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When Breath Becomes Air. Kindle Edition!

By Paul Kalanithi (Author), Abraham Verghese (Foreword)

Hello!

My name is Maria and today we’re talking about “When Breath Becomes Air” by Dr. Paul Kalanithi.

Dr. Kalanithi was a Yale med school graduate finishing his journey of becoming a neurosurgeon when he was delivered the tragic news that he had stage four lung cancer.

Kalanithi talks about the life prior to and after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

The journey he takes you on, gives you insight into his life.

This is an extremely powerful book and I want to share some important points with you, so let’s get started!

What Kalanithi really taught me through this book is that you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself.

Embrace the moment we’re in right now and learn to appreciate what we have.

In Kalanithi’s case, he had all these grand plans of what his life would be like after he finishes his residency, what he would be doing for the next twenty years.

However, after being informed that he had stage four lung cancer, life completely changes.

You no longer have this vision of twenty, forty years from now, you’re living in the moment more.

Kalanithi was on a trajectory to reach great heights and become an excellent doctor and suddenly life changes and he’s no longer worried about what’s going to happen with his medical career, but more am I going to be able to live tomorrow?

Am I going to live to see another day?

Am I going to be able to have a family?

These are things that we often overlook and just take for granted that tomorrow is going to be fine.

At the end of the day when you go to bed, take a few seconds and think about all the things you have in this moment and be appreciative of that.

The second point that I briefly alluded to was that life can change in an instant.

This is a man with an incredible career, with incredible intellect and suddenly everything is taken away from him.

That’s extremely difficult as the reader to see that deterioration.

Even though you don’t know Kalanithi personally, I really felt this connection to his story.

It’s something you really have to be aware of is that life can change in an instant.

Now I’d like to go over some of the positives of this book.

The book flows beautifully.

It’s a very quick and short read.

Kalanithi engages you in his journey and is so raw and exposed in what he shares with the reader that it’s just so beautifully flowing that you really want to continue reading throughout.

Another thing I really appreciated about this book is that it made me truly realize that death is inevitable.

Living in fear is not a way you want to approach your life.

I really appreciated his honesty and how candid his insight was because it really showed me what it’s like to be at the end of your life, when your life is still so young.

The approach you have to death is unimaginable unless you have the information that Kalanithi shares with you here.

Who should be reading this book?

I think young people would definitely gain from reading this book because we don’t necessarily have this long-term view of death.

We’re not really focused on that a lot of times.

This type of book would really help a lot of people be more grateful and put their life in perspective.

I also think medical students should read this book because there’s a lot of information that I think is more tailored towards you that Kalanithi shares from his own experiences in the field of medicine that you could relate to.

The change in perspective of being the one who’s diagnosing people, to being the one being diagnosed.

It shows you both sides of that sword and that’s something that I think is very important for a future doctor.

It gives you unique insight into the operating that you wouldn’t otherwise get and that other people that aren’t in the field of medicine wouldn’t necessarily need in their daily life.

That’s it!

That’s my book review of “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi.

If you want to see what I talked about here in a written format or you want more information on the author and his story please head over to my blog www.promotekdbook.com.

Next week I’ll be back with another book review.

But until then, keep reading and keep learning!