Review: The Sixth Sense

Title: The Sixth Sense
Author: Dr. Lawrence W. Gold
Grade A+

Synopsis from the Back of the Book
Arnie Roth, a family practitioner, develops viral encephalitis. He awakens from the near-death experience with a new appreciation for life and an unexpected talent, his sensitivity to smell has increased a thousandfold. The Sixth Sense is highly entertaining, thought provoking, and touching journey through a world that influences us every day, but one that we know too little about


Review
The Sixth Sense is the third book in the Brier Hospital series. Read my review of the first book here. What is nice about this series in that each book as a stand alone book. It has the same underlying theme but you could read each book on it's own and not have to worry about missing part of the story line.

Like the first book, I was completely blown away by this book. Dr. Gold does an amazing job of weaving medical terminology together so that the common person can understand what is going on.  During the first 50 or so pages, there seems to be several stories going on that seem completely unrelated. But, as you get closer to the end, you see how they all weave together. It was fascinating how Arnie's extreme sense of smell is both a blessing and curse. He uses it to help save several patients, but it also is his downfall.I also love the way that Dr. Gold gives each character in his story a complete background, no matter how small a part the character plays. By the end of the book, you feel as if you know each character in real life and are happy for their joys and sad for their losses. Even though the book is long, at over 400 pages, it really was a very quick read and I finished it easily in 2 days. It drew me in and I literally could not put it down. I would suggest this book to anyone who is looking for a suspenseful read that will definitely keep you guessing!

Happy Reading!

Bookaholic

Review: A Rose in the Destert

Title: A Rose in the Desert
Author: Chi Emerole
Grade: B


Review
The first thing that struck me about this book was the absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Ryan Durney creates beautiful pictures of the landscape of Sudan, which are almost lifelike,. The story is about Rose's 7th birthday is a refugee camp in Sudan. It goes through her entire day and talks about the special parts of her birthday. It also provides a view of a child growing up as a refugee, which I believe is a very  hard topic to portray in a positive light. Emerole was very successful in doing that.

I actually had a bit of a hard time following the contentedness of the plot. Although there was an underlying back story to the entire book, I didn't feel as if all of the events were connected  The book seemed to jump from Rose's home, to school, to band practice with her friends, etc... I think children may have a hard time understanding the purpose of the book. Is it to talk about a child's birthday, or is it to talk about life as a refugee?  Overall I gave this book a B because although it was a little hard to follow, the illustrations were absolutely gorgeous. You can read more about A Rose in the Desert and Chi Emerole on her website.

Happy reading!

Bookaholic