A mini-comics master's poetic musings on illness & the art of getting by The Hospital Suite is a landmark work by the celebrated cartoonist and small-press legend John Porcellino—an autobiographical collection detailing his struggles with illness in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 1997, John began to have severe stomach pain. He soon found out he needed emergency surgery to remove a benign tumor from his small intestine. In the wake of the surgery, he had numerous health complications that led to a flare-up of his preexisting tendencies toward anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Hospital Suite is Porcellino’s response to these experiences—simply told stories drawn in the honest, heart-wrenching style of his much-loved King-Cat mini-comics. His gift for spare yet eloquent candor makes The Hospital Suite an intimate portrayal of one person’s experiences that is also intensely relatable. Porcellino’s work is lauded for its universality and quiet, clear-eyed contemplation of everyday life. The Hospital Suite is a testimony to this subtle strength, making his struggles with the medical system and its consequences for his mental health accessible and engaging.

Medical examiners play an increasingly important role in society as unexpected and violent deaths increase, not only due to crime, but also due to new toxins in the environment, emerging diseases crossing from animals to humans, bizarre suicides, sadistic sexual practices, and other non-natural causes. John Miletich and Tia Lindstrom take us into the world of these medical detectives. Biological clues from bite marks and skin abnormalities to blood chemical levels and brain oxygenation are just some factors exposed in their quest for truth and justice. We learn the basics of death determination from rigor and livor mortis to signs of death by design, drug use, disease, suicide, and more. We also come to understand the tools of this work, from the Stryker's Saw to the grocer's scale, and tests that reveal factors from DNA evidence to toxins from insect bites. Each case begins with a biological mystery and ends with a conclusion that can provide loved ones with relief, or shock. Miletich, who trained at the Alberta Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, teams with Lindstrom to introduce readers to the medical examiner's role, including autopsy techniques and analysis. Twists and turns emerge as what was initially thought to be a murder proves to be suicide; what was suspected to be a natural death proves to be murder or environmental poisoning; or what was thought to be an accidental death proves to be something more sinister. This work includes appendices with guides to Medical Examiner organizations, seminars, and conventions.

Surgical services carry some of the highest risks and rewards of all healthcare specialties. They also present specific challenges. Those unfamiliar with the surgical suite’s inner workings may struggle to lead and manage this complex and often isolated department. The Healthcare Executive’s Guide to Navigating the Surgical Suite: A Roadmap to the OR and Perioperative Services provides experienced and novice healthcare leaders with the information, leadership structures, and practical strategies needed to successfully oversee both patient outcomes and balance sheets. This book covers contemporary market realities, business challenges, labor requirements, and clinical and operational complexities as it points leaders toward the most pressing issues in strategic surgical services leadership.

"Unvarnished. Punk."–The New York Times King-Cat Classix collects material from the first fifty issues of John Porcellino’s King-Cat Comics as they appeared in self-published, handmade zines throughout the 1990s. These strips span Porcellino’s dynamic evolution from saturated, punk drawings to his characteristic refined minimalism, revealing his work as nothing short of a catalyst that has inspired artists like Chris Ware in the emerging literary comics scene. In the inky drawings featuring beloved pets, awkward teenage one-night-stands, and everyday blunders, we see a nascent style steeped in truth and transparency—one that continues to ring true today. Porcellino’s mind is spread out on the page, with an uninhibited id running wildly about dreams and sexual fantasies, not unlike the gritty, stabbing pen strokes of Julie Doucet. He sketches fragmented moments and glimpses of interaction that seem to reflect the very manner in which we process memory: we are made up of a stream of consciousness, captured in fleeting mental images, and Porcellino externalizes that messy internal reality. Follow along the path of Porcellino’s dynamic evolution and relish in the inspirational power of this groundbreaking collection.

Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the King-Cat zine Never before have so few lines conveyed such a wealth of meaning as in John Porcellino’s quietly riveting book about memory, relationships, and selfhood. During a period of isolation following a divorce, Porcellino penned Map of My Heart, endowing it with the sensitivity and emotional depth so characteristic to his minimalist style. His tender drawings and spacious panels shape an autobiographical testimony where no moment is too small or insignificant for posterity. Pensive walks in the forest, encounters with rogue woodland creatures, school yard fights, Zen meditations, long lost crushes, and childhood exploits are the heart of this therapeutic account of the ever-fleeting present.

Doctor and social activist Paul Farmer shares a collection of charismatic short speeches that aims to inspire the next generation. One of the most passionate and influential voices for global health equity and social justice, Farmer encourages young people to tackle the greatest challenges of our times. Engaging, often humorous, and always inspiring, these speeches bring to light the brilliance and force of Farmer’s vision in a single, accessible volume. A must-read for graduates, students, and everyone seeking to help bend the arc of history toward justice, To Repair the World: challenges readers to counter failures of imagination that keep billions of people without access to health care, safe drinking water, decent schools, and other basic human rights champions the power of partnership against global poverty, climate change, and other pressing problems today overturns common assumptions about health disparities around the globe by considering the large-scale social forces that determine who gets sick and who has access to health care discusses how hope, solidarity, faith, and hardbitten analysis have animated Farmer’s service to the poor in Haiti, Peru, Rwanda, Russia, and elsewhere leaves the reader with an uplifting vision: that with creativity, passion, teamwork, and determination, the next generations can make the world a safer and more humane place.