Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue
by Danielle Ofri
Non-Fiction
Book 80

From Publishers Weekly
These essays, some previously published, about the author's 10 years as a medical student, intern and resident at the oldest public hospital in the U.S. resonate with insight, intelligence, humor and an extraordinary sensitivity to both the patients she treated in this inner-city facility and the staff she worked with. The cofounder and editor-in-chief of a literary magazine, the Bellevue Review, Ofri is now an attending physician at Bellevue and brings to this memoir a combination of medical information and some very expressive writing. The author acknowledges that when she arrived to work on the wards, she had no idea what her responsibilities were or how to perform typical student tasks like drawing blood. Along with the technical skills she absorbed working overtime in a stressful atmosphere, Ofri also learned to truly care for her cases. In "Finding the Person," she describes, for example, why she continued to speak to and maintain a bedside manner with a comatose woman in front of the dying woman's family. "Intensive Care" recounts the story of Dr. Sitkin, a difficult supervisor who both alienated and won the respect of his medical team, and eventually took his own life. The tragic loss of her close friend Josh, a 27-year-old, who died from a congenital heart condition ("The Burden of Knowledge"), caused her to doubt the foundation of medical training, that knowledge is power. The pieces in this powerful collection are tied together by the struggle of a clearly gifted physician to master the complexities of healing.

Book Description
Singular Intimacies is the story of becoming a doctor by immersion at New York's Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the country. When Danielle Ofri first enters the doors as a medical student, she is immediately plunged into the teeming world of urban medicine. It is here that Dr. Ofri develops a profound instinct for healing and, above all, learns to navigate the tangled vulnerabilities of doctor and patient.

Sacred Hearts: A Novel
by Sarah Dunant
Fiction
Book 79

Book Description
The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewomen find space to pursue their lives under God's protection. But any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. And the arrival of Santa Caterina's new novice sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core.

Ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, sixteen-year-old Serafina is willful, emotional, sharp, and defiant-young enough to have a life to look forward to and old enough to know when that life is being cut short. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl's cell to sedate her. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust and betrayal between the young rebel and the clever, scholarly nun, for whom the girl becomes the daughter she will never have.

As Serafina rails against her incarceration, others are drawn into the drama: the ancient, mysterious Suora Magdalena-with her history of visions and ecstasies-locked in her cell; the ferociously devout novice mistress Suora Umiliana, who comes to see in the postulant a way to extend her influence; and, watching it all, the abbess, Madonna Chiara, a woman as fluent in politics as she is in prayer. As disorder and rebellion mount, it is the abbess's job to keep the convent stable while, outside its walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to purge the Catholic Church and impose on the nunneries a regime of terrible oppression.

Sarah Dunant, the bestselling author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, brings this intricate Renaissance world compellingly to life. Amid Sacred Hearts is a rich, engrossing, multifaceted love story, encompassing the passions of the flesh, the exultation of the spirit, and the deep, enduring power of friendship.

Visit Sarah Dunant's web site

The Other Kind of Smart: Simple Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence For Greater Personal Effectiveness and Success
by Harvey Deutschendorf
Non-Fiction
Book 78

Book Description
We have known for years that the difference between those who become successful in life and those who struggle is their degree of emotional intelligence (EI), or people skills. Now, The "Other Kind of Smart" shows readers how they can increase their emotional intelligence and overcome the barriers that are preventing them from realizing their true potential. Emotional intelligence coach Harvey Deutschendorf has shown thousands of people how to relate emotional intelligence to everyday situations. Here, he uses the proven techniques of storytelling, combined with quotes and exercises, to show readers how to apply the principles of EI on the job. Filled with real-life scenarios and solutions, this book offers tools that will bring results in as little as five minutes a day and shows how to develop stress tolerance, cultivate empathy, increase flexibility with co-workers, boost assertiveness, and resolve problems successfully. Complete with an EI quiz that will help readers measure their own level of emotional intelligence, this invaluable guide will enable everyone to improve their relationships and increase their effectiveness at work in a practical, accessible way.

Visit Harvey Deutschendorg's web site

World Famous: How To Give Your Business a Kick-Ass Brand Identity
by David Tyreman
Non-Fiction
Book 77

Book Description
There are masses of people just waiting to do business with you...once they are so inspired. Business is not just a transaction; it's an experience. People do more business with people and companies that engage them in the purchasing experience. When you attach meaning to the act of doing business with you, you stand out from the crowd. "World Famous" reveals what enormous possibilities await you once you put your energy into inspiring rather than selling, being authentic rather than trying to fit in, and working to engage the marketplace rather than focusing solely on your competitors. Tyreman guides the reader through a step-by-step process for becoming differentiated authentically by building a unique, kick-ass brand-identity. This book is filled with real-life stories and anecdotes. This inspiring book arms you with ways to command true loyalty just by being yourself...and attracting more attention to your business than ever before.

Visit David Tyreman's web site

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story Of A Band Of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode To Victory In Afghanistan
by Doug Stanton
Non-Fiction
Book 76

Book Reviews
"Doug Stanton's Horse Soldiers is as gripping as the most intricately plotted thriller. It is a masterwork of stunning military action, brilliant in-depth journalism, and powerful storytelling. Finally Americans can know how just a few dozen courageous U.S. soldiers beat the Taliban under the most extreme and dangerous conditions imaginable. I could not put this book down."-- Vince Flynn

"Horse Soldiers is a great read -- a riveting story of the brave and resourceful American warriors who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 and waged war against Al Qaeda. We're hearing many of these stories for the first time -- and from those who waged a war worthy of Rudyard Kipling, James Bond, and Davy Crockett." -- Tom Brokaw

"Doug Stanton's Horse Soldiers is the story of the first large American unconventional warfare operation since World War II. My Green Berets were launched deep into enemy territory to befriend, recruit, equip, advise, and lead their Afghan counterparts to attack the Taliban. The Horse Soldiers succeeded brilliantly with a highly decentralized campaign, reinforced with modern airpower's precision weapons, forcing the Taliban government's collapse in a few months. Doug Stanton captures the gritty realities of the campaign as no other can."-- Geoffrey C. Lambert, major general (retired), U.S. Army, and commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne), 2001-2003

"Not just an epic war story, Horse Soldiers is a beautifully written, intimate portrait of the men and women who lived the battle on the fields of fire -- and at home, too. Their secret mission against the Taliban was intelligent, brave, and undertaken with great care for the good people of Afghanistan. Doug Stanton's superb account is an invaluable insight for policy makers and the public for years to come." -- Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea

"In the spirit of Black Hawk Down and Flags of Our Fathers, Doug Stanton plunges into the heart of a single mission and returns with a stark understanding not only of what happened but what was truly at stake. Through precise reportage and hauntingly rendered battle scenes, Stanton shows that we may ignore this 'forgotten' theater only at our own peril." -- Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder

Book Description
Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential if they were to defeat the Taliban.

The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators, and overjoyed Afghans thronged the streets. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed. Dangerously outnumbered, they fought for their lives in the city's immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the effort to defeat the Taliban might be doomed.

As the Americans struggled to hold the fortress, they faced some of the most intense urban warfare of our time. But until now the full story of the Horse Soldiers has never been told. Doug Stanton received unprecedented cooperation from the U.S. Army's Special Forces soldiers and Special Operations helicopter pilots, as well as access to voluminous after-battle reports. In addition, he interviewed more than one hundred participants and walked every inch of the climactic battleground.

This exciting story is filled with unforgettable characters: brave Special Forces soldiers, tough CIA operatives, cunning Afghan warlords, anxious stateside soldiers' wives who do not know where their husbands have gone, and humble Afghan boys spying on the Taliban.

Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton's account of America's quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The Horse Soldiers combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople and avoid civilian casualties proved a valuable lesson for America's ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.

Horse Soldiers is a big-hearted and thrilling read, with an epic story that reaches not just across the cold mountains of Afghanistan but into the homes of small-town America, and confirms Doug Stanton as one of our country's preeminent storytellers.

Hit List
by Darcia Helle
Fiction
Book 75

Book Description
Sanity is not something you lose, like your car keys or that elusive sock in the dryer. That's what Ian believed before his mother stepped over the edge from sane to crazy. No one is able to give Ian a reasonable explanation. Corinne suffers from severe memory loss, odd behavior, and paranoid delusions. Or at least Ian had been told they were delusions. After all, who would be hiding outside watching his mother? And why? Ian hires private investigator Lucianna Martel to retrace the events of his mother's last sane day. During Lucianna's investigation, she and Ian learn that Corinne may not be so crazy after all.

The City of Strangers: A Novel
by Ian Mackenzie
Fiction
Book 74

Book Description
Faith, family, and the weight of history intersect in this remarkable debut from a rising literary talent

A cold, gray Sunday dawns on New York City to find Paul Metzger trudging through the winter streets to visit his past. He goes first to see his estranged, decades-older half-brother; then his dying father, whose notorious early life still haunts his children; and finally the ex-wife he cannot help but continue to love. But a fourth encounter -- violent, unexpected -- sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change Paul's life, as well as the family he's struggled so long to understand.

Ian MacKenzie's stirring and lyrical debut is a story of a family inalterably fractured by its past, of a man who refuses to believe that what is done cannot be undone, and of a world that insists -- catastrophically, in the end -- otherwise.

The Cul-De-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream
by John F. Wasik
Non-Fiction
Book 73

Book Description
An incisive look at the consequences of today's costly and damaging suburban lifestyle, this new book exposes the economic, cultural, environmental, and health problems underlying life in suburbia. John Wasik provides powerful insights into how the U.S. suburban lifestyle became unsustainable and what can be done to salvage it. Wasik's observations are firmly grounded in exclusive on-the-ground research, interviews with thought leaders, and the latest studies and statistics. He exposes the untold truths about home ownership: green isn't always so green, life isn't cheaper after accounting for gas, water, and taxes, and modern suburban living isn't so idyllic considering the toll it takes on our health. Wasik's trenchant analysis adds a new dimension to an important topic, with exclusive research and analysis that debunks the many myths of suburban living, while exploring innovative solutions being developed in cities and suburbs across the country.

Visit John F. Wasik's web site

The Travelers
by Delaney Henderson
Fiction
Book 72

Book Description
Travelers in foreign lands, especially the Middle East, are able to easily find drugs of every type for recreational use and for import-export. The magnificent sights of the Muslim community by day, conceal the behind-the-scenes activities of the night. Out there are the "Users," who want to capitalize on the lucrative markets of the United States and its neighbors.

The lure of easy money and the icy thrill of breaking all the rules prove to be a virtually irresistible attraction to young American tourists and their counterparts around the world.

The combination of free access to copious amounts of drugs, sex, danger and excitement lead travelers to taste the forbidden fruits and encourages them to partake in the chase of modern ecstasy; sometimes with fatal results.

The Constellation Chronicles: The Lost Civilization of Aries
by Vincent Lowry
Fiction
Book 71

Book Description
A blinding fireball rips across the night sky and slams into a field in the remote town of Rigel, New Mexico. Glenn Sawyer, a broke and disillusioned 18-year-old, witnesses and investigates the crash, finding a surreal craft and an even stranger monkey-like creature named Paako, who secretly follows him home and stirs trouble. As Glenn captures Paako and attempts to return her to the crash site, he discovers unexpected company, and learns that his remarkable journey -- filled with adventure, evil, and a cast of captivating characters -- has only just begun. Thus starts the first book in Vincent Lowry's unforgettable epic "Constellation Chronicles." Both visionary and gripping, "The Lost Civilization of Aries" will sweep you away to an extraordinary world of mystery, fantasy, and science fiction.