Reading...

"The Soul of Medicine" by Sherwin B. Nuland Kaplan Publishing 207 pages $26.95

Nuland is and always has been a thoughtful writer with a gift for dialogue. Long ago I read his first bestseller "How We Die" and found it to be level-headed and non-alarming. We are all going to die, so why not prep for it like a test?

Nuland is a clinical professor of surgery at Yale as well as a Fellow at Yale's Institute for Social and Policy Studies.

This book is a series of anecdotes from varous specialists (cardiology, dermatology, surgery, etc.) At the end of each chapter, Nuland comments on the moral or philosophical bent contained therein. Amazingly, there are still morals in medicine...

"Hoda - How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee" by Hoda Kotb with Jane Lorenzini Simon & Schuster 272 pages $25

I admit the title caught my eye because I'd never heard of this woman. In fact, I was doing well to recognize Kathie Lee (Gifford.)

Hoda is of Egyptian descent and in the early chapters bemoans her differentness and all the times that strangers would brazenly ask, "What are you?" She graduated college and set off to get a job in broadcasting. Her demo tape was so bad that 27 station managers turned her down. But as always, there is one person who will give one a break and she found hers. Most notably, she did six years in New Orleans before she moved up to "Dateline" as a correspondent and then as co-host with Kathie Lee on the 4th hour of the "Today" show.

It's an amusing read. Perhapsbecause news reporters/anchors seem not to be as "Love me! Love me! Aren't I wonderful?" as most of the stars that I've read about.