I am so glad you are back! I'm ordering the book as soon as I finish writing this! Thanks, and I don't think you have to write a review every week. Heck, I'd settle for once a month. :-)))) Guess I'll have to check the library. It's $47.95. Just ordered Collared instead

When breath becomes air / Paul Kalanithi ; foreword by Abraham Verghese NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST • THE NEW YORK TIMES • NPR We have all heard of or experienced a situation where a doctor has ignored the concerns of a patient and refused thorough testing. That is what happened to 35 year old Paul Kalanithi despite the fact that he was a physician himself, in training to be a neurosurgeon and possessing several other degrees as well. He saw a doctor because with his weight loss and severe back pain, he suspected that he had cancer. An x-ray would not show abnormalities as well as an MRI, but an x-ray is what the doctor insisted upon. This test was normal. Continuing to be in discomfort, Kalanithi took painkillers in order to function and a few weeks later he developed extreme chest pain. Tests now showed that his lungs were riddled with tumors and these had spread to other areas of his body. He now became a patient. This book is very, very good and is intelligently written. It’s remarkable in the way it shows the journey of a physician through education, training and treatment of patients, and a patient’s journey through diagnosis, receiving treatment and finally having to make decisions for end-of-life care. The most poignant sections of the book are when the author had to re-assess the goals he had in life and realize his life objectives have changed. He was fortunate throughout to have the support of his wife, also a physician, and his family. For a smaller book, it has lots to think about. Booklist review: “Can life remain full and rewarding even while one is living under a death sentence? This is the question now-deceased neurosurgeon Kalanithi asked himself after receiving a late-stage lung cancer diagnosis. Newly married and almost ready to complete his residency, at 34 Kalanithi was faced with a momentous decision: Should he continue with a promising medical career, or fall back on his first love of writing while taking care of his health? Fortunately for the readers of this moving memoir, he decided to do both. Kalanithi describes his life-changing decision to set aside the pursuit of a doctorate in literature in favor of attending medical school and then recounts the discovery and progress of his illness, along with the inevitable upheaval in his personal life. A precious highlight here is the heartrending epilogue penned by his wife, Lucy, following Kalanithi's passing shortly after she became pregnant. This eloquent, heartfelt meditation on the choices that make life worth living, even as death looms, will prompt readers to contemplate their own values and mortality.”

Jasdip, I have listened to the audiobook format of two of Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter mysteries and reviewed one here (Play dead) a few weeks ago. I really enjoy them too - Andy's intense focus on helping his client, his self-deprecating humor and the characters helping him with his cases. I especially enjoy the audiobooks because the narrator, Grover Gardner, sounds just like I expect Andy Carpenter to speak and really brings him to life. Fortunately, our public library has many of the audiobooks available for download.

The trapped girl / Robert Dugoni. A #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller. This book, # 4 in the Tracy Crosswhite series, is another very good mystery with lots of twists and turns. An added bonus that I really enjoyed is the flavor of Seattle and Washington State that came through so vividly in the novel. Tracy Crosswhite is a Seattle homicide detective who has been called to investigate when a woman’s body is found in a submerged crab pot. The police believe that the woman is Andrea Strickland, last seen during a mountain climb with her husband. He claims that Andrea left their tent to use bathroom facilities and disappeared. It looks suspicious since Andrea’s mountain climbing equipment was still at their campsite and it was discovered that her husband was the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. But things are not always what they seem to be, in the novel or even within Detective Crosswhite’s professional life. Publisher's Weekly Review: In Dugoni's outstanding fourth Tracy Crosswhite mystery (after 2016's In the Clearing), the Seattle homicide detective investigates the death of Andrea Strickland, a young woman whose body a fisherman finds in a crab pot raised from the sea. Andrea, who was reported missing after a treacherous mountain hike, was already presumed to be dead. The victim's husband is the prime suspect and the beneficiary of a sizable life insurance policy. As the plot twists and turns, Tracy is struck by the similarities between her own life and Andrea's: both suffered family tragedies and rigidly structured their lives to compensate for the loss. For Tracy, solving the case is personal-but on a different level than the murder of her sister years before. In less deft hands this tale wouldn't hold water, but Dugoni presents his victim's life in discrete pieces, each revealing a bit more about Andrea and her struggle to find happiness. Tracy's quest to uncover the truth leads her into life-altering peril in this exceptional installment.