PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF
KIMMERY MARTIN
Martin leverages her own background as a doctor to great effect throughout —THE NEW YORK TIMES * Riveting ... convey[s] the deeply personal as well as the bigger picture —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (Starred Review) * [A] gem of a story —LIBRARY JOURNAL (Starred Review) * Sweeping in scope and impact ... compelling to its core —BOOKLIST (Starred Review) * Prescient, human and hopeful —PEOPLE MAGAZINE * Complex characters ... [who] nearly jump off the page —NEWSWEEK * A book for our times —GOODREADS * Heartwarming and humorous —THE SOUTHERN PINES PILOT * Martin's trademark witty repartee ... both entertains and tackles thought-provoking questions of honor and integrity —BOOKLIST * A great medical drama —BUST * One of those books that just never stops surprising you —HYPABLE * [You'll be] alternately pondering the finer points of medical ethics and laughing out loud — TOWNCAROLINA MAGAZINE * A stunning debut —BOOKTRIB * Difficult to put down ... [an] excellent story —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY * Fans of Grey’s Anatomy are sure to enjoy —SOUTHERN LIVING * Engrossing, funny —THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER * Just the right balance of intensity, plot twists, tragedy, and humor —BOOKLIST * Wow. Just wow. This book was spectacular —THE SUDBURY STAR (Ontario) * An irresistible mix of romance, ER drama, friendship and betrayal —BOOKPAGE * A funny and real examination of female friendships and modern parenthood —ALA BBOOK CLUB CENTRAL * Impressive ... full of warmth and excitement —THE HARVARD CRIMSON
AND FINALLY...
Love, death, humor, secrets, hot doctor sex, and a medical procedure performed with a fork.
Does that sound like something you might be interested in reading?
— SOUTHBOUND PODCAST on NPR
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More about DOCTORS and FRIENDS
With echoes of Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, John M. Barry's The Great Influenza, and Anna Hope's Expectation, Doctors and Friends is precise in details but sweeping in scope and impact. Martin’s novel is compelling to its core. —Booklist (Starred Review)
In this eerily prescient and timely novel written before the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin's complex characters are infused with such raw emotion that they nearly jump off the page. —NEWSWEEK
Both achingly familiar and punctuated by twists and turns you won’t see coming. I couldn’t put it down! —Meg Donohue, bestselling author of You, Me, and the Sea
At turns hilarious, heartbreaking, and intense; I flew through this book. —Kathy Wang, bestselling author of Imposter Syndrome
Kimmery Martin's fictional world was just the respite I needed from our real one.
—Mary Laura Philpott, author of Bomb Shelter: Love, Time and Other Explosives
This is the pandemic novel I didn't know I was longing for! I loved it. —Anne Bogel, host of the What Should I Read Next podcast
... READ MORE
Kimmery's Blog: The Thing I Wish I'd Done When My Dad Was Alive
I have a confession to make. I hate Halloween.
Not because of the candy, for which I harbor a shameful addiction, or the pressure of getting everyone cool costumes, or even the gross, gory stuff (which, to be honest, I really dislike.) But no: it’s none of that, really.
I hate Halloween … because nine years ago my father died alone sometime in the night between October 30th and October 31st.
I was at church on Halloween morning when I got word. My son’s preschool was doing an autumn concert and the little ones were singing and parading around in their costumes when I noticed my phone displaying three missed calls from my mother. Before I could call her back the phone buzzed again, this time from my stepmother. I eased out of my seat and stood behind the rows of applauding parents and answered in a low voice, wondering what in the world could be going on.
“Kimmery,” Rosanne said. Her voice sounded raspy and anguished, almost frantic. She was the kind of person who laughed a lot; I’d never before heard her sound anything other than hearty and amused. “Richard is dead. Your daddy is dead.”
I remember every single thing about that moment. It’s probably the clearest, most detailed memory of my entire life. There wasn’t a single instant of denial. There was no reprieve from understanding that my father was forever gone; over the course of my career I’ve told too many people that their loved ones had died to mistake those words for anything other than what they are. I’ve seen people react in many different ways to this news; some people scream, some crumple up, some deny it, some stare blankly. In some detached corner of my mind I found myself wondering how I was going to react, almost as if I were both myself and some interested observer hovering a few feet way.
Turns out I am a crumpler. Who knew? I went down in an inelegant heap, rocking on my knees with my forehead nearly touching the carpeted floor of the fellowship hall, my grief so acute and overwhelming it misted my vision. That moment of rocking on the floor was surreal. No one noticed; they were all captivated by the sweet spectacle of the children, who were now marching across the stage on their way to head back to their preschool classrooms. In an instant, the room filled with bodies as everyone rose and headed for the exit ... MORE
What Kimmery Is Reading Now
September 2022:
Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta (fiction); The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris (historical fiction); Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (historical fiction); The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity by Toby Ord (nonfiction/science); The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz (literary fiction); Warm and Dead by Mike Krentz (suspense); To Live in the Light: A Life Renewed, A Faith Restored by Tim Eichenbrenner (medical/Christian fiction)
October 2022:
Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution by Richard Dawkins (nonfiction/science); The Local by Joey Hartsone (legal thriller); The Awoken by Katelyn Monroe Howes (apocalyptic thriller); Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (historical suspense); Groundskeeping by Lee Cole (literary fiction); Haven by Emma Donoghue (historical fiction)
The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger (thriller); The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd (mystery); White Noise by Don DeLillo (fiction); The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (literary fiction); The Passengers by John Marrs (thriller); The Retreat by Sarah Pearse (thriller); This Was Not the Plan by Cristina Alger (contemporary fiction); The Club by Lloyd Ellery (suspense); Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon (fiction); Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires by Douglas Rushkoff (nonfiction economics); The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs (literary fiction)
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas (literary fiction); Ladies' Day by Lisa Williams Kline (fiction); The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley (fiction); This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Young Doctor by Adam Kay (medical nonfiction); The House of Wolves by James Patterson and Mike Lupica (thriller); The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne (literary fiction); The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True by Richard Dawkins (nonfiction science) MORE ...
BRITNEY SPEARS
COBRA KAI
MARTHA STEWART
Kimmery's Blog: An Irreverent Roundtable with Author P.J. Vernon
PJ: Dear Reader, I know The Antidote for Everything swept you off your feet. Kimmery is a wicked talent and her writing oozes clever voice, delicious one-liners, and heartbreak in equal measure.
In Martin’s follow up to her critically acclaimed debut, The Queen of Hearts, the “Liane Moriarty of Medical Fiction” (in quotes because I tweeted it once) explores the deep friendship between physicians Georgia Brown and Jonah Tsukada—and the lengths to which they’ll go to protect one another when threatened by institutional malice.
Side Note: If you haven’t finished TAFE, started it, or (cue my gay gasp) even procured your copy yet, bookmark this immediately and go change that. Seriously. Go. Now. We’ll wait.
Okay, since you’ve finished the novel, we can jump right into this very kla$$y author roundtable between myself and the one and only Kimmery Martin, MD.
KM: Hi, everyone. For those of you not familiar with him, PJ Vernon is a dog-owning, Canadian-dwelling, PhD-possessing scientist who also happens to be a dazzling suspense writer (When You Find Me, Crooked Lane Books, 2018) AND Bath Haus, (2021) his huge hit thriller from Doubleday Books.
Hello PJ! Hit me with some insightful, hard-charging questions.
PJ: I saved the hardest question for literally the very first one: You open the book with what just might be the most hilarious scene I’ve ever read. Why start with testicles? ... MORE...
About Kimmery
SERIOUS BIO:
Kimmery Martin is an emergency medicine doctor-turned novelist whose works of medical fiction have been praised by The Harvard Crimson, People magazine, Newsweek and The New York Times, among others. A lifelong literary nerd, she interviews authors, teaches writing seminars, and speaks frequently at libraries, conferences, medical schools, and bookstores around the United States. Kimmery completed her medical training at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She lives with her husband and three children in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she serves on the Board of Trustees of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and teaches Narrative Medicine courses at the local medical school and in the medical community.
FUN BIO:
Kimmery Martin won her first short story contest in the first grade, and was awarded a red stuffed elephant and publication in the school newspaper. Her writing career then suffered an unfortunate dry spell, finally broken with the publication of the enthralling journal article Lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in the Staging of Melanoma, followed by the equally riveting sequel Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy for Pelvic Malignancies, both during medical school.
Conscious readers remained elusive, however, prompting her to ... MORE ...