Sleep Talker [Paperback]

Audrey Shafer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

In her first book of poems, anesthesiologist Audrey Shafer, M.D., boldly weaves her professional and personal worlds. She uses her medical knowledge to invoke the fragility of life and love, the doctor-patient relationship, and the miracle of mothering.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Audrey Shafer, M.D., is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Stanford University School of Medicine and staff anesthesiologist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

Product Details

• Paperback: 116 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738855952
• ISBN-13: 978-0738855950
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,658,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Audrey Shafer is an anesthesiologist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and a Professor, Anesthesia at Stanford University School of Medicine. She directs the Arts, Humanities and Medicine Program at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics (http://bioethics.stanford.edu/arts/).

Originally written for adults, THE MAILBOX is suitable for ages 10 and up. The book offers a sympathetic portrayal of veterans and the burdens they carry throughout their lives, as seen through the eyes of a likable sixth-grader. THE MAILBOX was the 2009 Mountain View Reads Together Book, the 2008 Napa County Reads Book, the 2009-2010 Suburban Mosaic Book of the Year (Cook/Lake County Illinois) and has been on the masterlist for the Black-Eye Susan Award (Maryland), the Sequoyah Award (Oklahoma), the South Carolina Association of School Librarians Junior Book Award, the Great Stone Face Children's Book Award (New Hampshire), the William Allen White Children's Book Award (Kansas), the Virginia Young Readers Program Award, and the Young Hoosier Book Award (Indiana). Additionally, THE MAILBOX has been chosen for Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year, Librarians' Choices Booklist, Junior Library Guild Selection, and Read Aloud America Book List.

Children and adults have responded to THE MAILBOX with amazing creativity - constructing mailboxes, writing letters and essays, creating artwork of all genres - and the author is deeply touched and rejuvenated by the spirit and generosity of her readers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry which will inspire and educate!, July 30, 2001

By 

Jeanette S. Hung (Halifax, Nova Scoita Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleep Talker (Paperback)

I have read this book many times ... experienced it, really. I am ordering more copies. Copies for friends and copies which will become thank you gifts for my doctors. Reading this book is like being transported into the heart of a physician. It is a pause between heartbeats, a glimpse of the vulernable, human side of medicine. Dr. Shafer can probably put on a good front. The front of a detached, clinically objective doctor. Her competence and efficiency probably inspire trust and confidence. However, I know her compassion, caring and empathy leak out over all those around her. Sleep Talker is like this ... sometimes stark and yet the tears on your face will belie any feeling of coldness in her poetry. One wonders how she can bear the memories. Reading her poems about her family and friends is to look at an insight in slow motion. It is a reminder to expereince those you love with all your senses and to remain thoughtful about the precious moments you have with them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doctors are people too, September 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sleep Talker: Poems by a Doctor/Mother (Paperback)

My mom gave me this book last year, my Junior year in High School. Before that I wasn't interested in being a doctor, because I thought you couldn't be a doctor and have a life also. Dr. Shafer's book convinced me that it is possible to be a doctor, a wife, and a mother, and be successful at all of them. I probably won't be a poet also, but at least through her poetry I have seen medicine in a whole new way. Thanks, Dr. Shafer, from a member of the next generation of physicians (I hope!)

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book, July 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Sleep Talker (Paperback)

This collection of poetry by Dr. Audrey Shafer speaks to everyone who struggles to balance a career with a family, and concurrently searches to understand what this is all about. The first section, "that I call home" is a beautiful journey through the fears, longings, and rich rewards of a personal life filled with loving friends and family. Although the topics are domestic, the writing is infused with the language and imagery of medicine. Dr. Shafer views her personal life through a medical lens. Most physicians, myself included, understand this. One does not switch medical thinking on and off at the office door. Instead, it is blended with all aspects of the physician's life. Dr. Shafer perfectly captures this in her poetry. The second section, "not quite sleep" describes the joys, challenges, and occasional terrors of medical practice. Although the focus is anesthesia, Dr. Shafer's specialty, the experiences will resonate with every physician. Non-physicians will find the emotional experiences of medical practice described with unusual clarity and insight. The final section, "ok for re-entry" is harder to describe. This section is more philosophical, and in places hysterically funny and profoundly moving. Dr. Shafer bares her soul, searches for life's deeper meanings, and finds that meaning in the most unusual of places. I recommend this book to eveyone who struggles to set priorities between family and a career, as well as anyone who wants to understand how the practice of medicine permeates the lives of physicians.