Here is a compilation of some of my favorite books about medicine. I’ve split the list up into different categories: Writing by Physicians, Writing by Patients, Books about Health Care, Medical History Books, and Other.
Writing by Physicians
Quackery by Lydia King
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
God’s Hotel by Victoria Sweet
This Won’t Hurt a Bit (and other white lies): My Education in Medicine and Motherhood by Michelle Au
Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Verghese
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson
Kill as Few Patients as Possible by Oscar London
Chekhov’s Doctors: A Collection of Chekhov’s Medical Tales by Anton Chekhov
Love, Medicine, & Miracles: Lessons Learned About Self-Healing from a Surgeon’s Experience with Exceptional Patients by Bernie S. Siegel
The Art of Medicine: What Every Doctor & Patient Should Know by Kevin J. Soden
On Call: A Doctor’s Days and Nights in Residency by Emily R. Transue
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman
The Scalpel and the Silver Bear by Lori Arviso Alvord
Intern by Sandeep Jauhar
Overdo$ed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine by John Abramson
Ask Me Why I Hurt: The Kids Nobody Wants and the Doctor Who Heals Them by Randy Christensen
Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders
Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality by Pauline Chen
Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab by Christine Montross
Death of the Good Doctor: Lessons from the Heart of the AIDS Epidemic by Kate Scannell
Leaning to Play God: The Coming of Age of a Young Doctor by Robert Marion
Writing by Patients
Wit by Margaret Edson
Breathing for a Living: A Memoir by Laura Rothenberg
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.
A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas
Books about Health Care
Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer by Shannon Brownlee
The Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Beyond Caring: Hospitals, Nurses, and the Social Organization of Ethics by Daniel Chambliss
Baby at Risk: The Uncertain Legacies of Medical Miracles for Babies, Families, and Society by Ruth Levy Guyer
Medicine & Culture by Lynn Payer
Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Maternity Care by Jennifer Block
Medical History Books
Frontier Medicine: From the Atlantic to the Pacific, 1492 – 1941 by David Dary
Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
Other
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Medical Miracles: Doctors, Saints, and Healing in the Modern World by Jacalyn Duffin
Doctors’ Stories: The Narrative Structure of Medical Knowledge by Kathryn Montgomery Hunter
Altered Conditions: Disease, Medicine, and Storytelling by Julia Epstein
The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics by Arthur W. Frank
my first patient 
Gifted Hands–did you know it was also adapted into a movie? Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Ben Carson. Watched it and thought it was pretty decent as well!
pretty good list
Thanks!
Love the list! I’ve read quite a few of these. 🙂 Can I add a recommendation? ‘Hot Lights Cold Steel’ by Dr. Micheal J. Collins is fantastic!
It’s on my wish list!
Hi Emily, I’ve really enjoyed your blog and you’ve got a great list here. I will definitely be checking some of these books out. I graduated from undergrad in May 2014 and I am going through the motions of applying to doctor of osteopathy schools. I started my own blog to chronicle my experience doctordogma.wordpress.com and I’d love for you to check it out. You are on my blogroll! Best of luck with your surgery rotation.
Atul Gwande! =) and thanks for sharing your list! will definitely check them out during my next trip to the bookstore!