Paul B. Nelson , MD
Consultant- PSH University Park Reginal Campus
Professor, PSH Department of Neurosurgery
Keep Sharp By Sanjay Gupta M.D., Simon & Shuster, 2021
Keep Sharp is a must read if you are concerned about preventing, delaying the progression, and treating dementia. The book serves as a resource for better understanding the truths and myths about cognitive decline and dementia. It is well referenced and includes inputs from many established investigators. Dr. Gupta is a well-known medical correspondent and academic neurosurgeon at Emory University College of Medicine. He has received many Emmy and Peabody awards and has authored several other New York Times Best Selling Books. Keep Sharp establishes that the brain function decline is not inevitable and can improve throughout our lives. Five pillars of brain health include exercise, proper eating, stimulating your brain, restful sleep, and an active social life. He brings it all together with a 12 week plan for better brain development. The book ends with a focus on the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (60-80% of dementias) and has a special note to the caregivers.
It is a privilege to have been selected to receive a 2021 READ Poster Recognition Award. The Harrell Health Science Library: Research and Learning Commons has been a tremendous resource for myself and the entire PSH University Park Regional Campus. Its partnership with the Penn State Libraries has resulted in increased access to services and data bases as well as cost savings and new collaborative opportunities. The 2017 redesigned library was a model for modern education and further supports the PSH missions of education, research, clinical care and community outreach. I would like to give special thanks to Cynthia Robinson, Lori Snyder, Kelly Thormodson, Marie Cirelli and Bradly Long.
Keep Sharp!
Cheryl Attinger, MBA, DEd (cand.)
Director of Finance for Educational Affairs
Director of Student Financial Aid, College of Medicine
Instructor, Department of Public Health Sciences
Bird-By-Bird By Anne Lamont
I was first introduced to Anne Lamont’s Bird-By-Bird through my coursework for the Lifelong Learning and Adult Education doctoral program. The course was focused on dissertation writing and this book was suggested reading as a light-hearted how-to guide for overcoming roadblocks when you need to write a lot. As a fan of non-fiction books, memoirs and auto-biographies, stories like Anne Lamont’s have always captured my attention. I can’t help but get lost in the pages as I glean some new inspiration that inevitably unfolds in every story. Whether it’s beating the odds, or happy accidents, or wild adventures, there is always something new to learn and discover. This personal narrative by Anne Lamont is no different. A self-proclaimed instruction book on writing and life, it is part auto-biography and part self-help book filled with anecdotes and snippets of wisdom that are worth savoring. Like any good storytelling, there are parts that make you laugh out loud and others that pull at your heartstrings. For me, this book has been a gentle reminder to just keep writing.
“Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do – the actual act of writing – turns out to be the best part.”
And so it is with the Harrell Library. This wonderful place that we go to study, to do research, to meet with others or to gather our thoughts. I am grateful to the library for creating a space that ignites curiosity, encourages discovery and inspires imagination. From the books and journals, the technology and, most importantly, the people, the library has so much to give and share with our students, staff, and faculty. Thank you to the Harrell Library for being a place that inspires the best part of lifelong learning.
Susan Glod, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Woodward Center for Excellence in Health Sciences Education
George and Martha: Five Stories about Two Great Friends Written and illustrated by James Marshall
Libraries are a place to grow. The Harrell Library became like a second home to me when twenty years ago I sat there for hours, days, and weeks on end, feverishly studying for my Step I USMLE exam. Little did I know that as time passed, the pharmacology, physiology and genetics would become second nature. Now, medicine is the easy part. It’s the relationships that are hard.
My understanding of how relationships work started much earlier that those days spent scarfing down cafeteria cookies in my study carrel. It started with the George and Martha series, in our living room, snuggled next to Mom or Dad. Although the central characters are hippopotami, it’s a surprisingly sophisticated reflection on human nature, friendship, kindness, and the problems we create for ourselves when we are not honest with each other or ourselves. The author of the book never provided the reader with an easy answer to the situations the hippopotami found themselves in, and neither did my Mom and Dad. I was left to think things through by myself. I have a copy on my bookshelf at work.
Did your family read a children’s book that has since evolved into a piece of family lore? George and Martha regularly make it into the conversation at our family gatherings. I think about them often when I am trying to negotiate a difficult interaction with a patient or colleague. Once, when I was a junior faculty member without much humility or capacity for self-reflection, frustrated with a medical team I was consulting for, a senior faculty who was co-consulting on the same patient told me, “You can either be a good member of the team caring for this patient, or you can be the only person in the room who is 100% right all the time. You can’t do both. You have to choose.” He might have lifted those lines from one of a dozen George and Martha stories. I took his words to heart.
The library has evolved a lot since I first entered it, but it remains a place to learn, study, and develop into better versions of ourselves. It is a brick and mortar reminder that we all still have the capacity to grow.