Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: joe mozingo

It's hard enough winning a book award, but how about winning one without even having a completed book? The $30,000 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award has been awarded to the following author, with two finalists coming in close second (click here for full details). Keep an eye out for these forthcoming nonfiction titles; they're sure to be good!

Winner: Alex Tizon for Big Little Man: The Asian Male at the Dawn of the Asian Century (to be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Finalists:
Joe Mozingo for The Fiddler on Pantico Run (to be published by Simon and Schuster)
Florence Williams for Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History (to be published by Norton)

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

Books to Watch For: 2011 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award