Communications: Transplant Book Reviews

Most recent book and review added: August 25, 2008

These 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)