Category : Book Reviews

Book Review – The 1,000 Year Old Boy by Ross Welford

Book Reviews - Oct 07,2018 - No Comment

The fountain of youth. The Holy Grail. Xanadu. Eternal youth.

Immortality.

It’s a day-dream that has fuelled many an idle holiday hour or long ride over the years. I’m sure you, too, have wistfully thought of a future that stretches out forever, with time passing you by.

But if you did extend that fantasy out, not to eternity, perhaps, but just, say, a thousand years…

What would you see?

That’s the intriguing premise behind the book I’ve just finished reading. It’s called “The 1,000 Year Old Boy” by Ross Welford.

Book Review: The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion

Book Reviews - Oct 01,2018 - No Comment

I have a rule of thumb about reading strategies.

If a book makes me laugh out loud thrice in the first ten pages, I read it. And that’s how I came to read one of Fannie Flagg‘s with the rather unusual title: “The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion”

It’s a story founded on an intriguing premise:

What if, late in life, you suddenly discover that you’re not who you thought you were all these years?

Book Review: Travelling In A Strange Land

Book Reviews - Sep 30,2018 - No Comment

Middle age.

It’s a cheerful euphemism for old men to delude themselves that they’re not (yet!) over the hill.

A phrase intended to offer the illusion of youth and vitality that works most of the time… until it doesn’t.

And for someone in this twilight zone who reads ‘Travelling in a Strange Land’ by David Park, it will have a special meaning and resonance that I’d imagine it hard for other readers to find in the poignant reflections and insightful self-commentary about a life filled with its fair share of mistakes and misjudgment.

Teaching Surgery

Book Reviews - Aug 21,2018 - No Comment

(This is an excerpt from my new book, “Heart, Guts & Steel: The Making of an Indian Surgeon“)

I was assisting my Junior Resident with her first hernia repair. And it was moving along at a snail’s pace.

From time to time, I was tempted to urge her to hurry up. “If you stick with this, we’ll be here until dinner time!”

But I left the words unspoken.

Better surgeons than I had been patient with me while I learned to operate. Now it was my turn to return the favor. So in a quiet tone, with no trace of the irritation within, I asked her: “What are you worried about?”

Crisis

Book Reviews - Aug 17,2018 - No Comment

(This is an excerpt from my new book, “Heart, Guts & Steel: The Making of an Indian Surgeon“)

My patient was going to die.

And if he did, it would be my mistake.

The thought was like a drumbeat, pounding inside my skull. Although still a trainee, I was the surgeon in charge of this operation. And I was in deep trouble!

“Give me a vascular clamp, quick!”

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