Ask Me Why I Hurt is the memoir of a pediatrician who operates a mobile medical van providing treatment to homeless teenagers. It covers his marriage to fellow pediatrician Amy, family life over a decade, the growth of his van endeavor to eventually provide more services, and a number of stories of the kids he sees on the van. How am I supposed to review a book like this? On its own merits, it simply isn’t a very good book. Dr. Christensen seems to be […]
The Story of a Life Well Lived
A few months ago, I was on a Radiolab binge at work when one of my favorite guests showed up to be interviewed. Neuroscientist Oliver Sacks, author of scientific classics like The Man Who Mistook his Wife as a Hat was a Radiolab staple. His enthusiasm for science and discovery shined through in his interviews, whether he was talking about his love for the Periodic Table of Elements or the strange neurological cases he’d come across in his career. But from the start, this interview […]
Sort of What I Expected
Here’s a thing I’m going to attempt to not do again: buy an audio book written and read by an author who is not a humorist or comedian. This is not a slam on Ms. Barrymore’s writing skills; it’s just that I think that this wasn’t in a format that was conducive to really getting a lot out of this totally fine selection of memoir-esque essays. I appreciate that Ms. Barrymore didn’t spend a lot of time in the book focused on the aspects of […]
Long Time Listener, First Time Reader
As a loyal listener of “This American Life,” I’ve been listening to stories from David Sedaris for ages. I rarely find him shocking (do people find him shocking?), but actually, hilarious and delightful. I would go so far as to say that I find him to be a comfort, and a familiar. This is the first of his books that I’ve actually listened to with my eyes. His voice is immediate and steadily present for me, in the best possible way. A series of stories […]