Book Club: What are you reading?

[agate]

This is odd. Last night I could swear I saw a post by Virginia (I think it was Virginia) about the Richard Cohen book, telling more about Peg's experience with stem cells and how a second treatment was recommended for her but she decided against it. Now I can't find that post.

Cohen's stem cell treatments were done at the Tisch Center in NY, and the doctor was Dr. Saud Sadiq, whose name often pops up in MS research. He is fairly well known. From what I remember of Virginia's post that disappeared, Peg's treatment was done somewhere else.

[Virginia]

I did post something about Peg's stem cell experience, quite awhile ago. She did not get the same kind as Richard Cohen did. She and Joe flew (at their own cost) from Iowa to Florida. They took stem cells from her stomach and did whatever they do to them. Then they put them in her back in her spinal cord. The cost back then was $10,000. When she didn't get the desired results they wanted her to come back for another treatment. She said the total cost was about $12,000 per treatment and they decided it was not worth it.

I did read about one lady who went to Porta Rica. She bankrupted herself, her finance and used up all the available money her family had. She was there for quite a period of time and they did what sounded to be the same treatment on her. Finally, she saw some results, but later admitted it could have been a spontaneous remission. She didn't know.

I am sure that there are many types of stem cell treatments. I am not sure, but I believe they did something that involved Richard Cohen's chest. Linda kind of keeps up with him. I use to, but then I started having problems getting on twitter and there was another Richard Cohen that I kept getting, so I let go of that. I remember seeing a photo of him in the Doctor's office and he later said something about it seeming like something heavy on his chest. He has been amazing throughout his journey with MS, but has admitted to having to rely on Meredith Viera, his wife. When asked they always say he is doing well even if he is not. The last time I saw Meredith when she was asked about him, she stated well you know MS is progressive. First time I had ever not heard her say he was doing well.

[agate]

He seems to have moved his blog to a Twitter format but there haven't been any entries there for quite a while.

Thank you for the information about Peg. I don't know how your older post happened to come up on the screen yesterday but I didn't imagine it, and the information you gave just now is like the information in that post. She traveled quite a distance then--Iowa to Florida-- just for a treatment that apparently didn't work any wonders. And it was costly.

I hope Richard Cohen is doing all right but the signs aren't looking good.

I ran into that other Richard Cohen too when I was looking around for information. The other one is also Richard M. Cohen. It was very confusing.

[Virginia]

I just finished reading another book. This time about the blitz and Winston Churchill. The name of the book is the Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. I had had this book in my kindle since May 20, 2020. So for a year. Then when I read the book about the bookshop and the setting was during the blitz, I just figured it was time to tackle this one.

This was true and researched from many books and a lot was taken from diaries of people who worked for Churchill and for Hitler. It was mostly about Churchill, but would also tell what was going on in Germany at the time. One thing I did not know or at least did not remember was that Rudolf Hess flew an airplane (leaving Germany without Hitler's knowledge) to Scotland. He crashed and was taken prisoner. He had left a letter for Hitler to get 4 hours after his takeoff. He told him he was going to England to negotiate a peace agreement. Another thing I do not recall is that Churchill was somewhat flamboyant. He liked pale pink, silk shorts and bright red silk robes. Sometimes he would wear a bright gold silk robe. He liked to work in bed until noon, with a typist sitting at the bottom of the bed and his black cat laying on the bed. He stayed up most every night until 2 or 2:30AM. He just never would give up, but was rather happy when the Japanese attacked the US base in Hawaii because he knew that would bring Roosevelt into the war. If things had not happened the way they did I do not think England could have won the war. It was beginning to look very bad for them. Interesting book, but kind of hard to read due to all the different characters and events.

[Lazarus]

Ivan Doig -The Whistling Season- don’t know how I stumbled on this book but it is lovely....Family story with a cast of children and adults that are memorable...clever

[Sunshine 2]

I finished Fair Warning by Michael Connelly and it was an excellent mystery book. Am now almost done with his newer book Law of Innocence which is outstanding.
He is my favorite mystery author: he draws his characters superbly, is very knowledgeable about crime and the workings of LAPD, FBI and detectives because he used to cover the Crime Beat for LA Times, prior to writing books.

The nice thing about getting old is you can re read favorites and they seem fresh.

[agate]

The nice thing about getting old is you can re read favorites and they seem fresh.

I've noticed that too, Sunshine. And there are good reasons for rereading some books if your first reading was decades ago--you just might have a totally different perspective on the book after the passage of time. That often happens for me. A book or movie I thought was great years ago doesn't look great at all the second time around, but it can just as easily work the other way too.

[Virginia]

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fly. This was a very enjoyable book that was recommended by Linda. The setting is in England. I think most anyone who enjoys reading would enjoy something like this.

[stillstANNding]

Thank you all for your ongoing reviews. I take them and put them on a list for when I need new books for Mom.
ANN

[agate]

I'm starting on Nobody's Looking at You, a collection of essays by reporter Janet Malcolm. The first essay is about Eileen Fisher, who designs women's clothes. I hadn't heard of her but found the essay very interesting. Apparently Fisher does eco-friendly luxury fashion.

[Virginia]

I think I have owned a couple of Eileen Fisher pieces in the long ago past.

[agate]

I just finished OLIVE, AGAIN by Ellizabeth Strout, the sequel to OLIVE KITTERIDGE. If you enjoy Olive, you'd probably like this book. It takes Olive up to age 86. She has to come to terms with aging and her own vulnerability.

[Lazarus]

I loved them both. Maybe I should look to see if she has anything new…

[jingle]

I'm reading TOPAZ by Leon Uris - He wrote EXODUS, remember that? The books by Uris are mostly out of print so I had to buy several used ones. They are so very, very good I wonder why they aren't more available.

[Virginia]

Jingle, I remember EXODUS. I had not thought of that book in a long time. I will try to look up TOPAZ.

[Lazarus11]

I am reading Uncomfortably Numb a memoir by Meredith O’Brien. It journals her life with MS and I really like reading it so far. Makes me think of my own beginning and is surprisingly satisfying.

[agate]

I'm going to get hold of this one (UNCOMFORTABLY NUMB by Meredith O'Brien). These accounts can often be comforting in an odd way--just knowing someone else's experience has been somewhat like mine, I guess.

I'm currently just finishing TRANSIT OF VENUS by Shirley Hazzard. I'd never read anything by this author before. It's been holding my attention though there are so many characters I had to make a list.

I'm trying out the Comment feature here and hoping that Linda will see it even though she still doesn't have "Comment" showing up for her.