Communications: Transplant Book Reviews
Most recent book and review added: August 25, 2008These book reviews reflect the opinions and writings of Jim Gleason,
heart transplant recipient, author and book reviewer, and do not
represent the views of TRIO or any of its members. If you are an
author of a transplant related book and would like to submit your book
for review consideration,
send an e-mail request to GleasonJim@aol.com and I promise you a prompt
reply.
On the TRIO Bulletin Board, under the Transplant: Book Reviews forum, there are short descriptive summaries of many transplant books. Full reviews of these books are linked from those entires, but also listed here alphabetically to guide your transplant reading pleasure.
Keep in mind that typically it takes some extreme experience to have a story worth writing a book about, so what you read in these books, while factual and real-life, should not be taken as "typical" transplant experiences. Every patient will have their own unique transplant challenges and outcomes. Read them for the inspiration they offer us all in how the human spirit can deal with life's "adventures" and then go off to write your own "real-life" story.
Click on the book title to download the full review (each a PDF file between 30k and 100k in size).
- A
Change of Heart (Claire Sylvia's heart/lung transplant story and
her post transplant change of personality traits experience)
- A
Gift from the Heart (heart patient shares experiences and
support in a free book on data CD - read via the online title link here
or send request for the CD to Gleasonjim@aol.com with your mailing
address)
- Breathtaking
by Amber Nicole Metz (CF patient with double lung transplant)
- Burned
But Not Broken by Michael Nolte (extreme burn patient with tissue
transplant)
- Change of Heart by Brian Hartford and Peggy McCardle (heart transplant life story)
- Change of Heart (a
novel about prisoner's offer of his heart for victim's daughter's
transplant)
- Coma Life by Richard S.
Darling, D.D.S. (multiple liver transplant patient recalls
life during coma)
- Dying to Live by Gaea
Shaw (heart transplant patient story of recovery and new life
winning medals in swimming)
- Dying
Was the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me by William E. Hablitzel, MD
(2006) (doctor's collection of dying patients lessons in
living)
- Every Second
Counts by Donald McRae (2006) (story of first human heart
transplant, historical narrative)
- Field
Notes on the Compassionate Life by Marc Ian Barasch (research
book on human compassion with a few examples from organ donation)
- Final Exam by Pauline
Chen (liver transplant surgeon shares own experiences
through medical training and later as a
practicing surgeon with death and dying)
- Friends,
Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith (novel involving
heart transplant)
- Giving Life by Tom Falsey
(2008) (collection of donor and transplant stories)
- God Spare Life by Dr
Claudia Lynn Thomas (transplant surgeon's own kidney
transplant story)
- How We Die by Sherwin B.
Nuland, MD (medical insights into the body's dying process
for major causes of death)
- Life in Limbo by Lisa
Stiles Nance (caregiver’s side of the story with the
patient’s spouse sharing her wait for his heart transplant)
- Living a Miracle by
Randy Simms (2006) (motivational insights from a CD patient
with double lung transplant)
- Letters for Lizzie by
James O’Donnell (real-life caregiver letters to heart
transplant wife)
- Mr. Right
and My Left Kidney by Joan Saltzman (love story of living
kidney donation between spouses)
- Mr.
NewHeart by David Hollar (early on - '91 - heart transpalnt
patient story of hope and faith)
- New Life by Bob
Violino (collection of transplant stories by TRIO member)
- Nick's New Heart by Susan
May (2008) (pediatric heart transplant family success story)
- Now Caitlin Can by
Ramona Wood (children's picture book telling story of
pediatric kidney transplant)
- Organ
Transplant: The Music of Life by Caren Mazure (double lung
patient account of dealing with life's challenges)
- Organ
Transplants by Robert Finn (medical book supported with
collected personal advice/experiences in organ transplant)
- Sick Girl by Amy Silverstein (Oct 2007)- Review Coming soon
- Sick Girl Speaks by
Tiffany Christensen (2007) (CF patient with double lung
transplant shares insights into navigating the medical maze)
- Stories From Her Journey by Liz Maxwell
- The Best He Had to
Offer by Cynthia B. Herrick (story of first living kidney
transplants between identical twins)
- The Climb of My
Life by Kelly Perkins (Nov 2007) (inspiring story of heart
transplant who climbs mountains to raise awareness)
- The Gift That Heals by
Reg Green (Jan 2008) (collection of donor and transplant
stories)
- The Heart's Code by
Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. (theoritical study of cellular memory
using heart transplant stories as ancedotal support)
- The Power of Two by
Isabel Stenzel Byrnes & Anabel Stenzel (Nov 2007)
(inspiring story of twin CF patients and their double lung transplants)
- The
Surgeons by Charles R. Morris (Oct 2007) (real-life day to
day story of life in Columbia-Presbyterian Cardiac unit by a news
reporter)
- To the Edge and Back by Chris
Klug with Steve Jackson (liver recipient and Olympic medal
winning snow boarder autobiography)
- Transplant: From Myth
to Reality by Nicholas L. Tilney, M.D. (historical story of
history of transplantation)
- When Crickets Cry, by
Charles Martin (April 2006) (novel about three heart
recipients and their heart transplant surgeon)
- Will I Live, Will I
Die (August 2008) (challenging liver transplant life story with
insights from within a coma and hallucinatory effects of some meds)
- YOU, The
Owner's Manual by Michael F, Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.
(down to earth medical advice and educational resource for anyone)