Grayling’s Song by Karen Cushman
Publisher/Year: Clarion Books, 2016
Format: Hardback
Pages: 213
Source: my own collection
Thoughts: It was ok. I got it from Amazon on sale and couldn’t pass up a YA book about hedge witches. That’s totally in my wheelhouse and I was excited to read it. But the writing wasn’t very tight, I got tired of all the whining and complaining the travelers did real quick, and I felt the ending left too many unanswered questions. Overall, it was fine for younger readers but for teens, adults, or advanced young readers, it would likely fall pretty short of the mark.
Black Man in a White Coat by Damon Tweedy, M.D.
Publisher/Year: Picador, 2016
Format: audiobook
Time: 8 hours 44 min
Source: Audible.com
Thoughts: I read this for a book club I joined at work. I am glad they picked this one because I have always been interested in medical memoirs anyway, even though I tend not to care about memoirs in general. I also appreciated learning more about how race affects the medical treatment and practice of American society. Intellectually, I knew race affects medical care and how healthy people are in general, but I liked learning about it in more detail. I could have done without the multiple references to Ben Carson, though. Surely there are at least a few other black doctors he could have referred to who aren’t politically insane.
