Overload by Arthur Hailey (published in 1978), challenges of power generation, politics, and tradeoff between needs and environment

Arthur Hailey, a best selling author was born in Lutton, Bedfordshire, England. He emigrated to Canada after actively serving in the Royalk Airforce as a pilot in the World War II. He started his literary career with Flight Into Danger and later came up with amazing titles like Hotel, Wheels, Final Diagnosis tec. He moved to the Bahamas with his writer wife Sheila, and continued to churn out best sellers. He died in November, 2004.
Overload is about the dynamics of power generation. It tells the readers about the difficulty in serving a state like California and how a simple outage can cripple the lives and economy of a nation. Nimrod or Nim Goldman is the Vice President of Golden State Power and Light, who predicts that there is a great possibility a blackout in the future. He feels the need of developing 2 or 3 electricity generating units to combat the electric famine looming alarmingly near. His company has identified sites for developing two power projects and Nim is supporting it through various channels. But critics consider these as ravings of a power hungry, greedy capitalist. Green activists and NGS's are up in arms agtainst his company and accuse them of pillaging the environment and natural resources. Apart from this the upcoming power projects are opposed by rivals and regulatory bodies.



This book has great significance even today because the hunger for power has not diminished. With lot of other Asian countries developing at a faster rate the need for power has reached its pinnacle. Hailey also takes up the case of power theft by the people. In Overload there is a special drive by the company to catch the culprits which also involves detective agencies. Hailey also refers to the problems various life saving agencies like hospitals face when there is an outage because majority of their equipmentrs like ventilators, X rays etc rely on power. Handicapped people and small businesses thrive on power. These messages are totally put across to the reader along with enviromental concerns.
Ultimately a series of controlled explosions shuts the power and California is plunged into darkness. How the citizens and the company cope with the crisis forms the bulwark of the story. Nim Goldman's personal life is woven into the story and I feel is an unnecessary distraction. Nim, a modern Don Juan, beds many women or falls in and out of love. He even has an affair with a quadriplegic woman who is totally dependent on the electric power his company generates. His womanizing attitude continues throughout the book in spite of his wife being diagnosed with cancer.
But Hailey ultimately lifts this book with good research about electric theft, shortage, environmental concerns and the effects of a power outage. Even though it was written in the late 70's the technology and concerns sound even true to this day. Overload gives us a pointer to the future as we are completely dependent on electricity for our needs. Hailey is a visionary indeed !!!

Doctors - by Erich Sehgal

Doctors was published by Erich Segal in 1988, and soon jumped onto the # 1 bestseller on the New York Times list. Erich Segal has been known for extensive research for his novels, and the same was true for this one. There was a lot of research done into the life of doctors, starting from the time that they enter medical school and covering their experiences, the type of training they go through, as well as the problems and challenges they face. Somebody reading this novel would get a good idea of what the life of medical students is like, and carry onto the emotions of adult doctors.
The book covers the life of some of the characters who are part of the 1962 Harvard Medical School batch, with a special emphasis on 2 of these.



The 2 main characters who are the focus of this book, include Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano. These are characters who have grown up as neighbors since they were children, have been very close, very good friends, attended medical school together, and start seeing the harsh elements of life. As medical students and doctors, they come to face an extremely tough education demanding huge amounts of study, face patients who have all kinds of illnesses, many of them tragic. They learn that apparently the medical profession demands that its practitioners should not get personally involved with the problems of their patients, because otherwise they will themselves start to get weak and affected.
The book also takes the lives of other students along with them, such as their brilliant but black colleague Bennett Landsmann, who faces the then huge issue of racism, and ultimately almost falls victim to it. They come face to face shocking problems in the medical fraternity such as misdiagnosis, colleagues who are not competent or indulge in conduct that offends them. The book traces their lives to the point where they have each had their relationships, but ultimately realize that eventually they are made for each other. The book is gripping, and is certainly worth reading.