In Stitches
by Anthony Youn with Alan Eisenstock
Gallery Books (e-book)

Dr Anthony Youn, his bio reveals, is 'quickly becoming America's best-known expert on cosmetic surgery'. But readers expecting Nip/Tuck-style stories are in for a disappointment. In Stitches is Yuen's memoir in which he recounts his medical-school years and training, as well as his childhood growing up as one of two Asian-American kids in a small midwestern town in the US. Readers not familiar with Youn will probably wonder 'who cares?' as he dredges up stories about his Korean family. 'There are times I wish I were white,' he writes, pointing to the pressure placed on him to succeed. 'One proceejah, five thousand dollah,' he quotes his father saying, trying to persuade him to become a transplant surgeon. If you can stomach the culture cliches, there are interesting anecdotes, mostly about work, in which he deals with a baby whose face has been eaten by a raccoon, removes the D-cup breasts of a 14-year-old boy and uses leeches to remove blood from the nipples of a woman whose boob job has gone wrong.

Extras: none