What's New

Carol Donley on I Hear Their Voices Singing: Poems New and Collected by Cortney Davis

“Davis is known for her ability to see and understand what is going on and to hear the unique voices that express suffering, faith, desire—and to convey empathic understanding of the speaker.”

Dustin Brinker on Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe

"Despite my qualms, Brave Story is a wonderful piece of literature that provides much insight into the adolescent mind for use in broaching topics such as racial discrimination, religious zealotry, childhood divorce, and radical acceptance."

Russell Teagarden on The Betrothed During the 2020 Pandemic

“Many of the descriptions of the plague in Milan that Manzoni offers from his sources mirror descriptions that have appeared in contemporary mainstream accounts about the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. in 2020.”

Katie Grogan on Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain by Abby Norman

“Norman’s memoir puts in stark relief the barriers in place when a young woman seeks help for an under-researched gynecological problem within a medical system still reckoning with its patriarchal norms and values.”

Steven Field on The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason

“The Winter Soldier is a war story, a doctor story, and a romance. It also poses a wrenching question of medical ethics.”

Dustin Brinker on Dr. Futurity by Philip Dick

"Dr. Futurity, despite its precarious foundation in time travel, acts as a clear intersection of race, gender, and medicine."

Guy Glass on Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

“The Galvins of Hidden Valley Road, just outside Colorado Springs, appear to be the kind of wholesome, all-American family that others might envy. The tragic fact is that six of the twelve children go on to develop schizophrenia..”

Steven Field on The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker

“[The novel] looks at war through the lens of the destruction of young men’s psyches, and thereby makes a powerful anti-war statement.”

Albert Howard Carter on Pain Studies by Lisa Olstein

“Olstein is a poet and long-term migraine sufferer. Her book offers many observations about pain, and her attempts to define it, describe it, and plumb its nature through language.”

Dustin Brinker on The Walking Dead (Volumes 1-32) by Robert Kirkman

“Taking place in a post-apocalyptic United States, these graphic novels follow the life and legacy of a former county police officer named Rick Grimes as he and those he encounters learn to survive and thrive in a world beset by zombies… Relationships of all kinds are questioned, the most salient of which is that of parenthood.”

Howard Trachtman on The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer

“The novel is written through the eyes of Varian Fry, a journalist who wrote from Berlin about Hitler’s savage treatment of the Jews in Germany in the mid-1930s….with money that he helped raise, Fry was able to help over 2,000 embattled artists, scientists, philosophers, and writers to escape Europe and find safe haven in the US.”

Devon Zander on Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

“Gottlieb’s writing is unique as she places a magnifying glass on herself and her own experiences in therapy just as much, if not more, than those of her patients.”

High Anxiety: Going Viral? by Howard Trachtman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Co-editor, LitMed Database.

Jenny Offill’s new book, Weather was released in the middle of February, right before the COVID-19 pandemic exploded into the communal consciousness. In his timely essay, Howard Trachtman writes, “Offill’s book succeeds in humanizing anxiety and reduces the sense of isolation that can compound the worry and fears that affect all of us living in the 21st century.”

Russell Teagarden on The Estrogen Elixir: A History of Hormone Replacement Therapy in America by Elizabeth Siegel Watkins

“As the author unfurls the history of estrogen use, she reveals some notable history of Biomedicine, in particular, the discovery and development of hormones, the rise of medicalization, the growth of women’s health and patient advocacy groups, the advancement of patient education, and the evolution of clinical research standards.”

Sebastian C. Galbo interviews Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, and Carine Mardorossian, PhD, on Death is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life’s End in the LitMed Magazine

"[The book] succeeds in amplifying the voices of patients not for the purpose of analysis but to share with readers the richly life-affirming qualities of pre-death experiences. This interview was conducted via email during March/April 2020."

Russell Teagarden on 5B by Dan Krauss and Paul Haggis

"5B is a documentary about the special unit created at San Francisco General Hospital (Ward 5B) in 1983 to take care of people with AIDS...The story is told from various perspectives through interviews with key figures in its development and operation, and archival footage of the ward and AIDS activism in the community."

Joshua Jiang on One Child Nation by Nanfu Wang and Lynn Zhang

“The film raises important bioethical questions, demonstrates a troubling intersection of medicine and the state, and confronts viewers with the realities of a policy that intruded into one of the most intimate aspects of a people’s humanity.”

Howard Carter on Weather by Jenny Offill

“The novel is valuable for showing many threats to the minds of humans, the social order, and the Earth. It affirms that literary art can have purpose, even if the message is grim.”

Cortney Davis on Mercy by Judith Montgomery

“Every poem in this small collection is strong, moving and informative, a look into a spouse- caregiver's world, one in which all pains are doubled, all sufferings shared with the loved patient yet ultimately experienced alone.”

Sebastian Galbo on Death is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life's End by Carine Mardorossian and Christopher Kerr

“ The mystery of end-of-life dreams—their visions of loved ones; of seeking forgiveness, healing, and understanding within weeks, sometimes days, of one’s death; of comforting apparitions and visitations—points to a miraculous capacity within the human heart that eases the life-to-death transition.”

Lucy Bruell on Time Out of Mind by Oren Moverman

"...the focus is on the day to day struggle to survive on the streets, the ingenuity it takes to stay alive, and the need for personal connection..."

Tony Miksanek on Man's 4th Best Hospital by Samuel Shem

“Most of the group are reunited in this sequel to the 1978 blockbuster, The House of God. As interns, Basch and his comrades were a crazy, exhausted, cynical crew just trying to survive their brutal internship. Years later, the midlife doctors have changed but remain emotionally scarred.”

Devon Zander on BPM (Beats per Minute) by Robin Campillo

"Directed by Robin Campillo, himself a veteran of Paris’s ACT UP, the film details the realities of being an HIV/AIDS political action group during an era of governmental inaction and lack of recognition of those most impacted by HIV and AIDS."

Howard Carter on Arthur Kleinman's The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor

"Far more than “a case study,” or an illness narrative, we learn about wider contexts of care and the personal experience of care, especially for a patient with dementia."

Gretl Lam on Dylan Mortimer's painting Tree, Broken Tree

"[Dylan Mortimer] not only creates art about the challenges of cystic fibrosis, with broken lungs and purulent mucus, but also about his gratitude for the lung transplants and their gift of life."

Guy Glass on The Edge of Every Day by Marin Sardy

"This book raises issues that are bound to resonate with family members of the chronically mentally ill."

Cortney Davis on A Time To Die: Monks on the Threshold of Eternal Life by Nicolas Diat

"This small but powerful book introduces us to monks whose views of death encompass every human emotion: fear, hope, trust, faith, regret and gratitude--the same emotions laypersons face."

Steven Field on A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

This is a beautifully written exposition of the human condition in a hellish environment, and of the way in which people find—or sometimes, claw out—meaning in their lives.

Cortney Davis on Anna Krugovoy Silver's From Nothing

“[Silver’s] poems invited us to accompany her on her journey through treatment, anger, despair, determination, and faith…presenting moments of joy and of despair, and always of hope.”

Sebastian Galbo on The Little King by Salman Rushdie

"The poignancy of Rushdie’s narrative lies in obfuscating the line dividing the old country and the modern-day American medical establishment..."

Richard Ratzan on The Bridge in the Jungle by B. Traven

"The Bridge in the Jungle is a novel about the tragic death of Carlos, an 8 or 9 year old (no age is given) hyperactive Mexican boy, and the aftermath of his mother's overwhelming grief for him, sometime in the early 20th Century in a very poor village deep in the jungle."

Howard Trachtman on Spring by Ali Smith

"In a novel whose scope includes the most destructive features of modern society, Smith is able to infuse small day-to-day events and artifacts with meaning and optimism."

Russell Teagarden on State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

"A broader perspective of this book shows how a novelist can probe science and generate questions about it, warn of possible negative implications, and generate reasonable doubt and skepticism."

Cortney Davis on I Watched You Disappear by Anya Krugovoy Silver

"These poems are beautifully crafted, often primal, and they touch the deepest reaches of personal illness and the shadow of mortality."

Gretl Lam on See You On the Other Side by Matthew Wong

"Matthew Wong was a rising young painter who died of suicide on October 2, 2019. … [There is a] sense of isolation and longing in the painting, depicted by the solitary figure on a barren ridge, looking back at a house in lush green surroundings."

Russell Teagarden on How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan

“From his research, interviews, and personal experiences, Pollan is enthusiastic about the potential benefits psychedelics offer individuals who are healthy or sick….”

Marilyn McEntyre on Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor's Struggle for Home in Rural America by Ayaz Virji and Alan Eisenstock

“Responding to a shortage of doctors in rural areas in 2013, Dr. Virji, a Muslim, moved from the urban East coast to a small town in Minnesota. The story is nuanced and sometimes surprising in the way it shows how medicine offers an access route across tightly held political and religious boundaries.”

Tony Miksanek on Breaking & Mending: A Junior Doctor's Stories of Compassion and Burnout by Joanna Cannon

"A British physician-writer reflects on her topsy-turvy medical training emphasizing the mental and emotional burden of becoming a doctor."

Russell Teagarden on The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

“The book is a reminder that the sciences and the arts are similar undertakings at their roots. ..Both seek to understand the world they inhabit and how to improve the plight of humans. “

Howard Carter on Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl

“This is a rich, nuanced and complex book, a major contribution to public health, sociology, and American studies.”

Katherine Burke on Marrow: A Love Story by Elizabeth Lesser

“Throughout this memoir, Lesser seeks wisdom and guidance from colleagues and friends, offers lessons in how to be with a person who is sick and dying, and incorporates teachings from myriad spiritual and religious traditions.”

Russell Teagarden on The Genius of Marian by Anna Fitch and Banker White

"Pamela Steele White was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of sixty-one. A year later, in 2009, as her disease progression was evident, her son Banker, a documentary filmmaker, turned his camera on, and he kept it on until the autumn of 2012."

Howard Carter on Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life by Louise Aronson

"Louise Aronson, a geriatrician, argues that we should create Elderhood as the third era of human aging….This new concept will allow us to re-evaluate the richness of this later time, its challenges as body systems decline, and, of course, the choices of managing death."

Carol Schilling on Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century by Lorene Cary

"In Ladysitting, novelist and memoirist Lorene Carey writes candidly and reflectively about the year and a half she cared for her century-old, ferociously independent paternal grandmother."

Audrey Shafer on Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life by Mallory Smith

"This memoir is recommended for anyone touched by chronic illness and particularly cystic fibrosis."

Audrey Shafer on That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour by Sunita Puri

"Sunita Puri, a palliative care attending physician, educates and illuminates the reader about how conversations about end of life goals can improve quality of life, not just quality of dying…."

Joshua Jiang on The Farewell Directed by Lulu Wang

"The film draws on the real-life experiences of writer and director Lulu Wang, who, in 2013, found out that her grandmother had been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. "

Martin Kohn on In Two Voices: A Patient and a Neurosurgeon Tell Their Story by Linda Clarke and Michael Cusimano

"About 20 Years ago, Linda E. Clarke, writer, professional storyteller and bioethics consultant was a neurosurgery patient of a colleague, Michael D. Cusimano.... [The book is] a lyrical co-memoir-- at times riveting, at other times sobering of their shared experience."

Cortney Davis on The Ninety-Third Name of God by Anya Krugovoy Silver

“This poetry collection is the first in a series of four books by Anya Silver--each volume continues to track her life through cancer treatment, remission, recurrence, and the anticipation of death. ….. they are poems of hope and strength, poems that are truly gifts sent to us from the way stations of her difficult journey.”

Shawn Thomas on Survivors by Arthur Pratt

"Survivors gets up close and personal to the 21-month battle against Ebola in West Africa, and shows how the common people of Sierra Leone risked everything to come together and fight back against an existential threat."

Sebastian Galbo on The Presentation on Egypt by Camille Bordas

"Bordas’ story examines how the fabrication of fiction, of refusing to accept reality, can either ease, or deepen, one’s suffering."

Carol Schilling on Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives on Illness, Disability, and Medicine edited by Dinty Moore, Erin Murphy and Renée Nicholson

"Bodies of Truth gathers twenty-five essays about experiencing illnesses and disabilities from the perspectives of patients, healthcare professionals, and families."

Total Database Contents

178 Visual Art Annotations

2858 Literature Annotations

278 Performing Art Annotations

99 Artists

1824 Authors

173 Keywords

Litmed

The Human Condition Curated

What's New

“Davis is known for her ability to see and understand what is going on and to hear the unique voices that express suffering, faith, desire—and to convey empathic understanding of the speaker.”

"Despite my qualms, Brave Story is a wonderful piece of literature that provides much insight into the adolescent mind for use in broaching topics such as racial discrimination, religious zealotry, childhood divorce, and radical acceptance."

“Many of the descriptions of the plague in Milan that Manzoni offers from his sources mirror descriptions that have appeared in contemporary mainstream accounts about the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. in 2020.”

“Norman’s memoir puts in stark relief the barriers in place when a young woman seeks help for an under-researched gynecological problem within a medical system still reckoning with its patriarchal norms and values.”

“The Winter Soldier is a war story, a doctor story, and a romance. It also poses a wrenching question of medical ethics.”

"Dr. Futurity, despite its precarious foundation in time travel, acts as a clear intersection of race, gender, and medicine."

“The Galvins of Hidden Valley Road, just outside Colorado Springs, appear to be the kind of wholesome, all-American family that others might envy. The tragic fact is that six of the twelve children go on to develop schizophrenia..”

“[The novel] looks at war through the lens of the destruction of young men’s psyches, and thereby makes a powerful anti-war statement.”

“Olstein is a poet and long-term migraine sufferer. Her book offers many observations about pain, and her attempts to define it, describe it, and plumb its nature through language.”

“Gottlieb’s writing is unique as she places a magnifying glass on herself and her own experiences in therapy just as much, if not more, than those of her patients.”

"[The book] succeeds in amplifying the voices of patients not for the purpose of analysis but to share with readers the richly life-affirming qualities of pre-death experiences. This interview was conducted via email during March/April 2020."

“The film raises important bioethical questions, demonstrates a troubling intersection of medicine and the state, and confronts viewers with the realities of a policy that intruded into one of the most intimate aspects of a people’s humanity.”

“The novel is valuable for showing many threats to the minds of humans, the social order, and the Earth. It affirms that literary art can have purpose, even if the message is grim.”

“Every poem in this small collection is strong, moving and informative, a look into a spouse- caregiver's world, one in which all pains are doubled, all sufferings shared with the loved patient yet ultimately experienced alone.”

"...the focus is on the day to day struggle to survive on the streets, the ingenuity it takes to stay alive, and the need for personal connection..."

“Most of the group are reunited in this sequel to the 1978 blockbuster, The House of God. As interns, Basch and his comrades were a crazy, exhausted, cynical crew just trying to survive their brutal internship. Years later, the midlife doctors have changed but remain emotionally scarred.”

"Directed by Robin Campillo, himself a veteran of Paris’s ACT UP, the film details the realities of being an HIV/AIDS political action group during an era of governmental inaction and lack of recognition of those most impacted by HIV and AIDS."

"Far more than “a case study,” or an illness narrative, we learn about wider contexts of care and the personal experience of care, especially for a patient with dementia."

"[Dylan Mortimer] not only creates art about the challenges of cystic fibrosis, with broken lungs and purulent mucus, but also about his gratitude for the lung transplants and their gift of life."

"This book raises issues that are bound to resonate with family members of the chronically mentally ill."

"This small but powerful book introduces us to monks whose views of death encompass every human emotion: fear, hope, trust, faith, regret and gratitude--the same emotions laypersons face."

This is a beautifully written exposition of the human condition in a hellish environment, and of the way in which people find—or sometimes, claw out—meaning in their lives.

“[Silver’s] poems invited us to accompany her on her journey through treatment, anger, despair, determination, and faith…presenting moments of joy and of despair, and always of hope.”

"The poignancy of Rushdie’s narrative lies in obfuscating the line dividing the old country and the modern-day American medical establishment..."

"The Bridge in the Jungle is a novel about the tragic death of Carlos, an 8 or 9 year old (no age is given) hyperactive Mexican boy, and the aftermath of his mother's overwhelming grief for him, sometime in the early 20th Century in a very poor village deep in the jungle."

"In a novel whose scope includes the most destructive features of modern society, Smith is able to infuse small day-to-day events and artifacts with meaning and optimism."

"A broader perspective of this book shows how a novelist can probe science and generate questions about it, warn of possible negative implications, and generate reasonable doubt and skepticism."

"These poems are beautifully crafted, often primal, and they touch the deepest reaches of personal illness and the shadow of mortality."

"Matthew Wong was a rising young painter who died of suicide on October 2, 2019. … [There is a] sense of isolation and longing in the painting, depicted by the solitary figure on a barren ridge, looking back at a house in lush green surroundings."

“From his research, interviews, and personal experiences, Pollan is enthusiastic about the potential benefits psychedelics offer individuals who are healthy or sick….”

"A British physician-writer reflects on her topsy-turvy medical training emphasizing the mental and emotional burden of becoming a doctor."

“The book is a reminder that the sciences and the arts are similar undertakings at their roots. ..Both seek to understand the world they inhabit and how to improve the plight of humans. “

“This is a rich, nuanced and complex book, a major contribution to public health, sociology, and American studies.”

“Throughout this memoir, Lesser seeks wisdom and guidance from colleagues and friends, offers lessons in how to be with a person who is sick and dying, and incorporates teachings from myriad spiritual and religious traditions.”

"Pamela Steele White was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of sixty-one. A year later, in 2009, as her disease progression was evident, her son Banker, a documentary filmmaker, turned his camera on, and he kept it on until the autumn of 2012."

"Louise Aronson, a geriatrician, argues that we should create Elderhood as the third era of human aging….This new concept will allow us to re-evaluate the richness of this later time, its challenges as body systems decline, and, of course, the choices of managing death."

"In Ladysitting, novelist and memoirist Lorene Carey writes candidly and reflectively about the year and a half she cared for her century-old, ferociously independent paternal grandmother."

"This memoir is recommended for anyone touched by chronic illness and particularly cystic fibrosis."

"Sunita Puri, a palliative care attending physician, educates and illuminates the reader about how conversations about end of life goals can improve quality of life, not just quality of dying…."

"The film draws on the real-life experiences of writer and director Lulu Wang, who, in 2013, found out that her grandmother had been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. "

"About 20 Years ago, Linda E. Clarke, writer, professional storyteller and bioethics consultant was a neurosurgery patient of a colleague, Michael D. Cusimano.... [The book is] a lyrical co-memoir-- at times riveting, at other times sobering of their shared experience."

"Survivors gets up close and personal to the 21-month battle against Ebola in West Africa, and shows how the common people of Sierra Leone risked everything to come together and fight back against an existential threat."

"Bordas’ story examines how the fabrication of fiction, of refusing to accept reality, can either ease, or deepen, one’s suffering."

"Bodies of Truth gathers twenty-five essays about experiencing illnesses and disabilities from the perspectives of patients, healthcare professionals, and families."

Total Database Contents