Reviews
Valentine's Day Dinner
Amazon Customer
“Enjoyed reading this book! Sweet Love story with a fairy tale ending…love wins when you least expect it!”
Patrick M.
“I got this book for my wife for an early Valentine’s Day gift and she read it in a day! She wouldn’t put it down. Pretty sure I walked in once and she had tears in her eyes when I asked what happen she told me I needed to read the book myself so here I am… buy the book! Your wife/gift friend will LOVE it!”
Isai
“To tell you that this is the best love story sounds cliché but it is truly the best way I can describe Valentine’s Day Dinner. If I had to pick my favorite part of the book it would have to be the chapter of Jay and Kelly. The experiences that Kelly goes through with Jay are so romantic and things that you see only in fairytales. This short story is such an easy read and was hard to put down. I highly recommend this book.”
Vane
“Amazing read! I have to give this book 10 stars!”
Amazon Reader
“10/10 such a great love story”
Amazon Customer
“I’ve been reading romance novels for over 40 years, I must say this is one of the best! It’s true what they say, good things come in small packages. It’s a short read, but very powerful. It’s an endearing story about two souls finding love, respect, and emotional bond. Although the odds were against them, loved prevail!”
Amazon Customer
“Such a great read for anyone trying to recover from heartbreak. This book definitely eases the pain while at the same time giving hope for love. I0/10 recommend”
Carmen M. G.
“I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is a great captivating love story told in the most clever of ways. The story line takes many turns but keeps you interested in what happens next. Most interestingly, it is a great intellectual puzzle to figure out the locations mentioned in the story and the many songs referenced all which are described in the most cryptic of ways, yet with enough clues to let the readers figure it out perhaps even with a little on line search. Highly recommend this book.”
Becoming a Surgeon
Kristen V.
“This is a captivating account of what it takes to be a surgeon. It really puts into perspective the effort and sacrifice required to achieve this honor. Highly recommended read!”
Alexa Ovalles
“Dr. Garri's account of his time training is an eye-opening for anyone considering a career in medicine and more specifically, surgery residency. With great stories, he reveals the daily challenges from the first day of internship until graduation. He comments on his great appreciation for mentors and the people who shaped him into the surgeon he is today. Through real-life anecdotes, he narrates the different relationships that developed during his residency and the long-lasting impact they made in his life. It's a simple read, made for everyone who wants to picture the events in their head and gain insight into the rewarding and challenging life of a surgeon. 100% recommended.”
Girl from a Northern Clime
“This book reached my hands a year ago. Occasionally since then, I would flip through the pages randomly and read a few. It resided on my bookshelf next to my desk. Recently (must have been a celestial thing) I opened to the prologue and, not to my surprise, it had me by page 3. From then on, I could not put it down. I had to allot time in my day to read it so that I would not just binge it. Really, I know it sounds more like I am talking about a romance novel, but no, it is a book about a surgeon, and his journey through one five-year span of his long training. While reading, there were times I had to just stop and breathe, because his words pulled me in, and I felt like I was right there in the operating room watching the surgeries unfold due to his vivid and detailed descriptions. A very candid and blunt, graphic and real, account of scenarios most people could not summon the strength to be a player in. His passion for surgery jumps off the page. I loved the way he did not hold back throughout the entire book and just kept speaking his truth and was just so humbly human!
The closest I have ever come to seeing the inside of a body was going to view the BODIES exhibit (which I found fascinating) and watching surgeries on tv. I am always the one watching while others are turning away. This book has given my mind access to the inside in a way I have found mesmerizing and profound!
The alternation between teaching moments, real moments, sad moments, seriously distressing moments, rewarding moments, and some funny moments, resulted in a book that is never boring. The author had a way of presenting each chapter’s topic, concisely explaining it, and then following through with the outcome. This allowed me as the reader to easily flow along, grasp the situation, and learn about the author’s time as a surgeon in training and his world back then. It was this style that made the book so much more interesting than reading a run of the mill medical text.
In addition, while reading, as human nature goes, I tried to relate to the author’s experiences. Obviously, there is no relation, but his words did evoke emotions, thoughts, and memories in me that made me appreciate the book even more. Just saying, it is both an educational read and an affecting read in so many ways.
Furthermore, because I love reading anything health/medical/science related, it was no surprise it drew me in. I found myself excited thinking about when I could get back to it and read more. It brought back memories of my own various experiences, such as my last round of school six years ago. I had a professor that took us on a lot of field trips, one was to a level II trauma center. It was a quiet day, and we were able to tour the center and meet a few of the nurses. It was evident preparedness was a key component for them and they were proud to show off their color-coded cart full of surgical tools. It was all very impressive. The point is this book has rounded out my mindscape allowing me to better comprehend what goes on beyond the waiting room. I can only imagine how insightful and helpful it would be in real-time to the student thinking about a career in surgery. Hopefully, it is landing in the hands of the those who can benefit the most from it.
I have spent a lot of time in the last 17 years as my mom’s health advocate and I hope to spend more years as such. After reading this book, I feel more armed to do so. I think of some of our experiences (and I am sure behind the scenes were a bit tense) like the time the usually easy-going electrophysiologist hurriedly came into the waiting room harried and sweaty and said, “I need to put a pacemaker in your mom now,” and I said okay, not quite realizing the brevity of the situation. We don’t know what we don’t know, but because of this book, I know a little more now. For instance, the mechanical beat of the heart can stop while the electrical rhythm goes on.
While reading the last paragraph on page 154 in The Ultimate Gift chapter, my eyes teared up and I was smiling! The lows always make the highs even more special, but the rollercoaster ride over and over, day in and day out for many years, well that just takes a caliber of person not often found.
I thought the CIR chapter was interesting. It was crazy to read about the working conditions the author survived (and somehow thrived in) and the fact these conditions were able to continue for so long.
The statement at the top of page 193 about how “sometimes progress is accompanied by pain, suffering, and even death,” helped me to reconcile some of my thoughts regarding a surgeon here in my town. He performed limb salvaging surgery on a dear friend of mine using the device he invented. She had an exceedingly rare form of cancer, and I learned from accessing case studies, etc., in my school database, the surgery would not increase her chance for survival. No chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, or surgery could touch the dedifferentiated part of the tumor and still won’t to this day. From date of diagnosis to death, eight months. My thoughts were (and still are) that she would have had a better quality of life in her time remaining without the surgery and the surgeon must have known that. Was she just a body to operate on? And, if so, was that altogether wrong, or just somewhat wrong? I kept those thoughts to myself. I do believe her being able to direct her focus on healing her leg from surgery did spare her from the reality of her situation, because for a while at least, she was a person recovering from a leg surgery versus a person with an untreatable terminal disease. After reading this book, I think maybe the “raw reality” was the surgeon had taken all of this into consideration and since no good outcome was possible, maybe he figured surgery was the best distraction for her and an opportunity for him. Surely, the surgery helped him refine or perfect his surgical technique for the next patient, someone the surgery could truly help, hence the silver lining.
One of my favorite chapters of the book, To Err is Human was intense and then, thank goodness, a breath of fresh air at the end. The moment when Mr. Hernandez (in his atypical way) thanked the author was a testament to how awesome it is that we humans have the capacity to share grace with those who deserve it the most! Loved it!
For some reason, there are a few words I haven’t forgotten from anatomy and physiology class -- piloerector muscle and gomphosis joint. I definitely had a pilomotor reflex happening throughout the Yellow People chapter. It was such a heartwarming story with a happy outcome. I can’t help wondering if (while Terri was in the Keys) the author ever attempted to ask her out?
There was one chapter, You Can’t Win Them All, that bothered me. Yes, the “sole responsibility” was fundamentally the author’s as chief resident, but the only person deserving of that phrase was the guy that stabbed the patient. It makes me sad the author will carry this with him “forever” as it seems to me, this death was a decision from above. The chapter also drives home the fact how much I deeply appreciate that God put people on this earth that can handle this type of burden.
Backtracking here, regarding the thought on the bottom of page 86, “strong gravitational….…being immune,” the context seemed a bit odd to me but after processing it throughout the reading of the book, I liked it and thought it was perfect because it shows the parallelism between medical science and the omniscience from above and how we simply cannot prepare for everything and how sometimes the stars align at the least expected times, or not. Not sure I was able to put into words exactly what I meant here, but hopefully the author gets the gist…
Loved the terms/words used in the book such as…” empowering realization” and “unanswered ifs.”
In the moments between reading chapters, I would reflect, and often my mind would go back to how this book transcends time. No matter how modern the tool and/or the technique, even if human surgeons get supplanted by robots altogether, there will still be valuable lessons in this book regarding perseverance, empathy, strength of character, and many other great human virtues. In addition, I could not help but notice this book had a similar effect on me as another one of my favorites, about a historical figure from a long time ago…Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell.
I really loved reading about this span of time in the author’s life, including some of his more personal thoughts that he chose to share, although there was one area I was left wanting MORE about, and that was the author’s thoughts on spirituality. For instance, when Enzo died, did he feel anything extraordinary in the moment? Also, I had not realized until rereading the dedication (and perhaps I misunderstood?) that the author’s mom had passed, wondering how this has impacted him? Having been so close to life and death scenarios, what does he think, does the soul go on? IDK, maybe topics for another book? Although the author touched upon it, I know a deeper dive into the spirituality aspect was not the goal for this book. In a thorough and “retrospective” way, the author did accomplish what he set out to accomplish -- showing the reader the development of his “heart, mind, and ethos” as a surgeon.
I think learning about the rest of the training and the transition to private practice would also be a great read. Hopefully there will be a SEQUEL someday!”
Stacey K.
“Dr. Garri is an incredible plastic surgeon and his book follows his educational and personal path, including hospital emergencies where he was in attendance after Versace was murdered and what happened after! What a fabulous read for future surgeons or anyone for that matter!”
Amazon Customer
“It's been my experience that both the general public and non- surgical medical professionals perceive surgeons as driven, cold and ambitious individuals whose sole satisfaction comes from being able to legally wield knives and cool instruments more suited to torture chambers. Respected yes, but definitely not folks you'd invite to a party for their engaging personalities. They cut then disappear with never a glance backward at the patient whose body they enjoyed rearranging.
Dr. Garri's painstakingly thoughtful memoir on becoming is one of the most well written and heartfelt accounts of what goes into the brutal training and transformation required to have the privilege of practicing the most intimate and personal specialty in all of medicine. While he gets across the medical terminology necessary to understand the journey, it was the honesty of his self reflections that powerfully negates the image of drive-by, cold-hearted plumbers once and for all, unafraid to share the emotions of both his successes and failures without the slightest touch of the arrogance often associated with those courageous and confident enough to broach the protective barriers of skin and bone.
This is a generous gift to laymen and professionals alike spoken as intimately to the reader as when the surgeon first utters ''scalpel' over your body (unless he has a real good scrub nurse 😊) and I highly recommend lending him your attention. There's something for everyone here and I hope we'll hear more from this warrior who represents the best of humanity. ”
Paul Grant
“Great read. Provides first hand account wrapped in the style of a novel. I am a medical vendor and I really enjoyed reading this book. In working with Surgeon's on a regular basis it was nice to look at things from a different vantage point. It's great to see the book reinforce accountability being pushed more and more throughout our medical systems. Personally, I will be asking even more questions as needs arise for myself and loved ones. Thank you!”
Sarah Rogers
“This book is not only for surgeons, but also physicians of other disciplines as well as for patients that have to get involved actively when surgical/medical decision making is necessary.”