PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.
1. What are you currently reading? The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz. Isabel Spellman, the eldest daughter of the San Francisco clan of private investigators, is on the case again, digging up dirt on a competitive PI. Thirtysomething Izzy is immature and passionate about grudges, so this ought to be good.
This is a reread for me. I know because I found it in my den. But I remember little about the case at the center. No matter. I enjoy time spent with this wacky clan. They are witty and idiosyncratic but they also love one another and they make me laugh. I could use some laughs!
2. What did you recently finish reading? Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy by Steven Levingston. In August 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy became the only First Lady of the 20th century to give birth while living in the White House. Her baby only lived two days. It was a trauma she and the President had to endure under the public's gaze, however it was nothing compared to the trauma and scrutiny she would withstand alone, three months later, when her husband was assassinated in Dallas.
This sensitive and well-meaning book covers Patrick's short life in detail and puts it in the context of their family and the nation. I learned some interesting things: Jackie only saw her son for minutes and may never have held him, since she was recovering from an emergency c-section in one hospital while her baby was rushed to another for neonatal care; while she was in the hospital, she actually had a cancer scare on top of everything else (!), her doctor removed/biopsied a suspicious mole on her foot; the President was with Patrick when he died, but was unable to hold him because the baby was in a hyberbaric chamber; these chambers were considered experimental at the time; Jackie was too ill to attend her baby's funeral, but the President was there. He even designed the headstone.
JFK grew up with a developmentally challenged sister, Rosemary. He understood that, due to lack of oxygen, Patrick may have faced the same fate. This was deeply personal to him and during the last months of his life, he authorized hundreds of millions of dollars (billions in today's spending) for improved neonatal research and care.
Dr. Robert deLemos treated Patrick Kennedy and was inspired to devote his career to neonatology. Dr. deLemos played a critical role in developing more sophisticated ventilators for babies born with underdeveloped lungs. Today's CPAP machines were born of research done at this time. Patrick Kennedy, like his Aunt Rosemary, inspired John F. Kennedy to do good, and his rhetoric and example inspired American citizens.
Wouldn't it be nice if we had a President who spoke to our better angels, encouraging us to add to mankind rather than subtract, to do something more humane with our energies than storm the Capitol, demonize immigrants and deny marriage rights to consenting adults? This book not only made me sad for the nuclear Kennedy family living in the White House, it made me sad for all us today.
3. What will you read next? I don't know
