Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all three books were spotted on my Goodreads feed –
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay
Summary: First-hand account of life as a junior doctor in all its joy, pain, sacrifice and maddening bureaucracy.
I’m thinking: Yes.
“The decision to work in medicine is basically a version of the email you get in early October asking you to choose your menu options for the work Christmas party. No doubt you’ll choose the chicken, to be on the safe side, and it’s more than likely everything will be all right. But what if someone shares a ghastly factory farming video on Facebook the day before and you inadvertently witness a mass debeaking?”
The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art by Sebastian Smee
Summary: Smee examines the story of four pairs of artists – Matisse and Picasso; Manet and Degas; Bacon and Freud; De Kooning and Pollock – whose intense relationships shaped their art.
I’m thinking: Yes.
The Comfort Food Diaries: My Quest for the Perfect Dish to Mend a Broken Heart by Emily Nunn
Summary: Searching for a way forward after the tragic death of her brother, Emily Nunn seeks solace and healing in food. This book details her Comfort Food Tour of America.
I’m thinking: Yes. Hard to resist a book with chapter titles such as ‘Cherries Jubilee and Other Dangerous Dishes’
I grew up reading my mother’s copies of Doctor in the House and Come Hither Nurse. Surely there’s nothing new left to say.
Probably not (although I’m always curious about medical stuff and must admit I’m the sort of person who loves watching surgery on tv, whereas my family screech in horror!).
The comfort food one sounds so good! Also, this is a really fun idea for a post! 🙂
It’s my way of managing impulse-buying too many books! The most revealing part is when I get to the end of the year and work out how many books I did/will buy and how many I ditched, by reading the samples first.
They all sound excellent! I fear what reading the Emily Nunn would do to my waistline though. And Bill does make an excellent point about the junior doctor memoir 😀
The first chapter of Comfort Food was excellent – she’s a great writer and when combined with food, well, I’m hooked.
Tricky choice! I think I’d duck the issue and have them all.
We’re in heated agreement 😀
This is Going to Hurt is the one I would have most interest in – I see it’s in the best seller list still
I haven’t seen it in Australia but I guess that’s because it’s focused on the NHS.
I really want to read This is Going to Hurt. Yes, medical memoirs have been done already, but they haven’t been done from the perspective of a junior doctor working in the NHS in its current state of siege. It’s had good reviews over here.