The White Coat Diaries by Madi Sinha

 Norah Kapadia has finally graduated from medical school and is starting her intern year in Internal Medicine at Philadelphia General Hospital. In her naivete -- she "just wants to help people" -- Norah is unprepared for the physical, mental, and emotional toll that the year is going to take on her. Even though her father was a respected physician, the head of Pediatrics at UPenn, he died when Norah was ten and she wants to follow in his footsteps. And she fully intends to finish her residency and make her family proud if she can make it though the grueling years to come. So much happens during her intern year and Norah, a sheltered girl from a traditional Indian family, is completely unprepared. Between the demands of her family and the stress of her job, Norah can barely hold it all together. Things look up, at first, when she meets Ethan Cantor, her chief resident, and falls under his spell. As always, however, things are not what they seem to be. Norah needs to make some very serious decisions about who she is and what she wants to do. NO SPOILERS.

This is not nearly as trashy as GREY'S ANATOMY, but it's probably relatable to anyone with a hospital or medical background. The nightmare of internship and residency is real -- the long hours and the stress -- and the very strange bonding that occurs, sort of like a battlefield mentality. The author portrays Norah as being more patient-oriented than most of the other medical personnel in the book, and that's the point it seemed, that Norah was different and better than them. A few digs, some not subtle, at pharma, hospital administration, insurance companies, and legal to name a few. I felt that Norah was a bit one-dimensional in her straight arrow approach and yet I liked her much more in the first part of the book than I did after the "two year" mark. This is not meant to be non-fiction, nor is it a real diary, so I think there's a banal moral in all this, but I really didn't end up liking the ending of this novel at all.

I like books about medical things, no doubt because of my background and career, so I wanted to read it. It was an entertaining and easy read though I honestly don't know if all the detail and description is too much for a person who has no real experience or knowledge of medicine or nursing, etc. I'd describe it as a coming of age story more than anything. Norah grew up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for the e-book ARC to read and review.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - contemporary women's fiction, medical, coming of age