All That Moves Us is a memoir by pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Jay Wellons, who describes the lessons that he has learned over the more than two decades as a doctor. Wellons weaves through the narrative of his professional life with strands of the personal, from childhood, to adulthood, to his studies and mentors. This memoir is artfully cohesive, compelling and honest. The medical jargon is well detailed and punctuated by examples of patients that have suffered from those afflictions.

Having read many medical memoirs, I can say that this one is right at the top. Dr. Wellons details moments in his life and how they have shaped the doctor he has become. Well skilled and trained, the doctor does not come across as arrogant or god-like, just honest and compassionate. Dr. Wellons embodies what is right and the world could learn a lesson or two on how it means to be a good human being.

Overall, All That Moves Us is a memoir that I would recommend to all readers, whether they like medical memoirs or not. I appreciate being given the chance to read this book by NetGalley and the publisher, with this review being my own and not a requirement.

I love a good medical memoir. I think that if medicine wasn't so Science heavy, I might actually like some aspects of that field, of course the Science is kind of a big part of it though ha. I have known forever it just isn't for me, so reading memoirs like this one allow me to get a bit of an idea of what life would be like as a doctor without any of the actual skills or understandings required to actually do the job.

I have not yet read a Neurosurgeon-specific memoir, so this one was a bit different than the others I've read, primarily in the fact that Neurosurgery is extremely technical and complex. I personally felt at times a tiny bit bogged down by the jargon and anatomy, but for many readers I could see that being a favourite part. Wellons did a phenomenal job explaining those difficult details in a way that was fairly easy to understand and gave context to the discussions of each chapter. Overall it is a very well written book, and would recommend it for anyone interested in medicine, especially those who are studying medicine or want to know more about the brain and neurosurgery. Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher @randomhouse for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

t’s been a minute since a book impressed an expansive feeling of gratitude in me. (I love books, and I am of course grateful for their general existence – but this is a more acute, unmissable kind of feeling towards a book that I read at the perfect time.)

Jay Wellons, a paediatric neurosurgeon, shares anecdotes of his patients, and the trajectory of his career. As in most memoirs of this kind, the stories about patients and surgeries are fascinating. When I struggle to study, I read books with medical themes, and All That Moves Us strikes a perfect balance between telling a story accessibly to laypersons, but cerebral enough to maintain the attention of a medical audience. I practically studied the whole neurosurgery chapter by reading this! (Joking, but also not joking.)

I am an anaesthetist, and I chuckled at Wellons’ description of neurosurgeons:

“You are nothing like them,” they said. “Neurosurgeons are tired and grumpy. Egotistical. They work too much. The patients do terrible. Everyone dies.”

All That Moves Us, Jay Wellons
It does sound like what our community says about neurosurgeons (if a neurosurgeon is reading this, come at me – you know that’s how y’all present, even if if you are a puppy-dog on the inside).

Wellons then proceeds to challenge that archetype – without abandoning his colleagues or himself, and in fact, making their eccentricities almost endearing.

The author’s career progression, illustrated subtly amongst clinical vignettes, feels like mentorship in book form. Having felt stuck and lonely in my career (a topic for another day), the way that Wellons sometimes followed traditional routes, and at others adapted to changing technologies, is probably what brought about that gratitude I mentioned. I can still create my own path, my own career trajectory. I can still take control. With an appreciation of literature leading to him majoring in English, and a keen introspective mind, Wellons is the kind of clinician I wish to emulate.

Of course, a mentor cannot simply be accomplished: Wellons also shows himself to be humble, empathic, and teachable. He is aware of his privilege, and sensitive to (for example) the persistent challenges faced by women and persons of colour in medicine.

The importance of mentorship in medicine is a recurrent theme. I especially enjoy Wellons’ “bucket line” imagery:

[…]there is a long list of people […] spanning back to my childhood who have handed me from one to the next, bucket line-like, to the present.

All That Moves Us, Jay Wellons

I do think that All That Moves Us deserves more attention, and I don’t know if the proximity to COVID affected the attention at the time of publishing. I don’t often include direct links to purchase a book that I am reviewing, but I would so love for this one to reach more people – especially because I think it is SO helpful to students and doctors at all stages in their careers. All That Moves Us is available for Kindle, in audio, and in hardcopy, and you can find it here.

I started reading this collection of stories about the experiences of this pediatric neurosurgeon, and one the earliest descriptions is of doing his pediatric surgery rotation at his medical school. As he was describing the surgeon, I realized that I had also done that rotation and adored that surgeon. I pulled out my yearbook and found Dr. Wellons in the year behind me in medical school at the same university. Small world!
I greatly enjoyed the humanity that was portrayed when discussing the people impacted by the work of Dr. Wellons and his team. Sometimes true medical stories can be a bit dry, but these cases and interactions were told from the heart and therefore would be interesting to many different types of readers. This is a book that is more broadly impactful than most.
Well done and highly recommend.
#RandomHousePublishingGroup #AllThatMovesUs #NetGalley

A wonderful, inspiring, moving, admirable collection of stories about the human resolve, miracles of great doctors as well as modern medicine, collected through the years of this fantastic Neurosurgeon. I especially loved the blend of compassion and empathy mixed so perfectly with technical, medical information. I deeply appreciated this book and all that it conveyed. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

Whew, this was a tough one to read. I'll put a content warning here and say that if you have a difficult time reading about sick kids, especially those who are terminally ill, to read this book with care. It's worth the time, but wow, does it make your heart ache. I would put this on the shelf next to Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air. It's that good. I worked in the medical field for 15 years and surgeons are not known for their bedside manner, but the empathy and compassion that Jay Wellons has for his patients and their families is unmatched. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

While Jay Wellons’ father had hoped he would become a doctor to fulfill a dream of his own, Wellons majored in English at college. He took creative writing and studied the classics. But then, he writes, he “somehow kept taking pre-med classes and did well enough on the MCAT to get into medical school.” He went on to specialize in pediatric neurosurgery. This book of recollections about the patients he has treated and about his own path to where he is today is not just informative but beautifully and thoughtfully written. It clearly reflects Wellons’ early education and talents.

The book contains a number of stories about surgeries Wellons has performed, complete with lots of scientific information. Readers learn about various anatomical structures, particularly throughout the brain, down to the smallest details. And “smallest” is pertinent here: he has not just repaired brains and spines and other nerves in children and teens. He has also done fetal surgery, on patients not even born yet.

I enjoy science and medical books, where I get to learn intriguing new things about how our bodies work, and how technology has advanced to cure or treat diseases, for instance. Here, I get plenty of educational material to chew on, to be amazed by. But the stories are more about the children themselves, their families, the circumstances that brought them to his office and operating room.

We read about a little girl in urgent need of surgery who lives a hundred miles away from the hospital. She needs to be at Wellons’ hospital as soon as possible, and an ambulance ride won’t get her there in time. But the weather won’t allow a medical helicopter to transport her. Then Wellons has an idea, and with the right help, it succeeds.

We read about a 3-year-old boy shot in the head, with work done in the operating room that would make for compelling television. Wellons recounts each step he and his team take to address each issue, each layer in his skull and brain. And the boy survives.

Wellons also cuts away from his surgery work and tales of patients and their families to tell readers about his family—in particular his father. His late father was a successful businessman, as well as a pilot for decades in the Air National Guard. And in his last few years of life, ALS made it impossible for him to do those things anymore. The author’s love and admiration of his father shine through in his writing.

All That Moves Us is an excellent example of a good medical book. It is truly moving, powerful, and compassionate. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone. In fact, I already have been recommending it frequently.

I loved this medical memoir and strongly recommend it. I believe with memoir, more so than with other genres, you are in the company of the author and you'd better hope they are good company! Dr. Jay Wellons certainly is. Medical memoirs can be really uneven- sometimes the authors are better physicians than writers, sometimes they are not the kindest humans. I always start them with high hopes. In this case those high hopes were fulfilled! Dr. Wellons comes across as a very kind and caring physician with a lot of fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking stories of his patients, their conditions, their surgeries, and their family members.

Deeply moving memoir highlights the trials and successes of a pediatric neurosurgeon, I cried a few times for the children and families who dealt with great loss.

I really enjoyed this book.
It was firstly fascinating for me the medical world Dr Wellons operates on - the in utero operations had me gobsmacked (and rereading them aloud to any family member who stood still too long next to me whilst I was reading).
It was secondly also, to me, a book that allows us to come to terms with life and death and seeing things in full-circle.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.

Such an incredible compilation of stories and people. There’s hope and inspiration even in the stories with the sad outcomes. Occasionally, I had to skip the details of stories because they broke my heart or I couldn’t handle the surgical aspects. Reading books about the challenges of working in the medical field gives me so much insight, empathy, and compassion. I definitely recommend this book for people who have experienced neurosurgery or want to better understand the life of a surgeon.

5 grace filled stars
“Medicine is full of stories. Dramatic stories.”

I’ve always enjoyed medical dramas, and All That Moves Us is an outstanding one. Pediatric neurosurgeon, Jay Wellons, relates the technical aspects of surgeries, but uses personal stories in a chatty, easy to follow manner. Though the focus is his pediatric patient, I like that he includes stories about his dad and family. Wellons’ book is well organized with exceptional writing.

Wellons brings the emotions in. “I’ve cried with parents from relief and sometimes from sadness. I’ve cried in the locker room when no one else was there and the tears welled up from a place I thought I had under control.” Sad is mixed in with elation. He doesn’t skip the tough stuff and hope is part of his quietly spiritual narrative. “We are all capable of the grace and resilience shown by the children and their parents in these pages. That is one of the main reasons why I decided to write this book – because reaching out to one another with an open hand, and sharing stories from the depths of our lives, of our joys as well as our pain, is the best way to remember that we are all human.” These medical dramas share vulnerability, pain, and triumph.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book provided both a provocative and satisfying glimpse into a profession that is almost unfathomable. Spending one’s day poking around in patients’ brains and nerves, and being able to live a normal life outside that practice requires a special combination of focus, empathy and detachment. The author gives us a view of his journey through this profession, the role of his mentors, and compelling narratives of cases that have influenced him. He described complex conditions and procedures in ways that were easily understandable and also wrote with heart about the human drama involved in these cases.
It is a tired cliche these days to say a book was “unputdownable”. But I will confess to reading this book late into the night because I literally could not put it down. .

I loved this autobiographical story by a physician in a very difficult specialty. Written with great passion, yet also great transparency as to what happens behind the scenes. The patient stories were mostly just phenomenal, showing resilience and hope in such I'll children. Some were quite sad. That's what seems most difficult on a day to day basis to me in medicine. Once he got through the schooling and hardships of residency and training, then daily having to switch from dad to doctor to keep emotionally and mentally healthy was told in a remarkable manner.

"Eat when you can, sleep when you can, and don't #%^& with the hypothalamus."
The miracles and heartaches of modern medicine are chronicled in All That Moves Us.
Jay Wellons is a pediatric neurosurgeon, a specialty narrowed to a select few, on an even more noteworthy demographic.
Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the eARC for review!
All That Moves Us is a series of short essays documenting Dr. Wellons' cases and personal life experiences.
The stories are descriptive, but not graphic. There's a fair bit of medical terminology, a potential challenge for the layman reader.
We learn of operative measures taken due to trauma, chronic conditions, anatomical defects, and disease processes. Some even prior to the patient's birth!
As with any true-life book dealing with literal life and death, the emotional value can be close to the surface.
Wellons documents successes alongside defeats - the realities of high-stakes healthcare in the hands of humans.
Recommended to anyone with interest in a most readable medical work!
Released on June 28.

For approximately two decades, Jay Wellons, a pediatric neurosurgeon and professor, has operated on thousands of children. In "All that Moves Us," Dr. Wellons, who grew up in Mississippi, reminisces about his personal and professional life. More than once, he discusses his close relationship with his dad, a military pilot who taught him a great deal about grace under pressure. In addition, Wellons pays tribute to the wonderful mentors who advised and encouraged him.

Dr. Wellons recounts some of the procedures he has performed on youngsters with life-threatening conditions, such as brain tumors, aneurysms, and spinal cord injuries. Laymen will not comprehend all of Wellons' medical terminology, but everyone will admire his heroic efforts to save his patients from permanent disability or death. The author eloquently describes his conversations with anxious parents; his relief after he performs a successful operation; the satisfaction he derives from teaching physicians-in-training; and his grief when he loses a child whom he desperately tried to save.

When something goes awry in the central nervous system of pediatric patients. exceptional physicians like Jay Wellons perform technically demanding procedures on fetuses, infants, children, and adolescents. Neurosurgeons have a reputation for being arrogant, but Dr. Wellons is a humble and thoughtful individual who writes candidly about his fascinating career. This is an enlightening and memorable work of non-fiction by a dedicated surgeon and a remarkable human being.

This is an interesting and emotionally intense memoir by a pediatric neurosurgeon. Dr. Wellons shares his story with vulnerability, awareness, and honesty, and many of the patients’ stories are quite dramatic. If you don’t have any background in anatomy, the language can be a bit technical at times, but I found the explanations easy to understand and I enjoyed learning about the nervous system and what it’s like in an operating room. The epilogue provided a timely and moving conclusion.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys memoirs and is curious about neurosurgery.

I received an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

Medical specialty memoirs are like catnip to me. Nothing thrills me more than witnessing someone do what they love and do it well. Since I’ll most likely never get to observe pediatric neurosurgery from the inside of a surgical suite, a book is going to have to suffice.

This memoir was interesting and kept my attention during the retellings of procedures and the nitty gritty descriptions of diagnoses and subsequent care and/or complications, however the more meandering anecdotes tended to make me want to rush through them and get to the next procedure. This is not a comedic look at hospitals nor is it lighthearted.

Instead, this is a reverent and knowledgeable ode to a very specialized course of study and the surgeons who save lives every day. If memoir and life story is your jam then definitely get this one. If you’re dealing with grief or are already too overwhelmed with the world right now then this might be a good word to render as a not-right-now title.

A fascinating medical memoir. It's engaging and easy to understand for those who don't have the medical knowledge of a neurosurgeon. The book is heartbreaking at times, but also heartwarming with funny moments to make it an excellent book.

While ostensibly a memoir, this is very much about the young patients Wellons treats. A pediatric neurosurgeon, he's seen horrible things and yet what comes through is the sense of hope and commitment he has every time he meets a new child. He tells painful stories, to be sure, but he does it with compassion. This never becomes voyeuristic and is always sensitive not only to the kids but to their parents as well. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. An excellent read.