Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

عندما تتحول الأنفاس إلى هواء: اجعل لحياتك معنى قبل فوات الأوان by Paul Kalanithi

117 reviews

eclloyd's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Suicide

racheldallaire's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring tense fast-paced

5.0

Wow. I will be thinking about this one for a long time. What a gift Paul left us in his words. This book is sad, and it made me a little tense at times, but the reflection that it is causing in me is so so valuable. What makes a life meaningful? How do we or should we live? How does death's inevitability shape our living? What is most important? Some of the questions that I am ruminating on as I think over this one. I would caution you that you need to have the (mental) capacity to handle some intense, sad emotions when going into this one, but it is such a worthy book to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Cursing

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

meditative and powerful, when breath becomes air journeys kalanithi's confrontation with his own close mortality, bringing to ironic physical fruition his lifelong reflection on life and death. 

detailing his time in med school, the subsequent residency, and his diagnosis and treatment, kalanithi weaves the tale of a man in the unwanted yet unique position of being both a doctor and a patient, providing a rare POV of being on both sides of medical care. the memoir is seeped w/ an undercurrent of calm and mulling, all held tgt by kalanithi's poignant writing. im v glad that he's written and left this book as part of his legacy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Blood, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death and Suicide

lucymoosie's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

mdwsn27's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, and Medical trauma

dedusmuln's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, and Terminal illness

whatannikareads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

super obvious observation, but you could tell paul was really intelligent and thoughtful from his writing alone. it's kinda crazy that he wrote this in the later stages of his cancer, when it's a struggle just to breathe, let alone write a memoir. it tickled the part of my brain that is interested in science and medicine, and i appreciate that this memoir merged those two interests. i learned a lot about neuroscience and the brutal work life of neurosurgeons. and i admire that paul was so passionate about writing and literature. i think because of how intelligent he is, he lost me at some parts that got more technical and descriptive. i think he occasionally strayed from his central point and went on tangents. but the epilogue made me cry hard and feel existential. i think memoirs like this are really thought-provoking and i'd like to dive into other works in this vein.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

tpeacock9's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

madamelacy's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness

Moderate: Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit and Pregnancy

lashette's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was interesting.  Not half as sad as I thought it would be. The main author wrote well about his past, present and future. Part 1 was more about his past and learning about life, callings and medicine. The 2nd part was where we delved more into his living with cancer as a doctor and a scientist. There's a lot of pholosifizing as one may expect but it's natural. Reading this makes you think about death and life and illness. And so thoughts, questions and beliefs come up. I almost wish I could be having these conversations with him. It doesn't end as one would expect but why it ended is not unexpected. I'm not trying to be fancy in my review, it's the way this book makes me want to communicate. His wife's addition at the end gives another perspective. One that is sadder. This was not a perfect book, but I think it was good enough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness