Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: On the financial crisis

How exactly did it all come to this? Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis (author of The Big Short) is a new book presenting a darkly humorous look at the effects of the financial crisis on other countries and accusing greedy debtors in California and Washington, DC. Ron Suskind's Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President also examines the financial crisis by drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and in-depth research, from the trading floors of lower Manhattan to the power corridors inside the Beltway. If this topic interests you but you find these books too heavy, you can also check out the new documentary Inside Job, which traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

On the financial crisis

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