Two Words, One Answer.
critical
 Critical $9.99 Okay, so maybe we overlook the strings of outlandish coincidences. And, oh yeah, the over-the-top, bullheaded, obtuseness of a lead character in refusing to face reality and instead putting his life at risk in a situtation where no reader would willingly venture. And the notion that Morgan Stanley would IPO a business venture without knowing the background of the major angel investor. Also the fantastical (and utterly unneeded) sub-plot involving a deranged Iraq war veteran turned hired assassin. Oh, and while we're at it, the comically cardboard success-driven female MBA Angela Dawson, the grizzled beat detective Lou Soldano, the thuggish, wife-beating ex-husband Michael Calabrese, and assorted Mafiosos named Vinnie, Franco, Angelo, Carlo, and Louie. What's left after discounting the literary schlock? Surprisingly, a decent page-turner of a medical mystery story, which is of course Robin Cook's stock in trade. In CRITICAL, Dr. Cook incorporates two items from the world of current medical news: the financial pressures and implications of private, for-profit hospitals, and the incidence of increasingly virulent forms of staph infections (most recently MRSA) encountered in hospitals among post-surgical patients. The novel combines both elements into a story that pits a husband-and-wife team of Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, working for the NYC Chief Medical Examiner's Officer, against a seemingly inexplicable outbreak of rapid and grisly deaths from staph infections at a chain of specialty hospitals. What makes the outbreak so horrifying is that the patients were in the hospital for such minor operations: knee repairs, liposuctions, cataract removals, facelifts, and rotator cuff repairs. While the hospital chain appears to be doing everything in its power to address the outbreak, the infections and deaths continue even though the pattern has gone unnoticed among city health officials for several weeks. It is left to Laurie in particular to solve the mystery before husband Jack goes into one of the self-same hospitals for his own knee surgery. Cook is at his best in CRITICAL when he reveals the details of the medical examiner's world. He wisely chooses not to limit his story line to the MRSA cases, but instead walks the reader through a number of autopsies, illustrating in several how medical examiners are able to shed unexpected light on causes of death. Readers are made to feel that they are in the autopsy room with the examiners, looking over their shoulders and getting an insider's view. Equally powerful, Cook patiently builds the reader's understanding of medical pattern analysis by following the gradual build-up of Laurie's case-specific data matrix as she searches for commonalities among the two dozen or so deaths. He also illustrates nicely the role of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in acting as a data collector and national clearinghouse for epidemiology matters. In the final analysis, of course, CRITICAL is a thriller, so it's all about the suspense build-up and the action. As always, Dr. Cook does not shortchange on this account. Despite the frantic silliness of parts of the story line, readers likely will willingly suspend their disbelief in service of the author's edge-of-their-seat plotting that (naturally) races against the clock even as the action crescendos to a climax. It ain't great literature, but it's a gripping, entertaining read. Sometimes, that's just what we need out of a book. This one delivers well enough..  Critical Literacy: Enhancing Students' Comprehension of Text $21.99 I read Critical Literacy for a graduate class on teaching reading. This book opened my eyes to a new way of teaching comprehension through looking critically at texts. The teacher created and tested lesson ideas gave me a clear understanding about how critical literacy approaches could be integrated into the classroom. I did find the first few chapters, which focused on theory, a little dense and repetitive. I will definitely use some of the ideas in my classroom this coming year.  Critical Gamers $0.01 The weblog for card, board, and real games you might play in the real world.Kindle blogs are fully downloaded onto your Kindle so you can read them even when you're not wirelessly connected. And unlike RSS readers which often only provide headlines, blogs on Kindle give you full text content and images, and are updated wirelessly throughout the day. |
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