Books reviews, current events, and other musings

I'm trying to catch up with my book reviews, starting with three of the better books that I've read over the last few months.

Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science presents a fascinating behind-the-scenes view of medicine. He starts off describing his first surgical procedures, exploring the conflict between the need to learn the technique through practice and the fact that any patient would be better off with an experienced physician. He brings up other important topics that are rarely discussed in public: when capable doctors make mistakes, how the medical profession deals with incompetent physicians (or fails to do so), and the intrinsic uncertainty of medical diagnoses and decision making. In the remaining chapters, Gawande comes across as a journalist more than a medical insider, when discussing blushing, nausea, pain, overeating, autopsies, and other subjects. Complications is very readable and interesting, though the ethical and practical challenges facing a surgeon are the most compelling part of the book.

Will Hutton's The World We're In is a mixture of two books, one that's quite rewarding and one that's rather boring. In the book's better portion, its British author condemns American conservatism, praises the European economic framework, and urges Britain to model their society on Europe instead of the US. Hutton presents a strong, convincing argument that the American socioeconomic system serves its citizens poorly and actually weakens its economy. In the remainder of the book, Hutton advocates British acceptance of the Euro, a tiring monetarist argument of limited interest to most Americans. I'd give the overall book a weak endorsement, though it's well worth reading if you skip the boring parts.

Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community analyzes the decline in social capital over the last few decades. Putnam examines a wide variety of social activities -- political, religious, organizational, informal, and others -- and demonstrates a steady across-the-board decline in all of them since the 1960's. He then investigates possible reasons for diminishing social involvement by baby boomers and later generations compared to their parents. Television is the largest factor, though greater time pressure and suburbanization also have an impact. Bowling Alone is an excellent, fact-filled analysis of the increasingly solitary nature of American life.
posted by Julian at 12:55 PM

 
I've largely neglected this weblog since November, and I'm ready to get back into it. In December my girlfriend and I got engaged, and we're getting married in June. It's exciting, though kind of scary, and I'm very optimistic about our future life together. Naturally enough, blogging has not been my biggest priority.

Also, you may have heard some fuss about a recent war in the Middle East. I spent a lot of time reading the San Jose Mercury News and various online sources; Talking Points Memo has been particularly insightful. However, I couldn't find the motivation to protest the war significantly or even record my opinions about it. Now that the shooting has mostly stopped, I'll try to digest what happened.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration continues to shock. Here's their latest repugnant act (from This Modern World):

President Bush's advisers have drafted a re-election strategy built around staging the latest nominating convention in the party's history, allowing Mr. Bush to begin his formal campaign near the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and to enhance his fund-raising advantage, Republicans close to the White House say.
...
The convention, to be held in New York City, will be the latest since the Republican Party was founded in 1856, and Mr. Bush's advisers said they chose the date so the event would flow into the commemorations of the third anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

This from the party that was horrified that anyone dare make a political statement at Paul Wellstone's funeral.
posted by Julian at 11:45 PM