God's Hotel by Victoria Sweet

God's Hotel by Victoria Sweet is probably one of the best books on medicine that I have every read. Medicine at it's heart is supposed to be about healing. But anyone who has interacted with medicine in the last decade or so encounters insurance problems, short visits, impatient providers, and high costs. My own interactions with local doctors did not provide the healing I sought. Since I did not fit the diagnostic criteria for a "problem", I was shrugged off. It wasn't until I found a doctor that ran her practice in the same spirit as Victoria Sweet that I started to find healing.

God's Hotel is part autobiography, part medicine, part history. Victoria Sweet was hired to work at San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital. This hospital cared for the very poor, indigent people of the community. It was a place of last resort for many. This is where Sweet discovered slow medicine and how to help people heal.

One particular story in the book has stuck with me. A woman with many health problems came in with extremely bad bed sores. So bad that she would most likely be severely disfigured, disabled, or dead. She could not lie on her back at all. Laying face down over a period of months, her sores were treated and she healed. Spending all that time staring at the floor beneath her, the patient came to the understanding of how she needed to change her life to improve her health. In this case mind and body were healed.

Such a health care situation would likely not happen today with hospital metrics and outcomes. Sweet discusses the transition of Laguna Honda hospital to a more modern hospital with ever increasing pressure from bean counters and administrators. She details her journey through her experiences in medicine alongside. The result is a moving journey that makes you think about what it means to heal and to be healed.

Book Rating: 5 stars - everyone in medicine should read this book.


The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Graceling, Bitterblue

Katsa, the daughter of the king, was born with an extreme skill. She has the ability to kill with her bear hands, called a Grace. Instead of living in luxury, she is forced to kill for the king. She escapes and falls in love with Prince Po, though she does not want to marry. In the first book of the series, Katsa learns the secret of her Grace that could potentially destroy her kingdom and all other kingdoms in the realm.

I read the first two books in the series, Graceling and Bitterblue. This is a girl as superhero story in the same vein as Hunger Games except the setting is quasi-Medieval. It's the setting that frustrated me because it didn't seem to fit with the idea of a powerful girl with modern sensibilities. It is fantasy, so the author can create whatever world she wants. There are plenty of reviewers that seem to love it, not to mention the 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I felt the story fell flat and I became bored. I never could muster the motivation to finish the series with book three.

Book Rating: 3 stars

This series is for younger teen readers, but it does contain violence and some adult situations.

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Why do I still have thyroid symptoms?

I read this book to see if it would help me understand my chronic fatigue. Could it be thyroid related? The author of this book, Dr. Datis Kharrazian, is a chiropractic doctor who has focused his practice on helping people with thyroid problems. In my case, I learned which lab tests I should ask for and how to read them. The thyroid is a complex topic and many doctors do not understand it. If you get a normal result on the TSH test, you are considered normal. This is why the title of the book is so appropriate. If my TSH is normal, then why do I still have symptoms? That was certainly my question. After a much more thorough work up and the help of an integrative medicine doctor, I was able to determine my chronic fatigue was not because of my thyroid.

I started off trying to read the Kindle version of this book. The Kindle version is formated very poorly and the images and charts are nearly impossible to read. I abandoned the digital version and grabbed the print version. I was able to skim through most of the book and focus on the areas that seemed to apply to my situation. There a few successful case studies that a person could relate to, but caution is certainly in order. Not everyone has undiagnosed thyroid problems. Their symptoms can be due to something completely different, as in my case. At least I was able to eliminate the possibility with help from this book.

I recommend this book for anyone who has or might have a thyroid problem. Patients have to be advocates for themselves and the more knowledge you have the better you will be at advocating. It is possible to feel better and the author certainly gives you hope.

Book Rating: 4 stars.


The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.