So I've since finished Dances With Wolves and The Dressmaker, discarded Lincoln after a valiant effort and begun A Separate Country.

Dances With Wolves was a good book. It had a Pocohontas feel to it: military white man (in this case, Lieutenant John Dunbar) learns the ways of the Native Americans (in this case, Comanche), falls in love with Native American girl (Christine/Stands with a Fist, who is actually white herself but adopted by the Comanche) and observes the destructive powers of white people from his new vantage point as an adopted Native American.

Nothing novel in itself, but the story flowed well, the main character was dynamic and while the expected things happened, it was still a powerful message from the past about acceptance of other people and cultures and just how destructive people can be. We look at that part as something of our past: we would never slaughter all those buffalo now! We would never hack down all those trees without reason! But really, we are doing that all over the world, just in different media - species are made extinct by hunters, development of rural land is unashamed, etc. It makes you sad to think that we really haven't learned anything after all that time. Sobering.

Anyway, I'll see how I feel about writing more book reviews. I'll obviously exceed my goal of two for the month - easily done with nothing else to do right now. Life will kick in soon with my external rotations beginning January 26th. I interviewed with a third residency program last Friday and ranked the three that interviewed me yesterday morning. My list is finalized and while I have one program that I like particularly well, I'll be happy to be paired with any of them. Results February 9th!