When Breath Becomes Air is Paul Kalanithi’s reflection on a meaningful life and illustrious career, when at 36 y/o he is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. In the final year of his life, he and his wife welcome their baby girl into the world just as he is slipping away from it.
There are several things to love. Kalanithi’s candor in speaking about faith, death and the moral shortcomings of his medicinal career is so intimate and powerful. Prior to a decade of training in neurosurgery, he achieved (among other things) a Master’s in English Literature. All his life was spent trying to understand the concept of a meaningful life, both through the mind (expressed via literature) and the brain (hence neurosurgery.) He creates this beautiful piece of writing that bridges the gap between the facts of science and the feelings of philosophy and literature. 
But what makes this so memorable is not just his frank details of patients dying, of doctors’ heartbreak and at times apathy, or of his own missing out on raising his child. It is his LANGUAGE, his fantastic lyrical writing, that makes this so incredible.
- PAUL KALANITHI