Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

13 reviews

kristy_102's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I cried a LOT. This should be compulsory reading for anyone who has or may have contact with the medical profession- so, everyone. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

deestreet's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Chronic illness, Drug use, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

333amreen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

VERY INSIGHTFUL!!! not just into a doctor's life and their relationship with their patients & their confrontation with life and death everyday! But also, into HIS life, Paul's beautiful life & his philosophies that were astounding. Overall, an emotional ride, especially the latter part!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

thefemale_nickmiller's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

lucymoosie's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.75

---

Content Warnings

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

kri_29's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

2.75

---

Content Warnings

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

majakrmer's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Drug use, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

flamingtashhh's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

2.0

I thought this was way overhyped. Summary: guy tries to get as close to death as possible, achieves this goal. Dies. 

In seriousness, I didn’t like the author at all. I cried at the end because of course death is terrible, but this was out of no love for him. He seemed to have a lot of self-importance that was tied to his work. I’m very grateful for medicine, but this kind of arrogance- that which declares medical treatment to be the greatest of all treatment, or at least doctors the best givers of care there are- is dangerous and absurd. It’s like if Jack from Lost wrote a book. I know plenty of people like this author, and none of them are happy and I wouldn’t take seriously any philosophical treatises of theirs, either.

And I’m not going to make a habit of picking apart the prose of a man writing through his last year, so I have nothing to say about the writing itself. 

I actually liked the epilogue a lot, written by the author’s wife. She says there’s a lot he didn’t convey about himself and his values in the book, and honestly I really appreciated that. Her notes, and the pain and hurt in them, really gave another dimension to what would have otherwise been an uninteresting read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

sassyshark's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing sad fast-paced

5.0

Genuinely one of the most beautiful books I have every read.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gore and Pregnancy