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A mother’s memoir that reckons with her son’s descent into severe mental illness. What appears to be substance use disorder in high school later becomes a dual diagnosis as bipolar disorder emerges. Her son soon grows disillusioned with prescribed pharmaceuticals and participates in a residential treatment program that assists people in forgoing medication altogether. However, the program ultimately ejects him from the community for the very behaviors that the medication once managed. The book chronicles Sandler's initial denial of her truth, her painful awakening to mental illness in her family, and her eventual acceptance that she cannot save her son—only he can save himself.

Primary care has come into the limelight with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the unchecked and unsustainable rise in American health care expenditures, and the crest of Baby Boomers who are now Medicare-eligible and entering the most health care–intensive period of their lives. Yet how much is really known about primary care? What Matters in Medicine: Lessons from a Life in Primary Care is a look at the past, present, and future of general practice, which is not only the predecessor to the modern primary care movement, but its foundation. Through memoir and conversation, Dr. David Loxterkamp reflects on the heroes and role models who drew him to family medicine and on his many years in family practice in a rural Maine community, and provides a prescription for change in the way that doctors and patients approach their shared contract for good health and a happy life. This book will be useful to those on both sides of primary care, doctors and patients alike.

Born almost totally deaf, Philip Zazove has spent his entire life beating the odds first by excelling in public schools during an era when most deaf children went to special schools, then by aspiring to become a medical doctor. When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes is the remarkable story of his determination and achievement in realizing his dreams.

       Despite his stellar record at Northwestern University, Zazove was rejected by a host of medical schools. This only caused him to press harder, which won him acceptance at Rutgers University. He transferred to Washington University in St. Louis where, again against all advice, he decided to specialize in family practice. In vignettes of his patients, some amusing, others moving, he reveals the dedication and humanity that have made him a respected and well-loved doctor. His story will inspire all who read it.