Medicine Men: Extreme Appalachian Doctoring

by Carolyn Jourdan

"Medicine Men" follows "Heart in the Right Place". This is a collection of the most memorable moments from more than a dozen rural physicians who each practiced medicine for more than 50 years in the Southern Appalachian Mountains from 1930-2012.

Hilarious, heroic, true stories of miracle cures, ghost dogs, and much madcap medical mayhem. Unimaginably funny and touching situations where men with nerves of steel and hearts of gold get stuck between a rock and a hard place in the Smoky Mountains. These men are saints who walk among us and Jourdan's father is one of them.

Jourdan's work is often compared to James Herriot and Bill Bryson. This story collection is like "All Creatures Great and Small" but with people instead of animals or vingnettes from country doctors who took "A Walk in the Woods".

Genres: Nonfiction, Medical, Humor, Biography, Medicine, Ebooks, Short Stories

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 17, 2012

About the author

USA Today,Top-10 Audible & 6-time Top-10 Wall Street Journal best selling Author of Memoir, Biography, Wildlife, and Mystery

USA Today Best Seller Out on a Limb was also voted a Best Kindle Book of 2014.
#9 Wall Street Journal Best Seller Medicine Men in 2022.
#9 Wall Street Journal Best Seller Heart in the Right Place in 2017.
#7 NYT-Audible Best Seller Bear in the Back Seat in 2016.
#6 Wall Street Journal Best Seller Medicine Men in 2015.
#5 Wall Street Journal Best Seller Medicine Men in 2014.
#9 Wall Street Journal Best Seller Bear in the Back Seat in 2013.
#7 Wall Street Journal Best Seller Heart in the Right Place in 2012.

Visit Carolyn online at her website, her personal Facebook page, her Facebook Author page, her Twitter page, or her Instagram page.

Jourdan's newest books are Dangerous Beauty: Stories from the Wilds of Yellowstone and Waltzing with Wildlife: 10 Things NOT to do in Our National Parks.

Other recent works are Nurses: The Art of Caring, Radiologists at Work: Saving Lives With the Lights Off, and Talking to Skeletons: Behind the Scenes With a Radiologist.

The nurse book is a collection of the most memorable moments from the careers of over 60 nurses. It covers nearly 70 years of practice from World War II to the present day.

The extraordinary situations described here are the result of more than 1,000 years of hands-on bedside knowledge. The vignettes contain wisdom and insight gained the hard way, from long experience in the trenches (sometimes in actual trenches) performing tasks that range from the most humble to the most skilled.

The radiology books form a set of companion books, one dealing with the most memorable moments of 40 radiologists and the other chronicling 7 extraordinary nights spent shadowing a single radiologist.

Bear in the Back Seat - Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a series of true stories from “[a]n extraordinary landscape populated with befuddled bears, hormonally-crazed elk, homicidal wild boars, hopelessly timid wolves, and nine million tourists, some of whom are clueless."

In Kim DeLozier’s world, when sedated wild black bears wake up unexpectedly in the back seat of a helicopter in mid-flight, or in his car as he’s driving down the highway, or in his office while he’s talking on the phone, it’s just another day in the park.

In Out on a Limb Phoebe McFarland has just moved back to her hometown of White Oak, Tennessee, a sleepy rural community nestled in the mist-shrouded ridges and isolated hollows of the Smoky Mountains.

Now she spends her days working as a rural home health care nurse, making calls on a quirky roster of housebound characters she’s determined to take care of whether they cooperate or not.

She applies this same optimism to her love life, despite the fact that she’s been dating for 38 years without locating any husband material. When she runs into her childhood sweetheart, Henry Matthews, a wildlife ranger for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it looks like she might’ve found her man.

But Phoebe and Henry’s chance for romance has to be put on hold while they undertake a desperate search for a young woman who mysteriously vanished from the park during a gathering of world famous biologists and botanists, including a charismatic Frog Whisperer.

Medicine Men

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to nab this brief little book for my Kindle when I saw that it was written by Carolyn Jourdan: I absolutely loved her Heart in the Right Place. In that book she told her own story, and that of her father's life as a physician in rural Tennessee. Here, she visits more than a dozen doctors in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, listens to their anecdotes of memorable patients, and then shares them with us. The stories are both hilarious, and touching. I only wish it had been longer.

It's definitely time for a reread of her first book!

[India M. Clamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Medicine Men was a somber song bringing some illumination to dire conditions in the Appalachians that present quotidian challenges for those practitioners who chose to care for issues stemming from societies unable to meet basic needs. To do good to the patient--- just for the sake of doing so---is a rare and strange quality found in the the medical industry today.

“They say God looks out for children and drunks, and I guess he does because the liquor bottle shattering had the effect of immediately pouring alcohol over his wounds."
---Carolyn Jourdan

Some populations are more difficult to treat than others given the barriers, chronic health condition and the resources that are not available to this community. At times physicians had to face dire environmental conditions in order to treat a patient—dirt roads, mine shafts and making a call on a patient that would be a burden to its community. Somber.

[Carolyn Jourdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to love it, I wrote it and it's a lot of my favorite stories I've ever been told by over a dozen elderly country doctors about the craziest things that ever happened to them. These guys, working alone in Appalachia with hardly any equipment or medicine, and no money, did the most touching and heroic things....

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can a book go wrong that describes fifty years of doctoring in the Appalachians where the qualifications for practicing medicine were "courage, kindness, patience, and a terrific sense of humor"?

Here are a few examples of why I loved this book?

"In the Smokies, doctors stand toe-to-toe with the dragon and work right in its very breath." I love good writing!

"In the blink of an eye, I traded forests of white marble columns and vast domes of gold leaf for more than half a million acres of colorful autumn foliage gilded by the slanting yellow rays of the late afternoon sun."

"Anybody who grew up in the Smokies knows when you make a loud noise in a valley, or holler in a hollow, the sound bounces and rolls against the sides of the steep ridges, so by the time you hear it, you can't be certain where it originated from."

Locals sometimes came to visit a doctor when they weren't sick. "They'd come by to see what sort of person you were."

A doctor needing to locate a family called the fire chief for assistance. No, the chief didn't arrive to pick him up with a fire truck or ambulance. Can you guess what he arrived in to transport the doctor?

I was fascinated by a paragraph detailing how Tennessee earned its nickname as "The Volunteer State".

"The Smokies are justifiably famous for their infinitely variable cloudscapes. My favorite is when there's a low-lying blanket of clouds and the hightest peaks rise like disconnected islands out of a turbulent sea of white."

My favorite story in the book was "The Black and White Dog." I even shared the story with a coworker because the story really stuck with me.

I loved reading Medicine Men, Extreme Appalachian Doctoring and hated reaching the end. I will definitely be looking for more from Carolyn Jourdan.

[Mattalie Mcinerney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, this author took an interesting topic and a lot of firsthand experiences and translated them with a disappointing lack of development and originality. These doctors' tales were just too briefly told to offer insights into the culture rising anywhere above standard caricature. The aloof tone is often just strange (not funny) in light of the often tragic or near tragic circumstances of the injuries and illnesses brought on by poor working conditions or extreme poverty. In essence, a quick but very unsatisfying read.

[Linda Galella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just Wonderful!

Author, Carolyn Jourdan, has compiled a lovely assortment of folksy anecdotes that give us a peek into the lives of family doctors in the Smokies. These are humorous, hopeful and heartfelt nuggets of real people living hard lives to their unapologetic best.

You won’t find any hi-tech Hollywood here. Come and sit a spell and enjoy the view of crepe myrtle and glorious sunsets while listening to an exceptional yarn from one of the many friends these “Medicine Men” will introduce you to. You won’t be disappointed📚

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carolyn Jourdan shares sometimes hilarious but always remarkable and entertaining stories of doctors in one of the poorest regions of our country. It reminded me of the James Herriott country vet stories, only about human patients instead of animals. These doctors are a breed apart from the pill-obsessed modern doctors we are all familiar with today. The doctors in these stories are really in the trenches - ambushed by under-the-bed groundhogs, paid with confederate money, and sometimes tending to injuries like medical MacGyvers Some of the stories of injuries the doctors respond to read like Darwin Awards, and you just know that what's happening in the story is not going to end well. I found myself laughing out loud throughout the book. In addition to the stories are quotes by locals that are just as funny as the stories themselves.

[SheLove2Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of anecdotes and short stories of rural physicians who practice(d) in the Smoky Mountain region of the Appalachians. I think the title is a little misleading, as there isn't anything in this that I would consider "extreme", other than the setting that these physicians were sometimes forced to practice in. Being a born and bred Southerner who has spent many happy times in the Smokies, I found this an enjoyable and lighthearted read. If you're looking for something heartwarming to read, this is one to take a chance on.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a really good mix of stories and some really nice anecdotes. Perhaps I'm sensitive because I'm from the South, but I felt some of the stories veered in to caricature. Her sympathy for the doctors and pithy comments kept the book moving along, and the stories were funny, instructive, and touching.

[Tena Edlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me of a human version of All Creatures Great and Small... country doctors and the anecdotes of their practice. I smiled, laughed, and was moved by the dedication of these professionals who chose to practice where few would or few would last. I wondered about the specific years of all the stories as I read, but I realize some of the stories came from doctors looking back through the years, so maybe they couldn't remember exactly. A friend's review (thanks, JM!) made me suspicious about the motives of the author and made me hyper-sensitive to the possibility of a tone of "making fun" of the locals, but I think I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was a good thing that I went in worried, so I could feel relieved about it, instead of the other way around. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. I'm not sure it's going to be a great "discussion" book for my book club, but it was a quick read that I wouldn't have picked up on my own if someone else hadn't suggested it.

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the stories were entertaining and/or moving, but I have two issues with the book that keeps me from giving it three (or even four) stars. First, it sometimes feel that the humor comes at the expense of the people being treated by the doctor, and that makes me feel a bit icky. Also, I can't help but feel that something is missing. At one point towards the end of the book, Jourdan writes about how the modern health care system is missing the personal element, that interconnectedness of the doctor and the community. The stories hint at this, but because they are so brief the context necessary to really reveal that interconnectedness is missing. And while I enjoyed this book, I would have loved it if that context had been explored. Without that, it's just a series of amusing anecdotes.

[Kmalbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audio.

[Judie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carolyn Jourdan’s father was a country doctor in eastern Tennessee’s Smokey Mountains. She was a lawyer for a U. S Senate committee. When her mother became ill, she went home to help out temporarily as a receptionist in his office. The couple of days she expected to be there turned into four years. Having grown up in that poverty stricken area, she realized that there were many dedicated doctors who were dedicated to helping the people living there and that they would have some very interesting experiences. This book is their stories.
In “Better Late Than Never,” a man who lived a solitary, self-sufficient life on his farm. When he was old and ill and confined to a hospital bed, he told his doctor about being a Marine in World War II. His story and the result of him telling it to the doctor is an amazing tale.
“Uncle Eli” was a pharmacist who was asked to fill in for the local doctor when the doctor died. His story is how he was able to adapt his skills and accessible remedies to the needs of the people and, again, has a very unexpected ending.
Another story is about a five-year-old girl who calls for help because there is smoke in her house and she can’t wake up the rest of the family. She hangs up before telling him who she is or where she lives.
Guns are involved in several stories. “Tennessee is nicknamed ‘The Volunteer State’ because it consistently contributes a high percentage of volunteers to the military,” Those soldiers “are more likely to be killed or wounded in battle than soldiers from any other state.” The state also produces a large number of military snipers. Guns are part of life from childhood.
A pharmacist told the author about what he had to go through to get help after a fall. No one was around and he miraculously had to get out of the woods and drive himself to the hospital. The conversation between him and the ER nurse when he tried to come in using his rifle as a cane is priceless.
“Deliverance” is about a man who wanted to float down a river before the area was flooded by the TVA. He borrowed a canoe, though he had never been in one, and took a shortcut through a major white water area. Ingenuity and a lot of luck saved him and the canoe.
“The Good, But Confused, Samaritans” was equal to the best of Tim Conway on the “Carol Burnett Show.” It’s about a courier from a pathology lab who has an automobile accident after picking up a lot of specimens and other things. He wasn’t seriously hurt, but my side hurt from laughing as I read and pictured it.
Sometimes country doctors have to make quick decisions. “Tough Choices” is one such example when the doctor was called because a twenty-three years old man fell 75 feet in a mine. Certain that he was dead, the miners called to have the doctor recover the body. When he finally reached him, the unconscious man was lying across jagged rock, still breathing but his lungs were filling with blood. He had probably suffered multiple broken bones, including his legs, back, and neck. He possibly had brain damage as well. If he lived, he would likely be a quadriplegic. The doctor’s options were to let him die quickly and quietly or to try to save his life.
A new doctor has to establish a reputation. Sometimes a life is saved even if the doctor isn’t sure what to do. Sometimes a simple remedy works and impresses the people around who don’t understand the science behind it. And sometimes all it takes if an accurate diagnosis and undoing what damage other people, with the best intentions, have inflicted.
Jourdan writes about hospitals refusing to treat people because they were black and having a cross burned in their yard because her father helped a black man. Her father believed that “most of the truly disabled people were in no position to negotiate the complicated state bureaucracy, so only con artists had what it took to game the system persuasively and persistently enough to get declared disabled. Jourdan mourns the changes in the health care system which have distanced the doctor and the patient.
Reading this well-written short book was a delight.
This book was a free Amazon download. Having read it, I would have paid for it.

[Jaide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carolyn Jourdan's touching and often humorous novel Medicine Men:  Extreme Appalachian Doctoring is based on various happenings to numerous doctors, including her own father, from 1930-2005 in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee.  This is a follow-up book to Jourdan's novel Heart in the Right Place, which I have yet to read.   Medicine Men is nonfiction, however, it is hard to imagine doctors who make house calls or do not expect payment or to gain financial wealth, who instead oftentimes slip their patients money for food or medicine.

                       “How are we ever gonna find another doctor that don’t wanna make no money?” –asked by a woman whose large family hardly ever paid for any of their many visits to Daddy’s office, when I told her Daddy was going to retire. (Excerpt from book)

It is a telling of a kind of doctor the new healthcare system will ruin, will never understand.  These are family practitioners who have treated a family for multiple generations, and who truly know the family history.  These doctors are to be admired, respected, and emulated for their special brand of healing, for the care they give above and beyond that required, and for putting medicine and man above money.

Thank you, Carolyn Jourdan, for bringing attention to these heroes so brilliantly.  Too bad this book was not required reading before our new healthcare reform system was enacted.  

[Shari Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of true stories and amusing anecdotes from several country doctors that practiced in the rural areas of the Smoky Mountains, from 1930-2006. The author's father was one of those doctors, and years after she left home to work in Washington, DC, she returned to take over the job as her father's receptionist after her mother became ill.

These stories are touching, compassionate, at times heroic and often amusing. These dedicated men often worked for little or no pay, and went on horseback or walked to help those who lived in areas not accessible by motor vehicles. Many of them were miles away from hospitals, and often had hard decisions very quickly how best to help a dying patient. They were called upon to the jobs of surgeons and specialists, because the rural family doctor was all people in many areas had.

I really enjoyed this book, my only complaint was that it was too short, I wanted to keep reading more stories.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to give this book five stars. I read Carolyn Jourdan's Heart in the Right Place a couple of years ago and fell in love with it and the stories about her rural father doctor and how she learned to love her home town again.

Medicine Men is a not near enough long book that tells stories of her father and other doctors who worked in rural East Tennessee from the 30's to the 60's. They often got no money or sometimes appreciation for their work. The stories are so strange you know they have to be true. Some will make you laugh and others make you cry, one made me bawl my eyes out, but all are inspirational and show true slices of life.

I follow Carolyn Jourdan on Facebook and she is just the nicest person. I hope to find more of her books to read.

[Adelaide · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovable!

Very interesting and full of love for your fellow human. I will read this book again in a heart beat. I was delighted to have the opportunity to enjoy this master piece. Very humble and full of human interest chronicles. It is one of those books you want to recommend to your friends and family ! I would recommend to my neighbors, coworkers and the occasional extranger. Enjoy!

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was at times endearing, but mainly just confusing. There were no consistent connections or introductions. I didn't learn very much about appalachian doctoring, other than the fact that they did everything for nothing. The lack of format really bothered me and made me want to stop reading as it so often made no sense.

[Michael G. Hodges MD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny medical stories

Very funny medical stories

Great and quick read for anyone who loves reading or hearing "doctor stories". From someone who practiced medicine in rural NC, these stories sound real.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful anecdotes from doctors in Appalachia. The author was called away from her legal career in DC to help out Dad the doc for a few years. The stories she got are heart warming, incredible and funny. A very good read.

[Suzie Quint · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

These are basically vignettes but they are amusing and open a door into an interesting time and place.

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

I must agree with Raymond. Did not care for the stories much. Most not even that funny. Boring!

[Ruth Casey May · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

This book kept me reading until there was no more. I wish more authors could be as interesting, informative. and entertaining. A very good read!

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous and heartwarming.

[Wulfwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me back to my childhood. While listening to it I could clearly picture in my mind the doctor’s office my parents took us to. I loved that doctor. He was so kind. In hearing of the kinds of payments received I remembered one time we went in and there were a couple of live chickens in the waiting room. They were payment from another patient. It makes me laugh now.
I listened to this book on Audible. The narrator sounded a lot like some of my family when we would sit on the front porch and talk about life and what all was going on with our family, friends and community. I greatly enjoyed listening to him.
The book isn’t a long read. It might sound a bit scattered to some, especially if they aren’t familiar with the porch gossiping. These are a collection of short memories from various good hearted doctors mainly in the Smokies, though I did note the mention of Harlan, Kentucky. There were also what I’ll call sound bites. Those little sentences or sayings possibly coming from the communities or others in the office, made me smile. I think though they might confuse some who aren’t used to the one sentence comments that would be made on the porch. There really wasn’t anything to set them apart from the short stories being told. Listeners might not readily grasp that they are just comments tossed out.
While the stories are told with humor they are infused with the problems of Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, (probably elsewhere but I can’t speak for those places). Poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence are sprinkled throughout. Some might take issue but I saw it all there and just because some might not want to hear them spoken of doesn’t make the problems magically disappear. Sometimes when I hear people who want to erase things, (like not using certain words or talking about some issues that were normal occurrences), I feel like we are trying to sweep them under the rug. When you forget your history you open the door to it happening again. Realistically we are still dealing with the same issues regardless of all the cries of it’s unacceptable to use those words or to talk about those issues. If you are someone who is sensitive to hearing about the past in the language from the past, this might not be a good match for you. But if you are someone who accepts that we were not perfect then, (and are not now), you may find these stories a touching or humorous, (sometimes both at the same time), glimpse into the past.
I haven’t come across a doctor who compares with Doc Acker from my youth. I wish I could because I could trust that he was giving me his best, regardless of my ability to pay, and allow me to keep my dignity. The doctors from this book, and so many who have worked in poor areas, brought something that I find lacking with many of today’s doctors. They knew the people they were treating. They lived among us. They may have treated our parents, cousins and our children so they knew not only our medical and family histories but our community histories. They knew who had addictions. They knew who was dealing with abuse issues or job loss. They combined that information to give us their best medical care even if we couldn’t afford it. This book with its memories shines a light on that.
Oh, and the dog story ... have tissues ready. That black & white dog! I’ve got tears just thinking of that loyal friend!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, touching, heartfelt memoir!

This book made me laugh, cry, and tugged at my heartstrings! I even shared several passages with friends and family. Full of many true anecdotes garnered from the personal experiences of many dedicated "country" doctors, and her own experience as the daughter of one of those doctors, Miss Jourdan evokes the essence of what "doctoring" meant in the mountains of Appalachia, and in other parts of America, before the advent of "modern" medicine. Sadly, the pure, caring essence, and brilliance of those "medicine men" has been all but stamped out in today's hyper-managed, ultra-regulated, over-medicated, one-size fits all, cookie cutter, "formula" healthcare environment, where the patient is merely a commodity in the current atmosphere of "for profit" collusion between Big Pharma, Big Hospitals, and the modern medical professionals who seem to have forgotten the sacred tenet: "First, do no harm."
This book was quick and easy to read, brought back childhood memories of how things used to be, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! My only complaint is a persistent typo resulting in use of the word "in" for the word "on," as in: ..."he fell in the floor" (or something was dropped "in" the floor). Perhaps an unwise editorial acceptance of a "change all" auto-prompt? However, not annoying enough to reduce my score of 5 stars!

[Kenya Starflight · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is comfort food -- not groundbreaking, not fantastic, but satisfying if you just want to read something amusing and feel-good. That's not to say it's without its problems, but I pretty much got what I expected out of it, and that's enough for me.

Just like the title says, this is a book about the doctors who treat people in the Appalachian and Smoky Mountains -- people who are often living in poverty and speak with a unique dialect all their own. These doctors deliver babies, treat wounds and injuries, and stay by the bedsides of the dying, often without payment. And while they have their share of miraculous or heartbreaking stories, there's plenty of humor to be had too, as they run into colorful characters and outrageous injuries.

None of the stories are terribly deep or in-depth -- they occasionally delve into deeper territory, such as talking about mortality or how modern medicine has eliminated the closeness between patients and their doctors, but not for long. They're pretty much fluff, interspersed with comedic things overheard from said patients. Also, given that these stories take place in the American South, expect mentions of racism that never get addressed.

For a collection of short tales about medical misadventures, this is a fairly light and easy read. And it makes for uplifting and humorous reading.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the book Medicine Men: Extreme Appalachian Doctoring, Carolyn Jourdan shares experiences from her father's rural medical practice and stories from several other doctors who practice in the Appalachian area. At the beginning she tells of how she left a high position in Washington, D.C. to come back to east Tennessee to help out in her father's practice after her mother had a heart attack and never went back to Washington. Then she set out to collect stories from other doctors who had chosen to practice in the rural areas of Appalachia.
I loved this book! Since my husband was born and raised in east Tennessee and we used to travel to see his family there several times a year, I always enjoy reading books that are set in that location.
There is a lot of humor in most of the stories but the reader also definitely learns about the extraordinary dedication these doctors showed to the people they treated---often without pay.
In the end the author comments on how in our modern healthcare system, we have lost the human connection between the doctor and the people they treat.
Highly recommend this book! It is a short read but both educational and entertaining!
I read this as a Kindle book and am not sure how available it is in print

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it. 4 stars cuz really, it’s not a *great* book but I can’t give it less than that cuz the stories got me right in the feels, right from the prologue. I had a sense of being in the room with each story related, and vividly picture the descriptions of the great Smoky Mountains (and now I want to visit the region.) I can relate from firsthand experience to working in primary care in remote and isolated communities, and the beauty of that life and the people I knew and worked with in northern Canada mirrors the descriptions in this book. And the bit about people coming to see the doc “just to see what kind of person you were ... “ yeah, been there. On my 2nd day on the job in one community I worked in, I had a clinic room full of every man in the community with a tale of some fabricated malady. Any story that touches on the profound connection between humans in their most vulnerable moments touches me. And oh man, the black and white dog. Where’s the kleenex ...... This book captures the meaning of a life well lived, in humble and sincere service to others.

[Yaaresse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Jourdan left the legal world in the big city behind to fill in at her father's rural Tennessee medical office while her mother recovered from a heart attack. What was meant to be "a few weeks" turned into decades, a story she wrote about in 2007's Heart in the Right Place. This slim book is sort of a companion to that one. In it, Jourdan collects some amusing and sometimes poignant memories from a variety of rural doctors.

I'm being a little generous in my rating because I have a soft spot for the subject. In truth, these stories, as funny and touching as they sometimes are, felt like material left over from her other book and then thrown together in haphazard form. There's no attempt to create connections between them aside from geography and the fact that many of the patients are quite poor. It reads a little like the "Life in these United States" column from Readers Digest because of that. Had she spent a little time polishing these rough gems, it would have been far better.