Talking to Skeletons: Behind the Scenes with a Radiologist

X-ray Visions #2

by Carolyn Jourdan

7-time Wall Street Journal and Audible Top-10 best selling author and Amazon All Star! Is it cancer or just a bad pixel? "Talking to Skeletons" chronicles seven extraordinary nights Jourdan spent shadowing a radiologist in a teaching hospital. Told with the wit and warmth that have earned Jourdan four national best sellers, this book paints an insightful portrait of one man's life and work.

It's a uniquely personal tour of a private world that, as a bonus, gives readers an intimate peek at how Jourdan creates her best-selling medical narratives. In essence, it is a biography, and at the same time, a lovely and intelligent medical selfie.

Jourdan's first-rate medical writing illuminates the mysterious black and white world that stands at the front lines of modern healthcare.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography

65 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2015

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

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a pediatrician, radiologists are my colleagues, my consultants, my teachers but I really don't have any radiologists that are friends - so this was quite an interesting, eyeopening lesson since I had forgotten that first and foremost they are physicians who care about their patients too.
What hasn't gotten dated is the human connection that Carolyn Jourdan is so very good at describing.
I remember seeing my dad's lung cancer on an X-ray in a reading room similar to the ones in this story. I could hear the radiologist taking a gulp and putting on his poker face as he turned to us- 3 physicians- my father, my general surgery husband and myself - expectantly awaiting his impression, knowing that what he was about to say would change the course of our lives. Ms Jourdan describes that empathetically and truthfully.
There are so many other little details in this short book that I love because I see glimpses of what it means to be a physician, irregardless of our specialty. I am so very grateful to have found this little treasure.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an inside look at a specialized profession. Carolyn Jourdan has a wonderful, easy to read, writing style that makes her books difficult for me to put down. I would recommend this to anyone in the healthcare profession.

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty fascinating stuff. The author pulls you behind the scenes in a hospital to show you what Radiologists do. You'll learn many things about the history of radiology from the professionals who lived it, and will come away with a new understanding of how stressful and tiring it can be. I especially loved the parts where the author was hanging out with her friend in the radiology room. She describes the lighting and experience in a way that makes you feel like you are there, and when she ponders the spiritual aspects of viewing the bones in a human body, you can't help but feel awe.

[Melissa Pouliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy Oliver Sacks or Atul Gawande, you will enjoy this human and humane look at a radiologist and radiology. Jourdan has several bestselling books that paint portraits of medical care one doctor at a time. Loved it.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book that goes along with "Radiologists at Work: Saving Lives with the Lights Off". This book focuses on one radiologist the author worked with over several years. I enjoyed this book better I think as it allowed for a more in depth or intimate look into the radiologist's work.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good

Although this is a short book, it was heart-warming and I cried at the end. There are so many unsung heroes in this world.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting

I have read other similar books that were better.
Some parts are interesting enough. You see a glimpse into the radiologists life.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Radiology at Its Best

Carolyn Jourdan chronicle s seven extraordinary nights shadowing a radiologist in a teaching hospital. True doctors working behind the scenes to help others.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extension of a previous book which documented the steady advancement of radiology patient by patient and doctor by doctor. In this volume, the study is also of change, but focuses on one doctor in a busy teaching hospital as he worked the night shift and primarily next to the Trauma center. This, too, is about the patients and showcases the extreme difficulty in reading films when there is no context. I think that the language is understandable to most, but I am a nurse and worked acute care for years so I may be wrong. All I know is that I loved it.

[Ashley Hedden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talking to Skeletons: Behind the Scenes with a radiologist by Carolyn Jourdan was a good quick read. This book followed Jourdanon seven nights spent shadowing a radiologist in a teaching hospital. It was a good insight into the radiologists life work.

[Warren Benton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jourdan spends time with Jay a radiologist. She spends hours shadowing him as he scours film and films. Jay shows Jourdan the nuances of looking at film and finding the subtle things that radiologist spot faster than most doctors. Jay talks how he is often looking at films blindly. He doesn't know why he is looking at them and has to try to find what is wrong without any idea of what the problem might be. This was my second book by Jourdan and both have been informative and sometimes entertaining.

[Ammon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the audiobook version of Talking to Skeletons: Behind the Scenes with a Radiologist: X-Ray Visions. This past year I had more x-rays, MRIs, catscans, petscans, etc. than you could shake the proverbial stick at. So, Jourdan's slice of a radiologist's life was more than enough to keep my interest piqued.

Jourdan didn't talk over my head and certainly doesn't talk down to the reader as I feel many author's of medical texts have a tendency to do. While this wasn't the most exciting book I've read or listened to, it was very good and kept my attention throughout.

The narrator, Eric Martin did a fine job reading the material. He was easy to listen to and definitely grew on me throughout the performance.

***Full Disclosure: I received this book for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review

[Suzan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonder look at a job most people don't even think about. I enjoyed the narration of this book very much Eric Martin's voice was perfect for this book. The book is not long but really worth a listen. Thank you for gifting me this book and this is my honest review.

[Beverly Laude · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Jourdan has a way of describing things that make you feel like you can see them, touch them, smell them. This second book about the workings of radiologists is actually a memoir of one radiologist named Jay who allowed Ms. Jourdan to spend time with him in his darkened cubicle, looking at the inner workings of the human body.

You never really think about those Doctors that you never see, the radiologists looking at X-rays, often without any idea of the patient's history or the nature of their pain. This book is often sad, touching, humorous....just like much of life.

Thanks you, Ms. Jourdan, for allowing us to live with a radiologist for a while & see what they see!