62. Oxygen

By: Carol Cassella
Rated 4 Stars
From Library

"Dr. Marie Heaton is an anesthesiologist at the height of her profession. She has worked, lived and breathed her career since medical school, and she now practices at a top Seattle hospital. Marie has carefully constructed and constricted her life according to empirical truths, to the science and art of medicine. But when her tried-and-true formula suddenly deserts her during a routine surgery, she must explain the nightmarish operating room disaster and face the resulting malpractice suit. Marie's best friend, colleague and former lover, Dr. Joe Hillary, becomes her closest confidante as she twists through depositions, accusations and a remorseful preoccupation with the mother of the patient in question. As she struggles to salvage her career and reputation, Marie must face hard truths about the path she's chosen, the bridges she's burned and the colleagues and superiors she's mistaken for friends." "A quieter crisis is simultaneously unfolding within Marie's family. Her aging father is losing his sight and approaching an awkward dependency on Marie and her sister, Lori. But Lori has taken a more traditional path than Marie and is busy raising a family. Although Marie has been estranged from her Texas roots for decades, the ultimate responsibility for their father's care is falling on her." "As her carefully structured life begins to collapse, Marie confronts questions of love and betrayal, family bonds and the price of her own choices. Set against the natural splendor of Seattle, and inside the closed vaults of hospital operating rooms, Oxygen climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming."--BOOK JACKET.

61. The Unthinkable

By Amanda Ripley
Rate 4 Stars

Nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality--anything we've ever learned, thought, or dreamed of--ultimately matter? Journalist Amanda Ripley set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation, retracing the human response to some of history's epic disasters. She comes back with wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain's fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain's ability to do much, much better, with just a little help.--From publisher description.

60. Give us this Day

By R. F. Delderfield
Rated 5 Stars


I read all three of these books in one gulp and I have to admit that by the time I got about half way through with this one I was started to go a little cross eyed. Had this not been such a good book I would have put it down. But it wouldn't let me do that.

FROM AMAZON:

Weaving the fortunes of the patriarchal Adam Swann and his family into the pageantry of English history in the years following Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee of 1897, this sweeping historical novel takes Swann's four sons and daughter into the perilous reaches of government and commerce and the army. As this younger generation of Swanns strives to wed personal dreams to national values, the rumble of the guns of August 1914 signals the end of the world as they and imperial England have known it.

59. Thier's Was the Kingdom

R. F. Delderfield
Rated 5 Stars


This is the second of Delderfield's Adam Swann during the late 1800s and features his children growing into their various interests including the family haulier business established during the British industrialization age 1860+ Adam's wife, Henrietta, had taken the business reins while Adam fought in a war and lost his leg. Now she is attending their 9 children while they choose schools and vocations.

58. God is an Englishman

By R. F. Delderfield
Raed 5 Stars

I cannot imagine how I have managed to not read these books before. If anyone had asked me I would have bet money that I had. But, better late than never I guess.

The story traces the development of a haulage firm that serves all of England, Wales and eventually part of Scotland. While that is the major focus, the family life of the founder of "Swan on Wheels" is very much a part of it. In fact, all the characters involved are well presented with divergent and believable personalities.