What I'm reading ...

I have started reading Educated by Tara Westover. I thought that it would make an interesting contrast/comparison with my last book. Here’s the blurb:

Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals.

As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.

The Handmaid's Tale - by Margaret Atwood

A great read - I can understand why it is considered a classic. The author consistently gives the reader enough information to understand what is happening, but withholds just enough to keep you wondering and turning the pages.

I found the story quite disturbing, because I found it totally credible. I can believe that, in a country where states mandate teaching creationism and totally ban abortion, things could get out of hand and the result would be the nightmarish world of this book.

I think I might try to find the TV adaptation now ...

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This has been sitting around on my reading list for a while and I have a bit of “free reading” time, so I thought it was time to give it a go.  Here’s the blurb:

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

Being Mortal - by Atul Gawande

I started this book with a little trepidation. Another medical book - mainly about aging and death. This was not going to be a bundle of laughs. However, the surprising thing about the book is that despite, but maybe because of, the grim topic, it is a very uplifting book.

The quality of writing is superb. His words flow easily and everything he has to say is couched in stories - real stories about real patients, fiends and relatives. Reading the book was, on a certain level, quite taxing. The nature of the content meant that I really wanted to read in modest chunks, with time between them to reflect and absorb. The reality was that I often found the book quite gripping and I did not want to put it down.

By the end of the book, I felt that I had a completely new understanding of what it is to be coming to the end of one’s life; it is all about choices and priorities. My eyes were opened to aspects of life that I had previously not wanted to even think about. I am very glad that I read the book and would recommend it to anyone who might work with older people or just want to ponder how their own future might pan out.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read. My inclination is to simply purchase the author’s other 3 books and plough on through them.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. This is my next book club book. Nice to have some non-fiction. Here’s the blurb:

For most of human history, death was a common, ever-present possibility. It didn't matter whether you were five or fifty - every day was a roll of the dice. But now, as medical advances push the boundaries of survival further each year, we have become increasingly detached from the reality of being mortal. So here is a book about the modern experience of mortality - about what it's like to get old and die, how medicine has changed this and how it hasn't, where our ideas about death have gone wrong. With his trademark mix of perceptiveness and sensitivity, Atul Gawande outlines a story that crosses the globe, as he examines his experiences as a surgeon and those of his patients and family, and learns to accept the limits of what he can do.

Never before has aging been such an important topic. The systems that we have put in place to manage our mortality are manifestly failing; but, as Gawande reveals, it doesn't have to be this way. The ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death, but a good life - all the way to the very end.

Published in partnership with the Wellcome Collection, a free visitor destination that explores the connections between medicine, life and art.

The Things We Learn When We're Dead - by Charlie Laidlaw

This is an intriguing book, if only because it is hard to categorise. Is it Sci Fi? Well, kind of, but not quite. For most of the time that I was reading the book, I was unable to discern whether the reader is being told about a real situation: a bunch of aliens on a giant spaceship have been messing with human matters for millennia. Or was Lorna simply having a dream as she was on the cusp between life and death.

It is quite detailed and meanders a bit, but I do not think too much. Eventually I spotted a clue to what the story was actually about: it is in the name of the aliens’ home planet. I think that it could have been concealed a little better, but, anyway, it is not obvious. Of course, I am not going to give the answer here!