Friday, September 2, 2016

The Light of the Fireflies

The Light of the Fireflies
Just imagine living in a basement for the entire ten years of your life. Your parents, your Grandmother, your sister and your brother are also with you. Things begin to change after your sister has a baby and not in a good way. This is a captivating read in that there is a lot of suspense built around that basement scenario. For me, I kept wondering about The Cricket Man...is he real or imagined? That was the 'who' part and then the 'why' appears - why has this family been in a basement for 10 years? Suspense abounds and mysteries surface....

Be forewarned, however, that there is emotional and physical abuse as well as an incident of incest. As one may conclude, this family is more than dysfunctional. The author does delve into the history of each of the main characters so the reader is able to grasp the reason for those problems.

The ten year old protagonist has several deep loves within his heart. His cactus, his 'chick' and his fireflies are at the top. One may only imagine the joy the light from the fireflies gives the little boy in the darkness of this enclosed space.

All in all, a solid read which held my attention from the beginning to the end. I also felt that the translation was done well.

Highly recommended.

Please note that this is my Kindle First selection for March.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Save with Jamie: Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less

Save with Jamie: Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less
We already own a lot of Jamie Oliver's other recipe books and so thought we would pre-order this one as the premise of the book "shop smart, cook clever, waste less" really appealed to us.

I am a competent cook, my wife and I both enjoy cooking and will always cook from scratch. We hoped this book would help us save money on food shopping and be more `savvy' with ingredients and get more from ingredients we might have normally let go to waste.

First impressions:

As with all his books, I really like the layout, pictures and fonts used etc (I have uploaded some photos on this product page as they will be a lot better than any description I can give).

The fonts and images help to break up a couple of fairly wordy pages that give advice on shopping smart and storing foods.

Every recipe has an accompanying picture which is a big thing for me, it's a big prompt as to whether I want to make a recipe or not.

Book contents:

The book starts with an intro as to why Jamie's done the book, not really necessary I think but nice none the less.

It then goes through the following titles:

The Big Freeze - Jamie goes through what he generally keeps in his freezer and a couple of basic rules to freezing, e.g. letting food cool before freezing and the importance of keeping things well wrapped. These are things I already knew but I can see how others may find this advice useful.

Chill Out - Again Jamie goes through what he keeps in his fridge rather than a prescriptive list of what you should or shouldn't have in there. The guidance here again isn't hugely useful for us I think, but if new to cooking at home it's perhaps a good set up to the recipes ahead. Interesting just to nosey in Jamie Oliver's fridge to be honest!

Store It - I think you get the picture, this is what he keeps in his store cupboard / pantry. Again not hugely useful for us but interesting to see that ours generally mirrored what he kept, e.g. rice, spices, flour and sugar etc.

Shop Smart - a double page of thifty tips... this is where I was hoping for some new advice. As shoppers we could be unusual but it made me realise we are already `smart'. A lot of the things Jamie suggests, such as using cash and carries for stocking up on basic ingredients and menu planning etc. This doesn't make me dissatisfied with the book (when perhaps it should?) but made me realise we are on the right tracks. The value for me in this book comes with the recipes and tips that lay ahead....

The recipes in the book are split by the following main ingredients:

Vegetables
Chicken
Fish
Beef
Pork
Lamb

I really do like the split as it makes it easy to find recipes you'd like to cook.

As mentioned all recipes have pictures (please see image uploads for pages I've uploaded - hope this helps?), and cookbooks with lovely photographs and text always score highly for me.

But thankfully as well as looking nice, there are also a lot of recipes that I would like to cook, as well as a couple of further hints and tips on how to shop smart smattered throughout the recipe pages e.g. in the vegetable section there's a page with tips on buying seasonally and another on what to do with leftover wine.

Something I also REALLY like (as my wife is a fan of counting calories), but each recipe has a calorie count assigned per portion.

Having used a different book the previous night to joint a chicken, leafing through the book this morning my wife commented that Jamie's instructions and pictures in this book were much clearer than the one she used last night (that book shall remain nameless!). Again have uploaded a couple of images so you can judge for yourself as to whether you would find this kind of breakdown useful for your skill level or needs.

I find that from owning a lot of his other books, Jamie Oliver's recipes are ones that I often actually cook (some recipe books I like to read but don't often cook from, sad but true). So if you are reading this and already enjoy cooking from one of this books, chances are you'll like the recipes in this book whether you are interested in shopping smart or not. I am now - rather geekily, quite excited about watching the accompanying channel 4 show in a couple of days!

So whilst the tips weren't especially ground-breaking for me and my wife, it's sound advice that some people will certainly find useful - and most importantly it turns out, has some great recipes within that I can't wait to cook.

I would say it would suit a range of skill levels from beginner to intermediate, but most suited to those that like Jamie Oliver's style of recipes and cooking in the first place, kind of "tasty and relaxed" in my opinion.

I hope to update this review in a couple of weeks once we've tried more than one recipe out (it was the British Carbonara... fairly basic but I liked the twist of using a sprig of fresh rosemary... and at 508 calories very tasty). Interestingly the book doesn't cost up the recipes, only includes calories. Anyway I shall update in a couple of weeks. Hope this review is of use to those contemplating buying it.

Update:

We have now gone through the book `proper' from cover to cover, and tested two recipes over the weekend.

I just wanted to point out a couple more features of the book that we didn't notice or use at first:

The nutrition section at the back of the book lists all nutritional values of every meal in the book, not just calories but fat, saturated fat, carbs and sugar. This level of detail may not be of interest to some but thought I would point it out (have uploaded more images including this page on customer images).

It turns out the book more about nutrition and health than we had initially realised. Hence all the calorie counts etc and why the vegetables section of the book is the largest (JO recommends aiming for two meat free days a week on the grounds of it being both healthier as well as cheaper).

The meat sections all have a `mothership' recipe, followed by a number of recipes (ranging from 4 - 7 recipes) that use leftovers from this `mothership'.

To test the logic of the book we did a `mothership' recipe followed by a left overs recipe from the beef section.

On Saturday we made "Sunday Roast Brisket" (crazy I know!). Jamie explains Brisket was chosen as it's a cheaper cut of meat (makes sense) so as the recipe stated we cooked it long and slow with some delicious veggies. As with all of Jamie's other books the steps were easy to follow and ingredients were easy to come by. The resulting dish was very tasty - even if I do say so myself.

Then on the Sunday we had the Spiced Beef Tagine. We liked this even more than the initial roast but then again we both like spice. For a recipe with left overs it was great, normally we would just make sandwiches or put it through a salad.

So the first valuable lesson the book has left me with is to be more inventive with leftovers. Even if you currently don't let them go to waste, are you making the most of them? Can't wait for Jamie's show now! I hope to do another update soon when we've really had a go at a variety of recipes but so far, so very good.

Update 2:

So it's been a couple of weeks now and we have done another four recipes from the book.

We cooked the chicken and chorizo paella, using chicken thighs as Jamie suggests. In the past we would have automatically shopped for chicken breast. Yes there was a little less meat on the thighs but this didn't impact the recipe and the chorizo really packed a punch of flavour into the dish. One thing we didn't include was the frozen prawns as my wife doesn't like prawns, and it was still delicious without.

With the same pack of chicken thighs, the following night we cooked the `Pukka Yellow Curry' (although the recipe calls for drumsticks instead of thighs). A really non labour intensive recipe, it tasted great again so we were really chuffed, with plenty for leftovers the following day.

After seeing it on the show we had to try the Sweet Pea Fish Pie, and the pea and potato topping was super tasty, I don't think we'll ever use plain potato on top of a fish pie ever again. The pie turned out great, we tweaked a few of the ingredients (removing the prawns and including some smoked haddock).

And last but not least, for a quick tea one night we had the carbonara of smoked mackerel. I had some reservations about this recipe but my wife loves mackerel so we had to try it. Whilst I generally prefer your traditional carbonara with smoked bacon, my wife preferred this mackerel version. My opinion is that it's ok, and if you have no bacon to hand but do have mackerel, it's a good substitute - and generally cheaper so fits with the premise of the book.

And one final small note the `total time' quoted on each recipe page has so far been fairly accurate.

So after trialling the book proper for me it still retains its five stars as the hints and tips are very welcome, and the recipes are easy to follow and so far have all turned out great. It would be great if Jamie could follow up with some `Save with Jamie Desserts!'.

I Let You Go

I Let You Go
I read a lot and I do enjoy most of the books I read but then, every so often, one comes along that completely blows me away, This was one of those books.

It is also one of those books that I am struggling to review. I can't mention much of the story without including spoilers but suffice it to say, it was so far away from the normal formulaic psychological thrillers that I am used to it was a lovely breath of fresh air to read. Recently I have found that, in most books I read of this genre, the pace ramps up at about 65% and the twist happens around 85%. Not in this book. It was pretty evenly paced all the way through with a great balance between the lovely descriptions of the Welsh seascape and the storyline itself, I simply devoured the book, reading it pretty much in one sitting (to the annoyance of my brother who wanted my attention) so eager I was to get to the end. And the twist, well, that was fantastic, and I certainly didn't expect it then!

I have also read a fair few, what I call, time-hop books but again, this one is completely different to the usual two (or three) threads coming together at the end. I would love to expand on how cleverly the author spun all the threads of this book together, but I am not eloquent enough to find a way to do it without spoilers and spoilers would definitely ruin it for everyone else.

Characters were all very well fleshed out and completely real. I have lived in a small village and definitely saw some familiar personality types in there! I also emoted well with the characters which I think is a key element to my enjoyment of a book. In fact I went through a bit of a roller-coaster of emotions whilst reading it!
I am actually struggling to believe that this is a debut book, it is so professionally presented. I would go so far as to say that it is one of those books that it has been my privilege to read. I am so hoping that the author can follow it. Ms Mackintosh, I have my eye on you!

I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Understanding Health Insurance-Text (11th, 13) by Green, Michelle A [Paperback (2012)]

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Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Resilient Physician: Effective Emotional Management for Doctors & Their Medical Organizations

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Physicians today may face more stress than any other group of professional. Long hours, continual training, and constant change in their personal lives and in the medical workplace only complicate their already stressful lives. Learning to cope effectively with these pressures will help physicians - and their teams- to achieve greater personal satisfaction, higher productivity, and better patient outcomes..


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Monday, May 16, 2016

Health Care Fraud and Abuse: A Physician's Guide to Compliance (Billing and Compliance)

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A guide for physicians covering the legal aspects of health insurance and offers ways to design an effective billing, coding, and accounts receivable process..


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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Lean Six Sigma for the Medical Practice

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Lean Six Sigma for the Medical Practice Description

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Boost profitability without cutting costs or increasing revenues Medical practices face serious financial challenges.

>Staff and costs are already cut to the bone. Payers fight physicians for every penny of reimbursement. Revenues aren t likely to soar anytime soon.
So what can be done to increase profitability? This perfectly-timed book provides good answers and ready-to-use tools by Six Sigma Black Belt Frank Cohen and Practice Management expert Owen Dahl in Mastering Lean Six Sigma for the Medical Practice: Improving Profitability by Improving Processes.

Step by step, this book explains how to use Lean Six Sigma decision-making processes, team-building principles and efficiency-boosting tools to do more without increasing costs. That means more of the revenue that comes in goes right to the bottom line. Plus, you ll learn the secrets of using data analysis to hold payers feet to the fire to optimize revenue. Six Sigma practices have revolutionized other businesses. Now, by being ahead of your field in applying them to the medical business, you ll put your practice way ahead. In fact, don t be surprised if you find yourself at an upcoming conference presenting a case study about your own thriving practice. NOTEWORTHY FEATURES:
Real skill-building for making decisions and using process-improvement teams even if you re in a solo practice Lean Six Sigma exclusively for medical practices you can apply improvement strategies directly to everything from managing litigation and payer behavior to gaining more control over office operations and clinical efficiency.
A sharp focus on the business model giving practice profitability the level of attention that s previously been focused solely on quality of care.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: What s In It For Me? Lean Six Sigma benefits for healthcare providers, administrators, frontline staff, attorneys, consultants and payers.
Chapter 2: Process Improvement How to map processes to the revenue cycle to drive efficiency and profitability.
Chapter 3: Team Building How process improvement (PI) teams differ from other teams and how to create and use them.
Chapter 4: Project Management How to streamline, eliminate bottlenecks, and use data and metrics for making PI decisions.
Chapter 5: TPI Toolbox 24 Lean Six Sigma tools tailored specifically for medical practices.
Chapter 6: Deployment Using Lean Six Sigma tools to cut denials due to CCI edit policy by 50%, speed patient registration, complete entire patient visits in 60 minutes, and make other profit- boosting improvements.
Chapter 7: What's Next? The vital role Lean Six Sigma plays in the future of health care and practice profitability.

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