Medical Books

Since last summer, I tore through a lot of books on medicine. I really enjoy reading the ones highlighting specific cases. Blame it on my PA friend, M. He started it by telling me of a book he was reading (How Doctors Think).

1. How Doctors Think
   
2. The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness
3. Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
4. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
5. The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy
6. Doctors
7. How We Live
8. Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God, and Diversity on Steroids

My favorites were those by Atul Gawande (Better, Complications). Really interesting (and scary) stories. Also inspiring. I'm always looking for more of those type of books to read, but with little time, it's probably a good thing I haven't found more. Doctors was a favorite of M PA. It's fiction but is a good look at the med school experience; although some details are now a little dated, the experience is pretty accurate (so I hear).

I'm still slogging through How We Live (a bit old fashioned in writing, in my opinion) and Hospital. Hospital provides some insight into how a Brooklyn hospital runs (not far from my neighborhood, in fact!). The Anatomist was a fun read. It follows a journalist on two journeys: his experience in a couple Gross Anatomy classes and his quest to find more about Henry Gray, the British anatomist famous for his ground-breaking book. The first two listed, by Jerome Groopman, are equally fascinating for their look into how patients can make more out of a doctor visit and the different ways hope can factor into our healing process. All good reads.

Oh, and here's another one that I really enjoyed, but has nothing to do with medicine: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World