Americans have long been fascinated by the personal lives of Hollywood celebrities and the over-hyped magic of plastic surgery. In this entertaining memoir, Dr. Norman Leaf, a highly respected plastic surgeon, reveals the complex and all-too-human connection that exists between these two worlds. In his thirty-five years practicing in Beverly Hills, California, Leaf has encountered the great and those aspiring to be great, seeing them in a different light than the general public. This unique perspective contributes to a touching, inspiring, humorous, and eye-opening journey into a world few have the opportunity to see close-up, while debunking the myths and clearing up the misconceptions about plastic surgery. Are Those Real? is not a kiss-and-tell memoir. With the exception of a few iconic figures, Leaf is careful to protect the identities of his patients. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, Are Those Real? paints an intimate portrait of a master surgeon, while shining a light into a little-known corner of modern culture. In this memoir, Leaf appeals to biography buffs and illustrates the good, bad, happy, and just plain funny aspects of plastic surgery.

"No, Dr. Zide, you may not inject my son's leg unless you do this chant." And for the next minute she chanted: 'Ah booh galla, rum das blah, blah, blah...' " Barry Zide, MD, New York. Every plastic surgeon has some good stories. This book is an anthology of some of the anecdotes from surgeons around the world. The book is dedicated to one of the great men in plastic surgery, Dr. Robert Goldwyn. As the editor of our journal, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, he has taught, commented, criticized and opined. His biting wit at times drove me to seek out Patty, my office manager, to share an editorial that simply had me howling with laughter. Satire, spoof, and serious commentary have been used to get his editorial point across. This book is therefore designed to honor this intellectual giant of a man in the language (stories), that he commands. All of the contributors are plastic surgeons, and all of the stories are true. The story of "Chu" was so moving, that the first half dozen times I recounted it to others, I was choked up to the point of tears. The anecdotes were collected into chapters that were little more than gross categorizations: Humor, Tragedy, Drama, and Poignant. The ensuing emotional roller-coaster afforded a look "Behind the Face of the Specialty" by reading the stories of the surgeons. All proceeds from this book will be donated to the Plastic Surgeons Education Foundation.

You are about enter the wild and wonderful world of one of San Antonio's most respected and beloved board-certified plastic surgeons. He takes you behind the scenes of his successful practice and tells all, especially the "stuff" nobody tells medical school residents when they decide to go into plastic surgery! Get ready for your jaw to drop as you follow Dr. Jeneby... - from the sanctuary of his on-site OR doing a pre-dawn breast augmentation with his signature adjustable implants; (Ladies, you'll thank him when you get to go as big as you want--gradually, because you're gonna be sore enough after your surgery!) - to his fast-paced consults where he sizes up a potential patient's mental health because he's not just going to give you want you want until he knows you know what you're getting yourself into; (Guys, you may think you want a penis enlargement, but maybe you really just need a little affirmation) -through the moment-by-moment maze of managing his women-only staff...and so much more! You'll learn how he's dedicated to giving to charity and prefers to use the gift of his hands to restore victims of domestic violence back to themselves. You'll also hear from some of his raving fans, whose lives have been transformed because of Dr. Jeneby. Get ready to have your world rocked!

Killer Looks is the definitive story about the long-forgotten practice of providing free nose jobs, face-lifts, breast implants, and other physical alterations to prisoners, the idea being that by remodeling the face you remake the man. From the 1920s up to the mid-1990s, half a million prison inmates across America, Canada, and the U.K willingly went under the knife, their tab picked up by the government. In the beginning, this was a haphazard affair -- applied inconsistently and unfairly to inmates, but entering the 1960s, a movement to scientifically quantify the long-term effect of such programs took hold. And, strange as it may sound, the criminologists were right: recidivism rates plummeted. In 1967, a three-year cosmetic surgery program set on Rikers Island saw recidivism rates drop 36% for surgically altered offenders. The program, funded by a $240,000 grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was led by Dr. Michael Lewin, who ran a similar program at Sing-Sing prison in 1953. Killer Looks draws on the intersectionality of socioeconomic success, racial bias, the prison industry complex and the fallacy of attractiveness to get to the heart of how appearance and societal approval creates self-worth, and uncovers deeper truths of beauty bias, inherited racism, effective recidivism programs, and inequality. ,

Dr. Michael Salzhauer, a renowned plastic surgeon, wrote My Beautiful Mommy to help patients explain their transformation to their children. The story guides children through Mommy's surgery and healing process in a friendly, nonthreatening way.

The surprising history of cosmetic surgery—and America's quest for physical perfection—from the turn of the century to the present. Face lifts, nose jobs, breast implants, liposuction, collagen injections—the body at the end of the twentieth century has become endlessly mutable, and surgical alteration has become an accepted part of American culture. In Venus Envy, Elizabeth Haiken traces the quest for physical perfection through surgery from the turn of the century to the present. Drawing on a wide array of sources—personal accounts, medical records, popular magazines, medical journals, and beauty guides—Haiken reveals how our culture came to see cosmetic surgery as a panacea for both individual and social problems.

A New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize | Named a best book of the year by The Guardian "Enthralling. Harrowing. Heartbreaking. And utterly redemptive. Lindsey Fitzharris hit this one out of the park." —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile Lindsey Fitzharris, the award-winning author of The Butchering Art, presents the compelling, true story of a visionary surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War’s injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery. From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: humankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed. The First World War claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. The Facemaker tells the extraordinary story of such an individual: the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to reconstructing the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care. Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in the nascent field of plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. There, Gillies assembled a unique group of practitioners whose task was to rebuild what had been torn apart, to re-create what had been destroyed. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their spirits. The Facemaker places Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine can be an art, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.

This New York Times bestseller is a hilarious and inspiring tribute to the iconic comedian Joan Rivers by the person who knew her best--her daughter, Melissa. Joan and Melissa Rivers had one of the most celebrated mother-daughter relationships of all time. If you think Joan said some outrageous things to her audiences as a comedian, you won’t believe what she said and did in private. Her love for her daughter knew no bounds—or boundaries, apparently. ("Melissa, I acknowledge that you have boundaries. I just choose to not respect them.") In The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation, Melissa shares stories (like when she was nine months old and her parents delivered her to Johnny Carson as a birthday gift), bon mots (“Missy, is there anything better than seeing a really good looking couple pushing a baby that looks like a Sasquatch who got caught in a house fire?”), and life lessons from growing up in the Rosenberg-Rivers household (“I can do tips and discounts and figure out the number of gay men in an audience to make it a good show. That’s all the math you’ll ever need.”). These were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to life in the family that Melissa describes as more Addams than Cleaver. And at the center of it all was a tiny blond force of nature. In The Book of Joan, Melissa Rivers relates funny, poignant and irreverent observations, thoughts, and tales about the woman who raised her and is the reason she considers valium one of the four basic food groups.