Reading Update

The last book I finished in 2007 was the devotional I'd been reading all year, Voices of the Faithful, edited by Beth Moore. The subtitle of this book is "Inspiring Stories of Courage from Christians Serving Around the World." Each day's devotional was written by an IMB missionary. Each month has a theme; March is "Prayer," and September is "God Before Me," for example.

I enjoyed this book's combination of interesting stories from around the world. My one complaint, which probably nobody else shares, is that I hate the way foreign words are followed by pronunciation guides. Is it really necessary to inform me that Ganges is pronounced gan-GEES? Or Togo, TOH-go? AN-dees? If this kind of help is required, perhaps an appendix could include it to avoid irritating me. But then, I don't suppose irritating me is something that the publishers were worried about, and this is really a nit-picky comment anyway.

The first book I finished in 2008 was Atul Gawande's Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. (I was actually reading it at midnight and finished it a few minutes later, to the sound of fireworks and gunshots all around, and the neighbors playing a song about Che Guevara at top volume.) I had already read a couple of the essays from this book that had been published in the New Yorker. I had particularly enjoyed the one about childbirth, and that's what made me want to read the book. I liked most of it very much, though some of the topics aren't my favorite to read about, notably health insurance - the very mention of the subject gives me palpitations of anxiety. But I did find the piece on vaccination in India and the one on Cystic Fibrosis to be fascinating.

As well as providing insight into the medical system of the United States, the way doctors think, and other aspects of health care, this book examines how people of any walk of life can be more effective at what they do. An afterword is entitled: "Suggestions for Becoming a Positive Deviant." I love that term. I first heard it during a conversation about breastfeeding and public health. Breastfeeding exclusively for six months, never giving formula, and continuing to nurse longer than the norm: all these behaviors would make a woman a positive deviant because they vary from the statistical average in a positive way. Being a positive deviant in a professional setting would include striving to do things better than the average, and Gawande's book is full of ways doctors and other medical professionals can do this. In his afterword he offers the following suggestions to all of us, even those who don't work in medicine: "Ask an unscripted question. ... Don't complain. ... Count something. ... Write something. ... Change." I highly recommend reading the whole afterword even if you aren't interested in the rest of the book. The way he expands on each of these suggestions is powerful, and certainly appropriate for teachers.

So there you have it, book #1 of 2008!