My medical memoir list + tiny reviews
As you probably already know, I have been on a serious medical memoir/medical non-fiction bender since early 2021. I adore memoirs, and I am interested in medical topics, so the combo of these two things? PERFECT. <chef's kiss>
Several of you have asked for a list, so I'm putting it into this post, and I'll keep adding to it as I go.
(My pace has slowed a bit since college began. But winter break is coming very soon, so I see some non-school reading in my future!)
If you have a suggestion for me, do leave it in the comments and I will see if my library has it.
Medical Memoirs
Super short reviews from my trip through medical-memoir world
Trauma Room Two
Written by an ER doctor, it's a collection of fictional medical stories that are based on his actual real-life experiences as a doctor. My favorite story is the last one, a tale of death after a beautiful life. Don't miss it!
Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician
Jauhar has an amazing vocabulary (I had to google a number of words!), and this book is a vulnerable, honest look at the dishonest, unscrupulous side of medicine.
Heart: A History
I didn't like this one quite as much as Jauhar's other book, mainly because this one had fewer stories.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
A fascinating look at all the odd things that can go wrong when people's brains malfunction. My copy was an older one so, whoa, the language he used in the last section was shocking; like, it was apparently acceptable to use "moron" medically! I think newer versions have a note about this but mine didn't. Terminology aside, I can tell Sacks really cared about his patients.
At Death's Door: End of Life Stories from the Bedside
I did not love this one; the content was all right, but I thought it needed way more editing. The flow wasn't great, some of it felt repetitive, some of it was boring...and I think it could have all been fixed with some serious editing. Don't waste your time on this one; there are tons of other better medical memoirs to read!
Little Matches: A Memoir of Finding Light in the Dark
Written by a mom whose adult daughter died of cystic fibrosis. I really, really felt her heartbreak as I read; to lose your only child to this disease after taking such good care of her for so many years...it was just a crushing blow.
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery
At first, I didn't like this author! He seemed gruff and stuck-up. But as I read on, I began to appreciate his heart for his patients.
He's a neurosurgeon, and this was another book that reminded me that I want to be a nurse, not a doctor. A neurosurgeon in particular has SO much responsiblity; one tiny wrong move can ruin your patient's brain. That's too heavy a weight for me to carry!
No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)
Written by a young mom who got cancer, but she's a hilarious human being, so the book is not as heavy as you might imagine.
You Can Stop Humming Now
I really loved this one because it was so heavy on patient stories. Super engrossing!
The First Breath: How Modern Medicine Saves the Most Fragile Lives
Written by a U.K. author (I love how their ORs are called "theatres"), this is a great read for understanding the NICU experience from a mom's perspective. And now I kind of want to be a NICU nurse.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The fascinating and sad story of how cells were taken without permission, from a black woman dying of cervical cancer, and have since been used to save countless lives. Does the end justify the (very iffy) means? Note: I watched the movie too, and the book was 1000 times better.
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
A thoughtful discussion of mortality; such an important thing to think about even early in life.
The Body: A Guide for Occupants
A pretty thorough tour of the human body; sorta like a textbook, except with interesting writing!
The Shift
An entire book about a single nursing shift; more interesting than it sounds! I liked her Critical Care book a little better because there were more patient stories; this one goes in-depth with just four.
Critical Care
Written by an English professor who left her career to become an RN later in life, so that made it interesting to me!
When Breath Becomes Air
One of my faves! Sad story, brilliant writing; I wish he'd lived long enough to write dozens of books.
A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
Hazzard spent years as a paramedic in a super gritty area of Atlanta; definitely not an easy place to work emergency medicine. This one has a lot of language; probably accurate to real-life, but you should know it's not a very gentle read.
Healing Children: A Surgeon's Stories from the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine
The book helped me realize how different pediatric medicine is; children's bodies are so different than adult bodies. Lots of patient stories, which I love.
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician's First Year
This one made me very sure I want to be a nurse, not a doctor. Doctors have so much responsibility!
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Funny writing, heavy subject. It's not super gross, but if you can't stand frank writing about dead bodies, skip this one!
War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line
This doctor has spent his career regularly volunteering in dangerous war-torn areas. Heart-breaking situations, but I have so much respect for his efforts to help!
The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir
Lovely writing; it was sad to read about the uphill battle she has faced as a woman and as a Black person in medicine.
The Secret Language Of Doctors
Not super entertaining for the average person, but very interesting if you are fascinated by medical language and slang.
This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Medical Resident
Hilarious writing by a UK OB/Gyn. Some language.
Hi, Henry Marsh books:
Do no Harm and
A Life in Brain Surgery
Both are great reads.
Those are great books. I'm not a doctor, but my Canadian roommate was recommended The following as med student by their school:
- Cutting for stone, personal story of a surgeon
- Being mortal, thoughts about treating the dying and death as a doctor
- The man who mistook his wife for a hat, a classic by a neuro
- Better, about systems and processes that actually help improve outcomes in medicine
- The spirit catches you and you fall down, my strongest recommendation about difficulties in the doctor patient relationships. About a group of California doctors trying to test a Hmong girl with very severe epilepsy. This investigative story helped change a lot of processes about working with patient families from other cultures.
Thank you! I have added some of those to my library hold list/ebay cart!
Great selections Kristen.
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande was written by a hospital doctor caring for patients at the end of their lives.
The Woman They Could Not Silence, by Kate Moore is not strictly a medical memoir. It details the story of woman confined to an insane asylum in 1860 because she no longer agreed with everything her husband believed.
Ooh! My library has that one. On hold now!
@K D,
I just finished The Woman They Could Not Silence! So, so good. Radium Girls, also by Kate Moore, is even better IMHO! Being Mortal might be my favorite medical memoir ever?
This may be the biggest way in which we differ, Kristen, because I really dislike anything medical and so this is a genre that I mostly skip (though I did read "When Breath Becomes Air"). I think I already mentioned "Baby Catcher," which will be my sole contribution to this discussion. 🙂
Did you like When Breath Becomes Air?
My library does not have Baby Catcher, but I have just put it into my cart on eBay.
@Kristen, There were definitely some powerful parts to it, although I wasn't as totally bowled over by it as the general populace seemed to be. I was glad I read it, though.
I think I've read one medical memoir in my life, and I've forgotten everything about it except that it was by an Ob/Gyn. I read it decades ago. They don't seem to be my thing.
The "medical" memoirs I've read and that I love are the books in the series by veterinarian James Herriot, starting with "All Creatures Great and Small." That might count a little bit?
@JD,
That series has been made into the most wonderful TV series on NPR. Oh my gosh, the actors shine and the period detail makes you want to live there! We loved season 1 and are looking forward to season 2 in January.
Ohh, my parents read those out loud to use when we were kids; so many good stories in those books.
@JD, These books are the reason my sister is a veterinarian. I was delighted to find that my children love them as well. Oddly, their favorite stories are the ones in which James Herriot battles the dilapidated farm gates. Perhaps because they have personal experience with those sorts of janky gates. 🙂
Excellent selections, Kristin. I have read and greatly enjoyed "When Breath Becomes Air," "The Real Doctor Will See You Now," "Stiff," "War Doctor," "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," and "This is Going to Hurt."
I would also recommend:
"Tending Lives: Nurses on the Medical Front" by Echo Heron
"The Dressing Station: A Surgeon's Chronicle of War and Medicine" by Jonathan Kaplan
"Trauma Room Two" by Philip Allen Green
"The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story" by Christie Watson
"Arms Wide Open," a memoir about midwifery from the 1970s to the present, by Patricia Harman.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, the Man Who Would Cure the World" by Tracy Kidder (Dr. Farmer is working to eradicate tuberculosis in the poorest nations in the world. Most of the book is set in Haiti.)
And just for fun, because it's a laugh-out-loud read in places: "Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything" by Linda Kang M.D.
Oh, this is a great list. Thank you! I added some of these to my ebay cart, and I found several at my library too.
I read The Body after seeing it mentioned here and did really enjoy it! It was so engaging and I learned so much.
I’ve already seen it mentioned twice but I also highly recommend Being Mortal. My sister is a caregiver for the elderly and recommended it to me because it helped her in her work and she just thought it was a helpful book for anyone to read.
Gosh, I should have added Being Mortal to this list. I read it a while back so I'd forgotten to include it. I thought it was a really good and important discussion of something that people do not like to think about or talk about!
Fighting for Life by Dr. Sara Josephine Baker
The book is a memoir from one of the first female doctors in the US. Her life mission was about improving the health and living conditions of children in the slums of NYC in the early 1900s. It was amazing to read about how far we’ve come with both women in the medical field and children’s health in this country.
I would recommend Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, which details the extraordinary bravery and trials endured by the doctors and nurses when Hurricane Katrina cut all power to the hospital while it also cut the place off from the outside world for five very crucial days.
Oooh, my library has that one. I put it on hold just now.
@Erika JS,
A second vote for Five Days at Memorial. Some of the decisions those doctors and nurses had to make are heart wrenching.
@Liz B.,
I was going to recommend that too. That book has never left me.
My library has Do No Harm. Yay! Added to my hold list.
I don't think I've ever read a book that was not better than the movie or series based on it!
This includes classics that require serious reading effort such as the plus1000 page Vanity Fair, but also biographies. In fact, it makes me cringe when actual people are represented just as (to me it feels like reduced to) characters. Think The Crown for instance. People need to have been dead for at least 70 years or so before I can really bear that.
Books forever!
(I realize I have a serious reading habit and to many people, dramatized books really open up a world)
I can't think of a time when the movie was better either. But I can definitely think of times when the movie was a crushing disappointment!
I finally have an answer to that... the movie "Hidden Figures" was SO much better than the book. I read the book for bookclub, and none of us could finish it. It was confusing and poorly written. The subject matter was fascinating, and the movie was great, but the book was the biggest let-down.
Oh, that is good to know! I will skip that book.
@Heather, I agree the book was hard to get through, but the movie wasn't as historically accurate as I would like. So I was glad to read the book, so I knew exactly what had happened, rather than the Hollywood version.
Thanks so much for this great list, Kristen! I recommend Little Matches: A Memoir of Grief and Light, by Maryanne O'Hara.
Oh! My library has this one. Yay! I just put it on hold.
These ones are particularly useful right now:
The Great Influenza by John Barry
Until Proven Safe by Nicola Twilley and Geoff Manaugh
The Fate of Rome by Kyle Harper
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
I found them all fascinating and well written, plus I would add:
The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
Quackery by Lydia Kang and Nate Pederson
Icepick Surgeon by Sam Keane
The Body by Bryson was so good!
I just realized that I have read A LOT of medical non fiction.
Gosh, it is such a fun genre to me!
I'm reading Kate Bowler's "No Cure For Being Human" right now and it's so good! It's new, so there might be a holds list. Her last book "Everything Happens for a Reason (and other lies I've loved)" was also very good.
@Melissa,
Agree on her two books. What she has gone through with a diagnosis that in itself would stagger me!
She also has a podcast based on her circumstances.
"Making Rounds with Oscar" is a good read. Medicine + a very special cat, for the win.
It's not on this list, but I thought I'd share the list anyway:
https://bookriot.com/50-books-to-read-if-you-love-medicine/
Since you are interested in labor and delivery, here is one.."The Blue Cotton Gown" by Patricia Harman. She has written others, too, and I have liked them all. It's her own story interwoven with L&D stories, and you may have listed these before. Now that I've retired, I don't read as many medical stories as I used to -- I think I've lived through most of the drama and life-and-death scenarios in my career and I will attest that the most improbable stories are definitely TRUE.
Ok, I must be missing something...why are there 46 books on a list of 50??
Thank you for the link! I will use it when I need to refresh my library hold list!
My library has the Oscar book, so I put that one on hold right away. 🙂
Love this genre. Endlessly fascinating and useful. Thanks to you and others I have many more books to check out! I also recommend: "Together: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap" by Judy Goldman.
Hi Kristen,
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. Great book and insight on caring for others at the end of their life. Hope you enjoy it.
Physicians Untold Stories
I am a nurse , and a doctor at my hospital wrote this book with stories that were contributed by others at the hospital. Im sure I enjoyed it partly because I know many of them. That said , it is very interesting-includes "miracle" or divine intervention like occurrences in their work/and or personal life. It was funny to me to see a few doctors who appear to have little personalities, believe in these miracles!
Patient Care by Paul Seward. In particular, the story "Nova".
Cant get it out of my head
He is humble, smart and funny.
I typically dont keep books Ive read.
This one I kept
Looking forward to reading the ones on your list!
Happy Thanksgiving
Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan and In Shock by Dr. Rana Awdish. Both are great medical memoirs.
I will definitely see if my library has some of these. I am a reader first and foremost, so good is all I require. My mama was a volunteer EMT, starting in 1978 in very rural SC but it ended up a lifetime passion until 2003 when she developed an autoimmune disease. Oh the stories she would come home with. There were maybe 18,000 people in a county that was 20 miles long and 30 miles wide. There was one small hospital that mama always said that unless she would die going to a different hospital, we should avoid. They made $10 per call and I can remember her pay stub being $400 - $600 a month AND she worked fulltime for the USPS.
Echo Heron's books are amazing. They are older books like Critical Care. So good. Check her out, you won't be disappointed.
My Own Country by Abraham Verghese is a well-written story of his experiences as an infectious disease doctor in Tennessee. He was a new doctor at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
I haven't read her books, but Lisa Sanders writes a column called Diagnosis for the New York Times and has some books based on her column, as well as a Netflix show. These are all in the "medical detective" genre in which a patient shows up with mysterious symptoms of unknown origin.
I feel like I have read more medical memoir that aren't already listed, but can't think of the titles off hand!
@Kris, My Own Country is such a wonderfully written book. We had a friend who died of AIDS right before AZT became available, so that book is especially meaningful to me.
Love the list. Heading to my library on Black Friday!!!
Oh good! More fodder for the library app and my Kindle reader!
A recent read: Call the Nurse by Mary McLeod. Set in the Hebrides Islands, a collection of stories recounts the 'adventures' she had while living there as the island nurse.
Such a great list! A few I didn’t see mentioned:
Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon
Call the Midwife book trilogy (worth reading even if you have watched the show!)
Between Two Kingdoms
Also, When We Do Harm by Danielle Ofri.
Mother of a student nurse here in the UK, so we keep our eye on this genre too - we're big Adam Kay, Atul Gawande and Bryson fans. Christie Watson - The Language of Kindness: A nurse's story is recommended, and Dr Rachel Clarke's books Dear Life, Your Life in my Hands and Breathtaking: the UK's Covid story. Not that you need any more recommendations - you've got plenty to keep you busy for a while!
You are brave to read them...I am a reader, but I have read none of them. Having been a RN for 28 years now, I have no recommendations. I truly wish you all the best as you begin this journey.
Haha, no bravery here; I just really find them fascinating!
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor Paperback – January 1, 2018
by Adam Kay (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 31,400 ratings
An absolute must read if you're still thinking about OB/GYN
Oh yes, I read that one and my goodness, I laughed out loud so many times. I think Adam Kay could write about making mashed potatoes and still make it funny.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an amazing read!! Thanks for the info on the others!!
These are some of my favorites that I don't think have been mentioned:
1. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
One of the best books about mental illness I've read. The author has a PhD in clinical psychology and works/teaches at Johns Hopkins in psychiatry and behavioral sciences. She wrote this in 1995 (when she was in her late 40s) about her experience with bipolar disorder, and I think she's now in her 70s.
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
The author was the editor-in-chief of the French "Elle". He had a massive stroke which left him completely paralyzed and unable to speak, with what's known as "locked-in syndrome" (I'm an occupational therapist and have seen people with this syndrome only a few times).
3. Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
About a young woman diagnosed with leukemia right before her 23rd birthday. Details her journey from the initial shocking diagnosis to remission and then trying to re-enter “normal” life.
Also, if you haven't read anything by Lisa Genova, you really should! She's a neuroscientist, so even though almost all of her books are fiction, they are very realistic accounts of various conditions such as stroke, Alzheimer's Disease (the book Still Alice was made into a movie, which I thought was great), ALS, Huntington's Disease). Some titles are Left Neglected, Still Alice, Every Note Played, Inside the O'Briens). Her latest book is actually nonfiction and called Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting.
Forgot to mention in my previous comment - did you know that BBC has made a TV series based on the book This is Going to Hurt? It supposedly finished filming, and was supposed to be released in Fall 2021, but seems to have been delayed since I don't really see any news since June. https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/6427/this-is-going-to-hurt-cast/
I don't often read this genre, but I remember enjoying Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village by James Maskalyk when it happened to catch my attention in my local library quite a while ago.
One lesser known book that I don't see mentioned, "Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer" edited by Rebecca Dresser. My library didn't have a copy so I bought it used. It's a series of essays by medical ethicists who either had cancer or whose spouse had cancer and what they learned as a patient. In a couple of cases they had totally unnecessary medical tests that they knew were unnecessary but which revealed unrelated life threatening problems. So unnecessary tests save lives...???
If schizophrenia is of interest to you, "Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an Amercian Family" by Robert Kolker is great. It's a family of 12 children more than half of whom became schizophrenic. It also documents the evolving thinking about this illness over the years.
Thank you for these!
I loved The Immortal Life of Hennrietta Lacks and Being Mortal, and thought about those a lot when I was writing my own medical memoir, Clinical Trial: An ALS Memoir of Science, Hope, and Love. Check it out on Amazon!
I love this list of books and the comments about medical memoirs. My husband was a retired neurosurgeon who had served on the USS Repose during Vietnam. Later in life he had an incurable illness and was close to the end when "When Breath Becomes Air" was published. He read it with great interest, after our daughter gave it to him, underlining the parts of the residency experience that resonated with him. For me, a nurse, these books are also so interesting about a way of life that requires such a complex combination of skill, judgement, compassion and commitment.
I wound up reading "A Thousand Naked Strangers" because it was recommended here and loved it. The author can really write.
I also loved "This is Going to Hurt." It's been made into a current TV series in England, which I'd love to see.
Oh gosh! I’ve read most of these and medical memoirs is a favorite niche of mine too. Thanks for this list, I’ll add a few more to my TBR pile.
Dr. Green has a sequel to Trauma Room Two! It's called People of the ER, and it's just as incredible as the first.
Hi
I'm a very long-time reader but rarely comment. I was thinking about this post this week as I am listening to an Audiobook that is so fantastic, I had to recommend it! It is called All That Moves Us, by Jay Wellons. He is a pediatric neurosurgeon, and this is his memoir. It has lots of medical info, and he is an amazing storyteller. Each chapter really shows his compassion and humanity, and it would be hard to read the book and not be completely astounded by his talent as a surgeon (I googled him and his CV is 43 pages long!)
He narrates the version I am listening to, and it is DEFINITELY worth listening to it in his own voice. It is very moving. I listen during my commute to work as a pharmacist, and several times I have had to blink back tears, or literally laughed out loud. 10 stars, at least! Very highly recommended.
Enjoyed your reviews and impressed by your website -- makes me think I should update mine! Have you read "You don't have to be a genius..." Funny memoir of a woman doctor, by Diana Ashworth (that's me), published by Clinical Press? If not e-mail me have a postal address an I will send you a copy. Have some complementary copies left.