Despite Stream of Conscious Writing... I liked this book

books:


	• Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside Katrina Firlik Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 66 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Book

This book was very enjoyable to read. I liked hearing about the field of neuro-surgery from a woman's perspective.

Brilliant surgeon and author

Dr. Firlik performed neurosurgery on me a year ago, and gave me back my life. She freed me from the debilitating pain that had impaired all aspects of it. I was unaware of this book when I first engaged her to be my surgeon, but was comforted in hindsight that I had made such a wonderful choice of doctors. Her experience and skill brought me to a full recovery. This book both inspires and educates. I hope that you never need Dr. Firlik for yourself or a loved one, but be comforted in knowing that if you do, you couldn't be in better hands.

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Despite Stream of Conscious Writing... I liked this book

Despite Dr. Firlik's stream-of-conscious writing style, I found that her subject matter is excellent. I'm very frustrated with her writing style - she's all over the place with all kinds of side notes, flash backs, and other off-subject tales. However - I can't stop reading this book because I love learning about the human brain, medical technology, and the female perspective of life in a male-dominated career.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Katrina Firlik is a neurosurgeon, one of only two hundred or so women among the alpha males who dominate this high-pressure, high-prestige medical specialty. She is also a superbly gifted writer?witty, insightful, at once deeply humane and refreshingly wry. In Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, Dr. Firlik draws on this rare combination to create a neurosurgeon?s Kitchen Confidential?a unique insider?s memoir of a fascinating profession.

Neurosurgeons are renowned for their big egos and aggressive self-confidence, and Dr. Firlik confirms that timidity is indeed rare in the field. ?They?re the kids who never lost at musical chairs,? she writes. A brain surgeon is not only a highly trained scientist and clinician but also a mechanic who of necessity develops an intimate, hands-on familiarity with the gray matter inside our skulls. It?s the balance between cutting-edge medical technology and manual dexterity, between instinct and expertise, that Firlik finds so appealing?and so difficult to master.

Firlik recounts how her background as a surgeon?s daughter with a strong stomach and a keen interest in the brain led her to this rarefied specialty, and she describes her challenging, atypical trek from medical student to fully qualified surgeon. Among Firlik?s more memorable cases: a young roofer who walked into the hospital with a three-inch-long barbed nail driven into his forehead, the result of an accident with his partner?s nail gun, and a sweet little seven-year-old boy whose untreated earache had become a raging, potentially fatal infection of the brain lining.

From OR theatrics to thorny ethical questions, from the surprisingly primitive tools in a neurosurgeon?s kit to glimpses of future techniques like the ?brain lift,? Firlik cracks open medicine?s most prestigious and secretive specialty. Candid, smart, clear-eyed, and unfailingly engaging, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe is a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes glimpse into a world of incredible competition and incalculable rewards.

From the Hardcover edition.

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