Reviews for Just Getting There

The average rating for Just Getting There based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-09-07 00:00:00 Zahid Farhoudi Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman ever educated in an American medical school. This is a story of success by perseverance and personal sacrifice. She has no funding: she goes on. She has no mentors: she goes alone. She has no money for a cab: she walks. She wears out her shoes and avoids places where she can't look shabby. She loses an eye, and gives up her dream of being a surgeon, embracing general medicine instead. She endures insults, humiliation, and profound loneliness. But she believes she is making a future possible for American women doctors, so nothing, nothing stands in her way for long. And I thought medical school was hard! The old farts who harassed us women med students in the 1980's could only dream of tormenting us like 19th century gentlemen tormented her. I would love to be able to thank her, both for making life better for women, and for her beautifully written and amazingly upbeat book about breaking the bonds.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-03-04 00:00:00 Adelina Lask If I hadn't just read The Last Man Who Knew Everything Thomas Young, The Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius, this book would have been more impressive. As it was, both authors wrote books about British polymaths who were doctors, made breakthroughs in their medical fields, made contributions to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and were linguistic pioneers. Of the two, however, Thomas Young seemed to be more worthy of the title "polymath". Kendall's book about Peter Mark Roget, best known as the creator of Roget's Thesaurus, is an awkward, choppy read. The book has a non-linear chain of events with a very linear plot style, which makes it difficult to parse through. Roget himself was a difficult, complicated man, and while Kendall tries extremely hard to make him a sympathetic character, he's ultimately unsuccessful. It's clear that Kendall has a tremendous amount of appreciation for Roget; unfortunately, he didn't convince me why that appreciation was warranted. Having said this, though, this is definitely a book that I'd like to re-read in a few years *without* having read Robinson's book. I have to admit that my review of Kendall's book was definitely influenced by having first read the biography of Young.