Monday, June 28, 2010

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I'm about halfway through Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World. It's the selection for this year's Life of the Mind freshman reading program at the University of Tennessee, where Dr. H. teaches. Faculty members in any department can volunteer to lead a discussion group, and Dr. H. always enjoys doing this. I like to read the selection, too, if I haven't already. I was terribly jealous last year. The book was The Glass Castle (my review here), one of my favorite books ever, and guess who got to attend a luncheon with Jeannette Walls? Really, I was happy for him.

Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003) is the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, a physician who helped to revolutionize international health care. Kidder chronicles Farmer's drive to improve the health of the poorest of the poor in Haiti, particularly focusing on decreasing AIDS and TB cases.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the book, but I must say I'm surprised by the selection. It's tougher reading than the selections in previous years. I'll be curious to hear how the students react to it.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, the book does sound a bit serious. The sort of thing you would read if you had a particular interest in the topic. Hope you're getting through it OK.

Sherrie said...

Hi!
It sounds intriguing. Enjoy. Have a great day!

Sherrie
Just Books

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

I hope you enjoy the read - it sounds big and heavy for summer but truly interesting. :) Enjoy your week, I look forward to your review!

Anonymous said...

I liked Mountains Beyond Mountains. It was a little much at times (beyond what I was interested in) but overall it was a good read. IF you like it you might try Strength in What Remains. I enjoyed it even more than Mountains B Mountains.
Kim D

heather said...

Sounds interesting. I just requested it from the library.