Book Description
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City saw its first AIDS patient in August 1985. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases who became, by necessity, the local AIDS expert. Out of his experience comes a startling, ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland.
Customer Reviews:
A Doctor's Love for his Patients.......2007-05-30
This based-on the author's true-story details the time he was just starting out as a doctor. He picked a Hospital in smalltown United States where he would be the infectious disease specialist. Suddenly, cases of AIDS appeared even in that small town. It was the 80's epidemic and as it spread from the big cities AIDS victims were met with fear and a lack of compassion from most doctors. Verghese was one of the few who truly listened to and cared for his patients through such a terrible disease.
An excellent personal account of the emergence of AIDS.......2007-04-24
In "My Own Country" Dr. Abraham Verghese tells the story of the emergence of AIDS in rural Tennessee from his perspective as a new foreign doctor. In the process of describing the increased presence of the disease in his community, Dr. Verghese also tells the personal stories of his patients as well as his own story - how working with the disease opens his mind to new perspectives as well as the toll it places on him personally. The author's narrative style is compassionately captivating, managing to entertain and inform at the same time. I'd highly recommend it for those seeking to learn more about what being a good doctor is like or about the difficulties faced by those that had to deal with the disease in its emergent era.
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story.......2007-01-11
This is an excellent story. It is an interesting and informative read.
An Important Chronicle..........2006-10-05
Dr. Verghese's depiction of AIDS in Johnson City is a powerful book about the way this disease first entered the American consciousness. As an outsider - an Indian doctor in the Midwest - writing about his experiences with the gay community and others who were first diagnosed with HIV and AIDS provides a unique perspective into the way people ostrasized and condemned, often in the name of God, those who were first diagnosed. One reviewer commented that the book is dated, but in fact, Verghese's account remains an important one as it not only describes a disease that has shaped and continues to shape our collective consciousness, but is also applicable for the way it reminds us how terrible we can be when faced with an unknown and how easy it can be to attack those we don't understand.
What Verghese does so well is provide a human aspect to almost everything he writes about. I, too, read the Tennis Partner before reading this, and I think the way he is able to juxtapose his own family life and the way it slowly disintegrates, while at the same time doing so much to keep other families together btoh physically and spiritually is remarkable. The individual cases he describes are so vivid and truly provides a face to the diease.
I highly reccomend this book to anyone considering the health profession (along with his other book the Tennis Partner and Gawunde's Complications) as well as people who are curious about infectious disease and its impacts upon society.
Tells an important story, but is too dated for 2006 readers.......2006-03-06
I love to read medical non-fiction, about doctors, nurses and their experiences in the world of medicine. Since I was a fan of Verghese's work from The Tennis Partner, I picked this book up with a lot of enthusiasm.
This book tells a quietly tragic and compelling story about the beginning of the AIDS crisis, and Verghese's personal experiences and feelings as he treats his first AIDS patients. The writing is clear and he is great at observing the small details in life that make you feel like you are living the story.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't feel current anymore. The perspective that Verghese has is still very valuable, but in 2006 the book is more valuable for understanding the history of the disease than it is for understanding the current reality for those dealing with HIV/ AIDS.
He does an amazing job chronicling the incredible stigma and difficulties faced by those with the disease, and the attitudes that were common then about AIDS and homosexuality. But our culture, medicine, and treatment of HIV/ AIDS have all changed so drastically since the eighties that this book really is better as a look backwards at how things used to be than it is a current look at the treatment and care people with AIDS experience now.
I hope Verghese writes more, because he is a powerful writer with some amazing stories to tell. I think this book has an important place in our cultural library, but if you are looking for a book to help you understand how people with AIDS live nowadays, you would be better off looking elsewhere.
Customer Reviews:
Profoundly moving.......2004-08-20
The child of Indian expatriates, himself an immigrant, Dr. Abraham Verghese found a home among the country people of Tennessee and an extended family among this Bible Belt's first AIDS victims.
Verghese, who began his residency in Johnson City, Tenn. in 1980, gives two reasons for specializing in infectious diseases (ID). One, his mentor convinced him it was the only specialty where cure was common. Two, as it was not a glamor field, a foreign ID doctor had a better shot at training at a top university hospital.
Simple, sensitive and scrupulously honest, Verghese's book is alive to the ironies, tragedies and heroism of the first days of the AIDS epidemic.
After training in Boston, where he saw his first AIDS patient, Verghese and his wife returned to idyllic Appalachia in 1985, expecting their first child. Aware of his outsider status, Verghese sets about finding, and making, his place. His rounds encompass two hospitals, the Mountain Home VA, a residence where he sees elderly vets and a lot of lung cancer, and the modern Johnson City Medical Center, the "Miracle Center." The contrast is vivid.
Although Johnson City has no AIDS patients and its single experience with a New Yorker who didn't quite make it home to die is "suppressed like a shameful memory," Verghese sets out to educate the population, to prevent AIDS here if he can.
His first visit to a gay bar to show an educational video is fraught with discomfort on numerous levels. The stiff self-consciousness of his early encounters with gay men in Boston is being consciously replaced with curiosity. "There was an obvious parallel: society considered them alien and much of their life was spent faking conformity." Still, it's a small town and Verghese is a foreigner with a reputation to build.
But his educational efforts bring in his first cases. He is excited, on the cutting edge of medicine. The HIV virus has been identified and a cure is surely just around the bend. He makes house calls, gives patients as much of his time as they need, and in a zealous spirit of medical documentation, friendship and plain human curiosity, elicits histories so personal it's difficult to imagine them spoken aloud.
As his AIDS practice grows, Verghese encounters bigotry and anger among his colleagues and community. But more profound is the bravery and generosity of spirit the disease arouses among the most unlikely people - the poor, the uneducated, the sick. He is touched, humbled, uplifted by the friends and relatives of his patients and often by the patients themselves.
But the hideousness of AIDS cuts a nasty swath. The bravest face a horrible, lingering and disfiguring death, usually in the prime of life. Verghese's descriptions of disease are unflinching.
As his case load grows to 80 and death becomes a commonplace, Verghese is beset by nightmares of infection and feelings of helplessness. His wife, frightened and resentful, withdraws from him. Similar attitudes in the medical community arouse furious bitterness. All around him, his new friends, his self-made family, are dying. After five years his endurance snaps. Plagued by guilt and relief, Verghese leaves Johnson City.
"My Own Country" is an important, passionate book which cannot be recommended highly enough. Verghese's prose draws the reader directly into the complex beauty and brutality of the human heart. It's a cry for our times.
AIDS in America, really.......2001-02-23
I read first this book shortly after its initial publication. The impact was enormous. I even went to a signing event an hour away from where I lived. What made this book great was that not only it talked about the real tragedy in rural, little educated America, that AIDS wrought there, but it was finely written, with feeling, and instructive. Such a rare blend in this type of litterture. This was not a report from the front, it was also the journey of a man whose whole life principles are challenged, and changed in front of other people's tragedy. Today, as I read it again, it has already that flavor of historical witnessing, but its emotion is still fresh. For those of us that are blase about too many tragedies in our lifes, we could read this book again to regain some of the compassion that we might have misplaced as our everyday life demanded our atention.
Full of fun, fear, folk and family stories.......1997-01-10
Dr. Verghese beautifully captures the Appalachian essence of innocence and trust, and the clash that happens when a feared viral intruder puts its mark on relatives and neighbors. The exposure and initiation of a foreigner to country ways and mindset makes for some comical moments. The text is very creative, expressive and easy to read
A compelling view of the onset of AIDS in rural Tennessee........1996-06-11
"My Own Country" combines medical fact with compelling personal history in a way that reveals the true nature of human understanding for what is "foreign" to us all.
Dr. Abraham Verghese comes to rural Tennessee as the foreign graduate of a foreign medical school; rural Tennessee being one of the few areas that will allow him to practice in the United States. At the time of his arrival, the AIDS epidemic arrives as well.
Dr. Verghese relates the stories of the victims and their families in the setting of his own acceptance among these bewildered people. Through careful detail, Dr. Verghese is accepted among the citizens of Johnson City, Tennessee, just as they slowly come to accept the reality of the AIDS virus and its consequences in their lives.
Told in language easily understood by non-medically trained readers, this story becomes a history of our people and their ability to adapt to difficult and heart-rending life experiences. Dr. Verghese celebrates the ability of the human spirit to accept disease and its consequences while he uses his keen sense of observation to show his own acceptance among these "new people." Dr. Verghese's ability for insight into the pain and suffering of patients families and the ultimate triumph of our compasionate nature is beautifully rendered. This book cannot be recommended highly enough for the many areas in which it succeeds. Ultimately, the book becomes a history of AIDS, medicine and the way both interact with victims who little understand the disease itself.
A compelling journey into the heart of the AIDS epidemic........1996-06-09
Few books can transport the lay reader into the center of an epidemic with such honesty, compassion and intelligence as MY OWN COUNTRY. As a specialist in infectious diseases, Dr. Verghese describes the unexpected and insidious advance of the HIV virus into a small Tennessee town. By taking us into the hearts and homes of the victims and their families, he paints an unforgettable picture of the emotional and physical impact of this epidemic while helping us to understand the intricacies of the many ways in which AIDS attacks the body and mind of its victims. More than their physician, Dr. Verghese becomes friend, confidant and healer of both body and spirit to his patients and their loved ones. With painful candor, he also details the terrible personal price he and his family are forced to pay because of his dedication. While displaying both grace and compassion, Dr. Verghese surprises the reader with his gift for lyrical description and his ability to see beyond the techical perimet
Customer Reviews:
Delicious family recipes and beautiful photos!.......2006-09-27
I love the Taste of Home cookbooks and magazines! Grandma's Favorites is filled with wonderful recipes. They are "real" recipes....ones that are not hard to make and can be made often. The recipes were submitted by real people who tell about their recipe. They don't have exotic ingredients that are hard to find. Some people will not agree that these are truly "Grandma's" recipes depending on one's idea of the definition; but this book includes 350 great classic family recipes you will want to try and that your family will love! They are easy to read and call for common ingredients and many of the recipes have photos. It is a wonderful addition to any cook's collection!
Whose Grandma cooks like this?.......2006-09-19
I guess I expected more of a "comfort food" book and this is not it. There are a few recipes that would make me think of Grandma's cooking but most are a hodgepodge of standard recipes that probably only bring raves from fellow family members. I was looking forward to getting cozy and having a good read (I read cookbooks for entertainment as much as I cook from them) and I was let down. Do yourself a favor and spend the money and your time gathering your own family recipes and skip this book. Normally I love Taste of Home but this was a let down.
Product Description
MORE THAN 199 SOUP RECIPES FROM PAST ISSUES OF TASTE OF HOME AND ITS "SISTER" PUBLICATIONS.
Average customer rating:
|
Another Taste of Florida: The Best of "Thought You'd Never Ask
Dorothy Chapman , and
Heather J. McPherson
Manufacturer: Tribune Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| AIDS
| Abuse
| Adults
| Aging
| Children
| Class
| Communities
| Culture
| Death
| General
| History
| Leisure
| Marriage & Family
| Medicine
| Men
| Occupational
| Race Relations
| Religion
| Research & Measurement
| Rural
| Social Groups
| Social Situations
| Social Theory
| Suburban
| Urban
| Women
ASIN: 0941263754 |
Book Description
The hottest chefs in the food business have one thing in common, Taste, the lavish culinary magazine. Now the best of Williams-Sonoma Taste is collected in one gorgeous volume, including innovative recipes from starters to desserts and illustrated with some of the best modern food photography available. The Best of Taste really does offer the best dishes from around the world, featuring recipes crafted for authenticity and freshness. Meal planning is made simple thanks to sections organized by course from starters to desserts and beverages. Cooks everywhere will find lasting inspiration in these pages, where favorite recipes from celebrated chefs and cookbook authors are at their fingertips.
Customer Reviews:
A Collection of Only the Best!.......2002-09-23
"Good taste is one of those elusive qualities that most people find hard to define, even though they know it when they see it. In general, however, it denotes quality, simplicity, and ease. When applied to food, taste is also present when good ingredients are cooked in an honest way that highlights the essence of their taste, texture, and appearance." -Chuck Williams
Chuck Williams' philosophy is to celebrate the pleasure of cooking. He opened his first store in Sonoma, CA in 1956 and now more than 200 stores have opened in the United States. He has literally helped to revolutionize cooking in America.
My first introduction to a Williams-Sonoma store was when some friends bought me the cutest Les Garcons Dinnerware as a wedding present. French artist Guy Buffet is renowned for his whimsical impressionistic style and creates the porcelain plates, each with a different waiter. They are made exclusively for Williams-Sonoma and are a favorite collectible.
Later, while walking through Bellevue Square in Bellevue, WA I saw the plates there and then fell in love with cooking stores.
The Best of Taste is a 320 page compilation of the favorite recipes from the first year of Williams-Sonoma TASTE Magazine. Many of the world's greatest chefs have made a contribution to this cookbook. Marimar Torres, Joyce Goldstein, Nancy Silverton, Patricia Wells, Deborah Madison, Jean Georges Vongerichten to name a few.
Throughout this cookbook, you will find 250 beautiful, larger-than-life photographs. Fascinating pictures of a bakery in Paris or a honey farm in Manhattan. There are also photographs of the techniques in the recipes to illustrate the food preparation steps.
Each recipe has the most gorgeous picture and a full page with an easy to read ingredient list and numbered instructions.
The contents include (with recipe selections):
Introduction
Drinks - Guava Colada to Tropical Delights
Starters - Spicy Crab Cakes, Endive with Crab, Bacon wrapped dates, Balkan Meat-Stuffed Potato Pastries, the cutest Caviar Purses, Sizzling Shrimp with Garlic.
Soups & Stews - Gorgeous Avocado-Cucumber Soup, Spanish Garlic Soup, Beef and Onion Stew.
Salads - Marinated Zucchini and Goat's Cheese Salad, Apple, Celeriac and Chestnut Salad, Kidney Bean and Chicken Salad.
Entrees - Matambre, Stuffed Lamb with Eggplant and Feta, Veal Involtini with Grilled Anaheim Chiles, Fish Baked in Salt, braised Short Ribs with Bok Choy.
Sides - Green Garlic and Spinach Soufflé, Butternut Squash with Dates and Pistachios, Hot and Spicy Roasted Pears (from the cover), Stir-Fried Eggplant.
Desserts - Buzzy Bees (cookies), Chocolate Chunk Cherry Biscotti (talk about heavenly), Chocolate Rum Truffles, Nun's Breasts with Pumpkin Cream (a pillow of pumpkin pastry cream atop a crunchy cornmeal oatmeal cookie, showered with powdered sugar), Plum and Grape Cobbler, Cherry -Almond Cake, Orange Custard, Pomegranate Sorbet and a divine Chocolate Soufflé.
I feel a little heady just typing all those delicious dessert names.
A definite collectable you will actually want to cook from! Also perfect for coffee table reflection. Just as fun to read as to cook from. Your heart will beat a little faster while you read (or one could say: "devour with your eyes") this cookbook.
Truly an Exciting Cookbook filled with delicious recipes! If this book doesn't get you into the kitchen, nothing will!
~TheRebeccaReview.com
great food book.......2002-07-23
easy-to-do menus, I've made about 40% of the menus in the book ... non-complicated and creative recipes, delightful!
worth buying.......2002-01-31
Beautiful photographs, well laid out lists of ingredients, not a book for someone just starting out as cooking instructions are pretty terse.
Product Description
THIS IS THE NINTH IN THE POPULAR BEST OF COUNTRY COOKING SERIES. THIS EDITION SERVES UP 339 COUNTRY FAVORITES.
Book Description
Join Midwest Living® magazine’s Dan Kaercher as he eats his way across the twelve states of the Heartland, exploring their bountiful harvests and food traditions—and sampling signature dishes along the way.
Some stops are well marked on the map; others are hidden gems. All are recommended for their fantastic flavors and distinctive character. Meet innovative chefs from renowned restaurants as well as the personalities behind the counter at the local neighborhood cafe. Come along to the produce auction and talk shop with the farmers who raise the crops. Learn the ethnic origins of the region’s favorite foods and try wild variations on old-time favorites.
But this trip isn’t all about eating—you can choose sides in the fried chicken wars of Kansas, watch brewers at work in Wisconsin, tour a vinegar museum in South Dakota, learn the legend of Norwegian lutefisk in Minnesota and much more.
Dan also provides practical information to help you plan your own gastronomic adventure. Can’t make the trip this year? Take advantage of the mail-order listings in each chapter, read about quirky food-related fairs and festivals, and warm your own kitchen with the 101 recipes in this book.
If you love the Midwest, you’ll appreciate Dan’s passion for life in the Heartland. And you’ll never again wonder where your next good meal should come from!
Whether you seek sophisticated dining or down-home fare, dig in—you’re guaranteed to love every Taste of the Midwest.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2006-11-10
Would not have purchased this if I could have leafed through it prior. Doesn't look like there is anything in it that I would make. Beautiful book, though.
Accurate and Unpretentious.......2006-10-24
Having lived in the Midwest my whole life, I learned a lot from reading this book. The writing style is unpretentious and all varieties of cuisine are given a fair review. It was a very enjoyable and easy read.
Highly Recommended!.......2006-07-25
Reviewed by Kelli Glesige for Reader Views (7/06)
Midwest Living magazine's Dan Kaercher took a six week Midwest road-food tour during the summer of 2005. He visited 12 states, drove 8,207 miles and consumed an unrevealed number of calories while moving his belt a notch or two. From his travels, Dan discovered there is a captivating story to be told about food in the Midwest. Dan visited with Midwest cooks known for their distinctive cuisines (barbeque, steak and chili), and he visited signature crops (corn, soybeans & wheat; cherries, blueberries & cranberries; beef, pork & dairy products) that succeed in the area like nowhere else on earth. From these travels, "Taste of the Midwest" was born.
"Taste of the Midwest" is a very nice hardbound book with lovely pictures of the travels Dan experienced. Unique spots in the different locations are highlighted and directions are given so the interested reader may seek more information, if so inclined. Within each section are some of the recipes of dishes Dan encountered along with a travel journal of each state complete with lodging, dining, featured stops and other great shops, and scheduled food events one might have interest in visiting. Information on mail order items that can be purchased from the area is also included.
I guess you could say I am a bit partial to the Midwest area since I am from Indiana and live in Ohio, but I found this book to be exceptional. I enjoyed reading about areas and events I have heard about, and I loved seeing colorful pictures of the areas discussed. The maps included were helpful too, as it was easy to visually tell the path Mr. Kaercher was taking on his travels.
Anyone interested in traveling the Midwest in search of the local cuisine will definitely enjoy this book. If you are interested in making the locals' recipes in your own home, you should also find this book of interest. From the secrets of the Amish Cooks in Indiana, the fruits of the North in Michigan, the Great Plains Granary of Kansas, to the garden of hometown favorites in Ohio, this book is sure to please.
There are many tasty sounding recipes included in "Taste of the Midwest", and the appetizing and stylish pictures will make the cook all the more eager to give one a try. Dakota Buffalo Taco Soup from South Dakota sounds intriguing while Awesome Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Nebraska is something I must prepare for my cookie loving family. It was also interesting reading about the Iowa State Fair's deep-fried Snickers, Twinkies and Ho Hos--oh my!
If you are a cookbook collector or someone who loves the Midwest, I recommend this book for you. It will fit nicely not only on the cookbook shelf, but in the library or on the coffee table as well.
Book Description
We may love the dazzling caramel cages, gold leaf, and apricot coulis of restaurant desserts, but when we're in our own kitchens, a blueberry pie is more likely to fill the bill. For birthdays, a tall devil's food cake is still just the right thing. And during those precious weeks when fresh strawberries are available, who wants anything fancier than strawberry shortcake? Gingerbread cheers a friend home with the flu, and creamy rice pudding soothes the soul after a hard week at work. Here are more than 100 truly great American recipes that no home baker should be without: chocolate layer cakes and blueberry pie, cherry cobbler and apple pandowdy, lemon meringue and chocolate cream pie, baked custard and Indian pudding, chocolate chip cookies and gingerbread men, butterscotch pudding and baked apple dumplings. Enhanced with delightful anecdotes and historical tidbits culled from three centuries of cookery and housekeeping books, MOM'S BEST DESSERTS is a cookbook collector's dream.
Product Description
FOLKS who long for real down-home, traditional food will savor the "best-tasting", "best-loved" and "best-of-show" recipes in our brand-new The Best of Country Cooking. This BIG, 184-page hardcover book is chock-full of guaranteed delicious recipes from the best cooks in the country! You'll be amazed at how easy they are to make with ingredients you have in your refrigerator or pantry. The Best of Country Cooking 2004 includes 365 recipes from the readers of our magazines. (You'll find dozens of prize-winning recipes from our national recipe contest marked with a blue ribbon!) Besides 76 main dish recipes like "Pennsylvania-Style Pork Roast", your family will love 31 side dishes such as "Cheesy Baked Potatoes" and 62 desserts like "Kentucky Peach Cobbler". You also get soups, salads, breads, and popular themes such as "Cooking for Two" and "Meals in Minutes". Plus, you get dozens of time-saving cooking tips. Full-color photos. 8-3/8" x 11-1/8".
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful. .......2007-05-07
Fantastic book! For the busy cook, mom and just general have-fun-in-the-kitchen folks, these recipes are top notch. Something for everyone from very simple to elegant. I have the whole series and love them.
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- Positive Options for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): Self-Help and Treatment (Positive Options)
- Power Parenting for Children with ADD/ADHD: A Practical Parent's Guide for Managing Difficult Behaviors
- Prevention's Healthy One-Dish Meals in Minutes: 200 No-Fuss, Low-Fat Recipes for Busy People
- Reaching Out, Joining in: Teaching Social Skills to Young Children With Autism (Topics in Autism)
- Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking
- Regional Foods of Southern Italy
Books Index
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The Tennis Partner
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues
Naples in the Time of Cholera, 18841911
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
