Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air

An inspiring autobiography about a neurosurgeon that grapples with a fatal cancer diagnosis

It’s very rare that a non-fiction book moves me and this book did just that. I couldn’t put it down. The book gave me a lot of feels that I hope I can portray in the following summary:

Death is such a foreign concept — we throw phrases around like “live everyday like it’s your last” and “live life to the fullest” but most of us aren’t actually living out those phrases. And it’s for good reason — we have jobs, bills, and countless other responsibilities we’re held accountable for. And that’s life. We hear stories about people quitting their day jobs to go on a crazy life changing adventure but does anyone ever talk about what happens to those afterwards? No? Probably because they’re now trying to make a living somewhere.