Paul Kalanithi Reader: January 2016’s Great Reads, And Why

Jan 19, 2016 | Doctoring, Patients, Writing

This month I focus exclusively on writings by and about the writer-neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi, who died last year at age 37. I didn’t know him, and I only met his wife briefly years ago. So this isn’t personal or coyly promotional. It’s just admiration and awe for a...

Oliver Sacks, 1933-2015

Sep 19, 2015 | Doctoring, Writing

These days, there are a lot of doctor writers. A handful have become household names. One or two dozen more have significant talent and impact, mostly in non-fiction but also in fiction and poetry. Hundreds – maybe thousands? – more write regularly for blogs and...

On Typos

Jun 20, 2015 | Writing

Three years ago, when the galleys of my book arrived, my mother, spouse, and I gazed down at them, excited by how, well, book-like they looked. A note from my editor informed us that it was our (my) job to find any errant comma or line break or typo. Since the galleys...

What I’m Reading – Top 5 Articles Jan-Feb 2015

Feb 7, 2015 | Aging, Doctoring, Health Care, News and Updates, Public Medical Communication, Social Media, Writing

Great writing comes in many shapes and sizes, from a single sentence of stunning lyricism or profound insight to an epic novel that captures a particular time and place in all its complexity, or an essay that succeeds as much because of its form as its content....

A Writer’s New Year’s Morning Walk

Jan 1, 2015 | Writing

The sound, muted but insistent, fractured the early morning quiet. I followed the gulp-croak, gulp-croak into the front hallway in time to place a towel under my vomiting dog’s muzzle. It was four-thirty in the morning. I could hear the churning of his intestines. He...