Quarantine-while! A Few Good Reads - November

November reading was a bit - well - heavy!

• The Immortal Evening - Stanley Plumly.  As one of the characters in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society noted, "That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you to a third book.  It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment."  And so it was.  A Society member had a great fondness for the writings of Charles Lamb and his enthusiasm induced me to pull this volume off my shelves for a re-read!  Plumly tells the story of his main characters' lives through their writings, relationships and in particular an "immortal dinner" Benjamin Robert Haydon held; documented in letters and journals written by the attendees.  What characters, you may ask?  Given that they are known historical figures, these deets should do your read no harm!!!
• Haydon (1786 - 1846) - Large living, opinionated painter of majestic historical/biblical scenes on a grand (read - physically enormous) scale.  He unwillingly made needed cash via occasional portraiture, at which he was skilled, including some unflatteringly realistic ones of patrons that didn't go down so well. Had little commercial success. Frequent flyer in debtors prison.  But, for whom we owe great thanks!!!  His love of the Elgin Marbles played a huge role in their being rescued from Lord Elgin's garden and run down barn along with the creation of one of my favorite places on the planet - The British Museum. Check out his work - Christ's Entry into Jerusalem - for portraits of all his dinner guests mixed among the spectators.  Though longer lived than many of his compatriots, his death, like his life, was an exercise in frustration.  When shooting himself in the head when broke (again) at the age of 60 was unsuccessful, he cut his own throat - TWICE!!! - before his suicide was complete.  YIKES.  (You can't make this shit up!!!)
• John Keats (1795-1821) - His father died from a horse wreck when he was 8.  His mother passed from TB (though likely not before sharing the mycobacterium) when he was 14.  Keats apprenticed with a surgeon in 1815, gaining his license and working in a hospital as a junior surgeon in 1816.  Man!  That on-the-job training must certainly have been based on the premise of - See one, do one, teach one! However, depression reigned due in part to fear he would never become a poet and two failed romances.  Even so, his last lady love went into mourning for 6 years after his death.  He battled TB with frequent hemorrhages from same for some years.  His treatment of the disease included a move to Rome for the more temperate climate, being bled regularly (shockingly - THAT DIDN'T HELP!!!!) and a bread and anchovy diet to "ease his stomach".  He died 5 months after his move at the age of 26.  Thanks to Haydon sharing his fascination for the Greek Marbles with his young friend, Keats gave us, Ode to a Grecian Urn.
• William Wordsworth (1770-1850) - Based on interactions with his friends, Old Willie seems a rather puritanical prick!  But, behind that rather sanctified exterior there was an excursion to France in 1791 at the age of 21 that garnered a lover and a daughter.  Two years later he left both behind and returned to England.  In later years he [finally] sent some financial support to the woman and her child.  Back in England, he married a childhood friend with whom he had 5 children, two of whom died.  Was employed as a government 'distributor of stamps' and a conservative Tory.  His wife suffered a mental breakdown.  His brother drowned.  Reports note he died from pleurisy at 80.  Don't think pleurisy actually kills you, so his death was more likely due to pneumonia.  Whew!  Makes you wonder about his "I wandered lonely as a cloud..." doesn't it?
• Charles Lamb (1775-1834) - Charles was a writer and essayist.  When young, he attended Christ's Hospital Boarding School known for the violence and brutality suffered by its students.  It is thought young Charles fared better than his peers because he was not a boarder.  Living in town, he was able to go home each day.  HOWEVER!  His home life may have made school look like a cake walk.  He and his sister were in and out of mental institutions throughout their lives.  When he was 21 he entered the kitchen to discover a bloody scene in which his sister, still wielding a kitchen knife, had stabbed their mother to death.  Charles managed to have her placed in a mental institution rather than jail and on her release attained custody of her and cared for her for the rest of her life.  Interestingly, Lamb collaborated with his sister in the writing of several successful children's books.  She earned money doing some sewing and needle work, writing an 'op ed' in a popular British lady's magazine of the time arguing that sewing should be recognized as a valid profession rather than just a domestic task women did at home.  Charles worked as an accountant for 25 years until his retirement.  At the age of 44 he fell in love with an actress who refused him.   He died a generally quiet, funny, bachelor drunkard at the age of 59.  I am planning to read his essays.  One is titled ~ "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once."
• Joseph Ritchie (1788-1819) - A medical physician (whatever THAT means given the times!!!) turned adventurer who sought the source of the River Niger and location of Timbuktu with George Francis Lyon.  Despite crossing the Sahara, something no European had previously accomplished, Ritchie never neared the destination of his dreams due to incompetence and poor planning.  He died without funds or supplies, dependent on the locals for charitable care, of fever, aged 31, in Murzuk, Fezzan.  Hilariously and horribly, Lamb (deep in his cups as was his wont) on hearing that a guest at the Immortal Dinner was planning this excursion, raised a glass saying, "...who is the Gentlemen we are going to lose?"

So!  Not the lightest read.  Gracious!!  Some seriously interesting peeps with some seriously messed up lives.  Truth may well be stranger than fiction.  Will be seeking out some Charles Lamb essays soon!

• Primary Care:  2019 Current Concepts Pediatric Updates - PNCB. 167 pages addressing - chronic/recurrent abdominal pain, community acquired bacterial pneumonia, plagiocephaly, 'back to sleep'/SIDS, supporting grieving children and families, NP precepting, transgender children, enteroviral infections, meningococcal disease,  hepatitis A, B and C, Marfan syndrome, congenital heart disease.
• Primary Care:  2020 Current Concepts Pediatric Updates - PNCB.  130 pages addressing - Newborn and maternal readiness for discharge, bronchiolitis, complicated pneumonia, newborn jaundice, PCOS, fungal infections and infestations, concussion, separation anxiety, fetal alcohol syndrome, electronic cigarettes, lead poisoning.

BOOM!!  That's what I DO!  Bahahaha!  I have a love/hate relationship with the continuing education study and testing that my RN and Advanced Practice/NP certifications and licenses require. I think they are incredibly important, but if not well done they can be a supremely useless time suck.  When they are medically sound and cover topics I feel are important to my practice, I enjoy them.  Gotta say, these were pretty good.

So there you go.  Not necessarily reading that would tempt everyone.  But if you like art, poetry and tragic lives - give Plumly's book a go!  - les