Memoir

[close] Back to the Basics: 5 Values Revitalized is about a personal journey that led the author back to the basics. It presents a straightforward, user-friendly guide to help us get in touch with our five innate human values (love, peace, truth, right conduct, and nonviolence) to bring balance and joy back into our lives. In addition, it teaches the basic constructs of being a good global citizen. But more than that, it helps us remember that we are pure love. And it is this love that can heal, propagate, and move us to a space of heart-opening, blissful happiness. In 2005, Milan began a seven-year quest covering four continents and countless cities in an effort to sort out her own issues and find inner solace. She also wanted to learn about the world and find the answers to hard life questions we all have and find ourselves consciously or unconsciously asking. Milan cuts to the chase using humor, anecdotes, thought-provoking quotes, and personal stories. And along the way, she offers useful and insightful guidance. This is a book of the times, covering issues we all face on a daily basis, which are related to our egos, values, the impact of our choices, and the effect we have on our relationships and on the world. She shows us how life is a mirror of our choices, discussing matters linked with personal baggage, trust and surrender, forgiveness, integrity, our hearts being closed, and more. Back to the Basics shows us a simple way to apply the five values and live a life that is stress-free, loving, and meaningful [close]

[close] shortlisted for both the Guardian First Book Prize and the Costa Book Award

Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

A Finalist for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize

A Finalist for the Wellcome Book Prize

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year

An Economist Best Book of the Year

What is it like to be a brain surgeon? How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut into the stuff that creates thought, feeling, and reason? How do you live with the consequences of performing a potentially lifesaving operation when it all goes wrong?

In neurosurgery, more than in any other branch of medicine, the doctor's oath to "do no harm" holds a bitter irony. Operations on the brain carry grave risks. Every day, leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh must make agonizing decisions, often in the face of great urgency and uncertainty.

If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practiced by calm and detached doctors, this gripping, brutally honest account will make you think again. With astonishing compassion and candor, Marsh reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets, and the moments of black humor that characterize a brain surgeon's life.

Do No Harm provides unforgettable insight into the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern hospital. Above all, it is a lesson in the need for hope when faced with life's most difficult decisions. [close]

[close] Phoning Home is a collection of entertaining and thought-provoking essays featuring the author's quirky family, his Jewish heritage, and his New York City upbringing. Jacob M. Appel's recollections and insights, informed and filtered by his advanced degrees in medicine, law, and ethics, not only inspire nostalgic feelings but also offer insight into contemporary medical and ethical issues.
At times sardonic and at others self-deprecating, Appel lays bare the most private aspects of his emotional life. "We'd just visited my grandaunt in Miami Beach, the last time we would ever see her. I had my two travel companions, Fat and Thin, securely buckled into the backseat of my mother's foul-tempered Dodge Dart," writes Appel of his family vacation with his two favorite rubber cat toys. Shortly thereafter Fat and Thin were lost forever--beginning, when Appel was just six years old, what he calls his "private apocalypse."


Both erudite and full-hearted, Appel recounts storylines ranging from a bout of unrequited love gone awry to the poignant romance of his grandparents. We learn of the crank phone calls he made to his own family, the conspicuous absence of Jell-O at his grandaunt's house, and family secrets long believed buried. The stories capture the author's distinctive voice--a blend of a physician's compassion and an ethicist's constant questioning. [close]