Drops of Reality: Tales from a doctor's surgery


M.A. Moss - 2017
    Inspired by colourful characters, he tells us tales that run the emotional roller-coaster, from heart-warming to hilarious and thought-provoking to, at times, almost unbelievable. Dr Moss invites us to see something of what really goes on behind the surgery door…

Tree Spirited Woman


Colleen Baldrica - 2006
    Written as a narrative, Tree Spirited Woman takes you through one woman's intimate transformation from the death of her maternal grandmother to the establishment of a new and guiding friendship with a wise and mystical woman. With Tree Spirited Woman as her guide, she learns to ?let go and trust? in love, personal relationships, and, ultimately, death. Tree Spirited Woman will provide each reader with an abundant opportunity to grow alongside the book's main character. Simple philosophies for living flow through each of the chapters. This is a book that can be read and reread, with deeper understanding and personal awakening culled from each visit to its pages.

Just a Few Bumps


Emily L. Nash - 2020
    Tackling the job with skills picked up along the way and enough Redbull to sink a battleship. The stories are real. The patients are real, and the emotions are real. Things I would tell my former student-self: You are going to laugh. You are going to cry. You are going to be scared. You are going to want to quit. You will have PTSD. You are going to see death. But hold on, you got this. It's just a few bumps.

Tender is the Scalpel's Edge: Stories from the Journal of an NHS Consultant Surgeon


Gautam Das - 2016
     What is it like to be the senior surgeon when a young woman is brought to casualty with a life-threatening bleed? What does the fear of cancer do to a person? Is it ever best not to tell the patient everything? Tender is the Scalpel’s Edge draws on Gautam Das’s real-life experiences working in Britain’s busy NHS hospitals, from the plunging depths of a patient dying on the operating table to the euphoria of a life saved by teamwork and skill. Described in exquisite detail and with extreme sensitivity, Gautam shares his journey from a medical student fighting his own inner demons to a senior NHS consultant surgeon. Shards of his earlier life in India add to the richness of the narrative in tales that observe life with all its contradictions, like the little village boy with bone cancer. While other anecdotes take in the lighter side of life, Tender is the Scalpel’s Edge is written to inform and engross the general reader, as well as those with a curiosity of life behind the surgeon’s mask. Written in a manner similar to other medical biographies including Henry Marsh’s Do No Harm, Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Tender is the Scalpel’s Edge is a moving collection of true stories from a professional at the frontline of medical care.

Strange Places


Will Elliott - 2009
    In 2006 Will Elliott had his first novel the Pilo Family Circus published. It won five literary awards and great acclaim, nationally and internationally. What nobody knew was that the young author of that work of terrifying fantasy had recently recovered from a psychotic episode and been diagnosed as schizophrenic. Strange Places takes us on a journey through psychosis and out the other side, documenting the delusions, the drugs and the insights that recovery brings. A beautifully written memoir of a harrowing - and enlightening - time, from one of Australia's best young writers.

Joan's Descent Into Alzheimer's


Jill Stoking - 2014
    Her late husband had hidden the truth, Joan has Alzheimer's disease. As Joan's mind continues to unravel, family relationships are put to the test. When Joan is abused by those entrusted with her care, the question arises; is anyone prepared to reveal the truth of what really goes on behind closed doors?

From Whiskey to Water


Sam Cowen - 2016
    And yes I still count. I promised Iwould never speak about it publicly until my childrenunderstood what that meant, that mommy was an alcoholic.I think they may have understood long before I did.”From Whiskey to Water is the no-holds-barred memoir byone of South Africa’s most loved radio talk show hosts, SamCowen. Having kept her alcohol addiction well away fromthe public eye for over 14 years, in this tell-all tale, Sam findsthe courage to talk about her struggle with her addictionto whiskey, food and finally to a passion that saved herlife – marathon swimming. Told in her characteristicallyhilarious dead-pan style, this is one of the bravest booksyou’ll read this year.“So this is a book on how I stopped drinking? No, it’snot. It’s how I stopped drinking, started eating, becameclinically severely obese, stopped eating (everything thatwasn’t nailed down) and swam my way to freedom. No, it’snot. It’s actually about addiction and learning and sadnessand anxiety and love and drive. It’s about channelling theunchangeable into the miraculous. It’s about dragons andlearning how to put them to sleep when you can’t slay them.It’s about being my own Daenarys.”

The Book of Dharma: Making Enlightened Choices


Simon Haas - 2013
    The Book of Dharma charts Simon Haas’s journey to India and his “excavation” of the Dharma Code, a powerful system for making enlightened choices and manifesting our highest potential. Haas apprenticed with an elderly master practitioner in the Bhakti tradition for sixteen years and learned from him the system formerly used by kings and queens to effect personal transformation in their life and rule wisely.Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince were written specifically for rulers. While these works have become renowned, the teachings for kings and queens from India remain to this day largely undiscovered. In this ground-breaking book, Haas discloses these teachings for contemporary Western readers, for the first time openly revealing a knowledge that has been passed down in secrecy in a sacred tradition for millennia.

Twelve Cases: A Psychiatrist’s True Stories of Mental Illness and Addiction [and Other Human Predispositions]


Daniel Mierlak - 2018
    Daniel Mierlak, a psychiatrist for twenty-five years, on a journey to the stranger corners of human experience. Here you’ll meet: Tony, chauffeur to the fabulously rich, who overcomes crippling anxiety only to find himself descend into a homicidal rage following a botched cosmetic procedure. Amanda, hospitalized for mania, who sees a change to her medicine as an assassination attempt, and then stalks her doctor for a year after discharge. James, a schizophrenic hearing voices telling him to kill himself, whose piano playing leads to a shocking secret about his past. Psychiatric treatment is normally a private encounter and often misunderstood. In describing twelve of his most challenging cases, Dr. Mierlak brings you into his sessions, into his patients’ lives, and into the world of psychiatry. Get ready for some surprises.

A Year of Mystical Thinking: Make Life Feel Magical Again


Emma Howarth - 2021
    Writing with humour and curiosity, Emma shows us that we don't need to fly to Italy, India, or Bali to have an adventure and find inner peace--there's plenty of magic right on our doorstep.At the end of 2017, feeling burnt out and broken, Emma decided to go on a year-long quest for inner peace--from the comfort of her own home. She tried all sorts of spiritual practices in a bid to derive more meaning from life. The result was a year that changed everything. A year that turned frantic chaos into life in the slow lane. A year of magic and moonlight and pink sky sunrises. A year fragranced with incense and burning herbs (that sometimes smelled suspiciously illegal).In A Year of Mystical Thinking, Emma shares her sparkling and fun account of the year that transformed her life and demystifies the world of new age spirituality, helping you to find practices that will bring new meaning and joy to your life.Each month Emma introduces a new spiritual practice, with practical, actionable tips--from how to create the perfect vision board to living by the phases of the Moon. Follow Emma's journey as she connects with spirit guides in February, obsesses over astrology in July, and learns about Reiki in November, and be inspired to embark on your own year of mystical thinking!

Red Blanket: An uncensored memoir that reveals the underbelly of surgical training


John Harch - 2020
    

Nurses On The Inside: Stories Of The HIV/AIDS Epidemic In NYC


Ellen Matzer - 2019
    It is the story of two nurses who witnessed the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic from the frontline. It focuses on their lives and their experiences. Some of the story is raw, sometimes graphic, but familiar for people with HIV infection, family members, friends, and other nurses and medical professionals such as Ellen and Valery. There were hundreds of nurses who went through what Ellen and Valery experienced. They want to tell this story to give a voice to a generation lost, encouraging the world to remember one simple thing: this history cannot be repeated.

This Isn't the Life I Ordered: Setting Sail When Your Relationship Fails


Jenniffer Weigel - 2013
    Her sense of humor reminds us that even though staying on the spiritual path has its fair share of challenges, you are not alone, and you will laugh again – dammit! As a journalist, she remains cynical when gurus such as Wayne Dyer tell her to “embrace the Universe”, but whether it’s Caroline Myss, Anita Moorjani, or her six-year-old son, the signs from something bigger keep showing up just in time. Each chapter delivers a nugget of wisdom that will leave you inspired and entertained. Jenniffer shows the human side of trying to be spiritual, with several laughs and poignant lessons along the way.

Realer Than Real


Ryan D. Wilkins - 2013
    . . a real work from the heart” are just a few words readers have used to describe Realer than Real, a true story of a Nebraska family’s journey to find grace, hope, and healing amidst tragedy, regret, and disappointment. The tale is told by Ryan, the Wilkins family’s only son, who chronicles a life-changing loss the family suffered in 2004, the tragedy’s impact on the family, and the unique, winding, complex spiritual paths each family member walked before intersecting in the wake of new misfortune. With candor and perceptiveness, Ryan develops characters the reader feels he or she knows. He displays a remarkable willingness to be transparent and vulnerable in all aspects of the personal struggle, grief, and suffering that his family endured, individually and collectively. He seamlessly weaves humor and insight around heavy subjects—including death, disability, divorce, and abuse, among others—and breathes life into the family’s high and lows, incredible miracles and devastating tragedies, in a way that is both honest and instructive.Cumulatively, the Wilkins family’s struggles and setbacks over the past decade seemingly defy all probability that one group could endure so many traumatic events over a relatively short period of time and come through it stronger, not weaker. But through reliance on their Christian faith and an outpouring of community support, the family withstood and grew through these trials, learning much about God and themselves in the process. With insight and vulnerability, Realer than Real captures the struggle, pursuit, perseverance, and restoration that accompany faith. The book will captivate readers across walks of life, inspiring them to behold their blessings and to trust God through their trials. “Once you begin reading, it is almost impossible to stop.”

Two Tears on the Window: An Ordinary Canadian Couple Disappears in China


Julia Garratt - 2018
    In August 2014 State Security agents grabbed them, accusing them of espionage. In shock, they were unaware of a Chinese spy arrest in Canada, giving the US “some leverage over China to bring a stop to more than a decade of rampant cybertheft” or that they’d become “bargaining chips in China’s desperate countermove”. (Graff, Garrett M. “How the US Forced China to Quit Stealing—Using a China Spy”. Wired Magazine. October 11, 2018) This compelling story of a Canadian Christian couple who spent 30 years working and raising their family in China, involved in aid, education and social enterprise is a unique parallel journey. From the early days teaching English in a decade of ration coupons and collective work units, Kevin and Julia watched with admiration as China catapulted into the modern age with unprecedented speed. Well-loved in China, the Garratt’s had always been thanked for their work in education, social welfare, social enterprises and community service. In 2007, along with two of their children, they moved to the China/North Korea border, opened a popular coffee shop and provided aid and assistance for marginalized communities in Dandong, China and North Korea. Their sudden disappearance plunged them into a journey where survival took every breath. Through their harrowing ordeal and intense suffering comes life-changing insight. They find themselves part of new community of those who’ve tasted yet overcome the pain of injustice. Courage and kindness, friendship and faith, resonates through the ordeal with the heartbeat of a love journey. Artfully written, Two Tears in the Window combines Kevin’s gifted story-telling and humour with Julia’s ability to let you see through their eyes and draw readers into deeply painful yet profoundly life-changing experiences. For more information or to contact the authors, visit www.twotearsonthewindow.com