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A Little Something
Katherine Warren, M.D., is a no-nonsense pediatrician who serves the small and suffering in a Texas barrio clinic. She thinks she’s seen it all, but then it all hits home. Her ten-year-old son is brought to the edge of death by a medical accident in a dentist’s office.
Katherine, her CPA husband, Sam, her grandmother, her best friend, her scientific colleagues – the finest minds and biggest hearts – rally to the aid of the boy, who is locked in darkness.
Sam and Katherine, twin towers of rationality, must come to terms with difficult yet sustaining truths. When all seems lost, this is what remains: Below hope, beyond the reach of religion or science, at the point of surrender lies something in our trembling center that keeps us going. A small, quiet mystery. A little something.
Katherine, her CPA husband, Sam, her grandmother, her best friend, her scientific colleagues – the finest minds and biggest hearts – rally to the aid of the boy, who is locked in darkness.
Sam and Katherine, twin towers of rationality, must come to terms with difficult yet sustaining truths. When all seems lost, this is what remains: Below hope, beyond the reach of religion or science, at the point of surrender lies something in our trembling center that keeps us going. A small, quiet mystery. A little something.
- GenresFiction
334 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 2014
3 people are currently reading
700 people want to read
About the author
Richard Haddaway
3 books3 followersRichard Haddaway has spent thirty years in the journalistic trenches as an editor, reporter and columnist for newspapers and magazines. His previous novel, Where the River Bends, was published by SMU Press in 2003.
Haddaway is a born-once, third-generation Texan who now lives in Santa Fe with his wife, Kay, a CPA, and the best of all possible dogs, WooWoo. They have one son and three grandchildren.
He was an Army medic during the Vietnam era and also worked for a time as a hospital orderly, specializing in bedpans. A Little Something was written in close consultation with a neurologist, William Gulledge, M.D.
Haddaway is a born-once, third-generation Texan who now lives in Santa Fe with his wife, Kay, a CPA, and the best of all possible dogs, WooWoo. They have one son and three grandchildren.
He was an Army medic during the Vietnam era and also worked for a time as a hospital orderly, specializing in bedpans. A Little Something was written in close consultation with a neurologist, William Gulledge, M.D.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 3, 2014
RATING 5 STARS
Beautifully written.
A Little Something is beautifully written and designed, each character seems to have their own voice in the narration.
We meet Justin first thing, a typical 10 year old boy with a lot of energy, but also a boy who is hit in the face with a foul baseball during a game. Not too much trouble there - maybe a slight concussion and a loose tooth - and Justin, like any ten year old boy, wears those battle wounds proudly. But therein lies the beginning of the story when
Haddaway's narration is absolutely flawless, and has a certain indescribable flow to it. The characters were so vivid and real, and I was impressed by how well the essence of a ten year old boy was portrayed throughout the book. And without us ever really meeting Justin too! I thought it interesting that Justin was actually only really in the first chapter, and anything else we learn about his personality is through flashbacks of his parents or Granny.
I found myself laughing at quite a few moments in the book, though the storyline is actually pretty dark and depressing. Haddaway’s interpretation of a family moving through fear, hope, guilt, anger, and remorse and so many other emotions that come with grief was so moving and tender and handled with deep emotion, but also with understanding.
The entire story was so bittersweet and the ending followed that theme right out to the end.
I think the most touching scenes were the ones that involved Toady, Justin’s best friend, and the scenes with the firefighters, and I loved the fact that all of the staff over at the fire department ended up .
I had such high hopes for reading this book and was not disappointed – definitely a book worth reading.
Original review at http://booknooksbooks.blogspot.com
**I won a copy of A Little Something for free through a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway**
Beautifully written.
A Little Something is beautifully written and designed, each character seems to have their own voice in the narration.
We meet Justin first thing, a typical 10 year old boy with a lot of energy, but also a boy who is hit in the face with a foul baseball during a game. Not too much trouble there - maybe a slight concussion and a loose tooth - and Justin, like any ten year old boy, wears those battle wounds proudly. But therein lies the beginning of the story when
Haddaway's narration is absolutely flawless, and has a certain indescribable flow to it. The characters were so vivid and real, and I was impressed by how well the essence of a ten year old boy was portrayed throughout the book. And without us ever really meeting Justin too! I thought it interesting that Justin was actually only really in the first chapter, and anything else we learn about his personality is through flashbacks of his parents or Granny.
I found myself laughing at quite a few moments in the book, though the storyline is actually pretty dark and depressing. Haddaway’s interpretation of a family moving through fear, hope, guilt, anger, and remorse and so many other emotions that come with grief was so moving and tender and handled with deep emotion, but also with understanding.
The entire story was so bittersweet and the ending followed that theme right out to the end.
I think the most touching scenes were the ones that involved Toady, Justin’s best friend, and the scenes with the firefighters, and I loved the fact that all of the staff over at the fire department ended up .
I had such high hopes for reading this book and was not disappointed – definitely a book worth reading.
Original review at http://booknooksbooks.blogspot.com
**I won a copy of A Little Something for free through a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway**
May 15, 2014
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway. The story is about a young boy, Justin, who suffers from a horrible medical accident in a dentist’s office and how his family struggles to find something to hang onto. I wasn’t sure I would be able to read it, but for some reason I still entered. And then I won. Richard Haddaway sent such a nice note asking me to write a review whether I liked the book or not. So I had to read it. And then I couldn’t stop until I finished.
The descriptions are often moving and beautiful, like when the mother, Katherine, enters her son’s hospital room and hears “every sigh of the testers, every unmoved moment of her son”. There are also moments of humor. One character says doctors aren’t well-rounded and most are “lopsided”, which I found amusing since I work in the medical field.
One of the most touching scenes was where Katherine tells Justin’s best friend how sick he is. Here is a boy who she has watched grow up with her own son. He’s alive while her son is lying comatose in the hospital. And this is the boy who threw the ball that loosened Justin’s tooth that sent him to the dentist. This scene was so tenderly handled. To me, it was one of the most important parts of the book.
This was a difficult and heartbreaking story to read about, and I found myself drawn into the family’s fear as well as their hope. I’m glad I won the book.
The descriptions are often moving and beautiful, like when the mother, Katherine, enters her son’s hospital room and hears “every sigh of the testers, every unmoved moment of her son”. There are also moments of humor. One character says doctors aren’t well-rounded and most are “lopsided”, which I found amusing since I work in the medical field.
One of the most touching scenes was where Katherine tells Justin’s best friend how sick he is. Here is a boy who she has watched grow up with her own son. He’s alive while her son is lying comatose in the hospital. And this is the boy who threw the ball that loosened Justin’s tooth that sent him to the dentist. This scene was so tenderly handled. To me, it was one of the most important parts of the book.
This was a difficult and heartbreaking story to read about, and I found myself drawn into the family’s fear as well as their hope. I’m glad I won the book.
July 21, 2014
I received this wonderful book as a goodreads First Reads giveaway.
This is NOT an easy read. It is emotionally wrenching, a literary kick in the gut. Justin Moore, a 10-year-old boy, is waiting on deck at his baseball game, when he is hit by a foul ball. He has a tooth loosened by the ball, and his father takes him to the dentist, where something goes horribly wrong. What follows is a detailed picture of every parent's absolute worst nightmare.
His parents, Sam, an accountant, and Katherine, a pediatrician, are hurled into a world in which their only child is in critical condition. Katherine, with her medical knowledge, can read the test results and know, in her trained mind, how serious Justin's condition is. But as a mother, she is unable to accept what her training tells her. Sam is even deeper into denial. His profession is one in which everything is in balance; absolutely nothing about this situation can be balanced. Surrounded by family and friends, they are taken into their personal version of hell as they reminisce, and, in so doing, come to a kind of peace with what confronts them. We, as readers, are inexorably taken with them.
Richard Haddaway has drawn characters that are so real, so much like all of us, that we can't help but care about them. Even the peripheral characters are genuine, and are the kind of people we would all wish to have in our lives if, heaven forbid, we are in their situation. His descriptions of Sam and Katherine's emotional roller coaster of hope and despair, hope and despair, are not easy to absorb without becoming emotional yourself. And yet, it is almost impossible to put this book down.
I highly recommend this book be read with a box of tissues within reach.
This is NOT an easy read. It is emotionally wrenching, a literary kick in the gut. Justin Moore, a 10-year-old boy, is waiting on deck at his baseball game, when he is hit by a foul ball. He has a tooth loosened by the ball, and his father takes him to the dentist, where something goes horribly wrong. What follows is a detailed picture of every parent's absolute worst nightmare.
His parents, Sam, an accountant, and Katherine, a pediatrician, are hurled into a world in which their only child is in critical condition. Katherine, with her medical knowledge, can read the test results and know, in her trained mind, how serious Justin's condition is. But as a mother, she is unable to accept what her training tells her. Sam is even deeper into denial. His profession is one in which everything is in balance; absolutely nothing about this situation can be balanced. Surrounded by family and friends, they are taken into their personal version of hell as they reminisce, and, in so doing, come to a kind of peace with what confronts them. We, as readers, are inexorably taken with them.
Richard Haddaway has drawn characters that are so real, so much like all of us, that we can't help but care about them. Even the peripheral characters are genuine, and are the kind of people we would all wish to have in our lives if, heaven forbid, we are in their situation. His descriptions of Sam and Katherine's emotional roller coaster of hope and despair, hope and despair, are not easy to absorb without becoming emotional yourself. And yet, it is almost impossible to put this book down.
I highly recommend this book be read with a box of tissues within reach.
March 8, 2014
If you're a fan of Jodi Picoult's novels, you owe it to yourself to read Richard Haddaway's new book, "A Little Something". Like Picoult, Haddaway finds a story that is sometimes intense, sometimes dark, sometimes frightening in its realism. It brings a family to the brink, and you willingly go with them because of the characters.
I had the pleasure to read an advance copy and I found the story, and especially the characters, stayed with me for days. I especially like Katherine, the non-nonsense doctor at a Texas barrio clinic, and her best friend Jonesie. The relationships of all the characters are put to the test as they are plunged together into a gripping, heart-rending story.
This story, soon to be available as an ebook or in paperbook, is one I highly recommend.
I had the pleasure to read an advance copy and I found the story, and especially the characters, stayed with me for days. I especially like Katherine, the non-nonsense doctor at a Texas barrio clinic, and her best friend Jonesie. The relationships of all the characters are put to the test as they are plunged together into a gripping, heart-rending story.
This story, soon to be available as an ebook or in paperbook, is one I highly recommend.
September 12, 2017
Not bad
After reading crime novels I was looking for something uplifting. This is what happens when I look at the name and picture on the book and not read what it's about. Very sad ending but a good read. Seen a few typos in the book but nothing I couldn't get past. Very happy to see the medical parts were accurate. Being a nurse for 20 years I can't help but criticize when something medical is wrong.
After reading crime novels I was looking for something uplifting. This is what happens when I look at the name and picture on the book and not read what it's about. Very sad ending but a good read. Seen a few typos in the book but nothing I couldn't get past. Very happy to see the medical parts were accurate. Being a nurse for 20 years I can't help but criticize when something medical is wrong.
December 10, 2014
I can not say enough!
This is the best book I have read in many, many years. I want my wife to read it now. What it must be like to have to go through a time like that with a loved one. Unbelievable heartbreak.
This is the best book I have read in many, many years. I want my wife to read it now. What it must be like to have to go through a time like that with a loved one. Unbelievable heartbreak.
December 14, 2014
Sad story.
The cover had me thinking it might be an inspiring read. In some ways, yes it was. But mostly it was just the hard reality of what a few families have to do to find a way to endure life when their children suffer and/or die.
The cover had me thinking it might be an inspiring read. In some ways, yes it was. But mostly it was just the hard reality of what a few families have to do to find a way to endure life when their children suffer and/or die.
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November 27, 2014Free on 11/26/14.
December 3, 2014
This story is so beautifully told. Smile one minute - cry the next. A very talented writer is Richard Haddaway, I'll be looking for his next one.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews