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carriebp's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Cancer
hailey2510's review against another edition
5.0
When Breath Becomes Air is the final tale of Paul Kalanithi’s life after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. The story starts with a snippet of his life before, followed by his life after until the very end. This story beautifully discusses death and what it means to be alive. When Breath Becomes Air is the heartbreaking perspective of a 36 year old neuro-surgeon turned cancer patient. It is a reflection on the complexity of life and the things that make it worth living that anyone pursuing medicine should read.
garciaj42's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't feel like I was able to relate to the doctor and didn't feel like I understood why he wasn't getting help or what was keeping him from doing that. Maybe it's a cultural difference?
tablereader234's review against another edition
5.0
I love this book. I think about the final page of it often and it provides a way to reflect on one's own life and impending death that can only be given by someone experiencing death itself. It will make you cry. That I can almost guarantee. But it is, in my mind, unquestionably worth it.
pritabread's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
4.0
capy's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
3.5
Maybe, in the absence of any certainty, we should just assume that we’re going to live a long time. Maybe that’s the only way forward.
heartbreaking, yet you finish reading with some sense of relief that the author found a way to make peace with the unfair hand he was dealt. the book often focuses on the career side of his life, which is certainly a conscious decision and obviously impressive, but it also distanced me as a reader (which is also fair). very deeply disturbed by the random fact that students had to FIND corpses to study on back in the day? don't even want to think about the logistics of that
fuck cancer
fuck cancer