I’ve been meaning to read Ian McEwan’s new novel “Solar” since it came out on March 30 — a new novel by McEwan is always a large treat for me, and I’ve been savoring the prospect of this new read. Despite its somewhat mixed reviews, the premise of this new – and comic – novel Read More
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Archive for the ‘Journalism’ Category
A closer look at In Cold Blood
I picked up Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood this summer and slowly worked my way through most of it, only to leave it lying unattended by my bedside for months. Not that it isn’t a gripping tale. The non-fiction, which details the murder of a family of four in rural Kansas, often has the same Read More
Freakonomics, Super edition, belated review
I finished Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, last week but, with the president’s visit and increasing election coverage, haven’t had time yet to give you an update. So here it comes, though I’m not going to review it, per se. As you may know, the book’s stirred some controversy because the scientist quoted Read More
Health care without the insurance, and the prescription
Still on the search for a fix for his sore shoulder, Reid leaves Canada before the end of the book to visit India and pay out of pocket at an ayurvedic clinic. I’ll save you the suspense: After weeks spent eating healthfully, relaxing, and being intensely massaged, Reid’s shoulder felt better and had a better Read More
Health care news.
As you all probably know by now, the Senate Finance Committee, one of five Congressional committees critical to health care reform, rejected two proposals Tuesday that would have created a public insurance plan to compete with private health insurance companies. The public option has been a constant demand of more liberal lawmakers but is widely Read More
Actually socialized health care
Whenever politicians talk about health care reform, Americans probably fear most the systems Britain and Canada have. It makes no difference that Reid and many others who have benefited from them extol their virtues. These systems are so different from what the U.S. does that they’re not likely to be implemented soon anyway.* Britain is Read More
France, Germany, and Japan
Before he takes us to France, T.R. Reid explores all of the things that might increase medical care costs for Americans as opposed to their counterparts in other countries. He disabuses us of two notions right away: that it’s doctors salaries and malpractice insurance. Doctors do get paid more in the U.S. than they do Read More
Weighing in with policy
It’s important to know before reading “The Healing of America” that the author, T.R. Reid, takes as a given that the health care system in America is broken. This seems pretty uncontroversial to me at this point. Nearly everyone agrees on the diagnosis; it was a big campaign issue for both Democrats and Republicans in Read More
