A review by garland
Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles by Keith Black

2.0

I wanted to like this, and I did like some parts of it. The descriptions of actual surgery were very interesting. But this is not a well-written book. So much of the writing just feels stiff, stilted, unnatural. I wonder if that is a result of the collaboration between the two listed authors. The name-dropping is strange and grating. ("My friend, Johnny Cochran...") Dr. Black is obviously very smart and successful. But his credulity of naturopathy and the evidence for mobile phone radiation contributing to brain cancer make me question his grasp of the scientific method. I think he may be unaware of his own cognitive blind spots.

Having an amazing life story and an interesting job does not necessarily make you a good author. If you want to read great books about medicine written for a non-medical audience, I recommend anything by [a:Jerome Groopman|108325|Jerome Groopman|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] or [a:Atul Gawande|3078|Atul Gawande|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1209063355p2/3078.jpg].