anyone read this book? (more recommendations)

[biobossx99]

Just wondering, anyone read the book "complications: a surgeon's notes on an imperfect science"?

I just finished it and, after talking to a few MDs and Med students, they took read it. I thought it was pretty awesome, but the whole section about the flesh eating bateria was somewhat frightening.

Either ways, Anyone else have any other recommendations for good reads on medicine? This book really got me looking for other books about medical practice. I'm a book worm in general.

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[G0S2]

Abraham Verghese's My Own Country is good. About Dr. Verghese's experience in Tennessee as HIV hits.

There is also A Life in Medicine, which is a collection of stories dealing with medicine. It is edited by Robert Coles ISBN# 1565847296.

Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. All about a Hmong family in California and how a clash in cultural differences resulted in a poor outcome for a Hmong girl. Many med schools assign this as summer reading prior to matriculation.

Melvin Konner's Becoming a Doctor. A bit outdated, but a good read.

 

[Bones2008]

The Intern Blues by Bob Marion. Read it, love it.

 

[PapaDosh]

Of course you should also read The House of God by Shamuel Shem- everybody reads that!

Also try out Mel Konner's other book The Tangled Wing. Its not about doctors specifically, but its more about anthropology and neurological basis for behavior. Mel rocks! 😎

 

[ATPase]

Another good one, especially for you future pediatricians, is "A Map of the Child: A Pediatrician's Tour of the Body" by Darshak Sanghavi. This one is similar in style to Complications.

 

[trudub]

I have read both House of God and Mount Misery by Samuel Shem. Bot interesting looks at being a medical student or resident. I would recommend them, but be prepared for some cynicism.

I am reading Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science right now and it is wonderful right now. It is insightful and gives you a first hand look at what is to come for a future physician.

I also read White Coat. It is an interesting look at four years at Harvard Medical School. I would also recommend this book. They are all good reads.

I would be interested in what everyone else has to say about Intern Blues. I am considering reading it next.

 

[ATPase]

Intern Blues is good but depressing. A very unpleasant look at what internship will be...

 

[dstn2bmd]

Learning to Play God: The coming of age of a young doctor by Robert Marion

When the Air Hits your Brain: Tales of Neurosurgery by Frank Vertosick, Jr.

Both are great reads and if your into anesthesiology and history check out,

Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It by Julie M. Fenster. This was really good.

Heb

 

[HawkeyeBFP]

Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives by Linda Grim

The Mysteries Within by Sherwin Nuland (actually anything by Sherwin Nuland)

The Language of Cells by Spencer Nadler

A Not Entirely Benign Procedure by Perri Klass

First, Do No Harm by Lisa Belkin

That's just a quick rundown of one shelf. 😉 Oh, anything by Oliver Sacks is fascinating, of course.

I liked Complications too....originally read most of it in the NY Times magazine. Intern Blues is interesting but also a little dated...I don't own it but I think it came out in the early 70s--?

M*A*S*H by Richard Hooker is also a good read. If you're into fiction, of course. 😎

 

[logos]

The "Lost Art of Healing" by Brenard Lown is a great book...best medicine related book i've read...Also a book called "M.D." by B.H. Kean is a great book.

Nulands book (mentioned above) is pretty good (actually i think there is more than one)

Both of William Nolen's books....dont remember the titles but one is about his training and the other about his rural practice...written in the 70s.

I liked that "A Map of the child" book better than complications...but I guess i'm one of very few people that wasnt that impressed with complications...


Melvin Konnors book "a journey of initiation in medical school" is ok...but the author is obviously a complete dick...half the book is about how he is better than everyone else in medical school because he was already a doctor (of sociology) before he went to med school.

 

[Dr JPH]

Tom Brokaw has a few great books published if you enjoy reading about WWII Americana.

Cold Storage by Wendell Rawls. True accounts of a hospital for the criminally insane located in NE Pennsylvania. Fascinating book.

 

[topherius]

Logos, you and I must share a brain or something. I thought Lown's book was the best thing I've read so far on medicine, and Konner's book ticked me off so much that I never finished it.

To this long and worthy list I would add "White Coat," by Ellen Lerner Rothman. (Or is it Rothman Lerner? Can't remember.) Ruminations and short essays on the four years of medical school, written in the mid 90s, so it's still fairly up to date.

"Travels" (see below) is good, though only a small section is actually about medical school, just as a heads up. Definitely worth a read regardless.

 

[drlexygoat]

Complications was a great book! so frightening to think of the things that occur in the secrecy of the OR. How about that ortho doctor who went nuts?

 

[bbawco1]

DEFINITELY try michael crichton's "Travels" for a bit of a comic relief and medical relations. My favorite book undoubtledly.

 

[Halcyon440]

"House of God" depressed me about medicine. I had to stop reading it in order to get excited about working on my Postbacc application. I am glad to be familiar with the terminology from it, but it was a weird experience. "Intern Blues" was almost equally depressing. Both are older books.

I've read "Complications", "Becoming a Doctor", "Gifted Hands", and "A Not entirely benign procedure". All were good.

 

[91Bravo]

INTERN BLUES 'blew the big one.' It's depressing and from what I hear from some current residents, it does not accurately portray what residencies are like today. Remember, it was written in the mid-eighties. If you like boring, out-of-date books, I highly recommend it.

COMPLICATIONS was a decent read.

By far, my highest recommendation is held for P.C. M.D. (How Political Correctness is Ruining Medicine). If you want a shocking look at healthcare, give this book a peek.

Of course, EVERYONE POOPS is a classic that cannot be denied.

🙂

 

[G0S2]

The Gas We Pass

 

[lisa13579]

INTERN BLUES 'blew the big one.' It's depressing and from what I hear from some current residents, it does not accurately portray what residencies are like today. Remember, it was written in the mid-eighties. If you like boring, out-of-date books, I highly recommend it.

I think it still does portray residency pretty well. I have a very close friend in a surgery internship year and I would read him passages of the book, because the residents in the book were feeling exactly like he was. Yes, it is a very depressing book, but my opinion is that it is still valid today.