An excellent primer for gaining a better understanding of the U.S. health care system.
Reed—a neurologist—provides a passionate and detailed look at the American health care system.
The health care crisis in the United States has inspired a number of publicly expressed opinions, particularly in recent years, but rarely does the public hear from a vital component of the health care system: physicians. Beginning with her personal interests that led her into the field, Reed outlines her particular history and experiences in order to establish her authority as a medical doctor and to explain the differences between the historical system used in the U.S. and its present incarnation. Along the way, she highlights aspects of medicine that aren’t commonly discussed in public venues: the peculiar liability requirements physicians face, their lack of control over certain aspects of business most entrepreneurs take for granted, and the specific barriers to market entry for doctors. Dr. Reed winds up her explanations with a concise analysis of the modern U.S. health care system and her suggestions for its improvement. This insider’s view of health care—not the actual practice of medicine, but the nuts and bolts of how care providers, insurance and patient responsibility intertwine—clearly portrays complex concepts and the workings of the overall system. Although Reed clearly has opinions regarding the politics of health care, which she makes clear in an afterword, she explains her reasoning in evenhanded terms and takes care to avoid egregiously biased rhetoric. Despite the repetition of certain key words and lines, which creates a fleeting impression of heavy-handedness early in the text, the book educates readers about one of the thorniest issues in modern U.S. political discourse.
An excellent primer for gaining a better understanding of the U.S. health care system.Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1468544114
Page Count: 196
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A quick, exciting read that makes a bold statement on failed U.S. policies, but there’s too much going on in too few pages.
A hopeless ex–Navy SEAL finds himself in the uniform of a U.S. border patrol agent, questioning his life purpose, until he stumbles across an unlikely answer in a brothel in Tecate, Mexico.
Garrett Harrison isn’t like the rest of the border patrol agents. He may say “ain’t” just as frequently and he’s happy to joke around with them, but he has a unique sympathy and understanding for the immigrants and migrants he works to police and arrest. Part of this compassion comes from his ability, thanks to his late Cuban mother, to “speak Mexican,” which proves to be a good and a bad thing on the job. One day, Garrett and his colleague Brophy are called to a scene of slaughter: A drug-smuggling deal went wrong, and two women were disemboweled for cocaine they had swallowed. Apparently, “El Cacique” was responsible for the mutilated women and for everything awful that’s to come. Just as the story appears ready to focus on immigration issues, the drug war and failed U.S. border policies, it instead takes an unexpected turn into a brothel. Brophy and Parker, the pranksters on the patrol squad, drag Garrett to “Casa de Diana” to celebrate his promotion. While Brophy and Parker pay their way for a few minutes of pleasure, Garrett encounters Angelina, a young, beautiful prostitute forced into prostitution by El Cacique. Garrett falls desperately in love with her, even as several side stories describe the murderous, corrupt web El Cacique has weaved in the town. Can lovesick Garrett free his young love from the grip of a demented drug lord? Drug smuggling, sex trafficking, murder by hay hook, a reverend pedophile, an outdoor brothel, all amid an unlikely love story—it’s chaotic. The author’s intention to bring to light some of the unspeakable, real crimes being committed by Mexican drug cartels is somewhat admirable, but the story gets too busy for its own good.
A quick, exciting read that makes a bold statement on failed U.S. policies, but there’s too much going on in too few pages.Pub Date: April 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0865348783
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A scattering of thoughtful, poetic moments amid essays that focus on farm life.
A gardening columnist reflects on raising children, animals and vegetables on an Iowa farm in this collection of essays that highlights the adventure and difficulty that come with the so-called simple life.
The majority of the anecdotes in Weir-Jimerson’s (Better Homes & Gardens Herb Gardening, 2011) debut essay collection originated as columns in various rural-themed publications (Country Home, Country Almanac, Horticulture), and they never stray too far from the unpaved country road. Divided by season, the 55 essays cover pastoral topics, from training a driving horse and planting fingerling potatoes to ducking errant bulls, blizzards and tornadoes. Along the way, there’s a lot to be enjoyed and a lot to be learned from Weir-Jimerson, a Master Gardener and apt tamer of land, child and beast. For some though, the pseudo-lessons might be a bit too much. The folksy essays, though well written, often prove more descriptive and informative than reflective, making the collection more of a country field guide for outsiders than a memoir for like minds. There are, however, a handful of essays and asides in which the former poetry student expresses her tender side. Reflections on a childhood lake house, a description of a late-night hydrangea-harvesting adventure, and thoughts from the window of a snowed-in farmhouse reveal a broader voice that contrasts with the more domineering (and funny) quips about child rearing, barnyard antics and the goings-on of state and local fairs. This poetic version of Weir-Jimerson is the one you want to share tea with in the farm’s drawing room, but more often, your ear is pulled away by her expert side in her eagerness to teach the finer points of trapping mice or rooting burdock seeds out of a Great Pyrenees’ fur. While these musings are insightful, it’s likely that they’ve already reached their intended audience on the pages of country-minded periodicals.
A scattering of thoughtful, poetic moments amid essays that focus on farm life.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-1463502430
Page Count: 164
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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