Y'all, pre-order my new favorite book

Has the pandemic made you question your life trajectory, your faith, your job, or what you want to do next?

Same. Let me share with you my favorite book of 2021 that deals with just that. And, from a real-life friend of mine!

You all know that I love sharing book recommendations! And, I have a great one to share with you today.

Dr. Mark Shrime is a real-life friend of mine. More than that, he is a highly-successful/well-known, Harvard-trained, PhD/MD surgeon, American Ninja Warrior, and one of the best humans you will meet on earth. His heart for all-things-equity in the world is evident in what he does. He spends a good amount of his time working on the Mercy Ships in Africa to provide surgeries to some of the most vulnerable in need.

And, he wrote a fantastic book! I was super fortunate to get an advanced copy and read it in 4 days.

This book is about his journey in global health. But, it’s more than that. It deals with the imposter syndrome, immigration, deconstructing evangelicism, finding faith again, getting off of the moving sidewalk of overwork, and redefining success, anxiety, failure, and peace. You will also hear about his journey into global health from Lebanon, living in Texas, going to Harvard, dealing with racism, and being on American Ninja Warrior. My kids still think I’m cool for knowing someone who competed on ANW. Thanks, Mark, for the cool-mom-points! =)

Who is the book for?

• Anyone wanting to work in global health or working in global health. This book is must-read as we continue decolonizing global health. If you don’t know that means, this book is a good start.

• Students and academics wanting to get out of the rat-race of anxiety-induced-hustle.

• Students trying to find their way in life and career. If you are a parent of a teenager or college student, I would highly recommend this book for a Christmas present.

• Christians needing to re-find their faith after 2020-2021. It is not primarily a religious book, but he shares his journey as a Christian that I think many of you can relate to. I know I did after everything that personally happened in 2020 to me in the evangelical-church. If you are a Christian and have been hurt or disappointed by what you have seen in 2020-2021 at your church, at the Capitol, or with other evangelicals, this book is such a dose of encouragement on how to recover. Mark’s vulnerability in this part of his life spoke volumes to me and resonated deeply with what I have experienced. As an evangelical, I wish every evangelical would read this book this Christmas.

• Mommas trying to find themselves again when life disappoints or doesn’t turn out like they thought.

• People experiencing failure and disappointment.

• People asking, “Is this all?” and “What do I do next?”.

• First-generation college students, students wanting to go into global health, students working in global health.

• So, you know. Everyone.

Friends, will you do me a favor and go pre-order this book? In the publishing world, pre-ordering books make a huge difference in getting good books into the big, main bookstores and stocked on Amazon. So, I would love for the FNE community to help make this book a huge success. After and during the pandemic, this, by far, is the book we all need to read. I have no doubt it will be an encouragement to you.

You can pre-order here.

If you want a snippet of Mark’s type of writing, you can read a blog he wrote for the World Bank on poverty through the story of the bleeding woman in Mark 5 here.

-FNE