Eric Lindner

This is a gripping, emotional account of the ditching of Flying Tiger 923, a Lockheed Super Constellation that ended its working life with three engines unserviceable. The captain, John Murray, managed to ditch in the north Atlantic in September, and 48 of the 76 people on board survived. The book describes the lead-up to the crash, the aftermath, and the investigation into the crash. The book contains black-and-white photos after every chapter, and it provides detailed accounts of what happened to the survivors. In addition, it describes how the families of those involved in the crash were affected—such secondary trauma is not often discussed. The author of this book likely thought to include it because he is married to one of the daughters of Captain Murray; he therefore has a unique perspective on the event. I would recommend this for those interested in aviation and particularly in aviation safety.… (mehr)

Eric Lindner's book is about a few different hospice patients he worked with at the end of their lives. The people he meets up with are all memorable in their different ways.

Eric briefly starts his book with his training, and often refers back to it when he is faced with any dilemmas (and sometimes ignores his training, as in the case when he gives a woman her meds when he knows he shouldn't have, something I think I would have done in the same situation). In between his stories of his patients, Eric also talks about his own family and his travels overseas, especially his aging parents. While I understood talking about his parents in the book, I did not like that Lindner did so. I wasn't reading a book about Lindner's life, I was reading a book about Lindner's dying hospice patients. The author often seemed to be bragging about how good his life was, about how they have so much money that they can afford to donate a lot of money to charity (the bragging really turned me off, becausehe was comparing how good his life is to someone who was dying (I honestly don't think he meant it that way, that was just how I felt. To clarify, I think it's wonderful the author's family does give so much back to their community, I just didn't feel it was appropriate talking about it in the course of the book).

Surprisingly, the book isn't sad at all. I know I was really worried (in agreeing to read this book) that it was going to be too sad & to hit too close to home, but Eric really does a great job in balancing his visits with his patients end of life.

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I agreed to read this book as part of a blog tour in Jan 2014 and was not paid for my review. I wanted to read this book because I worked in nursing homes for a few years and saw the good in hospice… (mehr)