I had not heard of this author before, and I usually don't read a lot of nonfiction, and I have to say this book probably will not encourage me to read more in the way of nonfiction. You could compare these "essays" to short stories, I guess, except they are really more rambling ruminations by the author. Kinda depressing and not my style.
A very readable account of how doctors form the medical diagnoses that they do and ways that we, as patients, can help. The real-life cases are fascinating, and I appreciated the fact that they all pretty much had happy endings. This book proved to be a real mind opener into the critical thinking skills that doctors must employ. Only once or twice did the author lose me in medical details. My favorite parts of the book were the real-life patients and how eventually their medical mysteries were resolved by physicians who listened to their patients.
The Palace of Illusions
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Confusing Palace of Illusions(3/4/2008)
This book is a "reimagining" of a world-famous Indian epic, the Mahabharat. Unfortunately, I had never heard of this epic and didn't find it particularly intriguing. Maybe it was trying to figure out who was who - the names were confusing, even with a family chart and a list of main characters included. I usually enjoy reading books about different cultures, but this one just didn't grab me.
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