Quarantine Reading

[gnich1914]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hey guys! Do you know of any good books/memoirs about time spent in med school, residency, working in hospital? Just finished Hot Lights Cold Steel and Oliver Sacks. Bored in quarantine, thanks!

 

[another_nontrad]

I really liked do no harm by henry marsh - a memoir of a neurosurgeon
house of god by samuel shem if you haven't read that one - very entertaining memoir of a intern year
in shock (I think by rana awdish, although that may be spelled wrong) - physician writing about her time as a patient and how it changed her view of empathy and provider-patient interactions
when breath becomes air, but fair warning that you'll probably be crying at the end of that one

 

[Cornfed101]

Hot lights cold steel is great!

Im reading Intern right now, and it’s pretty good.

I also recommend:

• Any book by Atul Gawande (complications, better, being mortal, I think I’m missing one...)
• When the air hits your brain by frank vertosick -probably my favorite, about neurosurgery residency
• The Hot Zone - about Ebola, not med school, but fitting to our current situation. A terrifying book.
• I second When Breath Becomes Air, I also cried (as did my wife)

 

[aldol16]

When Breath Becomes Air is an excellent read.

 

[MedStudent2301]

I stand by always recommending Tuesday’s with Morrie


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I gotta look up my Medicine and Humanities guides from JAMA. Probably will ask for Patch Adams (movie) for something funny to distract us.

The Plague by Albert Camus
Rhinoceros (play) by Eugene Ionesco
An Enemy of the People (play) by Henrik Ibsen
Waiting for Godot (play) by Samuel Beckett

 

[IsleyOfTheNorth]

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician's First Year by Matt McCarthy

Full disclosure: I didn't finish it, but what I did read was enjoyable.

 

[walterwhite3556]

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

 

[Sephirakra]

The Plague by Albert Camus

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this needs to get more attention right now.

 

[DD5678]

Cutting for Stone- Abraham Verghese
The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande
Better - Atul Gawande
Treatment Kind and Fair- Perri Klass

 

[kenykj49]

If you like Oliver Sacks - “An Anthropologist on Mars” has been a good read so far

EDIT: Above book is not about working in medicine per say. You should read “House of God”

 

[kenykj49]

Cutting for Stone- Abraham Verghese
The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande
Better - Atul Gawande
Treatment Kind and Fair- Perri Klass

“Better” was such a good book

 

[DD5678]

“Better” was such a good book

It was absolutely fantastic! Best read in a while, and a must read for anyone going into healthcare in my opinion.

 

[Clemson2005]

Very appropriate to our current health crisis: Anything on the Great Flu Pandemic / Spanish Flu of 1918. I like the one below as it gives some great lengthy side stories, particularly how John Hopkins and its first generation of research graduates who were the key players in responding to the Flu Pandemic

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic by John M. Barry

Another good one that is appropriate for our current crisis is Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity. It goes through 10 of histories greatest epidemics/pandemics and how these diseases have shaped societies of the past and present

 

[deleted994889]

Because I'm a practical man:
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
Any cookbook (plus actually cooking)

 

[LizzyM]

America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 by Alfred W. Crosby
shorter than and, IMHO, more readable than Barry's book.

Be advised the Camus is writing an allegory about WWII.

In that regard, I really like the dystopian novel, Blindness by José Saramago

As for being in isolation, I like Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (long-term hostage situation in an embassy)

 

[RTC19]

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

This was what I was going to say! The Gene by the same author is also really good. 🙂

 

[Sephirakra]

Be advised the Camus is writing an allegory about WWII.

Shh! Don't let the secret out! We're trying to get people to read something other than non-fiction and House of God for once.

 

[deleted966164]

"Five Days at Memorial" by Sheri Fink...

 

[Nevertellmetheodds]

And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts.
Even if you’ve seen the movie, the book reads like a thriller. The perspective he interweaves about the US fumbled response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic couldn’t be more appropriate for right now.

The Price We Pay - Marty Makary
Every Patient Tells a Story - Lisa Sanders
The Youngest Science - Lewis Thomas
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
When the Air Hits the Brain - Vertosick
Bad Blood - Caryou
What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear - Ofri
Age of Empthy - de Waal

 

[Robin-jay]

1984

 

[futureMD2020L]

“The Price We Pay” by Dr. Marty Makary gives a very approachable and interesting look at issues with the American healthcare system. Highly recommend!!

 

[deleted966164]

“The Price We Pay” by Dr. Marty Makary gives a very approachable and interesting look at issues with the American healthcare system. Highly recommend!!

Brought it up during my interview at UC Davis. Was rejected 🙂

 

[rahrahb]

“First do no harm” by Lisa Belkin
“Trauma Room Two” by Philip Allen Green
“This is Going to Hurt: Diaries of a Junior Doctor” by Adam Kay

 

[MyOdyssey]

Very appropriate to our current health crisis: Anything on the Great Flu Pandemic / Spanish Flu of 1918. I like the one below as it gives some great lengthy side stories, particularly how John Hopkins and its first generation of research graduates who were the key players in responding to the Flu Pandemic

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic by John M. Barry

Great suggestion but so many of these 1918 pandemic books are sold out.

There are some good works of sci fi or fiction on pandemics.

My favorite is Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. I think of the fictional ice-9 in the book as a sort of pathogen that devastates the earth.

 

[yungmedstudent]

CUTTING FOR STONE by Abraham Verghese. fantastic novel about twin brothers in Ethiopia who grow up in a hospital and explores a lot of unique ideas about medicine. amazing writing, very entertaining and mixes in some awesome medical and political history.

 

[Dr.LivingstoneIpresume?]

Hey guys! Do you know of any good books/memoirs about time spent in med school, residency, working in hospital? Just finished Hot Lights Cold Steel and Oliver Sacks. Bored in quarantine, thanks!

I just finished Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, a great book for college students since it deals with the internal struggles and changes in a young man- all set to the background of 1930's England.

Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life has some fascinating phycology, thought provoking questions, and life-changing advice.

 

[LizzyM]

Oh, I just thought of a great book about sheltering in place, A Gentleman in Moscow. Novel about a gentleman who is place under house arrest in a very grand hotel after the Russian Revolution and through all that occurs over the subsequent decades.

I read an e-book a few months ago (so available even when others are sold out), Cold Storage by David Koepp, "by the screenwriter of Jurassic Park: a wild and terrifying bioterrorism adventure about three strangers who must work together to contain a highly contagious, deadly organism...."

If you have all the time in the world, I recommend The Stand by Stephen King. It was too long for me to get through but the first part of it involves a pandemic and it has changed forever the way I think about the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels out of NYC.