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"Heirs of General Practice" by John McPhee

2/17/2014

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Title: Heirs of General Practice
Author: John McPhee
Genre: Nonfiction
# pages: 120
Date published: 1986
5-star rating: 4 stars
Would you recommend it: Yes





Originally published in the New Yorker in 1986, Heirs of General Practice is certainly an artful piece. I found a copy of Heirs lying around my house during winter break, so I took it to read on my flight home – and I finished it before second semester began. The book did not take long to read; it was amusing and informative. Heirs is based on a compilation of John McPhee’s interviews with a dozen or so primary care physicians. McPhee transformed the interviews into a narrative form that goes in depth with each doctor, allowing the reader to get to know them not only as doctors, but also as people.

McPhee explores how each doctor got into medicine, what their practice is like, and other general issues and encounters of rural family practice. All of the doctors come from various backgrounds. Some are from the city, some from the country; some wanted to do medicine all their lives and some decided to be a doctor after years of a separate career (one doctor even quit medical school before returning to do family practice).

Although this book was written in the 1970’s, the ideas are still very relevant because of the high demand for the less glamorous job of a primary physician and the new healthcare reform. The book explains how general practice fell from popularity, when medical specialties and subspecialties began to popularize and explains what medical schools did to combat this demand for doctors.

The book teaches the value and appeal of rural primary care doctors, as well as what it is like to be one. McPhee discusses the most difficult parts about being a family doctor and the most rewarding parts. The storyline basically takes place in doctors’ offices, documenting dialogues from patient visits and exploring the backgrounds of each doctor in between the visits. Physicians also discuss medical school, residency, and other issues with primary care, such as vaccinations and expensive testing methods and imaging.

This book would be especially valuable and interesting for people who are interested in medicine and healthcare systems like I am; however, the story was also very readable even if you just wanted to know more about what it is like to be a doctor or how healthcare system works in rural areas in the seventies. One critique I have is that the book consisted of only sketches of doctors in rural Maine, which might not accurately represent all rural areas of the United States. If the author had interviewed a wider population of family physicians, it would be more applicable to a wider population of people, but it was overall an informative, quick and interesting read!



Review by Colleen Brady, A&S '16

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"Francona: The Red Sox Years" by  Terry Francona & Dan Shaughnessy 

11/18/2013

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Title: Francona: The Red Sox Years
Author:  Terry Francona & Dan Shaughnessy
# pages:  368
Date published: 2013
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars 
Would you recommend it? Yes

Because of my family’s background with the Boston Red Sox (read: obsessed), I couldn’t have been more excited to read Francona: The Red Sox Years, which details the career of Terry “Tito” Francona as manager of the Boston Red Sox. The highlights of Francona’s career include the World Series that broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, followed by another win in 2007. 

When I first started reading, I worried that his would be a stereotypical memoir—a little mundane and a little too long.  Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a perfect glimpse into the life of Manager Francona, written with enough personal touch to feel like I was sitting in a room hearing his stories firsthand.  Tito is hilarious—he tells it like it is, and he really cares about his players.  With a perfect balance of insight into the inner workings of the franchise alongside contributions from players, managers, and others, this memoir proved easy to read, and it helped me understand the ups and downs of Red Sox fandom.  Francona comes across as witty, grounded, and talented, and Dan Shaughnessy, his co-author, demonstrates a gift for highlighting these qualities while moving the story forward at a reasonable pace.

I highly recommend Francona: The Red Sox Years to any Red Sox fan, baseball fan, or anyone trying to better understand the culture of Boston—the Sox are undoubtedly a large part of the city.  Getting a look into the real Red Sox, not just their games on TV, made me love them more despite their faults and their quirky (and sometimes difficult) personalities.  The memoir is great look into what it takes to be a good manager and the debate between winning games and making money, and I learned that baseball is as much about the people who make it possible as it is about pitching and hitting a baseball. Ultimately, I finished both informed and entertained.



Review by Molly Saint, A&S '15


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"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

4/27/2013

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Title: The Devil in the White City 
Author: Erik Larson
Genre: Non-fiction     
Pages:
Date published:
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Recommended: Yes!





I read The Devil in the White City at the recommendation of my best friend; after a year of raving about this “must-read,” she finally convinced me this year,, and now I understand why she liked it so much. The book takes place in the late 1800s, during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, In the midst of this occasionally overwhelming backdrop, the story keeps its focus by centering on two men, an architect and a psychopath, who seem to have no relation to each other; but as the story unfolds, the reader discovers that their lives are become intricately tied together by the World’s Fair. The architect, Daniel Hudson Burnham, dreamed of designing a fair  that would rival the Eiffel tower and attract visitors from across the world, a dream that would challenge both Burnham  and his team of talented architects, including Fredrick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, and Louis Sullivan. The psychopath, H.H. Holmes, used the excitement and attraction of the fair to keep his series of murders unnoticed, building a hotel where he could trap visitors and torture them. Larson’s characterization brings the history to life – the wholesome, driven Burnham and the charming but evil Holmes  both emerge as deep characters in an almost novelistic sense:,, historical figures, that the reader knows well by story’s end.

The Devil in the White City was not a difficult read and grabbed my attention from the very beginning with the introduction of Burnham and the World’s Fair. Since I grew up near Chicago and am familiar with the city, I was especially interested in the history of the fair and now I would love to visit what remains of the event. Even for those hailing from other states, this book  captivates because of the history involved; sometimes it seems hard to believe that these events really happened. I found The Devil in the White City impossible to put down once I picked it up. Apart from the  suspense, Larson’s decision to alternate between the perspectives of each chapter, kept me interested.

Ultimately, I would describe The Devil in the White City as nonfiction for fiction-readers. Anyone who enjoys art and architecture would also enjoy this book, as would those interested in psychopathology, murder mystery, or  the development of Chicago would also enjoy this. Pulling together all his research from primary sources Erik Larson created a unique and book. 





Review by Colleen Brady, A&S '16


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"All Souls" by Michael Patrick MacDonald

4/3/2013

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Title: All Souls
Author:  Michael Patrick MacDonald
Genre: Memoir

Date Published: September 1999
# Pages: 296
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Recommended?: Yes

A chronicle of the tumultuous and devastating upbringing of Michael MacDonald,, “All Souls” is characterized by the blunt honesty and heart-wrenching anecdotes of MacDonald’s life in South Boston.  Michael and his 10 siblings were raised in Old Colony in South Boston, and it was a neighborhood of feigned closeness.  The apparent threats of poverty, drugs, and shadowy gangsters had a direct effect on  Michael, as he ultimately lost four of his siblings due to such violence. “All Souls” is a heart-breaking testimony of lives lost too early and a story of how a region with the poorest white population in the United States was nonetheless still blindly considered "the best place in the world" by those who lived there.  Additionally, for all of us here at Boston College, it is an absolute necessity that we learn about the inherent racism that permeated Boston’s past less than 40 years ago. “All Souls” serves as an up close and personal inside account of Boston’s deeply divided demographic and economic landscape. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Review by Morgan Healy, LSOE '16



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