Books about medicine

[Stpierre9696]

What are some books that you guys have read that motivated you to become a doctor ? Or books in general that gave you insight into medicine and healthcare!

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[datboi_58]

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanathi
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

 

[pBar]

Knocking on Heaven's Door - Katy Butler
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman
Cancer the Emperor of all Maladies - Siddhartha Mukherjee
A Doctor's Life: Memoirs from 9 Decades of Caring - Israel Rosefsky
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

 

[jurassicpark]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Why? "Don't Panic." And you'll realize 42 is the answer the everything, and everything is run by some crazy old man in shed anyways.

 

[crepuscular.ray]

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanathi
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

+1

Also
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness -- Susannah Cahalan
Cutting For Stone -- Abraham Verghese
In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope -- Rana Awdish

 

[Schwifty]

This one's alright, bit of a tough read, buts its got some good info in it

 

[Cornfed101]

When The Air Hits Your Brain - Frank Vertosick
Hot Lights, Cold Steel - Michael Collins
The Butchering Art - Lindsey Fitzharris

any book written by Atul Gawande

 

[jurassicpark]

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness -- Susannah Cahalan

Strangely enough, this book came out shortly after we had our own case of NMDA-encephalitis. Was the craziest thing we saw. I can definitely see how in the past, they would think young women were possessed. A complete sudden crazy personality change, on the vent and heavily medicated she was still sitting up in bed and doing stuff you would see in the Exorcist, the nurses were even telling me they needed a young priest and an old priest. She even almost completely bit off her tongue. Was quite memorable, the story ended well for my patient though, and she still goes to see the treating neurologist and is very successful and no memories of what happened.

And even funnier, a month later we found an NMDA case locked in a psych unit we were seeing for new seizures. Makes you wonder how many young women are also written off as "crazy."

 

[rahrahb]

First, do not harm - Lisa Belkin
Trauma Room Two - Philip Allen Green

 

[Rachapkis]

The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee were both excellent.

 

[GlowCloud]

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks

 

[Heliobacter]

Kill as few patients as possible - Oscar London

 

[glitterysuccs]

Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

+1

 

[MedStudent2301]

Defintiely The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. I actually tend to bring it up in my interviews and it sparks really great conversation!

 

[Tigerlily7]

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder

 

[electropartyogram]

I just finished reading Five Patients by the late Dr. Michael Crichton. It was written in 1970 about his experiences as a medical student at Massachusettes General Hospital and in addition to reviewing daily activities and following the cases of five patients, he reviews the history of medicine and the hospital system, and points out issues regarding cost of health care as a whole. Even though it is 50 years outdated, I really enjoyed it. The same issues he realized about hospitals and health care 50 years ago are relevant and much worse today. The insight into the medical system during that time is interesting and I believe it is worth the read; definitely a primer for the many excellent modern recommendations in this thread.

 

[SeaHusky]

This Is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay

Incredibly sobering since it focuses on the mistreatment and neglect physicians endure, but somehow hilarious at the same time (author is a British comedy writer that quit being a physician). Highly, highly recommend.

 

[rahrahb]

This Is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay

Incredibly sobering since it focuses on the mistreatment and neglect physicians endure, but somehow hilarious at the same time (author is a British comedy writer that quit being a physician). Highly, highly recommend.

+1

 

[deleted993760]

What Patients Say What Doctors Hear by Danielle Ofri
Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders (also a great show on netflix!)

 

[vrazzles]

Phantoms in the Brain, V.S. Ramachandran

Seeing Patients, Augustus White III

Better, Atul Gawande

Hallucinations, Oliver Sacks

 

[deleted966164]

Sunita Puri - The Good Night. It’s a great book about palliative medicine and its role in patient care. It also has some great personal insight.

 

[FreeGibbs]

The Price We Pay by Marty Makary

It'll make you angry about the injustices about our current healthcare system, yet fervent about the potential impacts and changes one can have on medicine

 

[deleted966164]

The Price We Pay by Marty Makary

It'll make you angry about the injustices about our current healthcare system, yet fervent about the potential impacts and changes one can have on medicine

Great book! Just finished a few days ago.

 

[swanthumb898]

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff--> Good to think about your own actions and it's as relevant as you want it to be.

1 Out of 10 Doctors Recommends: Drinking Urine, Eating Worms, and Other Weird Cures, Cases, and Research from the Annals of Medicine by H. Eric Bender, Murdoc Khaleghi, and Bobby Singh --> Keeps things light in this stressful time.

and +1 on Cutting For Stone: that book gets ya.

 

[and 99 others]

Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital by Eric Mannheimer. He was medical director at Bellevue for over a decade I believe and wrote about what he saw there.

 

[Goro]

The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity by Roy Porter
Eleven Blue Men by Berton Roueche. In fact, anything by this author.
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason (outstanding novel about a young doctor's experiences in the Austro-Hungarian army on the Russian front during WWI.)

 

[DJChemmyChem]

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on and Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity by Ronald Epstein *Currently reading this one, but I like it so far!*

 

[deleted804295]

Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine

Is a really great book I read during my Freshman year of college that helped me better understand the struggles that are unique to people of color in medicine. I would recommend it to anyone interested in healthcare/medicine.

 

[DevinBookerMD]

The house of God

 

[Darrow O'Lykos]

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanathi
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

These are the two I was going to write, and I'll also add Gawande's Complications

 

[TwoHighways]

Dr. Kalanathi's letter to his daughter was otherworldly. If I have a child in the future, I can only hope to love him or her half as much as that man loved his little girl.

 

[CABG Patch Kid]

- Doing Harm by Maya Dursenbery
- Any book ever written by Atul Gwande
- Also anything by Brene Brown, not directly medically related but definitely builds your perspective about self, others, and empathy!

 

[oioeoelgd154]

Black Man in a White Coat by Damon Tweedy MD

 

[aldol16]

Can't recommend Hot Lights, Cold Steel enough for any aspiring surgeon. Quite a good take on the ins and outs of the daily surgical lifestyle as well as the unique challenges that we face as a result of our chosen profession.

 

[Cornfed101]

Can't recommend Hot Lights, Cold Steel enough for any aspiring surgeon. Quite a good take on the ins and outs of the daily surgical lifestyle as well as the unique challenges that we face as a result of our chosen profession.

Also, a really funny book

 

[tessellations]

Someone mentioned this book already, but I highly recommend Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese. It probably ranks as one of my favorite novels I've read thus far in my life. Even my non-physician mother loved it. I got asked about my favorite books in an interview recently and this was the first book out of my mouth.

Also really enjoyed Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder and I've loved all of Atul Gawande's books.

Not entirely related to being a doctor, but NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman is another amazing medical history book about the history of autism that was incredibly eye opening for me.

 

[PTPuser]

Hentai.

 

[Snow112]

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
and all his books.

 

[NewBalancePremed]

"What The Eyes Don't See"

Fascinating book about a local pediatrician's discovery/reaction to the Flint water crisis & interesting insight into some of the unfortunate politics behind public health responses

 

[thevoice]

Animal's People by Indra Sinha