Life And Death Behind The Brick And Razor-Code Red Diamond by Isaac Alexis is a hard book to describe. It's part auto-biography and part medical advice book.Dr. Alexis tells us about how he became a doctor and shares some of his stories from working as a doctor in a correctional hospital. He also give a lot of medical advice and addresses issues such as STDs, drug abuse, strokes, parenting tips, leading a healthier lifestyle and much more.

I enjoyed hearing about Dr. Alexis's adventures growing up in New York, he gives his reasons for wanting to become a doctor and talks about how seeing people in his family struggle with sickness, his strict mother and wanting to stay away from street gangs made him decided that he wanted to help people. Parts of this book are inspiring as he shows that if you are willing to work hard you can accomplish what you want.

Dr. Alexis also gives some great advice throughout the book, such as what your target heart rate and pulse should be and he gets into what foods are the most healthy. He states that a plant-based diet is important and mentions the health benefits of the Indian spice, turmeric. There is a lot of good information along with some gut wrenching stories. Such as a man who needed surgery for a bowel problem and the head of the department would not ok it. There were also stories about people trying to escape prison by doing such things as swallowing razor blades. Probably the best parts of this book is when he explains how easy it is to get STD's, how to avoid them and how you can keep your kids from giving in to peer pressure.

Dr. Alexis's book has some great stories and his passion for people really shines through. Though some of the information he talked about went over my head, I still found it informative. I thought it felt a little more like reading someone's blog than a book because the way he jumps from talking about his life, to working in the hospital, to giving medical advice. This didn't take away from the fact that it's an enjoyable educational book and a quick read. It made me wish I had a doctor like him. ( )