SDN's book club

[whoanelly]

Now that Oprah is going to stop her book club, why don't we start one of our own..since we all have so much spare time for reading. My first nomination for fiction is The House of God. It's hilarious, irreverent, and scary as ****. Here's blurb on it:
They've come from the top of their med school class to begin the most harrowing year of their lives. Six eager interns, fashioning themselves as saviors in the world of the healing arts, are about to serve a year in the time-honored tradition of the hospital internship. Their year will be grueling--no sleep, stress, and insanity, tempered with love, humor and priceless rewards.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Hero]

Harry Potter

Lord of The Rings

As a huge movie fan i saw the movie first but just had to find out what happens next! Greaatt books!

 

[vyc]

are we looking for medical-related books?
or just any book?

 

[MUN2005]

"Emergency" by Mark Brown is a good one. He has compiled several non-fictional stories written by MD's, RN's PA's etc. from EDs around the country.
Also, for a little suspense, "A Simple Plan" by Scott Smith is great too, it's a novel.

 

[ckent]

If you guys are looking for some light reading to do before med school, I would recommend purchasing the book "Iserson's Getting into a Residency". The title says it all, and it tells you a lot of things that most med schools don't bother to tell you.

 

[Assassin]

for those who can brave it...Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" - fun read that will take your mind off the med school crap.

 

[aquapants]

OK, for my first post ever -- I have to recommend Richard Selzer's "Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery"

I read a lot of literature (I'm an English major) and this book absolutely blew me away.

Also, Oliver Sacks' "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat"

 

[Scooby Doo]

Any book by CLIVE BARKER

 

[Assassin]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Scooby Doo:
•Any book by CLIVE BARKER•••••Don't know about his books, but "undying"-the game kicks a$$!

 

[vyc]

i'm an english minor who wanted to be a major and in any case, an avid reader.

the only medically related book i can recommend is "The Physician." i can't remember the author... i think it started with an N, like Noah or something. i read it many years ago but remember it being quite good.

i'm also a big fan of:
Paolo Coelho (particularly "The Alchemist")
Ayn Rand ("The Fountainhead" and "We, the Living")
Virginia Woolf ("To The Lighthouse" and "Mrs. Dalloway")
Milan Kundera ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being")
Don DeLillo ("White Noise" and "The Body Artist")

i can go on forever.
don't read James Joyce's "Ulysses" unless you're a masochist like me.

 

[oneironaut]

My nominees:

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
TaiPan - Clavell
To Kill a Mocking bird - Harper Lee
The Island of the day Before - Umberto Eco
(and Focoult's Pendulum too)
* Relativity - Albert Einstein

More when/if I can think of them.

 

[deva]

I firmly believe that all doctors (or people who want to be doctors) should read Anne Fadiman's "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down." Fadiman follows the story of a Hmong girl with epilepsy. The Hmong have much different ideas about illness and medicine than the American doctors that the girl must see. The clash between them is tragic. The book is interesting and well-written, and says much about how doctors should deal with cultural differences (and gives a powerful example of what can go wrong).

 

[souljah1]

The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates - Tom Robbins
A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
Grace and Grit - Ken Wilber
Crime and Punishment - Doestoevsky
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis
The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

those are the first that came to mind. Good idea for a thread.

 

[Doctora Foxy]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by deva:
•I firmly believe that all doctors (or people who want to be doctors) should read Anne Fadiman's "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down." Fadiman follows the story of a Hmong girl with epilepsy. The Hmong have much different ideas about illness and medicine than the American doctors that the girl must see. The clash between them is tragic. The book is interesting and well-written, and says much about how doctors should deal with cultural differences (and gives a powerful example of what can go wrong).•••••This book was the basis of my personal statement!

Well, kind of. I was telling my cousin my ideas for a personal statement, and he's like, "you HAVE to read this book!".....I still have to!

 

[watto]

"Et Tu, Babe" by Mark Leyner.

Also, "Be True To Your School" - Greene, Greene, what was his first name...he wrote a book with Michael Jordan, I know....anyhow, this is his high school diary circa 1965, when the Beatles were hitting the U.S. and such. You won't be able to put it down.

 

[whoanelly]

Any would-be surgeons out there? US News has a write-up on a new book: "Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science" by Atul Gawande who is finishing his surgical residency in Boston. Sounds interesting.

An excerpt from his interview:
"Most people think having great hands is the measure of how good a surgeon you'll be. It's the decisions that are really the most important thing. A lot of the time the seemingly small decisions, like what suture you're going to use in a given situation, turn out to be what really matters."

 

[Suz177]

Everyone should read Tuesdays with Morrie! Morrie is a retired professor who is dying and relates the entire experience weak by weak as a means of living and loving life to a former student of his.

 

[jmejia1]

"When the air hits your brain" by vertosick (sp?)
I don't recall the spelling of the guys last name.
Anyway, it was a very good book. i gurantee most of you will like it alot.

 

[strokchik]

Call It Sleep, Henry Roth
Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
White Noise, Don DeLillo

 

[deva]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Doctora Foxy:
•I was telling my cousin my ideas for a personal statement, and he's like, "you HAVE to read this book!".....I still have to!•••••Foxy, I think you would love it! (Actually, I would expect everyone to love it, so I'm sort of biased )

For anyone interested in the history of medicine in the US, I would recommend "Major Problems in the History of American Medicine and Public Health," edited by Warner and Tighe. It consists of a series of essays and primary sources (meaning, if you are reading about 18th century practices there will be something that was published in the 18th century along with an article analyzing the situation). It is good because you can skip around and just read the articles or time periods that interest you.

 

[slipslap]

Sports Illustrated
Rolling Stone
Spin
Maxim

I'm quite well-read........

 

[Catalyst]

I'd have to say Measure of Our Days by Jerome Groopman and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky (what an amazing book)..

Sachin

 

[Dr. Geoff]

Intern Blues by Robert Marion

Good because it is comprised of just voice diaries, so It gives you a feel of what it is really like.

-Jeff