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A Sneak Peak at Chasing Zebras: The Table of Contents

So Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D. is available for pre-order in several more places both here and abroad. It’s being sold at Barnes and Noble, Borders and at Amazon UK and Canada (and of course the US site). And we’re still five-plus months from the street date. (And a lovely picture of the cover has finally been added to the Amazon and B/N sites !)

With the London Book fair next month and North American Book Expo in May, things have only started. I’m still waiting the copyeditor’s changes (and slightly fearing the sharp blue pencil that I, myself, have wielded from time to time). The next several months will fly by I’m sure.

So, in honor of all this, I’d like to give you a sneak peek at the book’s Table of Contents and direct you to the book’s website for even more of a peek at the six-season episode guide:

(Please note that this Table of Contents is still preliminary and the order might change as the book moves through the publication process).

TABLE of CONTENTS

Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D.

Introduction: Elementary, my dear Wilson

Sidebar: Finding a Holmes in (the) House: An Interview with a House-loving Holmesian

Sidebar: Cast of Characters

Differential Diagnosis: A Character Study Wrapped in a Mystery Wrapped in a Medical Procedural

Sidebar Formulas are made to be broken

Sidebar: Drama vs. Medical Accuracy: A Balancing Act

Sidebar: When it Doesn’t “Fit”

Dr. Gregory House: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know

Sidebar: When House’s Objectivity Fails Him

Sidebar: House the Linguist

From Bach to Eddie Van Halen: The Music of House, M.D.

Boy Wonder Oncologist: Dr. James (“Jimmy”) Wilson

Sidebar: The Impact of Amber’s Death: A Closer Look at “Dying Changes Everything”

Sidebar: It’s Not All About the Neediness

Smart, Funny and Zesty: Dr. Lisa Cuddy

House’s Haunts

Sidebar The “Ball of Unknown Origin”

Sidebar: The Mutual Admiration of Stephen Colbert and Dr. Gregory House

Caring Until Her Eyes Pop Out: Dr. Allison Cameron

His Father Made a Phone Call: Dr. Robert Chase

Like House, But Nicer—Dr. Eric Foreman

House’s Fellows: Imprinting on the Daddy Doc

PART II: THE GUIDE

Guide to the Guide

Season 1: Patients Make Us Miserable

Sidebar: Before the Leg

Sidebar: An Odd Sort of Humility: A closer look at “DNR”

Sidebar: A Closer Look at “Role Model”

Sidebar: God, Religion and Hypocrisy

Season 2: Settling into the Story

Sidebar: House and Medical Mistakes

Sidebar: House’s Windmill: Death–A Closer Look at “All In”

Sidebar: Ketamine: A Closer Look at “No Reason”

Broken: House, Pain and Drugs

Season 3: Finding Meaning

Sidebar: The Happiness Scale: A Closer Look at “Lines in the Sand”

Sidebar: Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Doing the Right Thing: House and Ethics

Season 4: A Shakeup at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital

Sidebar: Diagnostics Team 2.0

Sidebar: Learning to be a Doctor from a Doctor Like House

Sidebar: A Closer Look at “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart”

The Enigmatic, Unlucky “13”

I Cheat: Dr. Christopher Taub

The Tragedy of Dr. Lawrence Kutner

Sidebar: People Don’t Change: A Closer Look at “Don’t Ever Change”

Season Five: Upheaval and the Ultimate Escape

Sidebar: Coincidence vs. Divine Intervention–A Closer Look at “Unfaithful”

Sidebar: Kutner’s Death and House’s Crash

Sidebar: Diagnosing Dr. House: A Conversation with a Clinical Child Psychologist

Season Six

Appendix: “Time is Not a Fixed Construct” Continuity and the Series Timeline

Best of House, M.D. part 1

New feature in this space, not found on my Blogcritics pages.  Best of…House, M.D.

I’m putting something big together right now, and I would love to know what you think are the best. . .

Answer any or all…

Silly moments

Best Musical moments

Best Chase moments

Best Cameron Moments

Best Foreman Moments

Best TAub moments

Best Kutner Moments

Best 13 Moments

Funniest moments

Best Wilson moments

Best House moments

Best Cuddy moments

Huddy Moments

Hameron Moments

Wilson-House moments

Angstiest moments

Best clinic patients

Best Guest stars

Best Patients of the week

Best “teasers:

Please respond below. . . Have fun!

Should someone have seen House’s collapse coming?

New article up on Blogcritics exploring season five and the run – up to House’s emotional collapse…

House Review: Under My Skin just blew me away

http://blogcritics.org/video/article/tv-review-house-md-under-my/

Still Lovin’ House, M.D After Five Seasons!

New article for all you House and Hugh Laurie lovers—

 

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/04/21/112729.php

House, M.D.–Saviors: my take

What did everyone think of Monday night’s House, M.D. episode “Saviors?” I thought it was awesome and very reminiscent of, say, season two. Loved it. My complete review is up at Blogcritics.

I’m adding a new feature, exclusive to my WordPress blog. House Poll of the week. This week’s poll concerns Amber’s surprise appearance at the end end of the episode.

 

Kutner commits suicide in “Simple Explanation” on House

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/04/07/130500.php

House Kills off Main Character

Thoughts about the episode? I’m speechless, but will try to write up the episode over the next couple of hours. I will post a link to Blogcritics when I’ve got it up there. Random thoughts:

I thought Hugh’s performance was heartbreaking and the entire episode took my breath away.

How very sad. Kutner was my favorite of the new fellows. He will be missed, as will Kal Penn.

Bold creative move by the House team to kill off a character in a non-finale episode. Should set the rest of the season’s episodes into motion for a real devastating fnale. 

Is Cuddy right about House? Is the case the only thing holding him together?

Is Wilson right and it’s just the puzzle?

And  what about that preview?????

Take the poll.

 

Review: House, MD: “Not Cancer”

Over the course of four seasons of House, MD, we have observed its central character (played to perfection by newly-minted executive producer Hugh Laurie) go through a lot. We’ve seen him battered and bruised (emotionally and physically); we have watched him cynical, sarcastic, sappily romantic, desperately ill and in the throes of withdrawal. He’s been depressed and even occasionally happy.

In “Not Cancer,” the second episode of season five, we find House desperate, less and less able to hide his panic and his feelings about the loss of Wilson. They seep into the differential diagnosis sessions and his conversations with the patient; in front of his hired private investigator, they become transparent, as even this hired hand feels House’s agony at having lost Wilson’s friendship.

“What do I get from Wilson?” House inquires absently (and almost to himself) during the first differential diagnosis session. His fellows argue about what might and might not have made six transplant victims ill (and fatally so in several cases). But House’s mind is elsewhere, almost in a parallel scene, ignored as the medical debate continues.

Kutner finally bites: “He paid for your lunch, liked monster trucks and was your conscience.” Of course the question was rhetorical, and House (able to mentally multi-task better than anyone), who appears to not have been paying attention concludes that “it’s cancer.”

So, armed with Kutner’s insights on his “Wilson” problem, and leaving the surviving two patients to the team, House (rather pathetically and awkwardly) goes deep into the wilds of the Princeton Plainsboro cafeteria to seek out a new friend. Passing the “Kutner test” of monster trucks and paying for House’s lunch, the poor victim of House’s friend-lorn attention, Dr. O’Shea, seems not to care that House downs three Vicodin, and better still, like Wilson, has a moralizing opinion of House’s ethics. (Although I have to say that House’s decision not to remove the blind patient’s only functioning eye is more compassionate and certainly more responsible than Foreman’s desire to remove it.) House’s reaction to this potential Wilson-replacement is, “I think I’m falling in love.”

House has also hired Lucas (Michael Weston) a private investigator, who I really thought I would dislike as yet another character in an already too-crowded cast. But I like him. And evidently, so does House, who sees beneath the guy’s slightly dippy exterior to the very sharp-minded man beneath — despite wearing argyle socks with construction boots (and Vans). He has hired the PI to supplement the investigative duties of the fellows, and he appears to be good at his job. But he’s also pretty good at House-reading, and probably has more potential as a Wilson surrogate than O’Shea. He’s a bit of a con man, charging randomly large amounts of money for his information (and doesn’t take checks).

Story continues here….http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/09/24/231436.php