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purplepierogi's review
3.0
just felt extremely clunky — each case has a specific lesson that hits you over the head with some maxim, and her personal life was dropped in at seemingly random intervals. while I respect her beliefs and she certainly is an ambitious, smart, high achieving medical professional, so much of the healing talk was yoga related and preach
khornstein1's review
4.0
For book club: a bit uneven but I ended up enjoying it. The ER stories are strong, and the idea of illness as an opportunity for healing is good. Some good observations about racism in medical settings. There were some threads that started out strong and then got a bit lost: the story of her family and the abuse she suffered as a child, her childhood visit to the ER as an inspiration to become a physician, her stints at various hospitals. I'm also noting that this was written pre-Covid. Like many memoirs of younger people, we sense that there is so much more of this story to come and I would have loved an in-depth look at her work at the VA, for example. Maybe that will be volume 2! Recommended if you like hospital drama.
alicebme's review
4.0
This author’s words and descriptions are a balm to me. My brain is a zigzagging wizbang, while hers coils up like a cat.
addy_rose's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
It is so easy for me to say this is one of the best books I've read this year. The writing is so phenomenal, especially for this being the author's first published writing, and it touches so beautifully on self growth and the importance of instances that 'break' you. I think her experience as a doctor - although I am not in the same field or life situation - is completely relatable and decisive in my own self growth journey. She writes other people's experiences so wonderfully, while describing it plainly with medical and current facts but also tying in the moments of growth in herself and the other person and just how much one interaction can change you. It's just so well done and I highly recommend this to genuinely anyone who is interested in picking up a new book to read, it's just so wonderful.
samarakroeger's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
a fairly run of the mill memoir that took a preachy turn towards the end.
Dr. Harper tries to interweave her traumatic upbringing with vignettes about her ER patients but spends too much time lecturing on the beauty of yoga and not enough on meaningful self-reflection. I thought she was leaning too heavily on the inevitable emotions of the ER (like dead babies) to carry the heft of the memoir. It didn’t really work.
There’s still plenty of interesting material to engage in, though, so I’m not mad about finally reading it.
Dr. Harper tries to interweave her traumatic upbringing with vignettes about her ER patients but spends too much time lecturing on the beauty of yoga and not enough on meaningful self-reflection. I thought she was leaning too heavily on the inevitable emotions of the ER (like dead babies) to carry the heft of the memoir. It didn’t really work.
There’s still plenty of interesting material to engage in, though, so I’m not mad about finally reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Cancer, Rape, Medical trauma, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Death, Gun violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Terminal illness
mogffm3's review
3.0
ER physician who finds meaning in her hardships.
Appreciated her perspective as a female and person of color in medicine.
It's her personal story, but I didn't appreciate her portrayal of the medical system, and how it's always profit driven and administration is awful.
Appreciated her perspective as a female and person of color in medicine.
It's her personal story, but I didn't appreciate her portrayal of the medical system, and how it's always profit driven and administration is awful.
cruzsuzanne's review
4.0
my doctor dreams are so alive :)
This was an easy read. I love that it highlighted the problems and injustices in the healthcare system but I wish that it discussed them even more deeply. I love our badass black doctor and her beautiful perspective in life but there were times that the memoir was too preachy. Nevertheless, I love that I found myself relating to many of her stories, feelings, and realizations.
This was an easy read. I love that it highlighted the problems and injustices in the healthcare system but I wish that it discussed them even more deeply. I love our badass black doctor and her beautiful perspective in life but there were times that the memoir was too preachy. Nevertheless, I love that I found myself relating to many of her stories, feelings, and realizations.