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Brain Matters: Adventures of a Brain Surgeon

Brain Matters: Adventures of a Brain Surgeon

by KatrinaSFirlik (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2006

    $3.16
Synopsis

'The issue of brain texture is on my mind all the time. Why? I am a neurosurgeon. The brain is my business. Many of the brains I encounter have been pushed around by tumors, blood clots, infections or strokes that have swollen out of control. Some have been invaded by bullets, nails or even maggots. I see brains at their most vulnerable.' As Katrina Firlik says in her introduction, if you are about to go under the knife, you don't care if your surgeon has published a paper in Nature or the New Scientist - what you really need is a good brain mechanic and preferably a swift one. In this absorbing and compelling book she opens wide the doors of the operating theatre and invites the reader into the weird and often wonderful world of brain surgery. Using individual stories as the starting point for each chapter - such as the carpenter with a nail in his head or the man with maggots on the brain - she looks at the technical versus the intellectual side of brain surgery, what kind of person becomes a brain surgeon, the tools of the trade, a 'day at the office', the ethics and dilemmas of surgery and the future including 'designer' brains.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 304
 Edition: First Edition
 Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 11 May 2006
ISBN 10: 0297848070
ISBN 13: 9780297848073
Book Overview: BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week at publication ER, Casualty, Plastic Surgery Live etc - there is a fascination for what really goes on inside the operating theatre! Like Kitchen Confidential this goes beyond its subject matter to produce a thumping good read The 'Oliver Sacks' of brain surgery. (The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat sold over 80,000 in mmpb alone). Will also appeal to anyone who enjoyed Awakenings or The Diving-bell and the Butterfly Author in UK for publication. She's very promotable and young - 35 and writes like a dream. 4-colour sampler

Media Reviews
Doctors are notorious for their black humour and Firlik is no exception. She writes with wit and style... Brain-curdling stuff. -- IAIN FINLAYSON THE TIMES from page one you will be unable to prevent yourself from being gripped by Firlik's horribly fascinating account of her gory job... in a no-nonsense chatty style... her book is both fascinating and informative, packed with reassuring descriptions of modern medical marvels and surgical advances. -- Val Hennessy DAILY MAIL her writing is vivid and arresting - I like her description of neurosurgeons at work, hunched over their patient's' heads picking at things, sucking things out, little by little, sometimes for many lonely hours at a time. FINANCIAL TIMES exactly the sort of book you would want a brain surgeon to write -- JOHN O'CONNELL, TIME OUT SPECTATOR entertaining yet strangely disturbing THE INDEPENDENT Brain Matters is constructed around a series of graphic accounts of her neurosurgical activities, strung together via a chatty account of her progress through the ranks of the medical hierarchy. -- STEVEN ROSE THE GUARDIAN This witty and lucid first book demythologizes a complex medical specialty for those of us who aren't brain surgeons. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Firlik excels in her sometimes grisly, sometimes amusing (in a dark-humorous way), always informative, personal (father was a surgeon), and professional ( part scientist, part mechanic ) story of becoming a neurosurgeon... From a day-in-the-life sketch of a neurosurgery residency to an astonishing report on a performance-enhancing procedure to improve brain function, Firlik maintains a highly personal and engaging style. BOOKLIST She has a gift for translating medical issues into everyday terms NEW YORK TIMES In her macabre and quirky memoir, Firlik devotes a whole chapter to noggin-busting tools, gushing over a prized cranial drill. WIRED MAGAZINE Firlik writes with a surgical attention to detail and a literary eye for sytle. She proves to us that fact can, indeed, be stranger than fiction - and every bit as entertaining! -- TESS GERRITSEN, AUTHOR OF BODY DOUBLE This is a book of remarkable breadth LOS ANGELES TIMES If like me you spend way too much of your life glued to TV shows, like House and Grey's Anatomy, you'll be riveted by Katrina Firlik's first book. OPRAH MAGAZINE
Author Bio
Katrina Firlik completed her residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the largest and most prestigious neurosurgery department in the US and was the first woman admitted to the programme. She then went on to complete a fellowship at Yale and is now an Assistant Professor there as well as having her own private practice. She is 35 years old and this is her first book.