Book Review: When Breath becomes air

 

Book Review: 

When Breath Becomes Air  

  

 

Hi all, 

 

Today I want to review this book I read recently during my winter break. Honestly, I never thought to do a book report because it's such a middle/high school thing to do...but I was watching Jen Im's video where she wrote down mini book reviews of each book she read and I thought "hey that's a pretty good idea!". So let's begin-- 

Backstory:

 

I actually came across this book during high school when my English teach recommended it, but I stopped reading it mainly because I thought the author was being too prestigious and stuck up with his choice of words. What made me give this book a chance is the amount of positive reviews and feedback that I got from my friends, bookstores and Joan Kim (another youtuber). 

 

So I downloaded a sample onto my kindle and started reading it. 

 

Initial thoughts: 

I'm actually glad that I chose to give this book a chance after high school, I feel like I actually connected more and understood more of the author compared to when I was in high school. After going through half of college, dealing with the hardest science classes, and exploring the different career paths in the medical field, I finally understood where Paul's pride came from. And I don't blame him, being a neurosurgeon deserves an automatic respect and award. It's one of the hardest level and the most respectable career path anyone could ever have taken. Just reading all the different cases Paul has to go through made me respect him more as a surgeon and as a person, I was imagining McDreamy in Grey's anatomy- performing all the surgeries. But what I see on TV is Paul's reality, he is saving lives each and every day and also... causing deaths with every decision: brain dead or dead dead, this is what doctors have to go through each day. 

This book really made me realize how short life is, how easy it is to have it end. And the reason why many surgeons think of themselves as god, because they decide if you live or die. It also made me realize how delicate our brains are, one slip can cause you an eternity of suffering (and he listed many examples). This book made me fear life but it also made me excited for life, knowing that life can just end abruptly even if you have everything planned made me enjoy little moments of unexpectancy even more. 

 

Rating

I give this book a 8/10, there are some paragraphs that are kind of redundant or hard to understand what Paul means but overall I enjoyed the message of the memoir and like all the reviews warned: I cried. I cried because I felt bad, Paul used almost half of his live pursuing such an amazing career path only to have it stripped away instantly due to cancer, it just made me appreciate my health and my life each day. I cried because he was such a brilliant man, even at his fragile moments he still remained strong, to continue to work in his passions whether it's writing or surgery. I cried because his wife's message in the end, how she describes Paul's death was so heartbreaking. But it showed what a wonderful husband, father, and surgeon he was. 

All in all, I recommend reading this book! 

Anyways, 

I'm out-->