Review - This Won't Hurt A Bit by Michelle Au

Title: This Won't Hurt A Bit (and other white lies)
Author: Michelle Au
Publish Date: May 11, 2011
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Hardcover, 336 pages

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I read this book on a plane coming back from my vacation with Saint and meeting his parents. It was the perfect book to read while stuck on a ten foot wide plane because every five minutes or so I laughed out loud and a couple of times I laughed so hard, I snorted. People kept looking at me and I just shrugged because seriously, what could I do? I would have loved to have the book itself on this one so I could have done some major advertising for Michelle Au by holding the book up and wandering up and down the aisle.

From the moment Michelle Au talks about getting a fecal sample from a patient, I was hooked. (and a little grossed out, but that's beside the point here) This was one of the funniest books I have read in a long time and it was so poignant. I remembered why I wanted to secretly become a doctor too. And then was immediately reminded why I didn't go that route when she is covered in blood or vomit.

I found it amazing to see her go through Pediatrics and feel the doctors side and then later she has her own baby and feels the parent side. It's a bit sad when the mother can't have it all, in the same way a man can. Michelle Au did an incredible job (if you ask me) juggling both. Some of my favorite times in this book were when she was experiencing learning with her seniors and how they made her feel and what horrible jobs are parted to the beginners as a rite of passage.

Seriously PICK THIS BOOK UP!!

Summary of book -
Michelle Au started medical school armed only with a surfeit of idealism, a handful of old "ER" episodes to reference, and some vague notion about "helping people." This is the story of how she grew up and became a real doctor. Through her years in medical training, she also attempts to maintain a life outside the hospital as she and her resident husband decide to have a baby. A new mother struggling to balance long days and nights in the hospital with her "real" life, Au finds herself in the classic struggle of working motherhood, trying to do two equally high-stress jobs without losing her sanity or sense of humor. THIS WON'T HURT A BIT is a story about the imperfect, occasionally ridiculous, never boring process of medical training and life outside it, where an ordinary person can learn the kind of doctor and mother she wants to be under the most extraordinary circumstances.