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BJS Bookshelf: Atomic Habits by James Clear
18 September 2025
BJS Bookshelf General
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BJS Bookshelf: Your Heart, My Hands by Atul K. Singh, MD
Saarim Bari
This book traces the extraordinary life of Dr. Arun Singh, whose journey begins at grassroots level in a modest household, in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area in India, and leads to his becoming one of the most prolific Cardiothoracic Surgeons in the United States. Born with dyslexia and suffering physical injuries, Singh dropped out of school and was educated at home by his mother. During medical school, thanks to relentless pursuit and grit, Singh emerged as a bright student who defied enormous odds through ingenuity, discipline, and unwavering encouragement from his mother amid every challenge. Leaving behind a life marked by crippling setbacks and embracing his father’s distrust in his potential, Singh arrived in Massachusetts in 1967 with meagre financial means, steadfast in his claim to the American dream, embarking on an unimaginably arduous yet beautiful journey he once could only imagine. Through gripping accounts of failure, triumph, and the emotional burdens of his life, he would perform over 15,000 open-heart surgeries, lead pioneering residency programs in cardiac surgery, and mentor the next generation of surgeons. This book is more than a medical memoir; it is an immigrant’s saga of grace, grit, passion, and a burning pursuit of excellence, defying all odds.
Aspiring surgeons and professionals alike should read this not only for inspiration but for much-needed professional reflection. Singh’s journey offers invaluable takeaways in endurance, humility, and ethical surgical practice. His story resonates with any surgeon, at any stage, who wrestles with feelings of being an imposter, outwardly or inwardly. Born with a disability and burdened by physical injuries, he had every reason to give up. Yet he forged his path to master complex cardiac procedures, his resilience embodying the determination all surgeons should nurture. Despite his prolific career, Singh spoke candidly about the emotional toll of losing patients and the sense of responsibility that never fades, regardless of experience. He confronted systemic barriers and navigated cultural challenges with grace, blending seamlessly into a new world while underscoring the value of resilience and cultural humility in building trust and achieving peak outcomes. Above all, this book captures a surgeon’s devotion to patients, to the craft, and the lifelong pursuit of continued growth. It serves as both an emotional and technical guide for medical students and surgeons seeking meaning beyond the scalpel, and as a tribute to the hands that heal hearts and the hearts that sustain them.
A surgical life by Agneta Montgomery
My surgical life What made you decide to become a surgeon? Art and design have always been a passion in life. I designed and sewed almost all my own clothes when growing up. When my twin brother was to get married, he wanted to wear a white dress suit. I tailored it for him as there was nowhere, we could find one. I have kept on tailoring abdominal walls.
A surgical life by Takeshi Sano, MD, PhD
I am a surgeon specializing in gastric cancer. I graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1980, and after surgical training, spent 15 months at Institut Curie, Paris as a research fellow with a French Government scholarship. This flavoured my subsequent life with a European taste. For the past 30 years, I have concentrated on surgery and clinical trials on gastric cancer in the two largest cancer centres in Japan, the National Cancer Center and the Cancer Institute, traveling around the world for lectures and live demonstrations of gastrectomy. I have been also involved in formulating domestic and international classifications and guidelines for gastric cancer. Nowadays, I have almost left the operating room and am engaged in management as Hospital Director of the Cancer Institute. What made you decide to become a surgeon? I was born in to a medical family going back many generations in a small castle town and had no alternative but to become a doctor! During the clinical classes in medical school, I was bored with reading the thick medical records written by earnest residents of internal medicine: lots of data, differential diagnoses, copies of references, but no clear solution. Surgeons’ patient notes were fascinating: simple description of surgery with drawings, uneventful postoperative days, sometimes followed by unexpected pathological results. A senior surgical resident confessed that he was not a diligent medical student (too busy with his soccer club) but was able to stand on the same starting position as other brilliant classmates. The story was quite convincing.