After Shock: Learning to Reinhabit My Body After Illness

by Rana Awdish

In this powerful follow-up to her bestselling memoir In Shock, a doctor asks: What does it truly mean to heal?

In the aftermath of her own critical illness, physician and writer Dr. Rana Awdish finds herself oddly estranged her from her own body. Medicine has conditioned her to view sick bodies as broken objects, not as sites of meaning, mystery, and quiet wisdom. So, when her own body warns her that she'll be dead in five years, she's unsure whether to trust it enough to follow where it leads. Allowing for this kind of innate, bodily wisdom would require her to dismantle and reconfigure her entire belief system. She decides to take a leap of faith, abandon certainty and surrender to the message―a choice that ultimately saves her life. What emerges is a profound and vulnerable meditation on the true nature of healing.

Guided by the evocative power of art from Frida Kahlo to Mark Rothko, as well as her own creative process, After Shock is part memoir and part guidebook to sustaining wonder and attention to beauty even in the face of grief and loss. Awdish elegantly draws us into a space where our perception shifts and curiosity leads to profound revelation. She invites us to reclaim the power that resides in our attention, relationships and willingness to stay present with suffering long enough for it to transform into something else.

Through her poetic prose and evocative imagery, we learn to see differently, feel deeply, and trust that healing is always possible.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Medical, Biography Memoir

288 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication June 16, 2026

About the author

Dr. Rana Awdish is the author of In Shock, a landmark medical memoir and the follow-up, After Shock. A sought-after public speaker, she is recognized as a leading voice in the movement to rehumanize healthcare. Her writing has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Harvard Business Review, and The Washington Post. Her essay The Shape of the Shore was awarded a Sydney by The New York Times and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has been featured on NPR, BBC, and CNN.

In 2020, This American Life documented Detroit’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in an episode titled “The Reprieve,” using Dr. Awdish’s audio diary chronicling the frontline experiences of Henry Ford Hospital clinicians.

Dr. Awdish has received numerous national honors, including the Schwartz Center’s National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year Award, U.S. News & World Report’s Healthcare Hero distinction, and Press Ganey’s Physician of the Year Award. She has been inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, the Gold Humanism Honor Society, and named a Master of the American College of Physicians.

She serves as Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine and at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. A board-certified physician in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine, her clinical focus is Pulmonary Hypertension. Dr. Awdish completed her medical training at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan, earned her M.D. from Wayne State University, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Reviews

[Karen Axnick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before diving into this latest memoir, I highly recommend reading the author’s first book (In Shock) to set the context for her experiences and insights. While it is incredibly intense it is a worthwhile read and perhaps it should even be mandatory reading for all health care professionals with direct patient contact.

After Shock picks up the author’s experience as a physician/patient now coping with her own chronic health issues as well as her ongoing commitment to providing compassionate, personalized care to others. To that end, she coaches the house staff under her supervision with respect as well as a desire to instill this perspective in their practice. The core of her approach is deep, active listening to the patient – to embrace not only the science of medicine but the art of treating the patient as a whole person. For many this may be an intellectual exercise, but for the author it is based on her hard-won insights relating to healing. This new paradigm she embodies recognizes the innate wisdom of the body and the source of all healing.

I will admit my bias in favor of her premise as a retired health care professional who became disillusioned with the limits of allopathic medicine and sought alternative methodologies to support healing. With AI (artificial intelligence) becoming increasingly embedded in health care, her message is critical to maintaining and even expanding the human aspect of the healing arts. Kudos to the author for her courage, perseverance, and willingness to share her perspectives.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

[Tammy Raffle]

In her brilliant follow up to In Shock, critical care physician Rana Awdish offers not simply a sequel, but a reckoning. If In Shock chronicled the shattering experience of becoming a patient in the very ICU where she once stood as doctor, After Shock asks the harder question: what does it mean to live after you survive?

Where her first memoir exposed the cracks in modern medicine’s architecture, this second installment explores the quieter, more intimate terrain of healing. In the aftermath of her own critical illness, Awdish has internalized a worldview in which the body is an object to fix but she is now confronted with having to trust the very thing she has been conditioned to distrust.

Awdish realizes that survival alone is insufficient; she must dismantle the clinical detachment that once defined her competence. To follow her body’s warning requires surrender. The leap of faith she ultimately takes is less about rejecting science and more about expanding its boundaries. Healing, she suggests, is not the opposite of illness but a reorientation toward meaning.

What distinguishes this memoir is its insistence that reframing illness is not a denial of reality but a reclamation of agency. There is profound vulnerability here. Awdish does not position herself as an expert dispensing truths. Instead, she writes from within uncertainty. Her estrangement from her body, her fear of death, and her struggle to trust intuition are recounted with disarming honesty. One need not be a physician, or even a patient dealing with critical illness, to relate to her desire to seek answers where there are none as she attempts to heal.

Ultimately, After Shock reminds us that paying attention- to art, to relationships, to the subtle signals of our own bodies—is an act of courage, and that healing is always within reach.

[Colleen Maclennan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just could not relate to this book. The author was a very sick lady . I felt sorry for her young son as she was often so unwell. I think she found solace when sick in art work and this helped her in her recovery. But it was medical professionals that helped her heal physically. She used other resources for her spiritual and emotional wellbeing to recover.

[NellieAdawi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through her beautiful writings she expresses feelings in a way that touches hearts and brings hope .
Her strength, creativity and caring spirit makes her truly special and am endlessly proud of her.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for choosing me to read and review this book. I started reading as soon as I received my copy and couldn't put it down. I haven't read the first book that the author wrote, but it was easy to read the second book without having read the first. I didn't want to put the book down, so I carried it with me and read every chance that I could. The author's writing is wonderful and compelling. Her story will help so many of us that are suffering. We relate to what she went through and it helps to know that we can get through terrible suffering.

[James O'Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Shock, the sequel to the author's prior book, In Shock, picks up where In Shock leaves off and, thankfully, is written as beautifully as its predecessor. Before getting to the substance of the book I just have to note that the language and writing are both gorgeous, as they were in In Shock. Dr. Awdish has, to put it mildly, a way with words.

After Shock addresses what happens to a patient after surviving acute medical tragedy. It addresses what comes after survival, when one is deemed "cured" but no cure has actually materialized. Dr. Awdish survived unspeakable trauma but then, afterwards, what was left? Dr. Awdish was supposed to be "better" but her body disagreed and new hurdle after new hurdle was put in her way to actually experience healing.

Through art and connection, though, Dr. Awdish slowly experienced her version of healing and this book walks you through Dr. Awdish's meandering journey to healing. She wasn't better when she was declared cured and her experiences along the way mimic similar experiences felt by millions of others who lived through traumatic medical experiences only to be declared "cured" long before the healing had taken root.

Instead of accepting the "cured" diagnosis, Rana listens to her body, to her fear, her grief, her detachment from the world and from her body. Through paintings and other art, she finds answers that had been missing and discovers ways that healing... that reconnection can flourish despite a body she no longer recognizes.

Rana's gentle honesty makes After Shock ring true for the reader. She does not try to provide tidy answers to the miriad of problems she raises. She does not pretend there are easy answers. Instead, she tells the truth about trauma and how it lingers and how moving forward towards healing requires patience and self compassion. After Shock feels destined to create community and, if Dr. Awdish is to be believed, that is where the healing will happen.

[Dadreadsanreviews (james) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to review this work. This volume traces the author’s reflection on her embodiment, mortality, and practice of medicine. She offers each chapter as a reflection on her diagnosis, art, experience of the medical system, and/or her experience as health care provider. This work offers a glimpse beyond the experience of an acute health crisis to coping with chronic illness and frequent health issues. She offers raw reflections on her experiences and transformative thinking on what constitutes healing and where it can be found. The one drawback is the author’s lack of recognition of her social location. She deftly identifies her experience as a woman and family and ethnic history playing a role in how she negatively experienced the medical system as well as internally accepted those negative associations. Her reflective journey of healing is framed in being liberated from the those identifies and being able to see medicine become more empathetic and human centered. However, her social location as a physician and spouse to an attorney provides a very different experience of the health care system. I work closely with people with chronic and severe illness, and I see daily how economical and social factors negatively impact individuals ability to find healing, as our author explored. Of course, she can only reflect from her experience, but it was difficult to connect to her experience as she had numerous resources and opportunities that I know from personal and professional experience is not available to most people. Overall, it is a lovely reflection from someone dealing with an intense serious of health issues, and there is much to glean in reflecting on healing.

[Jackie Sunday · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may seem morbid to think a lot about death but when you’re personally up against it, there’s one way that can help: with friends and family by your side. Dr. Rana Awdish has benefitted from a great deal of support experiencing serious complications in her body.

This book starts with a brief overview from “In Shock” where she shared how she was diagnosed with not one but several chronic health issues. She continued where she left off with an update of how she has been coping.

Most of us rely on medicine when our body has health challenges. Yet, she said there’s more we can do to help with the healing process. She used one example of relieving anxiety while viewing paintings. This made me pause to see the images on Google which then made sense.

She wrote about the abundance of positive support she has received from her husband, Randy, and son, Walt. I especially love the quotes from Walt. He appeared as a little boy with insights beyond his years. I also was curious how Randy and Walt were able to emotionally cope with a wife and mother who had suffered from several emergency situations. Did they feel struggles with stress, neglect or guilt? What about their fear of loss?

It made me want to understand more about the body and its capability of healing. One has to admire the strength she’s had with huge medical complications on top of working as the medical director of care experience and pulmonary physician at Henry Ford Health in Detroit. This book is well written with her personal approach to making a strong comeback.

My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC with an expected release date of June 16, 2026. The thoughts I share are my own.

[Josh Fessel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm fond of saying that the truth is told in story form. In "After Shock: Learning to Reinhabit My Body After Illness," Dr. Rana Awdish tells many truths about healing by telling her own stories. Healing is not a passive process. It requires energy, of course. But it also requires real active presence, be it an active presence with the one healing who is also grieving the self that no longer exists, or an active presence in one's very own body as one learns to heal and to be at home again in a changed physical body. I *might* have known these things intellectually before reading After Shock, but I didn't know it for real. As a healer by vocation and a deeply insightful and wise person on her own healing journey, Dr. Awdish tells these and many other truths in a way that I'm not sure anyone else could do with such skill and grace.

At a time when technology seems to want to outpace and overtake humanity (especially in medicine), After Shock is the powerful reminder we need that a new wholeness of person is the goal of healing, and that goal requires the presence of the quintessentially human things that we seek to make whole.

It is impossible to do this book justice in a review. I have had the great privilege of reading it through in its entirety twice, and have read parts of it many more times than that. I have a list of people for whom I've bought/am buying copies, and I sincerely hope medical schools will purchase copies for their learners. After Shock has made me a better person, and I feel certain it will continue to do so with future readings.

[Randy M · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who lived through much of this story alongside Rana, reading After Shock was a profoundly moving experience. While In Shock captured the intensity and urgency of illness from inside the medical system, this book goes somewhere even deeper: it explores what it actually means to come back, to rebuild, and to reinhabit a life and a body that no longer feel the same.

What makes this book so exceptional is its honesty. Rana doesn’t offer easy answers or a neat resolution. Instead, she gives a raw, unfiltered look at recovery, including the physical, emotional, and psychological layers that are often overlooked. She writes with the same clarity and grace that made In Shock so impactful, but here there is an added depth, a hard-earned wisdom that comes only from living through it.

From my perspective as her husband, I can say that this book captures truths that are difficult to put into words: the strain illness places on identity, relationships, and the quiet, daily work of healing. It reflects not just her journey, but the experience of everyone who stands beside someone fighting their way back.

This isn’t just a book about illness. It’s a book about resilience, love, and what it means to find yourself again after everything has changed.

I’m incredibly proud of her and the work she’s done here. This is an important, necessary book that will resonate with anyone who has faced illness, cared for someone who has, or tried to rebuild after life didn’t go as planned.

[Cassie Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My introduction to Dr. Rana Awdish was her first book, "In Shock," which had a profound impact on my approach to the practice of medicine, and inspired me to write about my own experiences in the profession. So, as you might imagine, I began reading "After Shock" with some trepidation about this book meeting the incredibly high expectations I held onto in the intervening years. What I discovered was that "After Shock" picked up the threads from the first book that had piqued my curiosity, but were not its primary foci. In "After Shock" we learn more about Dr. Awdish's illness and recovery from the perspective of her husband and son. We explore the question of when an acute illness becomes chronic and the strings attached to that label. We get to think about the ways in which we do and do not make accommodations for ourselves and for others, and about "all the ways we dismiss our bodies." And we have the privilege of learning about healing through an artist's lens. I loved this book, and while this may sound odd, it feels as if it loves me back because Dr. Awdish's voice is so vulnerable and honest and inclusive. And while it is written by a physician, I recommend it for anyone interested in thinking differently about healing; I connected to it as a patient, as an aging body, as a physician, and as a parent and partner.

[Lệ Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

To me, reading After Shock feels like intruding on someone’s diary, rather than reading a memoir or a guidebook. Each chapter felt fragmented and unassured, jumping back and forth between Awdish’s various attempts and failures in navigating her health and family life. The section on the author’s experiments with different creative processes is too short and unremarkable. I’m often left wondering how much healing has occurred and how much self-doubt remains when a chapter ends with unanswered questions. I believe this book has potential, but its chapters could have been organized more effectively with good editing, which I suspect was lacking in the advanced copy I received. Perhaps the memoir would be more effective if it stuck to a strict chronological order or focused intensely on the art, weaving in a curated selection of personal stories.

Despite my criticism on the book, I’m deeply moved by Dr. Rana Awdish’s experiences, which remind me of the many others our healthcare system has failed and dehumanized. The author’s writing, after all, is the light of this book: so gentle and reflective despite all the odds that added up to her suffering.

My sincere thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing me an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Reem · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Shock is a book about what comes after survival, when the alarms quiet, the crisis passes, and you are left alone with a body that no longer feels familiar. It lives in that tender space where the world expects you to be “okay,” but your body remembers otherwise.

Healing here is not about fixing or moving on. Instead, Rana turns gently toward her body, listening to what rises when fear, grief, or memory surfaces. Through paintings and works of art that meet her in those moments, she finds language for what cannot always be spoken and discovers ways that meaning, safety, and reconnection can be felt, not forced.

What makes After Shock so deeply moving is Rana’s honesty. She does not hurry the reader toward answers or offer tidy conclusions. She tells the truth about how trauma lingers, how identity shifts, and how learning to live inside a changed body asks for patience, curiosity, and profound self compassion. This book feels like being accompanied rather than instructed, and in that companionship, healing begins.

[Brooke Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is deeply touching, exacting, and beautifully written. Dr. Awdish has a rare ability to explore the most difficult parts of being human with language that is both precise and delicate.

I read After Shock slowly over the course of a month—not because it was difficult, but because I wanted to keep coming back to it. I often paused after a chapter just to sit with what I had read, processing the insight and emotion she brings to each page. And honestly, I didn’t want my time with this book to end.

She carries the reader through her own healing in a way that gently touches our own. As caregivers—whether physicians, healthcare professionals, or simply people who love others—we live alongside the unpredictable reality of bodies that fail, heal, and sometimes do both at once.

What she reminds us is that healing is not only the closure of a physical wound. It is the human work of witnessing, comforting, and making meaning together.

As long as we are breathing—and have the courage to continue—healing remains possible.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to read Aftershock by Rana Awdish ahead of its public release, and what stayed with me most was its exploration of healing, not just survival.

What makes this book so meaningful is the way it distinguishes physical recovery from the deeper, often turbulent process of emotional and spiritual healing.

It captures something we don’t talk about enough, that healing is not linear. Even as the body recovers, there is a separate journey of learning how to live in that body again. How to trust it, listen to it, and reconnect with it in a more attuned way.

Another layer that adds real depth is the way art is woven throughout the narrative. Referencing well-known works, she uses them to illuminate complex emotions and experiences in a way that feels both grounding and unexpectedly powerful.

There’s a depth, honesty and vulnerability here that makes you pause and reflect, both as a clinician and simply as a human being.

A thoughtful, deeply human book that broadens the way we think about what it really means to heal.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when Medicine says, “that’s all we’ve got” and everyone expects things will be back to normal, yet you don’t know what normal looks like anymore? To whom or what do we turn to finish the healing Medicine started? How do people and experiences help us on our journey beyond survival - to a life of complete healing? And most importantly, who is the person we want to be on the other side? We tend to look at healing as an end. Dr. Awdish shares that “Healing isn’t a place. It’s a practice.” It takes time – it takes strength – it takes a village. This book walks you through Dr. Awdish's continued journey to healing and recovery. She writes with truth, honesty, clarity, and beautiful imagery. Highly recommend this book - especially to those on their own healing journey, to caregivers traveling the path with a loved one, and to medical professionals who truly want to heal their patients beyond what Medicine deems possible.

[Shannon S-V · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long treasured the gift Dr. Rana Awdish gave the world with her first book In Shock, and her newest book, After Shock, is as wonderful as I had hoped. She beautifully captures the way in which our bodies, minds, and souls heal--rarely linearly or quickly and not always as we'd wish. On the other side of healing our bodies are not the same, but they continue to hold the power and magic to heal if we let them lead the way. Putting words to so many of my own, at times ineffable, experiences as both a physician and a patient, Dr. Awdish again bridges the two worlds with compassion and insight. In some ways, this book is like the sutures she describes: it provides scaffolding to allow for healing that is individual and life changing.

[Michelle E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each chapter is akin to the anticipation of opening a long awaited letter. Curiosity and suspense all in one. After Shock will envelope you in art, emotion and love. Each chapter you find yourself opening a door, an unexpected surprise, a new contour of life. Dr. Awdish gives readers a unique ability to visualize the moments through art cited throughout the book. We find ourselves learning a new coping mechanism—gazing at art—to grasp life’s most numbing moments. It is a treatise of motherhood’s selflessness. I found myself unable to put it down and read the book in a single night. Thank you for exposing us to all the “senses” we must call upon to work through life’s twists.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether or not you’ve read In Shock, you’ll find something to hook you into this expansive meditation on what it means to be human and live in a body with very real needs and limitations. What’s amazing about Dr Awdish’s writing — back in In Shock and again here — is the way she peels back the layers of her experiences to invite the reader along on her journey to understanding and, ultimately, healing. If you’ve ever found comfort or insight in art and creativity, you’ll find something to relate to here. Finishing the book I found myself regretting that the time had come to leave the author’s side.

[Marika · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I learned at an early age that silver linings offered an emotional bypass around pain" writes Dr Rana Awdish in this follow-up book to her popular memoir In Shock. In this book she takes readers along as she embarks on how to accept, love and trust her physical body and mind after enduring medical trauma that she had previously experienced.
An inquisitive person, Awdish deconstructs her absolute belief in medicine being the only factor in one's body healing when she asks herself "If the act of healing happened in my physical body and medicine facilitated the healing by harnessing MY body's intrinsic healing potential, then who did healing really belong to"? She deftly uses imagery from paintings to express the conflicting and confusing emotions that she feels during her healing journey and it just works.
A stunning example of finding peace after pain.
My only suggestion would be for the publisher to include an appendix of the paintings/art that the author writes about.

*I read an advance copy and was not compensated.

[Angela Weyand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kafka wrote “a book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us” and this book is that axe. Forcing the reader to examine our complacency and reveal deeper truths. This is the breathtaking followup to In Shock and should be required reading for physicians, patients, and humans in general. Dr Awdish beautifully interweaves art and everyday beauty into her healing journey which in turn becomes the readers healing journey. She maps a path for healing, hope, redemption, and compassion. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll end up a better person.

[Avraham Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you follow up on a generational masterpiece? The author’s first book In Shock was startling in its candor about the experience of critical illness, and shaped a larger conversation about how doctors communicate with their patients.

This important and moving second beat is a “what comes after?” memoir of the long, slow, halting, and often incomplete process of recovering from serious illness. This is a book about health as a journey rather than a destination, about who travels with us along the way, and about the things our bodies have to teach us.

[Suzanne Koven · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her first memoir, In Shock, Dr. Awdish asked hard questions about why the healthcare system in which she works and which saved her life so often lacks compassion and empathy. In After Shock she explores what it means--and what it takes--to heal once a medical crisis is over. Such a beautifully written book, drawing on art, literature, and packed with stories from Awdish's personal and professional life. Any reader will enjoy this memoir, but people recovering from illness or injury will find it especially relatable.

[Pranita Rambhatla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written book. On many levels, this book is deeply healing while also offering a powerful sense of hope for the future for anyone who has been a patient, a loved one or friend of a patient, a parent, or a healthcare provider, navigating life’s challenges, including serious illness. It serves as a meaningful follow-up to In Shock, illustrating the learning, acceptance, and growth that can emerge in the aftermath of major illness, and its impact on family, work, and social relationships.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Shock by Rana Awdish is a beautifully written and deeply moving book about healing in every sense—not just physically, but emotionally and mentally too.

Her perspective as both a doctor and a patient makes this story especially powerful and relatable. It’s honest, thoughtful, and full of insight about reconnecting with your body and redefining what recovery really means. Moving beyond the traditional idea of recovery as simply “fixing” the body, she explains how one can reconnect with the body as a source of wisdom and resilience.

I highly recommend.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Shock is a thoughtful and introspective look at what it really means to heal. Drawing from her own experience as both doctor and patient, Rana Awdish challenges the idea that healing is just physical, emphasizing intuition, presence, and emotional growth.

Her writing is poetic and reflective, making the book feel more like a meditation than a typical memoir. While it can be a bit dense at times, the message is powerful: true healing comes from connection and self-awareness, not just treatment.

A meaningful read that stays with you.

[Margaret A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an early copy of this book. Having learned so much from the author’s first book In Shock about how to improve the ways I cared for my critically ill patients I was excited to read this follow-up. After Shock did not disappoint. It was a heartfelt, engaging story of what came next. The authors ability to be honest and vulnerable draws you into her story. You learn about trusting yourself and the importance of advocating. Many chapters had me smiling, while others brought me to tears. Often you wonder if follow up books will be as good as the first one and this one truly was.

[Jessi Gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Healing is often described as non-linear, but no one can quite bring that to life like Awdish does, through her multiple near-death experiences, intersecting roles as patient, mother, friend, and doctor, and willingness to circle back to revisit what she once thought she knew. The use of art throughout is unique and flows with her prose, and my favorite part was the chapter about bats. It’s just so smart!

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the captivating follow-up to In Shock, Rana Awdish beautifully illustrates that healing unfolds in waves. The narratives we share—and the ones we tell ourselves—about life’s challenges continue to evolve long after illness "ends." Our relationship with our bodies deepens, often in unexpected ways. Much of this healing occurs not within the walls of traditional medical settings, but in the quiet moments of daily life where we slowly learn to inhabit ourselves again.

[Resa Lewiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book. When so much time and intention and caring is placed by an author in selecting words and personal stories, something beautiful is bound to happen. I completed this book in very few sittings. Reading Dr. Awdish's first book is not a prerequisite for reading and understanding this book. Highly recommend.