CBR 10 BINGO Square: Backlog (Added this to my TBR list on February 12, 2013 – the day I joined Goodreads, apparently) Best for: People who enjoy good writing about medical issues. NOT for those who get squeamish reading about surgical procedures. In a nutshell: Surgeon Atul Gawande (you probably know him from Being Mortal; I think my favorite of his is the Checklist Manifesto) shares stories about his time as a surgeon, exploring the reality that surgeons are humans and make mistakes. Worth quoting: […]
All we ask is to be allowed to remain the writers of our own story
I’m a big fan of Atul Gawande’s work, easily the best I’ve read by a medical doctor. His style is effortless, and he manages to find the right balance of technical and non-technical. Being Mortal feels like his most personal work, and I loved it. While his first three books mostly covered his own experiences through surgical residency and practice, his latest explores a topic he admits up front to knowing very little about. He mentions right away that his medical training included almost nothing […]
A Better Life and a Better Death
Though I haven’t read Atul Gawande’s most famous book, Complications, I read Better a year or so ago and found it compelling and thoughtful. As a result, I was intrigued by the prospect of his most recent book, Being Mortal, about medicine and end-of-life issues, including the story of Gawande’s father’s battle with cancer. Yet, I put off reading it for a bit because a book about death and dying isn’t exactly something you eagerly jump into. However, once I saw it on the best-seller […]
Could Have Been Better
This is the third of Dr. Gawande’s books I’ve read and reviewed for Cannonball Read, and it’s probably my least favorite. However, it’s still a decent book that I’m glad I read. The book is ostensible about ‘how success is achieved in this complex and risk-filled profession,’ talking about medicine. And there are certainly many really compelling stories about medicine. But I wasn’t really able to follow any sort of coherent theme to the stories. I almost felt like I was reading a collection of interesting […]