Before the Scalpel by Panchali Dhar, MD

What Everyone Should Know About Anesthesia
Before the Scalpel by Panchali Dhar, MD

I had the opportunity to help promote this wonderful new resource in a virtual blog tour. My regular visitors have gotten to know about a lot of great books I've reviewed that were written by tour clients. This is definitely another one that I highly recommend, but this one is different. The content of this book can and very possibly will, affect your health and the health of your loved ones.

Dr Panchali Dhar is a respected anesthesiologist in New York and she has written a great book that gives so much great information. It is not a dry medical text book - not at all. The layout is very interesting and colorful. Since I wrote my first non fiction books, I've become much more aware of the layout of books and this layout is very good and adds a new dimension to the content.

To see a sample of the information and the contents of the book, you can view this PDF - http://www.tellmepress.com/publ_images/pdf/before_the_scalpel.pdf

Some of the Topics Included in the Book Include:

The Anesthesiologist
What sort of choices are there
Understand the operating room, monitors etc
Recovery after surgery - including managing pain
Plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery
Concerns for overweight patients
Anesthesia and childbirth
Concerns for children when anesthesia is used
Dental anesthesia
Nausea and vomiting and how to take care of yourself when you wake
There is also the history and timeline of anesthesia along with a glossary and more

This book is simply packed with everything you need to know to understand anesthesia and the tools you need to have an educated conversation with your doctor before surgery.

At the end of each chapter Dr Dhar provides what she calls "Prescriptives:Be a Better Consumer". These sections ask you questions to review important points from the chapters. These questions will also prepare you to know what you need to tell your doctor - what information will make a difference for you during and after surgery.

From the added tidbits that are included in each chapter, the pictures and even a couple of cartoon, the tips and the "Panchlines" are all parts of the book that make it very readable, easy to understand and beneficial for you. I highly recommend that everyone should read this book if they are unsure about anesthesia. As I've frequently said during this virtual blog tour, when you are lying on the operating table is NOT the time to start thinking about anesthesia.

This is some additional information that we compiled for the tour that you may like to see:

To view videos about various elements of the book - visit

Concerns for Overweight Patients - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUVfO96wDxA

Preparing for Surgery - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6gDu1sl4DI

Plastic Surgery Patients - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-N8O_qbsJE

Surgery Concerns for Children - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk5N5w2m208


To read the full table of contents, visit http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/01/before-scalpel-by-panchali-dhar-table.html

This is the publisher's sale page - http://www.tellmepress.com/product.php/Before-the-Scalpel/3/

To buy your copy - http://www.amazon.com/Before-Scalpel-Everyone-Should-Anesthesia/dp/0981645305

Nikki Leigh

How I Managed $20,000,000,000 By Age 32 By Wade Slome

How I Managed $20,000,000,000 By Age 32

By Wade Slome


First, a bit about Wade Slome

Wade Slome holds an MBA from Cornell University with an emphasis in Finance. He earned a B.A. in Economics from UCLA. In addition, he holds the esteemed credentials of CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and CFP (Certified Financial Planner.) He is the go-to resource for USA Today, The New York Times, Dow Jones, Investor’s Business Daily, Bloomberg, Smart Money and many other media outlets. He presently leads his own investment practice in Newport Beach, California.

Wade Slome has led an adventurous life. He started trading penny stocks in high school stock market competitions after the 1987 Crash. As a freshly minted MBA graduate from Cornell University in 1998, he never expected in his wildest dreams to land on one of the largest mutual funds in the entire United States of America. But at the age of 3.

About How I Managed $20,000,000,000 By Age 32

This book was much more entertaining than I expected. While it was being edited and laid out, I saw portions of it. But, then I received the final book and got a chance to read it. I will admit that finance is not something that I know much about. I can manage my finances and I have done bookkeeping for years - but this is a whole different dimension to finance and economics.

I really enjoyed the fact that Slome takes us back to his childhood and we see his development and learn about his family. Its clear the family and his roots are important and helped shape him into the man he is today.

We go with Slome to his college days and to his internship. Through movies, I've seen the life that financial interns and that comes across in the pages of the book. From no pay and low pay and the very long days that all interns have to survive.

Slome goes into a lot of detail about the job where he managed $20,000,000,000. We get an insider's view of a typical day, the responsibilities and rewards. I'd never thought about the type of people he interacted with during this time period. Imagine being in your early 30s and dealing with titans in business. He met with these very powerful people and it was his job to question just about everything.

Throughout the book, some of the headings include:
Influences
Paying His Dues
Chasing Profits
Investment Philosophy
Hedge Funds
Managing Billions

Once we get a clear picture about the man behind the book and the accomplishments, he moves us to topics that are very timely.

Technology and Globalization
Winning Strategies
How to Choose a Financial Advisor
Credentials
What to Do With Your Portfolio

2008 and 2009 have brought and will bring the biggest financial challenges this country and the world have faced in over a quarter of a century. Most Americans seem to be no clue what to do about their financial future and what to do now. Wade Slome has the background and experience to help people have more information about how to tackle the current and future economic situations.

How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James N Frey

I've wanted to read this book for ages and finally broke down and bought a copy a couple of months ago. When I finished the manuscript for Book Promo 201, I wanted to start planning the next book in my Cape Hatteras mystery series -- seemed like a great time to read this book :)

How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James N Frey

My next book will be a kidnapping mystery and its my 13th book (to be published under my name) and the 22nd book I've written, so I wasn't looking for the usual "how to write" book. I wanted to read something that delved into the nuisances of mysteries and this was just what I needed. There are a couple of characters on character development, point of view, writing, editing, rewriting etc - but the other chapters were the most interesting to me.

• Frey begins by talking about why people read mysteries. How can we write a story that appeals to our target audience, if we don't know what they want?

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - moves into sorting through our ideas and getting started.

• There is an entire story and plot, behind the obvious plot in a mystery. To be "mysterious" and to use red herrings, and to include those twists and surprises that readers love, we need to develop and completely understand the "hidden" part of the story.

• Creating the Villain is another important element - is the villain three dimensional? Can the reader relate the them? Are they evil enough? A great and memorable villain must be well developed and realistic. This leads right into a chapter about being intimate with the villain.

• Once you understand the villain and have developed them thoroughly, its time to move on to the hero and/or heroine. You must also fully develop the hero or heroine. At this point Frey talks about the hero's journey and how that assists you in the development of your hero or heroine. ****

• The hero's journey will also help you to discover the type of secondary characters you can use and why they are needed.

• Creating an effective plot for an edge of your seat mystery requires plotting and this can take many forms and chapter 9 explains some of these tips.

• You need a believable detective - whether a professional or an amateur. How will they figure out the mystery? Will they have help? Who will help them?

• The gripping climax is one of the most critical elements of the mysteries I love to read, so I was very glad to see a complete chapter devoted to the climax of the book. Part of the climax is capturing the villain and that is the topic in chapter 15.

There is so much great information in this book and if you plan to write mysteries - I highly recommend that you read this book. Its definitely worth the cost and if you are a beginning author - there is plenty of information in this book to help you with the writing basics.

In last 2009 or early 2010 - you will have to check out my latest mystery and you can tell me whether you think this book helped me :) Or, if maybe I should read it over again -- I did highlight many great points while I was reading it and I plan to go back through those sections as I'm working on future mysteries.


**** If you aren't familiar with the Hero's Journey, there are all kinds of articles online and a number of books that you can use to understand the details of the hero's journey - following are links to some of the ones I'm familiar with - some could be helpful.

Writer's Journey Mythic Structure for Writers - http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Journey-Mythic-Structure-3rd/dp/193290736X

Hero's Journey Works of Joseph Campbell - http://www.amazon.com/Heros-Journey-Joseph-Campbell-Works/dp/1577314042

Writer's Journey Mythic Structure of Writers - http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Journey-Mythic-Structure-3rd/dp/193290736X

Hero with a Thousand Faces - http://www.amazon.com/Hero-Thousand-Faces-Bollingen/dp/1577315936

Garden of Deadly Pleasures

I thoroughly enjoy a great mystery and I've picked up quite a few mystery short story collections. So many times I can't find time to get into a great book, but maybe just to enjoy a short story or two. That's why I found Garden of Deadly Pleasures edited by Cynthia Manson. But, I have to tell you that I picked up my copy on a used book site. If you can find a copy of this great paperback and if you like short mysteries - definitely pick this up.

Each mystery in this collection has something to do with plants and gardens. It could be unique or killer plants, could be a body buried in a garden or maybe dead bodies are dumped in a garden. Agatha Christie even sends Hercule Poirot to investigate the poisoning death of a elderly woman. Aside from Agatha Christie, none of the names were familiar, but there are plenty of great story tellers in this small book.

This is a fairly quick read and very enjoyable :)

Publisher: Signet Book
Book Type: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780451187727 - ISBN-10: 0451187725
Publication Date: 4/1/1996
Pages: 256