Books for Prep | |
by: Jane Stern  List Price: $13.95 Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 920 EAN: 9781400048694 ISBN: 1400048699 Label: Three Rivers Press Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 240 Publication Date: April 27, 2004 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Release Date: April 27, 2004 Studio: Three Rivers Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: Five years ago Jane Stern was a walking encyclopedia of panic attacks, depression, and hypochondria. Her marriage of more than thirty years was suffering, and she was virtually immobilized by fear and anxiety. As the daughter of parents who both died before she was thirty, Stern was terrified of illness and death, and despite the fact that her acclaimed career as a food and travel writer required her to spend a great deal of time on airplanes, she suffered from a persistent fear of flying and severe claustrophobia. But a strange thing happened one day on a plane that was grounded at the Minneapolis airport for six horrible, foodless, airless hours. A young man on a trip with his classmates suddenly became dizzy and pale because he hadn’t eaten in many hours, and there was no food left on the plane. Without thinking about it, Jane gave him the candy bar that she had in her purse. A short time later the color had returned to his cheeks, the boy was laughing again with his friends, and Jane realized that this one small act of kindness—helping another person who was suffering—had provided her with comfort and a sense of well-being. It was shortly thereafter that this fifty-two-year-old writer decided to become an emergency medical technician, eventually coming to be known as Ambulance Girl. Stern tells her story with great humor and poignancy, creating a wonderful portrait of a middle-aged, Woody Allen–ish woman who was “deeply and neurotically terrified of sick and dead people,” but who went out into the world to save other people’s lives as a way of saving her own. Her story begins with the boot camp of EMT training: 140 hours at the hands of a dour ex-marine who took delight in presenting a veritable parade of amputations, hideous deformities, and gross disasters. Jane—overweight and badly out of shape—had to surmount physical challenges like carrying a 250-pound man seated in a chair down a dark flight of stairs. After class she did rounds in the emergency room of a local hospital, where she attended to a schizophrenic kickboxer who had tried to kill his mother that morning and a stockbroker who was taken off the commuter train to Manhattan with delirium tremens so bad it killed him. Each call Stern describes is a vignette of human nature, often with a life in the balance. From an AIDS hospice to town drunks, yuppie wife beaters to psychopaths, Jane comes to see the true nature and underlying mysteries of a town she had called home for twenty years. Throughout the book we follow her as she gets her sea legs and finally bonds with the burly, handsome firefighters who become her colleagues. At the end, she is named the first woman officer of the department—a triumph we joyously share with her. Ambulance Girl is an inspiring story by a woman who found, somewhat late in life, that “in helping others I learned to help myself.” It is a book to be treasured and shared. From the Hardcover edition. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - I love this book.I finished reading this book in one day! I found it inspiring, hilarious, and touching. I could read her stories for hours! This could be a fantastic movie. Hell, this could be a fantastic series. I would watch it. I want to be Jane Stern's friend. I want to be an EMT! OK, I don't really want to do the second thing. But as someone rapidly approaching middle age myself, this is a remarkable reminder of just how much we are capable if we only give ourselves the chance. Thank you, Jane, for writing ... Read More Rating:  - 'Lifetime Movie'This was ok for a 'made for tv' movie. I didn't notice it was a 'Lifetime Movie'. I was expecting a 'real' film. Rating:  - This is so like the real worldI was reading this book as I was going through the same experiances as the auther, right down to the people who would show up late to class. It made me laugh, and think about the career change I was making. I loved the book. I hated the movie. Rating: - EntertainingI stumbled across this book while looking for a road food book by Jane and Michael Stern. I didn't think it was the same Jane Stern--I didn't know about this part of her life, only having listened to Jane and Michael on NPR"s "The Splendid Table". Jane's personality really comes through in the pages of this book. She's chatty, vulnerable and fun to read. I found myself getting very easily caught up in her story. Rating: - I can relateJane was 52 years old when she became an EMT. I can relate after recertifying at 45 years old. A great read. If you haven't seen the movie based off from the book, do so. It too is excellant. 
In association with Amazon.com | |