Reviews tagging 'Grief'

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

69 reviews

psweet9's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Wow

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death

bookish_bry's review

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Wow... this book really got to me. It's written very well and punches you in the gut. Paul's self-reflection at the end of his life hits hard. It was a hard book to get through, but it was very, very good. Don't read if you are not in the right emotional state. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Cancer, Death, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Pregnancy

Paul is a doctor and described his medical training somewhat explicitly when talking about dissecting cadavers.

millie_eevee's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Terminal illness, Death, Cancer, and Grief

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Blood, Suicide, and Vomit

venetiana's review against another edition

I'm sure this is great, just too heavy for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Cancer

Moderate: Medical content and Medical trauma

Minor: Grief

racheldallaire's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring tense fast-paced

5.0

Wow. I will be thinking about this one for a long time. What a gift Paul left us in his words. This book is sad, and it made me a little tense at times, but the reflection that it is causing in me is so so valuable. What makes a life meaningful? How do we or should we live? How does death's inevitability shape our living? What is most important? Some of the questions that I am ruminating on as I think over this one. I would caution you that you need to have the (mental) capacity to handle some intense, sad emotions when going into this one, but it is such a worthy book to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Death

Minor: Cursing

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

meditative and powerful, when breath becomes air journeys kalanithi's confrontation with his own close mortality, bringing to ironic physical fruition his lifelong reflection on life and death. 

detailing his time in med school, the subsequent residency, and his diagnosis and treatment, kalanithi weaves the tale of a man in the unwanted yet unique position of being both a doctor and a patient, providing a rare POV of being on both sides of medical care. the memoir is seeped w/ an undercurrent of calm and mulling, all held tgt by kalanithi's poignant writing. im v glad that he's written and left this book as part of his legacy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Terminal illness, and Cancer

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Suicide and Child death

mdwsn27's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Grief, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death, Medical content, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

whatannikareads's review

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.

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Content Warnings

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

tpeacock9's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma

madamelacy's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Vomit and Pregnancy