Himmelfarb has more than books and eBooks! Make the most of your Himmelfarb access and check out our collection of tools and AV equipment that will help you along your medical journey: from chargers to VR to blood pressure kits. Items check out for 4 hours. Ask one of our staff at the circulation desk for more details.
Himmelfarb has more than articles and eBooks! Make the most of your Himmelfarb access and check out our collection of tools and AV equipment that will help you along your healthcare journey: from chargers to VR to blood pressure kits. Items check out for 4 hours. Ask one of our staff at the circulation desk for more details.
With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Everyman,” by Philip Roth.
About the Book: Winner of the Pen/Faulkner award in 2007, Philip Roth’s slim novel portrays a man’s life in miniature that begins with the main character’s funeral. Eschewing conventional narrative structure, Roth weaves in and out of memories, forming a tapestry of regret and loss as the main character pursues a long-forestalled art career amidst health failure. Everyman is a novel that collapses personal history with medical history, investigating the way disease and aging shape us.
Reasons to Read: if you’re looking for scathing insights into complex emotions around aging and the disappointments of aging, brisk novels that offer an easy entry point into an acclaimed author’s oeuvre, or novels built around poetic (and surprisingly, often funny) moments rather than plot.
Reasons to Avoid: if you don’t like novels that lack chapter breaks, stories about serial philanderers who can’t stop philandering (even in the retirement home), or if you prefer developed characters rather than generalizations.
We live in an age of an ever-increasing amount of research. And while this has obvious benefits, it poses a serious challenge to practitioners who want to stay abreast of their field. Tools that reduce the noise - therefore - are most useful at this moment.
Launched in April 2024, the series curates groundbreaking articles meant to keep researchers current, especially for internal medicine physicians who must be familiar with a broad range of medical knowledge.
The series takes a frank tone, answering “Why should internal medicine physicians know about this article?” They recognize the value of attention, in other words, and select articles with this knowledge in mind. For example, in the Critical Care section, the team selected the article: “The institutional switch to small-volume blood collection tubes in the ICU may decrease RBC transfusions without affecting laboratory results” and summarized it this way:
Why should internal medicine physicians know about this article?
Frailty can negatively affect the prognosis of adults aged 70 or older who present with non–ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). However, many guidelines do not differentiate between the recommendations for management of NSTEMI in older adults versus younger adults with respect to the utility of an invasive management strategy. Even though some evidence in the past has suggested that invasive strategies are more effective for older adults when compared with conservative measures, these studies have not been randomized and frailty was not assessed (1).
For those seeking the freshest information, the Annals of Internal Medicine also features the ACP Journal club, which similarly highlights and summarizes ten articles a month.
Both are fantastic resources to help reduce paralysis of choice and keep you up to date with the most current research!
References:
Iorio, A., & Laine, C. (2024). What You May Have Missed in 2023: Keeping Up With the Constant Flow of New Medical Evidence. Annals of Internal Medicine, 177(5). https://doi.org/10.7326/M24-0832
With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “The Healing of America,” by T.R. Reid.
With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Healthcare,” by T.R. Reid.
About the Book: A unique and grounded book on comparative policy: author T.R. Reid takes his ailing shoulder to healthcare systems around the world, creating a highly personal/practical look at different healthcare options [a healthcare Big Mac Index of sorts], all while informing the reader about the systems themselves. Morally-minded but never overwrought, “The Healing of America” lays out practical steps for improving America’s healthcare system that appeal both to a love of efficiency and a concern for human flourishing.
Reasons to Read: If you want to educate yourself about policy but would rather read about anything else, “The Healing of America” is exceptionally readable and filled with concrete examples. If you’re looking for a hopeful take on the subject, Reid provides simple and tested adjustments to improve healthcare and delivers them with the pluckiness of someone who believes victory is possible.
Reasons to Avoid: If you want to avoid jealousy over almost anyone’s healthcare system but our own. If you’re less interested in Otto Von Bismarck and just want to read about policy, you might begrudge the frequent history lessons. And if you would rather have the most succinct reading, the book (like many of its kind) becomes repetitive at points.
Most of us have been there: we’re supposed to be sleeping – we have an early morning commitment – but instead we’re on social media, rafting down an infinite scroll. We're reflexively checking our phones, not even sure what we’re looking for, stuck in a “hyper-stimulated loop” and pulled out of every moment. We attend social events, but everyone is staring at their palms.
By now smartphones – and particularly social media, which chomp up a lion's share of users’ attention – have been fodder for literal dystopias (like Black Mirror) or disturbing documentaries (like The Social Dilemma), and yet, it’s still quite easy to scroll.
Common sense and research, in a rare and satisfying union, tell us that, yes, smartphone usage can be actually deleterious, mentally speaking, and yet, even while nodding along, it's still quite easy to scroll.
Smartphones, of course, are astounding tools, integrating into most corners of human life and radically enhancing many of them: they’re magic that we take for granted. But as fairy tales have taught us, magic always comes with a price. In this case, the price is attention and focus; smartphones bestow god-like powers [to paraphrase Yuval Noah Harari in Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, if Zeus had Twitter, Hermes would be out of a job], but overuse can make us less healthy, less productive, and more stressed. Feeling this and changing are two different things, of course, since phones are designed to capture as much attention as possible (and in the case of media, monetize it). There’s a casino in our pockets, with casino-boss odds.
Fortunately though, for those of us who want to step back (a lot or a little), we have plenty of room to experiment: both with what we want from smartphones and how they actually are affecting us, person to person, and how we can modify our use to best match our goals.
Test Run an Unplug:
If you notice phones getting in the way of interpersonal relationships, try going to a social engagement - coffee, dinner, a party - and experiment with not using your phone at all. Note how present (or distant) you feel, whether people are engaged, and whether you feel an urge to disengage.
You can do this as frequently or infrequently as it benefits you.
Go for a Nature Walk:
The DMV has some great trails! And while there are few things as centering as being in nature, you don’t need to go hiking to seek a mental reset. Local parks do the trick - or even just green space around the city helps.
As an exercise in being present, consider finding a safe environment and take a walk without the phone. Or if you’re on a hike with friends, choose a dedicated phone user (for GPS/emergency calls), and leave your phone in the car.
picture taken by author in Kassel, Germany,
Journal About It
Ask yourself what you actually want from your phone - and if you expect to get it through texts, mentions, or anything on a newsfeed. Be deliberate in thinking when reflexive phone use kicks in. See how you feel with and without the phone - and what demands for your time are really worth your time.
Meditation:
Meditation options abound around GWU and DC, but these may not be convenient; mediation apps can be accessed wherever you are. "Waking Up" is a fine example, because it provides daily guided meditations, and will give out free accounts to anyone who asks for one.
Which of course, demonstrates the irony: at the swirling storm-eye of notifications, smartphones can be tools to enhance your focus (if used well!).
Quality of Life Options:
Turn off notifications for non-essential apps, or take time (a day, a week, a month) to deactivate social media. Many people online have experimented with turning their phones to grayscale, making the phone significantly less visually stimulating, and theoretically less addictive. [This writer has tried it and, anecdotally speaking, it helps!].
Rekindle a Hobby (or take up a new one):
Cutting back smartphone usage will free up time, invariably. This is an amazing chance to practice a skill or develop an art.
Of course, it’s important to note that not all smartphone use is the same, nutritionally speaking: considering that use can range from reading to calling loved ones to accessing literally anything on the internet. But it’s the compulsive use – from things not sought out and not benefited from – that’s worth trimming down this summer, even just to see how being present feels.
Summer’s here, and with its lengthier vacations and (potentially) lighter workloads, it’s the perfect time to broaden your horizons and read. To help you navigate the almost endless sea of options, we’ve queried the Himmelfarb staff for their summer reading recommendations. Whether you’re at a lake house or a beach, an air-conditioned metro or your living room, you can’t go wrong with one of these summer reads.
Coming of Age and Plot Driven Dramas
Summer is the time of heat and action, the season of youth and change, but it can also be languid, a time to lie around and dream. If you want moving entertainment or a slice of life that makes you reflect on who you are and who you want to be, one of these recommendations is for you.
Author: John Green Genre: Fiction, Young Adult Reason for Recommendation: “In addition to being a fantastic and honest portrayal of anxiety and OCD, this one is just a fun read. It was recently made into a film (currently streaming on HBO Max).”
But summer isn’t all sunshine and snappy plots. Warm nights are the perfect time for chills: fictional or non-fictional. If you’re interested in a ghost story, consider one of these recommendations and remember that no matter how dark the summer night, the sun is never far from the horizon.
Ian Roberts, Acquisitions & Resource Sharing Librarian, recommends:
Title: Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places
Author: Colin Dickey
Genre: Non-Fiction/Ghosts and folklore/Sociology
Reason for Recommendation: “A sometimes fun, sometimes weighty examination of ghost stories, the places they happen (houses, burial sites, hospitals, prisons), and what they say about us and our history.”
If you seek linguistic fireworks, story-telling prowess, and big themes, then in the season of blue skies and bigger horizons, these might be the books for you.
Randy Plym, Evening Circulation Supervisor, recommends:
Title: The Moviegoer
Author: Walker Percy Genre: Fiction Reason for Recommendation: Existential but never dour, The Moviegoer’s off-beat view of the world captures a playful search for meaning against a background of ennui. At least for me, it succeeds in coining a philosophical vocabulary for everyday experience.
Author: Jeanette Winterson Genre: Fiction Reason for Recommendation: “In this retelling of the myth of Atlas and Heracles, Winterson tackles questions of choice, destiny, and fate. It's a brilliant reimagination of these two classic tales with a heartwarming twist.”
Lastly, between semesters can be a great time to step back from your normal field of study and explore ideas: where society has been and how it’s been shaped.
Jolinda Thompson, Systems Librarian, recommends:
Title: Gods of the Upper Air: How a Renegade Group of Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex and Gender in the 20th Century
Author: Charles King
Genre: Non-fiction/Biography
Reason for Recommendation: “In the early 20th century, it was commonly believed that race and gender determined an individual’s intelligence, ability, and temperament. The pseudoscience that emerged to back these beliefs led to the quota-based restrictions of the 1924 Immigration Act and the abuse and horrors of the eugenics movement. Franz Boas would challenge these theories through fieldwork and research, founding the field of cultural anthropology, and inspiring a group of revolutionary anthropologists at Columbia University and Barnard College in the 1920s and 30s, including Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Zora Neale-Hurston. Their work ushered in new understandings about gender, sexual expression, diverse cultures, and values systems. The personal stories of these groundbreaking researchers makes this an entertaining as well as enlightening read.”
With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Patient: the True Story of a Rare Illness,” by DJ and musician Ben Watt.
With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Patient: the True Story of a Rare Illness,” by DJ and alt-rock musician Ben Watt, one half of the duo Everything But The Girl.
About the Book: A memoir of Ben Watt's hospital days after being diagnosed with the rare auto-immune disease Churg-Strauss syndrome – just before his world tour. Told in sparse, poetic prose with candor and a lack of self-pity, this novella-length work expertly captures the gulf between the healthy and unwell.
Reasons to Read: If you like stories of novel medical situations, if you savor great observational details (of his experience and ICU neighbors: a gallery that wouldn't be out of place in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) or understated tales of romantic devotion, or if you simply seek insight into the detachment, uncertainty, and unexpected clarity that can come from illness.
Bonus reason: if you're nostalgic for the 90s (and casual mentions of floppy disks).
Reasons to Avoid: If you hope for information about Ben's music – or how his illness inspired or impacted Everything But The Girl's breakthrough albums – you'll find almost no information about it. Similarly, if you want a medical-mystery à la House, be warned the mystery is backseated to the patient-experience, which could prove disappointing.
Further Listening/Reading:
As soundtrack to the memoir, check out Everything But the Girl's most successful albums, which released in the years following his diagnosis:
Himmelfarb is closed today for Memorial Day. We will open again tomorrow, May 28th, at 07:30am. We hope you have a good weekend with family and friends!
If you haven’t yet seen the art show – you haven’t missed your chance! Stop by now through this Friday, May 10th to peruse the display of more than 40 unique items, OR, check out the digital submissions already archived online [fully digitization of physical items still upcoming].
Each piece has a story. To cap off the art show, we’ve curated a second collection of the artist’s in their own words. Enjoy!
Rachel Brill's "Dinah in Yellow Robe" [Acrylic Painting]
Dinah in Yellow Robe is my take on Henri Matisse's work, in particular Yellow Odalisque, which I saw at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I love his use of bright colors and a mix of patterns. The unwilling model for this piece is my cat, Dinah.
Rachel Brill, Staff, Himmelfarb
Kenneth Schappelle's "Delhi at Dusk" [Photograph]
The day before Christmas, we were on our way to New Delhi, traveling down a rural highway from Rishikesh, which sits at the foot of the Himalayas. Rishikesh was a breath of fresh air with its blue skies and the sparkling Ganges River pouring out of the mountains. The closer we got to New Delhi, though, the thicker the smog became. As we approached the outskirts and the sun began to set, you could barely see it through the thick sky. It was disturbing and beautiful all at once.
Kenneth Schappelle, Staff, School of Nursing
Aparna Nanduru’s “Peacock in Repose” [Mixed Media]
Adding dimension came from adding multiple types of media into my art. This included using lead pencils, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, acrylic paint, and even white-out in the piece going from top to bottom. As a nature lover, I wanted to demonstrate the ability of these seemingly different art mediums coalescing together to represent diversity and coexistence seen in the environment around us.
Aparna Nanduru, Student, SMHS
Caitlan Davila’s “How to Outrun a Dinosaur” [Digital Artwork]
This drawing exists because I was being cheeky while working through two opposing systems (bronchoconstriction vs. bronchodilation). Why the dinosaurs? That’s the wrong question, my friend. The question is: why NOT dinosaurs?! Learning ought to be fun; working in subjects we like can make a real difference in retention.
Caitlan Davila, Student, SMHS
Ruth Bueter’s “Wingspan” [Photograph]
After finishing my Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science and Parks and Recreation, I had an internship at Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona. It was an amazing experience! A couple of years later, I visited Chiricahua while driving to California. I went hiking on my favorite trail in the park one morning. As I turned a corner along the trail, I saw this Turkey Vulture stretching its wings on a rock outcropping. I was convinced the bird would fly away when it saw me, but it just stayed there watching me with its wings spread out. I managed to dig out my old first-generation digital point-and-shoot camera (with minimal zoom capacity) from my backpack and got some pictures. The bird and I stood there watching each other for 10 minutes. Eventually, I packed up my camera and continued on my hike. The Turkey Vulture was still there when I left. It is still one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had while hiking. And for it to have happened at Chiricahua, a place that has held a special place in my heart since my internship, made it even more memorable.
Perhaps you’ve perused the humanities collection and noticed a small shelf with bound journals. A curiosity - especially since the library no longer retains physical journals. If you picked up one of these volumes, you’d be looking at the Bellevue Literary Review: a highly respected, prize winning literary journal (Duotrope, an online compendium of literary magazines, lists their acceptance rate at 1.51%). More importantly, you’d be looking at one of the premiere literary journals founded in the medical field, specifically in the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, making it rather unusual (most university-related journals are centered in literature or creative writing departments).
During April’s poetry month, we discussed possible publication venues for the literary among us, including Bellevue. April might be over, but the art of writing is year long. Despite its potentially intimidating stature, as a health sciences student (who writes), you’re exactly situated to submit.
On Bellevue’s submissions page, they define the kind of writing they’re looking for:
Bellevue Literary Review seeks high-caliber, unpublished work, broadly and creatively related to our themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. We encourage you to read BLR before you submit.
(Bellevue Literary Review, 2024)
Note that last sentence. Almost every literary magazine will encourage you to read before submitting, but many higher-end magazines do not publish online (or only publish small excerpts). Himmelfarb’s copies of Bellevue provide a nice chance to peruse without having to subscribe, which helps clarify what the publisher actually wants. For example, Bellevue values “character-driven fiction with original voices and strong settings” (Bellevue Literary Review, 2024), but publishers can interpret something like “strong settings” many different ways. Reading, therefore, truly does increase your odds of acceptance.
That being said, the journal isn’t just for writers. It also provides a nice reading break for the non-writers at Himmelfarb.
In this digital world, we have endless options to eject us from our current moment or task, but many of these provide more stimulation than reset. Fiction lets us get out of our own heads for a bit, while expanding our imaginative and empathetic capacities, if we let it. And refreshingly, short stories are finish-able within a single sitting, unlike many of the books in the Humanities collection.
So if you have a moment, check out Bellevue Literary Review or ask the folks at the circulation desk for help finding them!
