Must check this out

When Breath Becomes Air: A Young Neurosurgeon Examines the Meaning of Life as He Faces His Death

Sounds interesting

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

From the book's description:

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to Harvard, he has only a senior thesis essay on Bugs Bunny to show for his effort. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, he remains stuck at a crossroads, unable to meet the lofty expectations of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. And his romantic existence as a freelance obituary writer just isn’t cutting it. Seeking direction—and dental insurance—Steinberg takes a job as a librarian in a tough Boston prison.

The prison library counter, his new post, attracts con men, minor prophets, ghosts, and an assortment of quirky regulars searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. There’s an anxious pimp who solicits Steinberg’s help in writing a memoir. A passionate gangster who dreams of hosting a cooking show titled Thug Sizzle. A disgruntled officer who instigates a major feud over a Post-it note. A doomed ex-stripper who asks Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, himself an inmate. Over time, Steinberg is drawn into the accidental community of outcasts that has formed among his bookshelves — a drama he recounts with heartbreak and humor. But when the struggles of the prison library — between life and death, love and loyalty — become personal, Steinberg is forced to take sides.

Running the Books is a trenchant exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world while trying not to get fired in the process.

And yes, it's available for pre-order for the Kindle. Thanks to Bibliofuture from LISNews.org for the head's up.

This tears at my heart

A dramatisation of Pfc Jesse Givens' last letter home (before he died in 2003, 28 days before his son was born)--the song is sung by Cantus, a men's chorus.



For the story behind the letter, please see: Pfc Jesse Givens: A Legacy.

That unborn child is going to turn five this year, along with this war.

I never believed in the war, but I believe in the men and women fighting it. I do support the troops and part of the reason for that is I spent the first fifteen years of my life on Air Force bases--and the first six of them as a child of a soldier in Southeast Asia.

There is a photo of me, I guess I was two, pointing to a picture of my father as if asking, 'Is that my daddy?' That photo always seemed to bother my mom. I think she thought it might be all I knew of my father. In the grand scheme of things, that may have been okay. My father was not prepared to raise a child and to be a father, and his own insecurities and background ruined any chance we had to have a healthy relationship. I think his time in Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia did, too. I never knew my father before he went to war; he went to basic training whilst I was in the womb, was at more training when I was born, several states away. He went to Vietnam, when I was barely one. I have recorded 'letters' home from him, where he is tired, disillusioned, but trying to soldier on. My mother erased the one where you could hear the shrapnel. I've always wondered how different he might have been without his wartime experiences.

If he'd died, I'd have an idyllic father whose memory couldn't tarnish; people would forget the bad qualities and focus on the good ones. But as much as I sometimes wish I'd never known my father, I'd rather have one with all the frailities of a human being than just have some idea of a father, which is what these children will be left with. I think the little boy kissing his daddy to sleep each night--on a screen of a tape that was made the night before he left, did it the most for me; I cried.

Wherever Melissa Givens and her sons are today, I hope they are well. I'm sorry for their loss, and I hope they find happiness in their lives.