Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Recently in the Media

Check out these non-fiction books that were recently featured in the media!

Wiser by Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hastle

America's bitter pill : money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system by Steven Brill

The much-anticipated, sweeping narrative of how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing--and failing to change--the rampant abuses in the healthcare industry. (Publisher Summary)

Wiser: Getting beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter by Cass R. Sunstein and Reid Hastle

Two experts in business and psychology describe the detrimental effect that groupthink has on decision-making and explain how to combine ideas from management and social sciences to help improve problem-solving through non-deliberative decision-making. (Publisher Summary)

Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America by William Frey

Diversity Explosion shares the good news about diversity in the coming decades, and the more globalized, multiracial country that the U.S. is becoming. (Publisher Summary)

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

Recently in the Media

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