This past year has been a banner year for new EMS books, memoirs and fiction. Each book that reaches an audience outside of the EMS world increases the public’s understanding of what we do and hopefully, increases their respect for us. Here is a roundup of recent books.
Lights and Sirens: The Education of a Paramedic by Kevin Grange published by Berkley. This a great account of a young man going through paramedic school. I reviewed it in more detail in this post:
Lights and Sirens
A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic’s Wild Ride to the Edge and Back by Kevin Hazzard published by Scribner. This is also a tremendously well written book covering the EMS career of an Atlanta, Georgia paramedic from eager EMT to eventual burn out and fade away nearly a decade later.
Our friend Michael Morse of the Rescuing Providence blog has had his first two excellent books Rescuing Providence and Rescue 1 Responding combined into one book and published by Post Hill Press and distributed by Simon and Shuster. Morse also recently published City Life, the 3rd in his series looking at EMS in Providence, R.I. I reviewed Rescue 1 Responding in this post:
Responding
If you like fiction, Katherine Howell, a former Australian paramedic, has published several crime mystery novels with EMS subject matter. The 6th book in her series featuring Detective Ella Marconi is Web of Deceit, published by MacMillan. She is an excellent writer, who’s books I have reviewed multiple times in the past on these pages. If you like crime novels, you can’t go wrong with Howell. Here is my review of her first novel back in 2007:
Frantic
Lastly, my second work of EMS fiction was published digitally this year by Dystel and Goderich. Diamond in the Rough tells the story of a young EMT’s wayward journey through EMS. It takes place in Hartford in the similar setting to my first novel, Mortal Men: Paramedics on the Streets of Hartford. The book has caused some controversy because the EMT narrator is a thief, who steals from his patients. He, of course, eventually pays the price for his actions, but he does, despite his crimes, manage to find some redemption and a path toward grace. After writing two nonfiction books about EMS in Hartford, I have turned to fiction because it offers a freer reign to explore the world of EMS and tell atypical stories. I am currently at work on a third EMS novel also set in Hartford.
You can read sample chapters of Diamond in the Rough here:
Anthropophagi
Temptation to Steal
