of life and death every day. True stories of the author's tending to victims of brain tumors, accidents, gunshots, and strokes mesh seamlessly with his insights into the fragility of life, the nature of happiness, and the importance of appreciating each moment. Highly recommended.



5. i would suggest you read this as it is a good insight in to the life and death desisions made in the er today!

3 comments about A Healing Family.

1. My first book by Kenzaburo was Silent Cry. Recently I read A Healing Family and found that I really liked it a lot. Yukari's illustrations were beautiful. This book made me feel closer to Oe's family. It is very heart-warming.

   At the time I read it, I was in the process of deciding whether to get my wisdom teeth extracted by a dentist or an oral surgeon. I heard that my face would be bruised and swollen, my jaws unhinged, etc. after the surgery. It was quite unnerving just to think about it. Then I read that Hikari has to make weekly visits to the dentist, and that his epileptic pills make his gum terribly swollen. I felt that I am in a much much better situation than some people. It was a consolation to read this book.

   One thing I don't quite like about most of Kenzaburo's books is that he refers to a lot of other European writers and their works, which I find hard to understand. Well, that's just my ignorance.




2. Kenzaburo Oe, the Japanese novelist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, was 28 when his son, Hikari, was born. This event was the most important in Oe's life. Born with a herniated brain, Hikari has needed almost constant care since birth. "A Healing Family" is Oe's first non-fiction attempt to make sense of Hikari's life and the effect it has had on the people around him, most importantly his family.

   This beautiful book shows the profound love, affection and pride the Oe family take in Hikari's accomplishments and happiness. From the age of five, Hikari has been obsessed with classical music, and eventually began to compose pieces for piano and violin. Much of "A Healing Family" concerns Oe's attempts to understand his son through music.

   "A Healing Family" is a book everyone should read. Finely crafted, perceptive, intelligent and moving, it shows us again that compassion and empathy can make all the difference in the world.




3. Hard to believe that no one else has written a review of this book because it is excellent... Oe's manner of dealing with his son's affliction and the effects it has on his family is truly amazing... His manner is truly one of love and serenity.... Without any reservations, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about "heart"...

No comments about Call me Del: Dogged in the Pursuit of Excellence.

No comments about The Recombinant DNA Controversy: A Memoir, Science, Politics, and the Public Interest 1974-1981.

5 comments about The Animals in My Life: Stories of a Country Vet.

1. This book is a must read for all animal lovers. It quickly made its way to the top of my favorite book list. I couldn't put it down. His stories are hilarious, and heartwarming. It is obvious that he absolutely loved being a vet and being with animals ("Being a vet sure beats working for a living"). I highly, highly recommend this book!



2. I purchased this book hoping to fill the void that the passing of James Herriot has left. Grant Kendall's book falls far short of the warm, touchable, expansive writing style of James Herriot. Reading about a day in the life of vet Grant Kendall, I got the feeling that it's just business for him. He describes heart-wrenching situations with a detachment that I find disappointing. While certainly he does no harm to the animals that he serves, his means of expression does not clearly convey that he embraces them with the good brotherly grace of James Herriot. If you are looking to feel good while reading about animals, consider passing this book by. The author provides one painful story without leaving the reader with a speck of hope. That story haunts me still... And incidentally, he *hates* cows.



3. I was very sad when James Herriott died, knowing that there would be no more beautiful stories to read. Then along came Grant Kendall! He's funny, articulate, engaging, and a lovely writer. MORE, please!



4. This is a must read for cabin fever.The stories are short and very humorous.I didnt put it down until I read the last page.



5. The Animals in my Life is a very heartwarming book written
   in a style that is like sitting on your back porch on a summer
   afternoon and listening to your grandfather tell you neat
   stories about animals that have personalities. Quite emotional
   and yet a feel good book that you will want to read to your
   family and for yourself!

2 comments about A Small Moment of Great Illumination: Searching for Valentine Greatrakes, The Master Healer.

1. Who was Valentine Greatrakes? And should we even care? A footnote in an historical article lead the author of `A Small Moment of Great Illumination' on a decade-long search to find out. Greatrakes was a 17th-century Irish nobleman who appeared to have the power to heal with his hands alone--but being neither a member of the clergy, nor a King, his use of this power (sometimes effective, sometimes not) made him a radical, dangerously near the boundaries of clergy and royalty that his station (high as it was) did not permit. His healing powers made him especially suspect in Restoration England and Ireland, when tensions ran high between royalists and regicides, Protestants and Catholics. Nevertheless, Greatrakes' apparent ability to heal so many made him popular as well as infamous. Many denounced him as a quack, while others of high authority (no less than Robert Boyle) attested to the efficacy of his abilities.
   
   This was the Greatrakes uncovered by the author of `Small Moment,' and the story is made more interesting for being interwoven with narratives of the author's research trips to England, Ireland and even Scotland--following in Greatrakes' footsteps. The tale takes us back and forth between the 17th and 20th centuries, in and out of libraries, archives, castles and pubs. The length of the narrative is just right--the author knows when to stop one section and switch to another (in many cases, had he lingered a minute longer we'd be bored).
   
   This is a history of a history, a diary of historical research and the story of the research subject itself. It is made more readable by the fact that the author is an amateur (he was supported in his research and travels by a friend who is a professional historian). But `Small Moment' does not suffer because of it--the writing is good and the historical recreation appears to be solid. And while most may no longer care just who Valentine Greatrakes was, the exercise of rediscovering him--and the author's obsession with finding an original copy of ones of Greatrakes' books--brings to the fore the excitement of historical research for its own sake.



2. Part travelogue, part detective story, part comedy -- it's a quest. This is the story of the author's quest to know more about a footnote. The footnote was in a history of medicine he was reading almost twenty years ago. The footnote talked about one Valentine Greatrakes, an Irish master healer of the mid 1600's. Herein is the search. Through libraries, antiquarian booksellers, across England and Ireland - I suspect in not just a few pubs along the way.
   
   Oh yeah! They were looking for a copy of Greatrakes diary. They went to a dowser who told them it was in a trunk in Bathgate, Scotland. Off to Scotland. Can you imagine going up to a lady in her house saying, 'we have reason to believe that a rare book we're looking for is in a trunk in your attic.' ... Here come the people wearing the white clothes looking for you. They have this hotel where the walls have padding on them so you won't hurt yourself.
   
   A Delightful read.

No comments about The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach, Physician.

2 comments about Misdiagnosis: A Physician's Triumph Over His Thirty-Year Battle With Depression.

1. This book will support those suffers of mood problems to look beyond the labels and limited interventions frequently offered or prescribed. A excellent read for anyone interested in a getting a better perspective on their mood problems and some new direction in getting help. Ron Parks, MD, Psychiatry and Integrative Medicine.



2. Above and beyond the anatomy of depression and the unnecessary rift, in my opinion, between allopathic and holistic medical philosophies, herein lies the journey of a soul. In reading Misdiagnosis one is given the inside view of issues we all face in one way or another, and then shown, in touching detail, how one courageous man battled over and over again with his personal demons.... and won. We all have difficulties with life. Buy this book, it will uplift you.

5 comments about Beautiful Stranger.

1. I found this book sometimes interesting but mostly annoying and sort of flat. From the very first page (from the title!), the author begins her litany of how beautiful and gorgeous and amazingly built she is (even models would be jealous, she tells us). There's not way to substantiate these continuous claims, because the picture on the jacket is of a very average and not very attractive woman, and there are no other photos in the book to contradict that picture. Oh and also she says she's smart, and such a great writer that it would "be a crime" if she didn't write, and is awesome in lots of other ways I can't remember. Where I come from, we call that "bragging."
   
   She seems to be an odd combination of extreme conceit and extreme insecurity, which admittedly you do find in some people. But I found it difficult to reconcile the two disparate viewpoints into a coherent point to the book. I had thought she had body dysmorphic disorder, but she says at the end she only has SOME traits in common with it. Basically she seems to say at the end that she is mostly obsessive-compulsive. Maybe I drew the wrong conclusion (thinking it was BDD) because the focus was so relentlessly on appearance, and that colored my reading. But ultimately I felt it was a book about a woman who has some huge need to convince everyone she's great-looking (despite the picture that contradicts her claims) and throws in some insecurity to make it seems like she's not full of herself. I would have found the book a lot more effective if she had told her story, left out all the bragging, and shown some pictures (if in fact she really was so beautiful at some point). The saddest part about this woman is that she so desperately cares what other people think of her.



2. This book is boring and slow. There is nothing compelling. It doesn't grip you in any way. Didn't finish it.



3. This book is about the collateral damage of growing up a trophy daughter. I really think that's why there aren't any before and after photos. On the back of the paperback edition is a photo of Hope as a pre-op teenager and It is obvious that it is not the outside that needs fixing.
   
   Hope Hathaway Donahue is the only child born to a couple of very privileged narcissists. Mr. Hathaway is distant and inept as a father. His big setback was not having the stomach to follow in his illustrious surgeon father's footsteps. So, he becomes a very successful international banker and a hypochondriac. Mrs. Hathaway is a lady of leisure who insulates herself within her own privileged microcosm, preferring to shut out all of life's unpleasant realities. She tries to turn beautiful daughter, Hope, into her living Barbie doll. In order to one up her rich friends she spends lavishly on gowns for coming out parties for Hope. The relationship takes a more sinister turn, however, when Hope becomes a teenager and Mrs. Hathaway's looks begin to fade. She begins buying Hope string bikinis. Since most mothers prefer modesty for their daughters perhaps this is Mrs. Hathaway's vicarious attempt to retain her nubility. It backfires when Mrs. Hathaway begins to see Hope as her rival rather than her ideal projection of herself. She then accuses Hope of being a temptress and Mr. Hathaway of having an affair with their daughter.
   
   One day Hope comes home from French class and her mother, lounging by their pool, admonishes her not to burden herself with too much learning. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy, the fabulously rich narcissistic protagonist sums it up after the birth of her daughter: "I hope she'll be a fool, a beautiful little fool. That's the best thing for a girl to be." Primed to be a "beautiful fool" Hope becomes obsessed with physical perfection. She thus embarks on a long series of painful, expensive, and totally unnecessary cosmetic surgery operations.
   
   Hope gets a master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. There is no mention of her trying to seek employment in her field, or having any hobbies or interests beyond her growing obsession with physical perfection. She develops a fear of and disdain for the world and like her mother isolates herself. Her parents support her for a while so she's not forced to get a job. She rents an apartment with several other girls, but doesn't interact with them and they dislike her. As they go off to work in the mornings she hides in her room and bemoans the sounds of the 9-5 rat race ever so thankful that she hasn't been drafted into it. She then rummages through their things, perhaps trying to partake in the outside world from a safe distance.
   
   Hope's parents eventually stop paying for her plastic surgery. It doesn't occur to Mrs. Hathaway that her daughter's plastic surgery is a desperate cry for help or that she is staring at the consequences of decades of grooming her daughter to be the perfect physical specimen. She packs up her bags and goes to stay at hotel so she won't have to look at Hope's bandaged face. Her father has the same reaction, but is marginally more helpful. He remains horrified and distantly silent, but fixes some meals for Hope.
   
   A reader from a deprived background might feel contempt for Hope, but is this situation so different from the 3rd generation welfare mother or the girl with a violent alcoholic father who grows up and marries one? All throughout this narrative Hope searches for love and acceptance. Her insecurities are often mercilessly exploited, most egregiously by a sleazeball cosmetic surgeon identified as Dr. S. What is most conspicuously absent, besides any parental warmth or guidance, is the mention of any close friends. Hope recounts her lonely childhood playing in her grandparents' large house and being treated very distantly by them. Hope gets into a "relationship" with Hank, who is secretly married and comes over to occasionally have sex with and abuse her. This lasts until he tries to rape one of her roommates and they kick Hope out. Faced with having to pay for her breast implants and the drudgery of a 9-5 job Hope then has a brush with the porn industry. Luckily she manages to walk away before becoming immortalized.
   
   Hope eventually gets a job as a receptionist where she meets the love of her life. They marry and have four children. Aside from the surgery Hope has to have to repair the damage caused by Dr. S (his procedures were questionable), this is perhaps as close to a happy ending as real life gets.



4. Hope Donahue has written a tragically beautiful novel of obsession with appearance, an obsession that overrides even the smallest of life's everyday functions. Hope is beautiful, smart, a college graduate, a debutante: the girl you hated in high school and college because, on the outside, she had everything you thought you needed to be happy.
   
   Hope's upbringing as a single child to a psychotic mother and a distant, rigid, puritan father wasn't helped by grandparents who were old-fashioned snobs. Hope was alone, and forced into adult roles before she was ready for them. In a way, Hope was never seen. In her own words, she writes, "A single moment of being seen can make up for a lifetime of invisibility."
   
   The only thing Hope's privilege brought her was the money to disfigure herself with plastic surgery rather than cutting or hair pulling. What she writes about, very poignantly, is the feelings involved with being obsessed with what is in the mirror rather than what is inside. There are moments Hope describes as being unable to look in a mirror, too fearful of what she will see.
   
   Hope writes of her roommates, "How are they able to go out into the world each day, fresh and full of energy, instead of crippled by fear and plagued by dragging lethargy? How is it I have lost the knack for everyday life?"
   
   This is so true with many OCD's. Hope constantly investigates beauty magazines, looking for the perfect solution to her problem, becoming an expert on the intricacies of beauty history such as the recent trend toward thinness and the fact that geishas used deadly lead-based powders to obtain that whiter-than-white complexion.
   
   Depression never entered the vapid heads of this particular social caste. To Hope, "'Sad' was what you felt when the dress you wanted at Neiman's was sold out. 'Depression' was what people living in trailer parks felt, people with missing teeth who drank malt liquor from paper bags."
   
   While this book does get a little long in the tooth at times, but maintains a dreamlike quality, shifting through Hope's life like a ghost, through a life you realize you wouldn't have wanted in spite of the offered perks. I personally feel books like this should be required reading for our vulnerable middle-and-high schoolgirls.
   
   Still searching, though more promisingly, for the safety and security she needs, Hope says that it is her awareness of her disorder and not the disorder itself that's changed. Her major awareness came through finding a therapist she could trust (unlike the quack her mother drug her to in her earlier years), and subsequently finding the medicinal therapy that worked for her.
   
   This is a poignant and accurate story of one girl's fight for freedom from herself. It's an excellent book to read for yourself, especially if you're not "feeling up to the media", and a perfect book to pass along to your teen or pre-teen daughter. Donahue's writing skills are not wasted on this touching, heartbreaking tale of baring her soul. Enjoy!



5. How can one publish a book entitled "Beautiful Stranger" - A Memoir of an Obsession with Perfection -- a story of a young beautiful woman who seeks out multiple plastic surgeries on her face -- and not include 1 picture? This is what it is all about -- her face --which is portrayed on the dust jacket as bandaged up. That is the way the author keeps it. How disappointing to find an essentially visual book bound up in only the printed word.
   Let us know when you want true freedom, Hope, and send out a photo or 2. Or 3.