Monday Mornings: A Novel

Sorry, but although I enjoy Dr. Gupta on the news, an author he is not. This is yet another thin "novel" from a doctor wanna be author. While Dr. Gupta is very impressed with the medical profession, (and neurosurgery in particular), there really is no clear plot line. Instead, the book serves as a vehicle for Gupta to relive cases and other tales from medical school. Along the way he expounds on the problems with healthcare, the trouble with medical sales people, lifestyle choices, and on and on. The only problem is - they do nothing to advance or develop A PLOT. So yes, I am calling it - Dead on Arrival.

I wanted this book to be good. I gave it a good try, listening to more than 4 hours of it. I really enjoyed Cutting For Stone and had read that the two authors had some similarities. The authors may (I believe that they are both physicians), but the stories are in no way comparable. I found Monday Mornings nothing short of stupid. I wouldn't be surprised to see it made into a movie for the Lifetime Network.

Enlightening, well-paced, eye-opening.

Wrong site surgery at the end of the book.

Excellent interpretation. Two areas in need of improvement: a more defined pause between scenes - sometimes two distinct scenes ran into each other. I'm sure this was editing and not Mr. Rummel's performance. But the second area for improvement is Mr. Rummel's interpretation of female voices. Almost without exception, they brought to mind Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. This was a significant annoyance for me.
However, overall, very enjoyable listening.

No. Too much to think about.

I wait avidly for new medical mystery fiction. I found the realism of so many areas in medicine refreshing. I would definitely recommend this book

Several of the plot twists hinged on the fallibility of human judgment.

As a retired anesthesiologist, I questioned where the anesthesiologist was during the anesthesia history and physical which might well have elicited a red flag for the first brain surgery. I decided they must have shared negligence. I also wondered where the entire operating room team was for the

So far this book is just ok.

Too much technical information, too much "painting the character's background", not enough GETTING TO THE POINT.

Everytime a new chapter starts and we run down a new road I keep wondering if this is the point where the story starts.

It's not that engaging... but I will keep going. I am stubborn about giving up!

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Over half way done and it has not gotten any better. Have to downgrade to 1 star.

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Ugh, thank God it's over.

Yes. As a nurse, I found it to be an accurate depiction of life in a hospital, although dramatically one-sided. There were other people involved in all the controversies who would have spoken up and also taken histories.

No, but it was entertaining.

He was a good narrator, but should have gotten some help with medical terms. The errors in pronunciation were distracting and ruined the flow. Glee-o-blastoma was mispronounced so many times it was agonizing.

Would make a great soap opera.

Narrator took some getting used to - story line was a little shallow. There were so many characters that there could have been a lot of deep development but all were surface...

There were too many characters that were underdeveloped and uninteresting. He should have developed a few characters more in depth. Also, I don't think the author brought any drama to the M&M conferences. Flat and uninspiring.

I might

Vinueva (sorry if spelled wrong---audio, you know)

Go back to my regular favorite fiction authors

I was disappointed. This sounded like it was going to be a great book. I've worked in the medical field, and it could have been really interesting, given the topic. I've also known real neurosurgeons, and they are usually more arrogant and not so friendly to each other.
An interesting theme wasted.

This was a shockingly disappointing book in its scope, its depth, its characters, its structure and its genre. I was hoping for an informative, in depth examination of modern medicine, like "Better" by Atul Gawande, but this slow, uninteresting novel rarely discusses disease, surgery or medicine, its far more concerned with the mundane lives of its characters. That's not why I purchased this novel. If I'm honest with you, I thought by reading the description and knowing who the author is, that it was a work of non-fiction. It's not, this is a fictional character study about the lives of surgeons. Not at ALL what the description promised.

Monday Mornings follows the lives of several surgeons at a Michigan hospital and examines their personal lives, the way their careers affect them and how they handle mistakes. These plot lines rarely become exciting and rarely rise above the kind of TV drama conflict that I try to avoid in a good novel. The time spent here wastes time that could describe the business and practice of surgery, the techniques involved, the mysteries we have yet to uncover and the breakthroughs that we have made recently. I was very sad for the book this COULD have been. Move on to the next book in your Wishlist instead.

This book serves to remind us that doctors are only human, just like the best and the worst of us, who have home lives and past experiences that affect what they do every day. It wasn't one of those books you could not put down but you did want to come back and hear more about their lives. And there were a few surprises, just like in life.