In Stitches
Release date: 2011 / 271 pages
Synopsis (from the back cover): In Stitches is one man’s candid, humble, often hysterical but always heartwarming journey of finding his true callin in life — and learning to be comfortable in his own skin…
First Sentence: What a pair.
Review: In the midst of our tri-state move with two horses and two puppies, I have been very stingy about accepting books to read and review, worried about time and energy. So, when my husband asked me what In Stitches was about and I replied, it’s a plastic surgeon’s memoir, he simply asked “Why?” Watching the Real Housewives occasionally is my only experience with plastic surgery, a subject I do not find particularly interesting.
However, I couldn’t pass up the recommendation of the publicist who introduced me to Cowboy and Wills – still one of my favorite memoirs (and I read a LOT of memoirs). So, based on her previous recommendation, I said “Why not?” and am so thrilled that I did! Here is taste of the prologue:
What a pair. Double D’s. Poking up at me like twin peaks. Pam Anderson, eat your heart out.
Too bad they’re attached to a fourteen-year-old boy.
I ease the black marker out of my lab coat pocket and start drawing on my first surgery patient of the day. Phil. An overweight African-American boy. Phil has severe gynecomastia—in layperson’s language, ginormous man boobs. Poor Phil. Bad enough being fourteen, awkward, and a nonathlete in a tough urban Detroit school. Now he has to deal with breasts?
…I blink and see Phil’s face, and then I see my own.
I was Phil—the outsider, the outcast, the deformed. I was fourteen year-old Phil.
I grew up one of two Asian-American kids in a small town of near wall- to-wall whiteness. In elementary and middle school, I was short, shy, and nerdy. Then I shot up in high school. I became tall, too tall, too thin. I wore thick Coke-bottle glasses, braces, a stereotypical Asian bowl-cut hairdo, and then, to my horror, watched helplessly as my jaw began to grow, unstoppable, defying all restraint and correction, expanding Pinocchio-like, protruding to an unthinkable, monstrous size. I loved comic books, collected them, obsessed over them, and as if in recognition of this, my jaw extended to a cartoon size. I was Phil. Except I grew a comic-book jaw while he grew National Geographic breasts. Like Phil, I only wanted to look and feel normal. I just wanted to fit in.
It hits me then.
My calling—my fate—was written that summer between high school and college, the Summer of the Jaw.
In Stitches is hilarious, heart-felt, and truly a page-turner. Anthony Youn starts his hero’s journey with his childhood and allows the reader to get to know his demanding, but loving Korean father and lovely mother. And in spite of his prodigious talents and ambitions, Tony’s sense of humor is self-depreciating – even when he is at his most confident.
I had the added pleasure of seeing my homestate through his eyes, too. He attended Michigan State University — I grew up a mile or so from the campus and I loved the references to the U.S.A. Cafe and specific dorms. Since both of my parents, aunts, uncles, and many cousins attended M.S.U., these references brought back fond memories. But even if a reader has never set foot in the state of Michigan, Youn’s attention to each stage of his journey to become a doctor is immensely relateable and entertaining. Youn provides just the right amount of information about each year of medical school and the reader really feels like Youn has become a friend by the end.
For anyone who loves well-crafted memoirs, Grey’s Anatomy, hero’s journeys, or humorous writing, In Stitches is sure to be a hit. I was actually disappointed when I turned the last page — I wanted to continue reading through Youn’s residency, early career and present life. Alas, back to packing… 
For more information, here is a link to the prologue: www.institchesbook.com/excerpts, another excerpt www.institchesbook.com/excerpts/in-stitches-book-excerpt-2-i-see-dead-people, the book’s website www.institchesbook.com and the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2lg2q8yH_o
Amazon: http://amzn.to/institchesbook
Facebook: www.facebook.com/institchesbook
Interested in winning a free copy? Drop me a comment below and I will choose a lucky winner by the weekend!
I love a good memoir, especially one I can recommend to patrons after I read it. I’d love to win a copy!
Sounds great – and what a great recommendation! Please include me.
I never read “Cowboy and Wills,” either. Count me in on this one, too. Thanks.
I loved Cowboy and Wills too!
In Stitches sounds fascinating. The review made me want to read it. Always enjoy a good memoir!
Kristen,
Thanks for the great review. This book sounds like one I would enjoy as I read a great number of memoirs. I had heard of the book but was not very aware of the subject matter. You have now made me anxious to read it.
Sounds like a great and funny read. I’m very interested in it. Please enter me. Thanks!
I, too, love a good memoir and this sounds like a fabulous read. Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy.
Pick Me! Pick ME!
Have a wonderful week!
What a catchy title. I looked at it because we’ve just finished putting on three day quilt show. Of course, all I’m thinking about is sewing and thought this was another book to enjoy. What a surprise to read the synopsis. And what a delight. I would love to win this one and get my mind on something else.
Thanks again for all the information you share with us.
You do find some of the most interesting memoirs. Thanks for sharing your great finds with us. And good luck with the move.
Sounds like fun…count me in! Thanks!
What a great review! I have read several memoirs by doctors: first year resident, psychiatrist, surgeon. I’m a big fan of Nip/Tuck! I would love to read from a plastic surgeon’s perspective. As a side note, I had to have a mastectomy due to breast cancer and opted for reconstructive surgery. Because I’m a small woman, it was a prolonged process. But my plastic surgeon said these cases, plus burn victims, were his favorite. I’m now proudly part of his before/after book!
Please consider me for this book. At first it didn’t sound like anything I’d be interested in because I thought it was “hollywood type”. This sounds interesting.
Enter me in contest please.
I love stories about people who didn’t fit in because of their looks and later blossumed. I would really love to read this funny and page turning book!
CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com
This sounds like a great book! Thanks for the chance.
nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net
This sounds great! I’d love to win a copy.
It is comforting when you find a writer who is able to put into words the feelings of insecurities we feel at times. If we can read and laugh about it, then we start to feel okay. Thanks for the chance to win this book.
Memoirs are always fascinating and this one seems to fit the bill. Please include me in your giveaway. Thank you!
Sounds very funny and interesting. I would love to read it.
Thank you.
My book circle likes autobiographies, and I
love to read medical memoirs so this would be a great addition to my collection to share. Hope I can have a copy.
How can you read so many books and still keep up with your life?! Count me in for the book. Sounds like a good relief from packing/movig.
How can you read so many books and still keep up with your life?! Count me in for the book. Sounds like a good relief from packing/moving.
Whether or not I’m keeping up with my life is debateable…
Sometimes, reading and reviewing books IS my life! 
And always a welcome break from packing — and unpacking!
Sounds like a very good read, I would love to win this.
This is the one for me.
I would love to read this AND “Cowboy and Wills” Both will be added to my “to read list”.
Always good to find a book with some humor about life and people who feel they don’t fit in.
Sounds like a book I would enjoy reading.
What a wonderful review! MSU and Lansing are near and dear to my heart; our son and daughter-in-law, a Lansing native, met there. She received her undergraduate degree from MSU before getting her MD and our son just completed his PhD from MSU. We would all love to read what promises to be a fascinating memoir.
I would absolutely LOVE to read this!
i have read all good reviews on this….thanks for the chance!
Thank you for the wonderful review. I hope everyone who reads it really enjoys it. I’d love to support any book club that talks about “In Stitches.” Feel free to email me at miplasticsurgeon@yahoo.com.
Love the Title of this book. Great recommendation you have given for it.
Sounds like a nice read. Would love to read it.
Please include me. Thanks!