A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor

I'm back to reading this "Irish Country" series. I got a few behind.

This one is told mostly in flashback - the "modern" 1960s story (about knock on the noggin for a familiar regular) is mostly a framing device for the reminiscence about Fingal's days in med school and his first romance with the pretty young nursing student Kitty O'Halloran.

I liked that this one shifted less back and forth, and left me longer in the storyline. It also filled in a lot of backstories, not just on the romance with Kitty, but with Fingal's dislike of the doctor in the next town over and also how he decided to become a general practitioner.

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor

In this installment of the lives of our favorite 1960s small-town Ireland physicians, the curmudgeonly Dr. Riley is counting down the days until his 30-years-later wedding to his college sweetheart Kitty. Also, the young Dr. Laverty woos the feisty local schoolteacher.

This is the seventh book in the series (I've been a bit out-of-order with the series lately, but I'm straightening that out now I think).

Along with the usual (and always delightful) workaday village problems the doctors help to sort out, their receptionist and housekeeper, Kinky Kincaide, suffers her own a health scare.

I probably mention this every time, but I cannot give too many props to John Keating's audiobook narration on this series. I have come to love every one of these characters like they're my own friends and neighbors!

The Wily O'Reilly: Irish Country Stories by Patrick Taylor

Different from the rest of the Irish Country Doctor novels, this book is the genesis of the series - the medical journal humor columns Taylor wrote in the 1990s that eventually spun into the fiction series.

In the columns we see many of the familiar Ballybucklebo residents, but in a slightly different light. Most notably, Dr. O'Reilly is depicted here less favorably than in the novels - here he's rough, gruff, enigmatic and incredibly quick to anger; while the O'Reilly of the series is all of those things too, in the novels he's depicted in friendship and with affection, which effectively paints his negative attributes with a broader brush. Also, Doctor Barry Laverty is missing from these stories - instead, Taylor himself fills the role of the young protege and foil to O'Reilly's antics.

Reading these columns is an interesting exercise in perspective - the myriad ways an author colors our perception of a character by the nuanced words used to describe their actions.

That said, I'm happy now to go back to a friendlier, gentler Ballybucklebo with the next novel.

Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor by Patrick Taylor

While we've come to know and love Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly as the senior doctor in a tiny Irish town, new doings have stirred things up in his life - including his memories of the past. Interspersed with the "modern" timeline (1960's actually) are his reminiscences of beginning his career out of medical school (in the 1930s).

Almost unbelievably, this is the eighth book in the Irish County series, and I'm still captivated and engrossed in the lives of the residents of Ballybucklebo. I've made it my habit to wait for these on audiobook, because narrator John Keating is a true gem: He seamlessly breaths life into men, women and children from all parts of the British, Scottish, and Irish lands.

These books are touching, but also funny. In this one there's a bit of grandstanding about political unrest and world events, but I have to admit that I've also found it enlightening in ways I wouldn't have expected. Young Fingal's work in the slums of Belfast allow some historical insight into a world I'd heard about but never actually studied. In the newer storyline, there's a new female doctor working with Fingal and her presence stirs up bias and prejudice it's easy to forget our foremothers endured.

I was again glad to visit the good doctors and hilarious characters in this small town, and can't wait to visit again!

Noggin by John Corey Whaley

When an aggressive cancer stole Travis' life before he even got his driver's license, it should have been a shame and a tragedy. Instead, it became one of medical science's biggest breakthroughs when they reattached Travis' head to another teen's healthy body (after that guy lost his battle to brain cancer). But who would have thought that reattaching and reanimating a severed head would turn out to be the easy part of Travis' reincarnation?

For Travis, it seems like he took an afternoon nap; no time passed while he was inanimate. But while he was gone the world kept turning: the reality is, everybody else moved on. And the five years from age 16 to 21 meant lots of life-altering changes for his friends (and girlfriend) - they're not in the same place anymore.

I loved this book, and it's not as far removed from reality as you might expect for a sci-fi story. Because every teen is going through changes (and at their own pace), most of us have experiences where you get left behind despite the best intentions.

There's a great cast of characters here - old friends, new friends, parents, and the one other guy who was reanimated. They've each got their own struggles that help or hinder Travis' tale. In all, a great book about an unusually common experience.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

What if you discovered a bit of your long-deceased mother was still growing in a lab? What if it was really that every single scientific lab in the world has been running complex medical experiments on growing, living pieces of your long-deceased mother and you never knew or received compensation?

That's where the core of this story begins: as the Lacks family learns that the same cervical cancer cells which killed Henrietta Lacks in 1951 are still growing and multiplying, providing 60 years of scientists with an endless supply of human cells on which to run experiments.

It's a deep subject with a steep ethical slope - but it's handled deftly and warmly by the author. She personalizes the story, weaves several historical and contemporary storylines together, and explains the complex science in an easily digestible manner. She also inadvertently became part of the story as her friendship with daughter Deborah Lacks spanned a decade of research, genealogy, and oral history.

This book makes you think, and the various moral, ethical, and medical opinions are presented in a nicely balanced manner. I still don't know what I think about a lot of it, and that's okay - if it was simple, the scientific community probably would have figured it out decades ago.

Glamour, Interrupted by Steven Cojocaru

Cojo became famous for his red carpet fashion reports, his giant grin, and his sparkling, friendly reporting style that makes you feel like a gossip insider. Yet when he became sick with an inherited disease and required a kidney transplant, he hid his illness from everyone - even his family - for as long as possible because he was afraid he'd be shunned by Hollywood's "beautiful people." 

Cojo's medical saga was harrowing - the first transplanted kidney didn't last - but he brings his characteristic wit to the retelling; the result is a pretty light, rather funny look at illness and recovery. 

I picked up the book because I'm interested in transplant stories - I have several friends currently facing similar situations. This book is a quick read and, while entertaining, it's also accurate in describing the good, bad and ugly of a patient's experience. 

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

Unknowingly, Marylou took part in a 1950s study of radioactivity. The effects destroyed her family, killed her daughter, and wrecked her health. So now, 60 years later, Marylou is determined to find the smug bastard who made her drink that cocktail and make him pay.

Except Marylou's no cold-blooded killer, and Dr.Wilson Spriggs' health is declining with Alzheimers. Once her plans to kill Wilson disintegrate, Marylou decides to mess with his family - but it turns out she really likes the grandkids. Now what?

It's a darkly funny book full of interesting characters - each living in their own bubble and ignoring one another in the way families sometimes do. Will the radioactive lady destroy their family? Or will Otis build a reactor in the shed and nuke them all first? Will Florida ever see the hurricane Vic's been wishing for? And does Elvis ultimately have all the answers?

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

If you have a book club, you should read this book; it's very powerful, a quick read, and you CERTAINLY want to talk about it when you're done.

Alice is a professional at the prime of her life when she starts noticing memory lapses. She's concerned enough to seek out her doctor - but not concerned enough to tell her husband. After a battery of questions, tests, and scans the diagnosis is early onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice is 50, and her life is about to change.

The book is told from Alice's point of view, but the reader acts as an omniscient observer. This means you see Alice innocently repeat herself or make mistakes - and you understands the progression of her disease better than she does - even though you're inside her head.

The book gives a fresh perspective (the victim's) on Alzheimer's disease, plus it's beautifully written and extremely thought-provoking. What would I do in the same situation? What would I do if this was my spouse/child/friend/coworker? How is my forgetting where I left my keys different from Alzheimer's?

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

This phenomenal book was chosen for the University of Wisconsin's Big Read 2010. Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman who died in the early 1950's of cervical cancer. However, there is a part of her that is still alive today. Doctors at Johns Hopkins took a sample of her tumor. Within 24 hours, they discovered that her cells were regenerating. The cells have never stopped doing so. HeLa cells have been studied regarding many illnesses over the years, and without them, we would not have a cure for polio, or many other diseases that now seem like a thing of the past.
The story becomes more intriguing when you realize that the Lacks family had no idea of Henrietta's significance to the medical world for over twenty years.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

As our narrator is entering a new stage in her life, she's feeling nostalgic. And so she begins her reminiscence: of her idyllic upbringing at Hailsham boarding school, of her friendships, and of her nearly-completed role as a "carer."

It's a quiet book, read with a genteel British lilt and literary diction. I found it easy to let my defenses down and allow my concentration to relax a bit ... to just pleasantly float along. Until I began to realize that many things don't add up in this story. Hey, does it seem like the book takes place in the 1950s, or today?

Hailsham students "know, and don't know" - and it turns out they aren't the only ones!

It's hard to characterize this story: It's literary and high-brow, with a somehow gentlemanly punch to the gut. "So sorry to have to dust you up this way, pip. But you'll be fine in a minute, old chap!"

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

In December 1996, the author was a 37-year-old neuroanatomist when she suffered a major left-brain bleed. While her medical background allowed her to observe the situation with special understanding, it didn't lessen the severity of her crisis. Ultimately she says it took eight years to overcome her brain's damage, and this book is part of her campaign toward better understanding.

Our library book club chose this one, and many readers had their own stories to share of loved ones and stroke. Parts of the book are incredibly detailed (and honestly, boring), but Taylor's personal observations and recollections are very interesting.

I'm glad I read it - there are several things I especially drew from the book, and she does give a list of tips at the end - but this book could certainly be a tough slog at times. I'll recommend it, but with the advice to feel free to skim; you'll be glad you did.