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What Members Thought

This review will really hurt to write. I love this author. I have met him twice at 2 different speaking events. He is intelligent, affable, and indefatigable. Most of the people in the audience at the second event actually said that they had met him before at a previous signing of his. He is clearly ardent about his writing and does the work to get out there and really has affection for his readers. When he was signing my book, I told him how I had met him when I was a student at Wellesley Colle
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This was recommended to me by a patient and I knew nothing about the hype surrounding this book, but it has been one of the enjoyable reads of the year.
While reading it I was pretty sure that the author must be medically qualified, and he certainly is. He conveys his love of medicine in the story and in the characters. Conjoined twins, fistula surgery, and life-saving surgery in poorly equipped hospitals staffed by people who are there because they care rather than for what they are paid, featu ...more
While reading it I was pretty sure that the author must be medically qualified, and he certainly is. He conveys his love of medicine in the story and in the characters. Conjoined twins, fistula surgery, and life-saving surgery in poorly equipped hospitals staffed by people who are there because they care rather than for what they are paid, featu ...more

I hate it when I don't love the books that everybody else seems to love. This was one of those books. I just could not love it. It took me a long time to get into it and even when I did get into it I still would find other reasons not to read it.
The story was interesting and the characters were well developed. It was one of those stories I could see as technically well written but I just did not feel it was enough for me to do more than appreciate it.
I am glad I read it, but I have to get some ...more
The story was interesting and the characters were well developed. It was one of those stories I could see as technically well written but I just did not feel it was enough for me to do more than appreciate it.
I am glad I read it, but I have to get some ...more

This one was really hard to rate, one hand some of the writing was beautiful and poignant, other times it was extremely dense and went a little too heavy on the medical side. It was a very interesting to learn about Ethiopia, and it explored at what makes up a family, but the last 100 pages seemed very contrived and I didn't walk away saying wow this is a book I really enjoyed.
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I really enjoyed the first 100 pages of this highly rated book. Bt I got way bogged down afterwards. I contacted a gentleman here on GoodReads who said it was his favorite novel of '09 and asked him if I should push though (I was closing in on the 300 page mark) and he said "reading is for pleasure. If the book isn't giving you pleasure, then stop reading it" I thought that was profound and I am really grateful to him for saying that to me. I'm giving it 4 stars for the first 100 pages and 1 sta
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This is a sweeping, gorgeous, accomplished book. Obviously written by a physician who understands the science, the author also has the sublime skill of a story teller. I was so engrossed in the story, not just of the people who inhabit this novel, but of Ethiopia and of Missing Hospital and everything that went on there. The story is a roller-coaster with the narrator, Marion Praise Stone, as a wonderfully flawed protagonist. I felt his anger, his happiness and his betrayal throughout. I think I
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It took me forever to finish this but I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. I think it was the audio version that finally helped me hang in there long enough so I got to the point where I actually wanted to get back to it. Before that I liked it well enough while I was reading but I didn't really have a burning desire to get back to it to find out what happened next. Glad I finally made it to the end.
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Emotional roller coaster not for the weak at heart. What a beautiful story! I couldn't put it down. Even though it was lengthy, it was a fast read. Could have read more. I had borrowed this from the library, but considering adding it to my permanent collection.
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Apr 18, 2011
Arlene
marked it as bedroom-bookshelf

Jun 30, 2011
Amy 💖
marked it as to-read

Sep 23, 2011
Jenn
marked it as to-read

Jul 12, 2012
Sabrina
marked it as to-read

Sep 14, 2012
Amanda A
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
overdrive,
read-in-2012
