Tag Archive | medical

Fracture, by Megan Miranda (fiction) – drowned, but not dead: death-escaper or death-bringer?

Jun18
book cover of Fracture by Megan Miranda published by WalkerHer bright red parka, barely visible beneath the ice.
Decker’s insistence that they rescue her.
Delaney was completely blue when they pulled her out.

Ten people every day die from non-boating drownings.
Delaney should have been one of those awful statistics, but somehow she survived eleven minutes under Falcon Lake’s ice in that December-frigid water.

Death seems to keep calling her, as she feels okay and not-okay, trying to make things right with Decker, who blames himself for her accident. And that guy Troy acts like he knows everything about her and what she went through…

Debut author Megan Miranda has been a science teacher and researcher, so all the medical and death details are exact; her storytelling skills make Fracture  a winner.

For a short story featuring Decker, you can unlock “Eleven Minutes” from the Fracture Facebook page by paying with a tweet or FB share. We’ll get the whole story from Decker’s perspective in Vengeance  in 2014.

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Book info: Fracture / Megan Miranda. Walker & Company, 2012. [author’s website]    [publisher site] [book trailer]  

My Recommendation:Held underwater for eleven minutes by the ice, Delaney should be dead or brain-dead. But she’s not. She’s not herself either, as she finds herself pulling away from her best friend Decker and drawn to death scenes.

It was Decker who pulled 17-year-old Delaney from the icy Maine lake, who kept up resuscitation until the paramedics arrived even though everyone said she must be dead. If they hadn’t taken a shortcut across the lake ice at Decker’s insistence, this probably wouldn’t have happened, so he blames himself over and over, especially during her six-day coma.

Her brain scans show massive damage, yet Delaney is walking, talking, thinking as if nothing had ever happened. Well, except for being able to see death about to happen… and being drawn toward the dying like a magnet. Or is she there when someone dies because she’s causing it?

A new guy in town is interested in her (nice change from the same kids she’s known forever), but something is a bit too different about Troy. As Delaney tries to find out more about him, she discovers strange things and connections she’d rather forget.

Will Mom and Dad stop their new overprotective behavior soon (please)? When will Decker start acting like her best friend again? When will Troy stop acting like she knows something that she definitely doesn’t? When will the dying stop sending out beacons toward her?

Eleven minutes can change everything – you’ll remember Delaney’s story long after you close the covers of this suspenseful debut novel. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

R for Radiate, by Marley Gibson (fiction) – cheerleading, cancer, redemption

Apr20

Go for your dream!
Work hard, practice hard, cheer hard!
Cancer? How can she have bone cancer?

Hayley isn’t going to let surgery or radiation or chemo stop her. It’s her senior year and her only chance to shine as a cheerleader. Stubborn runs in the family, it seems, and her parents’ reluctance to tell her about their hardware store’s dire financial situation could be their undoing.

Great that her grade-school buddy Gabe has moved back to town and is the football team trainer; he’ll make sure that she does her physical therapy correctly before cheer practice every day. Not so great that her hair falls out from the chemotherapy or that her boyfriend Daniel is so squeamish about medical stuff.

The author had bone cancer in high school and used her experiences as the basis of Hayley’s story. She is setting up the Radiate Foundation so that local cheerleading groups can bring goodie baskets, cheers, and smiles to pediatric cancer patients during their hospital stays, just like those visiting cheerleaders did for Hayley.
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Book info: Radiate / Marley Gibson. Graphia Books/HMH, 2012. [author’s website] [book website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: Hayley decided to try out for cheerleader her senior year and made it! That painful lump on her leg must be just from practicing too hard, learning learning all the cheers. But it’s bone cancer…

No time to waste on worrying about it – it’s aggressive cancer and Hayley’s doctor uncle helps her find the best treatment at the University hospital, three hours away from home and her handsome football player boyfriend Daniel and her buddies and her childhood pal Gabe who just moved back to town.

Thank goodness for cellphones and computers so she can stay in touch a bit. Head cheerleader Chloe isn’t very sympathetic, more worried about having an unbalanced cheer squad for cheerleading camp than about Hayley enduring chemotherapy before school starts.

It’s tough for Hayley to miss cheer camp, to miss the first football game, to stay away from her friends for so many weeks. Thankfully, a group of cheerleaders from a high school near the university find out she was there and burst into her hospital room to invite her to come to their practice and teach them some PHS cheers.

Finally, Hayley gets to go home, back to school – on crutches, with a huge scar on her leg, and with exacting physical therapy instructions – determined to cheer again. But even the most positive thoughts won’t stop her from losing her hair after chemo, won’t keep Daniel close to her, won’t make Chloe less snippy about Hayley missing a little practice time to do her physical therapy under Gabe’s supervision.

Can she truly overcome this cancer? Will her medical bills overwhelm her family? Will her long-absent big sister finally come home to see her?

Based on the author’s true experiences with bone cancer as a teen, Hayley’s story goes beyond mere medical facts to explore what it takes to truly Radiate as a positive force to help others overcome the odds in their lives, too. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

P for Prized, by Caragh O’Brien (fiction) – not enough daughters, not enough time

Apr18

In the desert-dry future,
when the oil is depleted and hope is imprisoned,
there are rumors of a safe place beyond the wastelands.

Gaia and her tiny infant sister actually make it to Sylum, to a lake with more water than the teen midwife has ever dreamed of, to morning mists instead of parching winds, to the Matrarch‘s iron-fisted rule over everyone – the women citizens and the second-class males who vastly outnumber them.

Her own grandmother fled here years ago, and Gaia had hoped against hope that she’d still be in Sylum. Alas, she died a decade before their arrival, but left coded messages addressed to Gaia’s parents. Perhaps they’re family history, perhaps they’re clues to why fewer and fewer daughters are born to Sylum each year.

To fully appreciate Gaia’s story, read Birthmarked first, but if you just can’t wait to jump into this dystopian world, the author subtly brings in enough snippets of information from the first book to let you read Prized by itself. If you have read Birthmarked (book 1) and want a “bridge” to Prized, or if you just want a bit more backstory on The Enclave, look for O’Brien’s short story “Tortured” (free eBook at this time).

A mystery, a love story, a cautionary ecological parable.
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Book info: Prized (The Birthmarked Trilogy, book 2) / Caragh O’Brien. Roaring Brook Press, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [video book review]

My Recommendation: Gaia is afraid that her infant sister might not survive their escape across the wasteland, but the rumors hadn’t prepared her for the women-ruled settlement that rescues them. Staying in the Enclave would have enslaved them both; living in Sylum will give Maya to someone else to raise as the Matarch rules everyone. And once Gaia stays in Sylum for two days, she can never cross its borders or she’ll die.

So few females have been born in Sylum during recent decades that Gaia, with the birthmark streaking down her face, is accepted at once, and Maya is doubly prized. Now men drastically outnumber women, and they are forbidden to touch women or to vote in assemblies – a kiss means time in prison for assault. Men who have been tested as fertile have a chance to marry, if they impress a woman during the thirty-two games and the Matrarch approves.

When Gaia uses her midwifery skills to help a young woman in distress and won’t tell who, the Matrarch puts her under house arrest. Eventually, Gaia relents, stepping into the sunlight and a wealth of confusion as two brothers very delicately express their interest in her as a wife – and an intruder turns out to be Vlatir, who helped her escape from the Enclave!

As time approaches for the thirty-two games, Gaia gets strong hints that she’ll be the winner’s choice for chaperoned time together. Even prisoners can be chosen to play, so seeing Vlatir on the field is only a slight surprise. But the winner’s choice of companion shocks the whole community, and Gaia finds herself in a whirlwind of old secrets, new information, and terrible danger.

Can Gaia discover why so few girls are born here? Will the Matrarch let her act on any knowledge that she gains? Can she or Maya or even Vlatir survive in this strange place of marshes and lakes and women-archers who guard the assembly hall?

Readers who begin the Birthmarked Trilogy with this second volume will easily follow Gaia’s story as the author skillfully weaves in characters and incidents from the first book throughout the tale. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Butterflies, by Susanne Gervay (fiction) – disfiguring scars, unbroken spirit

Jan11
Australian edition book cover of Butterflies, by Susan Gervay, published by Harper Collins | recommended on BooksYALove.comIf the scars are only on the outside,
why can’t people see past them to what’s really inside?

Katherine’s big sister thinks she should have been able to keep her from tumbling into the firepit as a toddler, even though Rachel was only in elementary school herself.

Her mother couldn’t recognize her baby in that hospital burn ward and her father couldn’t cope with staying in the city for her medical care. Mama cleaned houses so that she could be with Katherine through every new skin graft and therapy session, instead of taking the girls back to her parents’ home in Italy.

Yet Katherine is more a normal teen girl than she is a plastic surgeon’s project, even if some people label her disabled when they see her disfiguring scars.

Filled with hope amid all the the surgery and worries, Butterflies reflects what teen burn survivors told the Australian author over and over – “I’m still me.”
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Book info: Butterflies / Susanne Gervay. Kane Miller, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Recommendation: Katherine is not the burn scars that cover her face and body. Her swim team victories prove that, her academic performance does, too. Is hoping that one more surgery will make her look more like everyone else such a bad wish?

Nearly 18, she doesn’t want to be defined by the accident that almost took her life as a toddler. Dad left her and mom and big sister Rachel soon after her fall into the garden firepit. Mama sat beside her after countless surgeries and skin grafts, giving up her career so that Katherine had every chance. And she has her mother’s gentle stubbornness to thank for finding a school where she’s just another teen, a little nervous about her first dance, wondering if any boy will ask her.

When her swim coach suggests that she try out for the Australian Paralympic team instead of National Team, Katherine realizes that she’s not willing for someone else to set limits on her and begins training to become a surf rescuer. William from school starts dropping by the café where she works – life is getting better, isn’t it? Her grandparents visit Sydney from Italy, bringing sunshine and love. Even Rachel is beginning to hang out with her college friends instead of hovering over Katherine.

But she’s determined that it’s time to ask the Professor to rebuild her missing ear. The gifted surgeon has assured them that someday her skin will be smooth, but surgery has no guarantees – is Katherine ready to risk a failed skin graft on her face?

The author’s time spent with burn survivors enlivens every page of this story of triumph and hope, brimming with life and thankfulness for the skilled hands of doctors and therapists who help so many. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

You Just Can’t Help It! (nonfiction)

Oct14

From the “oohh!” to the “ewww!!!” on Fun Friday, we’re taking an off-beat (but very well-researched) look at curious and confusing aspects of human behavior.

If you’ve ever wondered whether birth order really makes a difference in how people behave as adults or how colors affect our moods, you’ll love perusing this lively book from Canadian author Szpirglas, whose previous titles include Gross Universe (more ewww) and They Did What?! (more oohh).

You’ll understand yourself, your friends, and your family better after learning that You Just Can’t Help It, plus some fun animal behavior facts and unusual scientific research studies, too.

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Book info: You Just Can’t Help It! Your Guide to the Wild and Wacky World of Human Behavior / Jeff Szpirglas; illustrated by Josh Holinaty. Maple Tree Press, 2011. [author’s info] [publisher’s site]

Recommendation: Ingredients of human tears? Ten million shades of color? Birth order and cattle egrets? Dive into the world of senses, emotions, communication, and human interaction.

Human behavior can be accurately predicted in some areas – body language of liars, organization of army ants, gesturing while talking – while it’s variable in others – most annoying sound or what makes someone laugh.

Find answers to puzzlers like “why can’t you tickle yourself?” and “why do stores play music?” while you learn about your senses. Learn how to detect fake happiness and true fear, as well as the one hand gesture that means the same thing in almost every culture (and it’s not the one you’d expect).

What facial muscle helps your nose avoid stinky stuff? Why do we use “um” and “uh” and “like” when we speak? Why do crowded elevators make us nervous? And what about that whole birth order thing, anyway?

Canadian author Szpirglas helps you understand more about why you, your friends, your pets, and other creatures act the way that they do with this funny and factual book of wacky information and cool experiments. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Reformed Vampire Support Group, by Catherine Jinks (fiction) – ethical vampires hunt a killer

Jul30

Sneak-in Saturday and another fun book that sneaked onto the bestseller lists before I could blog it for you.

Ahh, being a vampire must be exciting, right? Nah, can’t do much outdoors if bright light makes your eyes bleed. How to explain to the neighbors that you’re never getting any older? And if you just don’t believe that it’s ethically right to fang another human and turn them into a vampire without their consent?

Welcome to the small, but annoying world of the vampires in Australia, all of whom were changed by one vicious vampire. So for years, they’ve held regular Tuesday night support group meetings so they can stay “reformed” and keep their blood cravings under control. When one member is thoroughly and brutally snuffed out, it’s up to the Reformed Vampire Support Group to find the killer, even if they go into coma-like sleep the moment that the sun peeks over the horizon…

Lock up your guinea pigs when you read this funny take on the vampire mythos.
Followed by The Abused Werewolf Rescue Society.
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Book info: The Reformed Vampire Support Group / Catherine Jinks. Harcourt Children’s Books, 2009 (hardcover) [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Recommendation: When a vampire is murdered, the other vampires have to find the killer, right? Especially reformed vampires who fang guinea pigs instead of humans. A stake through the heart and a silver bullet and exposing the vampire to sunlight – that’s overkill, even for the undead. A real vampire-hater has accessed doubly-dead Casimir’s online address book and is coming after the other vampires of Sydney!

After complaining for years in their weekly support group meetings that nothing happens when you’re asleep all day and lock yourself up every full moon, suddenly the group has too much to do. Relying on Father Ramon, the human priest who helps them stay reformed, forever-15 Nina (who writes vampire fiction to pay her mom’s rent) and friends travel in a dark, sealed van to the Outback, following clues from silver bullet sales records and online bulletin boards.

Trapping a vampire-killer, finding a werewolf, getting back to safety before their supply of guinea pigs runs out – who knew that being a vampire would suddenly be so complicated?

This story of the good-hearted undead battling a pack of heartless humans is a wild romp with unexpected twists. Dark glasses? Check. Guinea pig? Check. Barf bag? Ooof. Followed by The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Deadly (fiction)

Jul7

Tracking down a killer is just not what “proper young ladies” do, even if the killer is a germ. Prudence would certainly rather unravel a medical mystery than please her instructors at the snooty School for Girls!

Diseases regularly have regularly swept through the poorer sections of cities from the time that humans began clustering together on a permanent basis. In the Middle Ages, people thought that evil humors caused these epidemics; by the early 1900s the theory that filth contained disease-transmitting germs was gaining ground.

How could healthy people in a well-kept household suddenly become deathly ill when they had no exposure to the city slums with their filth and diseases?

Part social commentary, part detective story, Deadly is enhanced by the sketches which Prudence includes as she journals her way through this perilous time, on the trail of Typhoid Mary.
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Book info: Deadly / by Julie Chibbaro; illustrations by Jean-Marc Superville Sovak. Simon & Schuster, 2011 [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: In her 1906 journal, Prudence worries and dreams and sketches, wondering why doctors couldn’t save her brother’s life, why her father hasn’t returned from the Spanish-American War, how she can make a difference for those who suffer in her neighborhood.

The etiquette lessons and needlework at her school seem so trivial, compared to the life and death, joy and pain that Pru and her mother see during Marm’s midwife duties. When final-year students are encouraged to get part-time jobs using their skills on those newfangled typewriters, Pru leaps at the chance to do useful work.

She is hired by the new Department of Health and Sanitation as a research assistant and is soon swept into their investigation of a typhoid outbreak. Mr. Soper investigates every aspect of any household where the deadly disease has struck. They travel throughout New York City as typhoid sickens some people and kills others – is there a common cause?

When they discover that a healthy cook has been in the kitchen of every typhoid-stricken family, Mr. Soper and Prudence must find medical experts who can help them prove their unusual theory and stop the epidemic.

A compelling account of Typhoid Mary’s history, retold from a young woman’s point of view. When does the public good override individual freedom? Does science have more answers or more questions? Will Prudence take the next step and become a doctor herself? (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher and author.

This Thing Called the Future, by J.L. Powers (book review) – tradition, love, AIDS, hope in South Africa

Jun15

Tomorrow is South Africa Youth Day, celebrating the 1976 youth protest in Soweto. Khosi’s mother and father were among the many who fought for freedom from apartheid, the South African government’s brutal racial discrimination policy.

Although apartheid has crumbled, Khosi and Zi are growing up in an era of changes, as traditional beliefs clash with Christianity, and new menaces stalk the villages and cities of Africa. “The disease of these times” Khosi calls it – HIV and AIDS leaves many children orphaned.

I visited with author J.L. Powers at TLA, and she told me of life in today’s South African townships, the funeral bells, the push for education. Reading this strong book, we can believe that Khosi will stay in school and find a way to balance her beliefs, avoid threats to her health, and see a bright future.
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Book info: This Thing Called the Future / J.L. Powers. Cinco Puntos Press, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Khosi wants to do well in school, keep her family safe, escape AIDS, “the disease of these times” in South Africa. Life can be so confusing at 14, as she prays to the great God-in-the-sky at the church and also honors her ancestors with traditional ceremonies, uses herbal cures from the sangoma as well as modern medicines from the clinic. Born on the day that her grandfather died, Khosi often has vivid dreams – are they merely warnings from her ancestor or dire predictions of the future?

She and her little sister live with their grandmother in Imbali township, while her mother teaches in another city, coming home on the weekends; their father lives so far away that they see him only on holidays. Khosi wishes that Mama and Baba were married, but during the struggle for Liberation who could afford the lobolo, the bride price?

A widowed neighbor accuses Mama of stealing her late husband’s money, a drunken man near Gogo’s house follows Khosi and Zi home from school every day, and the witch woman calls out that she will take Khosi’s spirit! How Khosi wishes she could just ignore these things and plan her future as someone who heals or dream about her crush on Little Man at her school …

When Mama comes home, sick and skinny and weary, Khosi fears that the neighbor and the witch have cursed her family. What can she do?

Author J.L. Powers’ time in South Africa has given her great insight into the lives of its girls and women, ever-shadowed by HIV, neighborhood violence, and the struggle to rise above poverty, as she brings us a powerful story that still holds hope for This Thing Called the Future. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Last Summer of the Death Warriors, by Francisco X. Stork (book review) – is growing up harder than dying young?

May5

book cover of Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X Stork published by Arthur A Levine BooksWhat does life mean when you know – without any doubt – that you are going to die way too young?

Is there even any sense in trying to live a good life when the specter of Death haunts your breakfast, lingers in the corners of your backpack, rustles the leaves of the tree you can no longer climb?

Two teenage guys try to find the balance – D.Q. knows he’s dying fast, Pancho might not care enough to make it through the summer himself…

Francisco X. Stork says on his blog that he concentrates first on being a good writer, then on being a good Latino writer. I’d say that he succeeds at both. Check out his Marcelo in the Real World, too.

Book info: The Last Summer of the Death Warriors / by Francisco X. Stork. Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic), 2010. 352 pgs. [author’s website] [publisher website]

My Recommendation: His sister dead just 3 months after their widowed father’s death – Pancho had promised to take care of Rosa, sweet Rosa, with her child’s mind in a young woman’s body. Why aren’t the police looking for the man who was with her when she died of “unidentified causes, no foul play”? At 17, Pancho is ready to find that man and make him pay for Rosa’s death.

But he’s not allowed to live alone at 17, gets kicked out of a foster home for fighting, and finds himself at St. Anthony’s orphanage, across town from his family’s trailer in the New Mexico desert where he watched the sunsets and worked with his father. Everyone works at St. Anthony’s; Pancho will help D.Q. whose cancer treatments have finally put him in a wheelchair.

D.Q.’s mother couldn’t handle his dad’s death several years ago and brought him to St. Anthony’s for the summer while she recovered. But summers and years went by with her hardly contacting him, until the cancer hit 6 months ago. Now she’s taking charge, ordering experimental treatments, but her son wants none of it.

Now D.Q. is writing the Death Warriors’ Manifesto, about how a true death warrior recognizes his someday-death and therefore lives every day till then in order to make a positive difference. Explaining that to everyday, non-philosophical Pancho is another way that D.Q. keeps going through the chemo treatments. Piecing together the clues leading to the man who was with Rosa is what keeps Pancho going. Seeing lovely, caring Marisol at Casa Esperanza during the chemo makes their lives more worthwhile.

Will Pancho find the man and avenge Rosa’s death?
Will D.Q.’s mother let him go back to St. Anthony’s after chemo?
Can both young men live like true death warriors?

A great story of friendships and choices, of really living versus just being alive. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.