by Ben Carson
First published 1996
Ben Carson tells his own story of transformation from an unmotivated inner-city student with terrible grades to becoming the youngest director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins at age thirty-three. Carson takes readers inside the operating room during complex procedures that captured global attention, including the historic 1987 separation of conjoined twins connected at the skull. This unprecedented surgery required five months of preparation and twenty-two hours in the operating theater. Carson credits his mother's influence as crucial to his dramatic change from struggling ghetto youth to internationally respected surgeon. He reveals how faith, determination, and his mother's wisdom guided him through medical school and into groundbreaking surgical procedures. The memoir shows Carson's journey through moments of self-doubt, academic struggles, and the pressures of performing life-or-death operations on children. Carson presents himself as living proof that circumstances don't determine destiny, offering hope to readers facing their own seemingly impossible challenges.
Genres: medical, self-help, non-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: inspirational, overcoming-the-odds
224 pages · Paperback · Zondervan