Thank you for NetGalley giving me the chance to read a book I would probably not have been aware of. I thought it was great. Written just as if Dr Laub MD (Snr) is talking to the reader. The medical explanations and terms were pitched just right for a non-medical reader but not overbearing or pompous. I loved the case histories and details of both successes and failures. It is sad that ReSurge has moved so far away from the non-profit, assistance project it began life as but Dr Don should be proud of his achievements - I am in awe !

Engrossing, interesting and fascinating.

Donald R Laub is now in his 80s and a retired plastic and reconstructive surgeon. His memoir contains key memorable cases and anecdotes and I found it absolutely fascinating.

He's in his 60s at the start of his memoir, performing complex surgeries one minute, and then the next he was struggling with his words. It did seem he had suffered a stroke. No, it wasn't a stroke-at first he gets a devastating diagnosis-which later turns out to be wrong! But he wasn't out of the woods as he was presented with another fight for life with slim odds for success. On choosing this book to read, I thought this was just about his plastic surgery work-it grabs you straightaway as he starts his own journey to recovery too.

Some of the events are short skips through parts of his life, brisk and to the point, and then we have more detailed descriptions, eg. accounts of operations-which was what I was expecting from this book and enjoyed reading these bits so much. As well as where he lives, he also worked on a staggering 159 volunteer trips to eg. Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, to help the disadvantaged, offering free cleft palate surgery, surgery for burns etc.

I found this book really interesting. I love watching programmes on TV where they perform various plastic surgeries; particularly gender reassignment surgery. I didn't realise that it's not such a new thing-Donald Laub had been involved in this kind of surgery well before I had seen the first reports on TV. He would go on to perform 900 surgeries for transsexual patients.

There were lots of "Oh my goodness" moments for me as I read. Quite a few unexpected happenings in here. There's some really good stuff in here, just my type of book. Some sections not as appealing to me-eg. quite a few names mentioned that were a bit lost on me-they are probably very eminent surgeons in the US, however, I hadn't heard of them as I'm in the UK, and I'm not in the medical field. A great medical memoir though and a fascinating read.