Title:   Notes From the Mothership The Naked Invisibles

 Author:  Adrienne Zurub

 Publisher:  Chase & Wunderlick Publishers, LLC

 Format:  6x9

 Number of Pages in Finished Book:  224 pages

 ISBN:  978-0-9792863-0-8

 Publication Date: January 2008

Available at http://amazon.com
ASIN: 0979286301

In BookStores March 2008

 LCCN: 2007905551

Publicity Contact Info:

Ms. Nakia S. Scott

(216) 392-0942

nss@chasewunderlickpublishers.com.cn         

NOTES FROM THE MOTHERSHIP  THE NAKED INVISIBLES SYNOPSIS:

‘Notes’ is the ‘Shawshank Redemption’ of this multi-talented registered nurse, grown-ass woman, subject not object, one, Adrienne Zurub! (Though not centered on any murderous wrongdoing!) “Everything that is important is invisible” is a quote within the book that buttresses the impetus and prevailing theme within this book and its stories. Themes of invisibility, self-negation, obsession, and sexism amongst others (patient advocacy, stand up comedy, theater, etc.) are played out, and evolved in the arena of cardiothoracic surgery, at a world renowned open heart facility. Essentially and philosophically we choose our respective battlegrounds.

It is no coincidence, maybe divine intervention, or fate if you will, that Ms. Zurub plays out her existential search for self, identity, and the definition of herself in her worlds, and others, in a surgical setting, whereby the diseased and the cancerous are excised routinely, and arteries are bypassed. This book with the precision of Occam’s razor effectively parallels the author’s mission in excising layers of self doubt, perceptions of inferiority, invisibility, and longing. ‘Notes’ gratefully distances itself from the television sitcom induced vision of OR’s, surgeons, nurses and all the people that treat you and I, in that disingenious way as friends, and colleagues.

Within this insular environment where the ‘masking procedure’ is ritualistically performed to protect oneself, this ‘masking’ also serves as
the book demonstrates with loud and quiet attention, to allow its denizens to hide from the foibles and weaknesses of themselves, Ms. Zurub included. The authors’ ability to ‘read’ people, an innate talent she possessed as a child is heighten in this covert setting.

            The journey of Adrienne Zurub suggests a more urbane provenance than her as an eleven year-old grrl with incredible ambition, the oldest of nine children, in a small ‘junk’ room, in a modest home on a village of a street in Cleveland, Ohio. As this precocious child, she uses collages, hung on the wall at the end of her bed, to bring the disparate elements of her life together as well as serving as a talisman to her future selves.

“Fucking cunt” “Bitch!” “You’re too stupid to forage for food!” “Did the nerve gas get to you!!” These are expressions you would expect to hear on dirty urban streets, yet these insults and others marked the environment that Adrienne Zurub, as a registered nurse on the prestigious Cleveland Clinic open heart team, heard sprinkled freely in regards to her nursing colleagues (both male and female), residents, and anyone who drew the rath of angry surgeons! Yet, this book is not about angry surgeons.Notes’ multi-dimensional, multi-functional force is that it delivers insider patient information and advice in its patient advocacy role. It inspires with poignant patient stories and stories of the incredibly average persons who make up this accomplished team.

And ‘Notes’ the long awaited ,baby’ of Adrienne Zurub, is a revealing nonfiction work detailing with wit, poignancy and stark attention her very personal search for identity, validation, and self within the context of her world and this environment. The author’s seeking, longing, and connections are most human, and we as readers are privy to the deeply personal without the stench of voyeurism. It becomes safe ‘shared’ learning from the vantage point of close proximity.     

This is an incredible review of my book, 'Notes From The Mothership The Naked Invisibles' the review in itself is an incredible read! Let the story unfold... 

Adrienne Zurub spent 26 years of her life as a member of the Cleveland Clinic open heart/heart transplant surgery team.

A couple of weeks ago, after almost three decades of professional nursing in the premier heart surgery center, she was fired.

Why?

She wrote a book.

This book.

It's a book about, well, Adrienne Zurub! A "half-century grrl", registered nurse, wife, spoken-word poet, mother, stand-up comic, daughter and writer.

Through stories and vignettes, she describes people, places and events that shaped her growth in all these areas.

It's natural that some of these vignettes would be be about her time on the prestigious heart surgery service.

And the characters that populate the cardiac surgery suites. Doctors, patients and nurses.

*****

I had to know what ticked off Cleveland Clinic so badly that they felt they had to terminate Adrienne's employment.

After all, this book isn't about Cleveland Clinic, it's about Adrienne.

Does Cleveland Clinic have a institutional ego problem or was Adrienne off-the-wall?

I decided to buy the book and judge for myself.

I'm glad I got it when I did - amazon.com sold out of it right after I ordered it!

I read it in one sitting.

*****

Was it because she was brutally honest about the environment she worked in, the team she worked with?

The brilliant and the arrogant? The skilled and the misogynistic? The exhausted and the doormats?

Surgeons yelling at nurses? Surgeons yelling at patients? Patients yelling at surgeons?

What did Cleveland Clinic find objectionable about the fact that the heart team is comprised of unbelievably talented, dedicated doctors and nurses who are inherently human... and, rarely, all too fallible?

*****

Maybe it was the patient stories.

Surely these are composites. Twenty-six years of surgery experience would tend to provide a lot of samples.

Was it the patient who tried to conduct the OR? The one who told a surgeon to go-to-hell by a rather extraordinary feat?

Or the ones that made my throat and eyes burn as I tried not to cry so I could finish the story?

Which ones did Cleveland Clinic disapprove of?

*****

Then again, maybe it's the fact that despite "magnet" status, Cleveland Clinic does not treat their nurses with the same respect and deference they show to the doctors.

A keychain here, a water bottle there, an occasional T-shirt instead of decent pay and benefits.

Or the fact that a fancy chicken dinner and a watch is considered a big treat after twenty-five years and Adrienne wasn't buying into it.

Cleveland Clinic couldn't possibly have been upset with that. They certainly don't have the copyright on paying lip service to how much they value their nurses and then treating them like so much chattel.

*****

Adrienne herself describes the book as "provocative" and it is!

And yet, it is not an "in-your-face" diatribe, it is more like a "face-to-face" look at an intelligent, funny fifty-something nurse with opinions on pretty much everything, including her time as an RN at the Cleveland Clinic.

They say nursing has no "voice". Well, Adrienne has one. And she is paying the price for it.

I hope she laughs all the way to the bank with her writing and her stand-up comedy.

She deserves success.

Buy the book.

And if you are put off by honest, humorous, poignant, earthy, "provocative" literature with an "adult" word here and there.....

Buy it anyway!

This Book Review is from:

http://www.emergiblog.com/2008/02/inspiredand-fired.html

It's author is KimRN. This blog is noted as one of the

BEST HEALTH BLOGS by FOXNEWS.COM!

It does not stop there.

emergiblog.com was the 2006 Nominee for:

BEST MEDICAL WEBLOG

BEST LITERARY MEDICAL WEBLOG

Please, check out the review at her site and check out her Blogroll!

Thanks to everyone for your comments, your support and your purchase of my book!

'NOtes From The Mothership The Naked Invisibles'

SOLD OUT at amazon.com!  ASIN: 0979286301

MORE books are coming from the printer.

PLEASE, place your order and amazon.com will ship

'Notes' will be available in bookstores March 2008 (ask for it!)

If in Ohio:

Booksigning

March 6, 2008

Joseph-Beth BookSellers

Legacy Village

Lyndhurst, Ohio

7-9pm

COMMENTS & PRAISE for Author/Adrienne Zurub’s

‘Notes From the Mothership  The Naked Invisibles’

After reading the section about Mable, I am extremely moved.  I felt I was right there experiencing it (story of Mable) with you.  I was THERE! 

 You are a Renaissance Woman! You do it all!

                           --Mike McIntyre, Cleveland Plain Dealer

I love your work and your story!  --Blog comment@MyBlogLog.com

~:o) Yer a pretty awesome kiddo. “Hugs”  --Saboma@MyBlogLog.com

You’re an iconoclast.       --E. Moya, CRNA

Empowered, Strong, Feminine, inspiring, and multi-talented are just a few of the words that come quickly to mind.  

                             --Laurie Chesbrough, Artist and Fashion Expert

SUPERB!
 --Hazel6500@MyBlogLog.com

Women are definitely the soil of the earth which you say so well in your poem. Without their fertile guidance life could never take root and flourish.Foresaking herself she nurtures growth.
You inspire the mind. Blessings to You Always, Paul.                                                                                                                                                       —Paul Berube, AuthorsDen

You are the most charismatic woman I have ever met!

                                                                --Naz Aydin, MD

The world is your oyster!                  

                   --Doug Smart, CSP,NSA

You are wonderfully inspirational and incredibly courageous for documenting your dream for all to see.                                                                                         --KWiz@typepad.com

How Wonderful!  --Nicky Goodman

“out of the soil of me” is an inspired and nurturing poem, i enjoyed reading. “                                                                                                                   --Jude Forese
  AuthorsDen                                                            

‘Honoring hands, hearts that heal.’ It was like opening a treasure chest filled with something more valuable than jewels. Nurse Adrienne Zurub is an actor and comedian who is known as The Nurse Whisperer.   ReginaBrett                                                                                                               The Plain Dealer


 She carefully matched her storytelling performance to reflect the shifting emotions contained in the tender story chronicling her mother’s life struggles and death, and the exuberant poem she wrote to welcome the birth of her son, Chance.                                         

--Carole Wallencheck
                          The Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library

 
UBU had the crowd in hysterics.  She has a fearless style and clever wit!   
--Joe Hannum           Comedian/Writer                                                                                                  Cleveland Yucks    
                                                             

See you on a sitcom.

               --Loni Love

       Actor/Comedian