Children’s Hospital Boston Book Group

Next Meeting: Thursday, December 9th at noon and Friday, December 10th at 7:30am – The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir mixes dreams, legends, and reality in her depiction of a young girl’s struggle with living between her parent’s home land and America, a land of ghosts.  The role of ghosts in Chinese culture is briefly outlined an entry in the China Culture website, which is hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Culture.  The site states that ghosts are often depicted as young women and that “young women in traditional societies are rarely endowed with much power, and malignant powers are only summoned with keen hatred and a desire for revenge. The more badly one is wronged, the more powerful he or she becomes after death.”  This reminded me of the story of the aunt in the “No Name Woman” chapter.

Although The Woman Warrior is an older book, it received a renewal of recognition in 2007, around the time when Kingston released her book Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. Bill Moyer interviewed Maxine Hong Kingston on PBS’ Bill Moyer’s Journal, which is available online.  The same year author Diana Abu-Jaber recorded an short essay about the significance of The Woman Warrior in her life, for NPR’s series “You Must Read This.” Similarly, Jonathan Yardley wrote a review looking back on The Woman Warrior in the Washington Post in 2007.

For more information about Maxine Hong Kingston, visit her Gale Author Biography or check out her Facebook Page (maintained by Kingston’s publisher).

Next Meeting: Wednesday, November 3rd at 7:30am and Thursday, November 4th at Noon– Final Exam

In Final Exam, Pauline Chen shares the experiences from her medical training and her career as a surgeon that have shaped her views about caring for critically ill patients.  You can listen to Chen talk about some of these life-changing encounters with patients in her interview with Scott Simon on NPR’s Morning Edition, which was aired on January 27^th, 2007.  The author’s October 21^st New York Times “Doctor and Patient” editoial  also explores how accepted medical protocol is sometimes at odds with providing quality end-of-life care.  Dr. Chen shares similar stories in her blog. 

 Alison was able to find the study entitled “A Controlled Trial to Improve Care for Seriously Ill Hospitalized Patients: The Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatments (SUPPORT),” by the Support Principle Investigators that Dr. Chen cites as part of her discussion of improving the quality of care to critically ill patients.   Chen also mentions the article, “From the Eye of the Storm with the Eyes of a Physician,” by Hacib Aoun, who writes about being a physician and living with HIV, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine 1992; 116:335-8.   

Final Exam was reviewed in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Atul Gawande’s article in the New Yorker, Letting Go, What should medicine do when it can’t save your life?  addresses many of the same issues as Pauline Chen.

Next Meeting: Friday, September 3rd at 7:30am and Thursday, September 9th, at noon – Lit

Lit, is Mary Karr’s third memoir and the follow-up to her two previous memoirs, The Liars’ Club and Cherry. In this critically acclaimed book Karr describes her spiral into alcoholism in early adulthood and her eventual recovery from addiction in a way that, according to New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani, “lassos you, hogties your emotions and won’t let you go.”

Terry Gross interviewed Mary Karr on NPR’s Fresh Air, in November of 2009. Reviews for Lit appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. To learn more about the Mary Karr, visit her author page on the Harper Collins Website. Also, check out Karr’s Facebook Page for recent updates and pictures from her life.

Next Meeting: Thursday, July 8th at noon and Friday, July 9th at 7:30am – The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Borrows, follows writer Juliet Ashton as she investigates the creation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society during the German occupation of the island of Guernsey during the Second World War.  Through her correspondence with the members of the Literary Society,  Juliet learns the harrowing details of the occupation but also comes to understand the important role that books and companionship played in the survival of the inhabitants of Guernsey. 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Official Website includes a short interview with Annie Barrows about the book as well as a readers guide.  NPR also ran an interview with Annie Barrows on Morning Edition on 7/29/2008.  NPR also offers an Island at War website including web links for The Channel Islands and the Occupation.

Check out reviews for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in The Guardian,  The Washington Post , and the Boston Globe.

For more information about the authors, visit Annie Borrow’s Official Website.

Next Meeting: Thursday, June 3rd, 7:30 and June 11, noon – Down at the Docks by Rory Nugent

Rory Nugent’s Down at the Docks looks at the lives of fisherman based in New Bedford, MA.  The area has a varied history going from boom to bust in the whaling, textile (Wamsutta was once based in New Bedford) and fishing industries.  The town’s website details that history, but Nugent is primarily concerned with one corner of the city, the waterfront.  His unflinching portrait of the men who work on the docks details the hard life of fishermen. The Boston Globe reviewed the book as did the BuffaloAtHome website and the Wall Street Journal.  Rory Nugent’s website includes a biography which mentions his 4 1/2 solo ocean voyages!   You can listen to an interview with Nugest on WICN, New England Public Radio.