Review: Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations

Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations by Arnold van de Laar
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've been on quite a nonfiction kick this year, haven't I? Anyway, usual disclaimer: opinions expressed in this review are my own and do not reflect those of my employers.

I picked this up mostly for fun and fast reading, and because the short chapters suit my current mood (overwhelmed by doing a master's program in the evening while working full time, and in need of a quick escape from the glare of the computer screen before bed). Plus I am interested in popular medical books because both my parents and my sister are in different aspects of health care. Plus again, the back-back-back burner novel I mentioned in my last review involves a surgeon and two surgeries (though neither type of surgery was described in this book).

Van de Laar provides a very casual introduction to different kinds of surgery throughout history. Very casual--there are no citations in the text, a few of the chapters aren't actually about surgery, and I wasn't totally clear on why the chapters were arranged in the order that they were. Chapters on John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald were at opposite ends of the book. One chapter about diagnosis actually talked about fictional detectives, which seemed a bit like pandering to a popular audience to me--and the fact that van de Laar talked about the fact that Arthur Conan Doyle had medical experience but failed to mention that Doyle's mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell, was actually the one with observational techniques that inspired Sherlock Holmes' style of deduction felt like a major omission. Bell would have been a more interesting focus for the chapter than fictional detectives--not even doctors!

It also stings that in the era of the #metoo movement there's not a single female surgeon described in this book. Surely women must have made some valuable contributions in the history of surgery. Since a couple of the chapters aren't actually about surgery, then off the top of my head I would say that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu would be worth a mention for her work in bringing inoculation against smallpox into Europe (read the excellent The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox for more information about her).

Finally, the book is definitely written for a non-U.S. audience: some medical vocabulary is European rather than American (the large intestine is the "great intestine", and it's "paediatric" rather than "pediatric" for example); and Celsius and meters/centimeters are used instead of Fahrenheit and feet/inches. I mean, it's only fair, given that the U.S. is a special snowflake that does things differently from the rest of the sensibly Metric world, but on the other hand, this is a U.S. edition...

But the historical anecdotes were interesting and amusing. I may have a tougher stomach than some, but there were certainly some graphic depictions of diseases and operations that had me making funny faces on the subway--to the amusement, I sometimes noticed, of my fellow riders. I may have also had too much fun reading any operation on male genitals to the S.O. in my life. The book got its revenge his behalf with the chapter on Queen Caroline's umbilical hernia.

Overall, this was a fun and fluffy history of surgery...but definitely not a good source to cite for any kind of academic writing.

And now, time to stop procrastinating and get back to homework!

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Review: The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present

The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present by John Pomfret
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Several disclaimers up front:

* Stars are not for quality (which deserves at least a 4) but to guide Goodreads' recommendation algorithm toward my personal reading preferences.

* I only read Part I (the first 9 chapters/136 pages), and I did so with very particular interests in mind (see below).

* This review is entirely my opinion and does not in any way reflect the opinions of my employer.

Whew! Now that all that's finally out of the way...

As stated, I only read the parts of this book relevant to my interests. I have a novel project on the back-back-back burner (argh, life!) set somewhere between 1898 and 1902. The main characters is a Chinese/Chinese-American woman (part of reading this was to find out whether this was even possible with the Chinese Exclusion Act) who is also a doctor. Chapter 7, "Bible Women", was exceptionally helpful in this regard.

What interested me most was China's apparent admiration for the States through the early 20th century (until one betrayal too many at the post-WWI Versailles Peace Conference), and how often that admiration was mutual. What a wasted opportunity! We're so used to seeing China as a rival these days, and I think we've even bought in to some of the 20th century communist party's propaganda that China was too stuck in its old ways to modernize without being dragged kicking and screaming. It's remarkable how many opportunities there were for things to turn out differently, if only the U.S. had gotten over its navel-gazing, on-again-off-again xenophobia, and conflicting desires for empire and isolation.

It was also refreshing to realize how many American missionaries--particularly single women, which I didn't even know was possible!--went over hoping to convert the Chinese to Christianity only to accept that it wasn't going to work and adjust their missions accordingly. Many ended up opening schools for women, hospitals, and medical schools. It's a stereotype now that many Chinese Americans and Chinese educated in America become doctors, but that tradition health care, and traveling to the States for advanced medical education, was nurtured by Americans. Which helps my theoretical novel immensely!

Anyway, while I can't comment on the content of the book as a whole, I will say that I had a little trouble following the timeline in Part II. Dates seemed to disappear right when I needed them for reference, and then leaped forward years at a time. At one point a chapter seemed to end in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion and didn't pick it up until at least a whole chapter later. That said, the quality of the writing was excellent. Pomfret certainly knows how to tell a good story...but he might be better suited to topic-themed chapters like "Bible Women" rather than strictly linear history.

As far as I read, this is a highly valuable book with a fascinating angle on a topic of critical importance in the 21st century. Pomfret provides a fair and balanced view of both countries' strengths and shortcomings, and any cynicism about America in this review is my own.

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Review: Miss Subways

Miss Subways by David Duchovny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5/5 stars, if I could.

I came around to this one after some initial misgivings, and I'm so glad I did. It was a little tough getting through the first couple chapters, when I felt like the male author was breathing down my neck going, "Look how well I can write a female character!" But Emer came into her own during the quickly-arriving second part, and apart from a few paragraphs with a whiff of male self-congratulation, the characterization was absolutely wonderful.

I'm not familiar with the myth of Emer and Cuchalain (I'm deliberately not looking it up until I've posted this), but the book is divided into three parts that are essentially alternate universes. Duchovny does an excellent job of tying these together--Emer feels authentic and real across all three sections, definitely shaped differently by the circumstances in each reality, but also definitely the same person. It's an impressive feat that, unfortunately, doesn't feel quite as successful for her love interest, Con.

I have to admit that the description made me hope for something a little bit like American Gods/ Neverwhere in New York, but less heavy-handed on the fantasy. I knew it wouldn't be fair to expect a book to rise to the level of Gaiman, and that's okay. Not every seemingly throwaway element pops back up later as an unexpectedly critical plot point, and there are a few dreamy sequences that don't seem to have much purpose beyond providing a metaphor for an obscure old world god among us. Gaiman feels gritty and definitely fantastic and impossible; Miss Subways feels dreamy and softer and magical (probably why people have shelved it "magical realism"). And it's honestly lovely that way.

I'm a little worried that this description sounds too critical. I really enjoyed the book and would even have loved a whole book about Emer's ordinary-ish second life--as a kindergarten teacher with a fun and out-there friend, a boss who's kind of scary but also pretty awesome, a dad who's ageing less than gracefully, and a life with its quirks and glimmers of magic among the ordinary. Emer is really a great character, quietly hilarious, self-aware without taking herself too seriously. Duchovny seems to do characterization very well, and I hope I have a chance to experience more of his work...if my massive reading list ever allows.


Quote Round-Up

I mostly marked little familiar-feeling slice-of-life scenes, so not too many quotes this time.

110)
"A bird! As in English-speak for 'girl'? You're one of us now? Welcome to the team!"
"No, a bird bird."
"Oh, like Polly Wanna Cracker?"
"More like that, yeah. A baby crow I rescued from the street."
"So are we talking about sex? At all?"
"Nope. Bird. Corvus, I call him."
"Well, that's pretentious."
"C'est moi."
"I'm pretty sure this is the wrong direction. But at least he's black."

This is exactly why I could read a whole book about Emer's second, "ordinary" life. I feel like this is somewhere between the life I lead and the life I'd like to lead. That's probably pretty pretentious, myself.

270)Late in the book, but not a spoiler, I promise.

She was stopped and pigeonholed by a few upperclassmen, former students who wanted to show off how mature they'd become. Though it was mildly unsettling when the fifteen-year-old boys wanted to flirt harmlessly with their passably hot former grande school teacher, calling her by her first name or using "Ms. Emer" with sly imprecise irony, Emer knew they simply yearned for acknowledgement as the men they'd become, or were becoming. Emer understood it was her duty to mirror their masculinity back to them without confusing them with any actual intent, crossing any lines, or blurring any boundaries. She knew how to do it, how to act slightly abashed yet impressed at their literally sophomoric innuendo.

This was one of those sections where I felt torn between a sense of authenticity and hyper-awareness that this female character is being written by a male author. Definitely familiar-felling analysis, but more clinical than complex-emotional. It ends up just feeling odd and conflicting.

(Skimming through my noted quotes, I do worry that the pop-culture references may date this book quickly.)

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Review: Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This should be required reading in school--multiple tames. Say, seventh grade, junior year of high school, and at least once again in any higher education.

What I loved best about this book is that it wasn't as 100% optimistic as the subtitle makes it seem. Rosling makes a great comparison of the state of the world with a baby born prematurely: every day, things are better--still not great, but better. It's so rare that I can find people who can appreciate two realities at once.

And it's not all statistical. This book was clearly a labor of love, and Rosling is open, honest, and very human with his personal examples and disclaimers. It's such a shame that he died before the book was published--I would have loved to hear this remarkable man speak, and maybe even tried to work for him. After all, I'm writing my final paper for my preservation course on preserving digital datasets.

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Review: Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears

Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears by Ellen Datlow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Short/nonexistent reviews because I'm in school and have no time. (Except on my commutes, which is when I'm reading all of these.)

Favorites from this collection:

Summer Wind, by Nancy Kress. Man this take on Sleeping Beauty was a thing of beauty in its own right. Gorgeous writing, ponderous depths. I read it three times.

The Emperor Who Had Never Seen a Dragon, by John Brunner. One of the few set in a non-European-inspired culture. Loved the twist on The Emperor's New Clothes!

The Real Princess, by Susan Palwick. A dark take on The Princess and the Pea with my kind of twist at the end. I'll say no more to avoid spoilers. Read it twice.

After Push Comes to Shove, by Milbre Burch. I was delighted to find poetry scattered through the stories. This one is from the perspective of the witch in Hansel and Gretel.

The Fox Wife, by Ellen Steiber. Another (the only other?) non-European-esque fairy tale. This one felt a little more original, based on a legend than an actual story, but it's very possible that's only because I'm not familiar with Japanese folklore. More like a novella.

The White Road, by Neil Gaiman. To be fair, I knew he was in here, so I was avoiding looking at the authors until after I'd read the stories. But really, no one should be surprised. Another one of my kinds of twists, further empowering--and interest-i-fying--women who, unusually, were already somewhat empowered in the original story.

The Printer's Daughter, by Delia Sherman. Because what book-lover can't appreciate a person made out of books? Another one I read twice.

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