Good Leisure Reading Prior to Beginning Medical School

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Some of my favorites:
Medical - How We Do Harm by Otis Brawley, Emperor of All Maladies, and anything by Atul Gawande.
Non-medical - Life of Pi, A Wrinkle in Time (very excited for the movie in March), Suite Francaise

On deck for me:
A Stitch of Time by Lauren Marks, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Color of Water. Just looked to see if my local library has When Breath Becomes Air, so I'll be picking that one up soon also.
 
Inspiring (medicine related):
- Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (if you want to be deeply inspired but simultaneously feel like you’ve accomplished nothing with your life yet)

- Pathologies of Power by Paul Farmer (authored by the guy the previous book is about)

- Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink (cripplingly difficult decisions and harsh realities of a hospital stranded by Hurricane Katrina)

- Called for Life by Amber & Kent Brantley (I left Liberia the day before it was announced Dr Brantley contracted Ebola, incredible perspective on the call to serve at whatever cost, and a story close to my heart)

Still med but ID focused, if you’re into that:

- The Next Pandemic (former CDC director and EIS officer)

- The Great Influenza (great way to grasp a disease we tend to shrug off in the modern US)

Unrelated fun one:
Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kleon (never look at a page full of words the same way ever again)

Wanna get weird?:
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Knife Man is a very interesting biography on a late 1700s surgeon, would definitely recommend it.
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Loved this book.

Also, Mary Roach is excellent. Besides Stiff, her other books are great. Grunt is very good, as is Spook.

As for non-medical books, I have read several good ones lately:

1. The Soul of an Octopus (nonfiction)
2. The Red Rising series (sci fi)
3. Revival (Stephen King)
4. Our Mathematical Universe (nonfiction)
5. Beak of the Finch (nonfiction)
6. Ready Player One (sci fi)
7. The Rest of Us Just Live Here (fiction)
 
A vote here for “when breath becomes air.” Another for poems galore if you’re into that kind of thing!
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Loved this book.

Also, Mary Roach is excellent. Besides Stiff, her other books are great. Grunt is very good, as is Spook.
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You can’t mention those and leave out Bonk. A hilariously good read, but I might avoid discussing it in an interview...


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Nice to see that so many of faves listed in earlier posts.

My list:
House of God-Samuel Shem
Being Mortal-Atul Gawande
When Breath Becomes Air-Paul Kalanithi
The Gene-Siddartha Mukherajee
Gulp-Mary Roach
Better-Atul Gawande
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks-Rebecca Skloot
The Scalpel and the Silver Bear-Lori Alvoord
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down-Anne Fadiman
My Stroke of Insight-Jill Bolte Taylor
Proof of Heaven-Eben Alexander
Final Gifts-Patricia Kelly and Maggie Callahan
On Grief and Grieving-Elisabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler
Cutting for Stone (fiction)-Abraham Verghese

I hadn’t heard of Thinkimg, fast and slow but will add it to my list thanks to recs here.

I’m taking a reading hiatus at the moment to binge Breaking Bad. Can’t believe it took me this long!
 
Spillover by David Quammen. Excellent book, and I don’t think I saw it mentioned here.
 
Prolly already mentioned,

Do No Harm, Henry Marsh
I second Spillover
 
RFroning said:
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
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I feel like I am alone in saying that this was a poorly written book. Not only that, but the premise is sort of messed up. Should be renamed "How to Manipulate and Connive Others and be an All-Around Bad Human Being."

Here are a few good books
-Comp City by Max Rubin
-Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
-The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
 
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Remembrance of Earth's Past series was phenomenal. (Three Body Problem is the first, the Dark Forest, and finally Death's End). Highly recommend it to lovers of 'hard' sci-fi.

Temporary People was a very moving collection of stories/vignettes. Elements of magic realism, satire. Really recommend it to anyone who is an immigrant / from an immigrant family because it articulated a lot of things for me I never really knew how to put into words.

Stories of Your Life -- collection of sci-fi stories. Including the story that became the movie Arrival. Recommend to fans of sci-fi who also enjoy religious themes.

Like @Sunbodi suggested, Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Du Bois is not only one of the most important works of social theory ever written, but is also incredibly moving and well-written. Should be required reading for everyone in the States imo.

In the Company of the Poor (nonfiction) will be of great interest to people interested in the intersection of faith and public health. (Paul Farmer and Gustavo Gutierrez co-wrote it, both will be instantly recognizable names to people familiar with either global health or liberation theology). For these particularly interested in liberation theology, I also recommend Gustavo Gutierreze's meditation on the book of Job: On Job: God Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent.

currently on my desk is The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin (2nd ed) and I'm really liking it. History and analysis of intellectuals and politicians who shaped conservatism as an ideology from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump. Robin has been one of the most sober and coherent leftist commentators in the epoch of Trump and he advances a very convincing analysis of conservatism that moves far beyond wailing about Trump's twitter feed and attempts to make sense of conservatism's evolution with some surprising conclusions (surprising, at least, to me).

Thanks for adding so many books to my list SDN lol
 
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It - Stephen king
Under the dome - Stephen king
It can’t happen here
Catch 22
1984
Animal Farm
Pillars of the Earth
 
Recommended medical books:
  • Hot Lights, Cold Steel
  • Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs
  • Black Man In A White Coat
  • When Breathe Becomes Air
  • Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician
Recommended non-medical books:
  • Shadow of the Wind
  • Fire Bringer
  • The Giver
  • Never Let Me Go
  • The Broker, but any John Grisham books!
 
For fiction, I've quite enjoyed Ruth Ozeki.

My Year of Meats
All Over Creation
A Tale for the Time Being

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Violagirl said:
Recommended non-medical books:
  • Shadow of the Wind
  • Fire Bringer
  • The Giver
  • Never Let Me Go
  • The Broker, but any John Grisham books!
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+1 for Never Let Me Go (great read, plus the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, won the Nobel prize in literature this year)
 
The Dragon Slayer said:
I feel like I am alone in saying that this was a poorly written book. Not only that, but the premise is sort of messed up. Should be renamed "How to Manipulate and Connive Others and be an All-Around Bad Human Being."

Here are a few good books
-Comp City by Max Rubin
-Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
-The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Click to expand...

How to Make Friends and Influence People was first published in 1936 and its been in print ever since. I don't see where it is manuplative and coniving or makes someone a bad person to:

don't criticize, condemn or complain
give honest and sincere appreciation
be genuinely interested in other people
smile
remember the other person's name and use it
make the other person think that they are important and be sincere in it
try to see things from the other person's point of view
and so forth. Of course, you can think it is poorly written but I challenge you to prove that the premise is messed up.
 
1) Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

2)Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

3)The Gene by Siddhartha Mukerjee


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LizzyM said:
How to Make Friends and Influence People was first published in 1936 and its been in print ever since. I don't see where it is manuplative and coniving or makes someone a bad person to:

don't criticize, condemn or complain
give honest and sincere appreciation
be genuinely interested in other people
smile
remember the other person's name and use it
make the other person think that they are important and be sincere in it
try to see things from the other person's point of view
and so forth. Of course, you can think it is poorly written but I challenge you to prove that the premise is messed up.
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The reason I dislike it is because this premise is based on putting on an act to get something out of others. It just seems like an insincere and dishonest way to go about living.
 
The Dragon Slayer said:
The reason I dislike it is because this premise is based on putting on an act to get something out of others. It just seems like an insincere and dishonest way to go about living.
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Ok then, be your egotistical, ungrateful, complaining scowling self and know that you are sincere and honest about how you feel about other people.

Or you can act in a way that will get people to be drawn to you and want to do what you suggest. Should doctors act a certain way to get their patients to trust them and take their advice??
 
Stories from the Shadows by Jim Occonnell
-A book about a physician who dedicated his career to serving the homeless population in Boston, MA. Contains several short stories about patients.

Highly recommend if you are planning on helping individuals w/ diverse backgrounds
 
LizzyM said:
Ok then, be your egotistical, ungrateful, complaining scowling self and know that you are sincere and honest about how you feel about other people.

Or you can act in a way that will get people to be drawn to you and want to do what you suggest. Should doctors act a certain way to get their patients to trust them and take their advice??
Click to expand...
Funny-Burn-Meme-Super-Ultra-Mega-Burn-Photo.jpg
 
LizzyM said:
Ok then, be your egotistical, ungrateful, complaining scowling self and know that you are sincere and honest about how you feel about other people.

Or you can act in a way that will get people to be drawn to you and want to do what you suggest. Should doctors act a certain way to get their patients to trust them and take their advice??
Click to expand...

Yeah, or just try to find ways to not be egotistical, ungrateful, etc. That sounds like a better approach than trying to deceive others into thinking you aren't.
 
The Dragon Slayer said:
Yeah, or just try to find ways to not be egotistical, ungrateful, etc. That sounds like a better approach than trying to deceive others into thinking you aren't.
Click to expand...
Haven't read the book either, but just saying, even a normally good person can have a really off day, and on those days, it's helpful to have an internal monologue of something like smile - don't be mean - make eye contact - smile again, for fox's sake - etc.

For example, I've been told I'm normally a pleasant person, but I had a patient so irritating on Monday night that I was wondering if it would really be that terrible if I cussed her out and got fired. If they'd just let me go on the spot, then I'd have the benefit of never seeing her again and getting out of a few hours' worth of interaction with her, right? It couldn't be all that bad to lose my job. Everyone has a breaking point, and when you feel like you're an inch away from going nuclear, those little mental checklists can come in very handy.
 
Non-medical but Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan is by far the best book Ive read this year; its about the Italian resistance in WWII
 
Just wanted to update this thread again. Just finished "The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly" by Matt McCarthy.... Very good!!! Highly recommend!
 
beachesandbackroads said:

Do No Harm--Henry Marsh
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This book is great.
Also, the latest Nobel Prize winner; The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro is stellar though 0 medical context in it.
The recent movie "Darkest Hour" kind of goes along with it nicely too.
 
manofgod747 said:
This book is great.
Also, the latest Nobel Prize winner; The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro is stellar though 0 medical context in it.
The recent movie "Darkest Hour" kind of goes along with it nicely too.
Click to expand...

Ishiguro's other book, Never Let Me Go, has a sort of medical context (like, an MMI scenario or something haha..). His writing is so amazing.
 
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LizzyM said:
Here's an oldie but goodie thread that has a link in the first post to an even older thread with other gems:
Airport Reading
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That is a really old thread. I did not recognize most of the books.
I would like to know what physicians are reading so I will start a thread asking as such.
 
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