Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

Stupid dog. I'm sitting on my mother's front porch watching a neighbour's dog tempt fate by running back and forth across the street, narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic and its owner who keeps yelling, "Buddy!" Apparently this is a common occurrence and I'm finding it way too stressful. More on that later.

So, I finished another book. Weird how I feel more productive the more books I read and this one was a Giller prize winner. Not one of my pulp or graphic novels I can get through in a day. That being said it wasn't a difficult read or boring or weird in a Canadian literature sort of way. Weird, eh?

This book is a compilation of short stories about the medical experience, told from the point of view of a half a dozen doctors, starting from pre-med and the pressure to get into med school to the frustrations of the job. Since the author is also a doctor, I was a little afraid that the characters would be portrayed more on the heroic or martyred end of the spectrum like you find on bad television medical melodrama. That wasn't the case. Some of the doctors are jerks and some not-so-much of a jerk, basically human.

The fun part was finding out stuff I had noticed before, thought was weird, and now have an explanation for it. As in, I've spotted doctors coming in the patient's room during their rounds and take a seat. Are they tired? Didn't get enough sleep the night before? Turns out this gives the patient a sense of time spent and it is taught early. Unfortunately, I just know that if I find myself in a hospital and the doc takes a seat at the edge of the bed or nearby chair, I'll get a little giggly and that will earn me an extra day's stay for a psych evaluation. And to be honest, that just sounds easier than trying to explain what is going on it my wacky head.

Another interesting point, they put a glossary of terms in the back of the book but there wasn't a time when I thought that I didn't understand something. Must be a sure sign that I've watched way too much tv.

Anyway, this was a good book. Glad I read it, even if things didn't roll where I would have wanted them to.

As for the dog, the poor thing has been captured after about an hour of playing chase in the neighbourhood; score another point for that dog's guardian angel. I was sure a couple squealed tire sounds was going to mean that it was a goner for sure.

Fool Moon: Book Two of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Oh how I love reading on my vacation. If you spend a Sunday reading, you don’t feel bad about ignoring all the things you should be doing before the start of the week. Not that that has prevented me from Sunday reading in the past but you know...

Fool Moon is the second book from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series of books. I read book one ages ago and did a review of it on the podcast. At the time, we also reviewed the show that can currently be found on your local sci-fi channel. Love the show and sometimes get taken back a bit by the differences in the two. I love the ghost like character, Bob, who is played by an actor you can see. Whereas in the book, he is a disembodied voice who lives in a skull on Dresden’s shelf and only comes out when Harry wants recipes for fun little potions or info on things like werewolves. Thankfully, television being a visual medium, they made him slightly more corporeal with a body we can see and with slightly more impact on the plot.

In Fool’s Moon, werewolves are afoot and in this little world, we don’t just have one set design for the wolves. That has to be the strongest selling point for the book. Typically, an author will take a look at past werewolf legends, pick a few characteristics they like, mix together and viola! They have their own creative spin on the monster legend. Butcher takes the time to incorporate four or five different types into his story and this allows for some interesting plot twists. Some are turned when they wear a magical belt, some turn when they chant some magic, some are cursed, etc.

Also, I noticed a big jump in writing quality when it came to this book in comparison to the first book in the series. The first one, the plot was so painfully obvious but he had created an interesting enough world that it made you want to keep reading. Here, you weren’t quite sure where it was going to go and he set up Dresden with enough obstacles that you couldn’t be sure if he could make it out alive. Granted, there are at least four more books in the series so I wasn’t all that worried but if the story is good enough, you can find yourself forgetting that little bit of info for awhile.

So, I’ll continue to read these books. They are fun and a nice break from reality every once in awhile.