New Book Features Amazing "Rhode Island Stories" - Written by Dr. Fine

New Book Features Amazing "Rhode Island Stories" - Written by Dr. Fine

Dr. Michael Fine, Rhode Island’s former Director of Health, has published his newest book, Rhode Island Stories. 

"Rhode Island. A tiny little state with more stories than people. People from Hungary, Nigeria, Poland, Ireland, Canada, Honduras, Liberia, El Salvador, Cape Verde and Mexico. But also Providence, Pawtucket, North Providence, Central Falls, South Kingston, Johnston, Scituate and Glocester. Farmers, violinists, firefighters, organizers, adjunct professors, landlords, internet entrepreneurs, administrators, cops, nurses, crooks, shop owners," states the description of the book. "Hopes and dreams, sicknesses, deaths and disappointments. Loves and heartbreaks. Some trying to repair the world. Others overwhelmed by the beauty of the world as it is. All in one place, becoming one people. What democracy looks like."

Fine — a doctor and community organizer — is the author of The Bull and Other Stories; Abundance; Health Care Revolt: How to Organize, Build a Health Care System, and Resuscitate a Democracy All at the Same Time; The Nature of Health, and The Zero Calorie Diet. 

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“The best part of our city, and our state, is the incredible culture and diversity that’s not only very present but openly celebrated. Stories of challenge and stories of overcoming. Stories of hard work, of hope, of family,  and so much more,” said Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera. “Through an unfiltered lens, Rhode Island Stories uniquely captures the depth of the narratives that often go untold, but quietly make up the very backbone of our communities.”  

The book is available at Pawtucket's Stillwater Books and can be found here. 

Latest for Fine

During the coronavirus pandemic, Fine appeared regularly on GoLocal LIVE, and for most of 2020, he joined GoLocal CEO Josh Fenton daily to discuss the latest data and developments. 

Fine was recognized in GoLocal’s RI Men of the Year for 2020. As GoLocal wrote:

Prior to the pandemic, Dr. Michael Fine was working with Rhode Island's poorest communities and developing strategies to improve health access.

Then, the world changed and the need for health expertise became paramount. Fine, who had served as the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health had a lifetime of experience and had developed a national reputation for his work. 

Earlier in his career, Fine practiced for 16 years in urban Pawtucket and rural Scituate, after serving as a National Health Service Corps Scholar in Hancock County Tennessee, then the fifth poorest county in the U.S.  He was a VISTA Volunteer, as a community organizer on 167th Street and 3rd Avenue in the South Bronx, before medical school at Case Western Reserve University and residency at Brown. 

“These stories are a grand landscape of the outer State and also the inner  “state” of its residents—the secrets, dreams, wisdom, foolery, struggles and triumphs," said Samuel Shem, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Humanities at NYU Medical School and author of The House of God and its sequel, Man’s 4th Best Hospital.  "The Good Doctor Fine is brilliant in his writing, large in his canvas, and deep in his understanding. This is a triumph.”