Thursday, May 17, 2012

Fathers, Elephants, Music & Medicine

Father's Day: A Journey into the Mind and Heart of My Extraordinary Son by Buzz Bissinger
Buzz Bissinger's twins were born three minutes--and a world--apart. Gerry, the older one, is a graduate student at Penn, preparing to become a teacher. His brother Zach has spent his life attending special schools. He'll never drive a car, or kiss a girl, or live by himself. He is a savant, challenged by serious intellectual deficits but also blessed with rare talents; an astonishing memory, a dazzling knack for navigation, and a reflexive honesty that can make him both socially awkward and surprisingly wise. Buzz realized that while he had always been an attentive father; he didn't really know what it was like to be Zach. So one summer night Buzz and Zach hit the road to revisit all the places they have lived together during Zach's twenty-four years.

Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Sheldrick
Daphne Sheldrick, whose family arrived in Africa from Scotland in the 1820s, is the first person ever to have successfully hand-reared newborn elephants. In this heartwarming memoir, Daphne shares her amazing relationships with a host of orphans, including her first love, Bushy, a liquid-eyed antelope; Ricky-Ticky-Tavey, a little dwarf mongoose; Gregory Peck, a busy buffalo weaver bird; Huppety, a mischievous zebra, and the majestic elephant Eleanor, with whom Daphne has shared more than forty years of great friendship. But this is also a magical and heartbreaking human love story between Daphne and David Sheldrick, the famous Tsavo National Park warden.

Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine by Lisa Wong
The Longwood Symphony Orchestra is not just any orchestra. Founded in 1982 by a group of talented Boston-area physicans, medical students, and health-care professionals, the orchestra has grown into a proud, extraordinary group of musicians with fans around the globe, from El Sistema in Venezuela to other medical-musician groups inspired by L.S.O's work. In this book, Dr. Wong shows how the musical acumen of these physicans affects the way they administer healing and, in turn, how their medical work affects their music.

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