Are you a doctor who enjoys reading books about all things medicine? Then this ultimate booklist for doctors is for you!
For the Love of Books
As doctors, we spend much of our lives reading essential medical material to pass exams, keep up to date and ensure our patients’ safety. However, when we get the chance, many of us love to read for pleasure, escapism, and relaxation.
And despite the overwhelming proportion of our lives spent immersed in work, we often gravitate towards books which relate to our profession. Probably because medicine is a vocation and defines an enormous amount of who we are.
So at IYASU, we wanted to share our ultimate booklist for doctors who love to read as much as we do.
Worthwhile Reading
Read on for a list of 150 carefully selected, fascinating and brilliant books for doctors. These books are moving, funny, remarkable, shocking and, most importantly, worthwhile.
They all have a medical theme and have been chosen because they enrich us as people, educate us, and give us insights into how to improve patient care.
So, if you’re wondering what to read next, this ultimate booklist for doctors, categorised alphabetically into specialities, is a great place to start.
The Doctors Book Club
Now you never need to worry when you come to the end of a great book about what to choose next. This list is going to keep even the most avid of readers intensely occupied for some time.
When you do run out though, may we recommend The Doctors Bookshelf (also on Twitter @Doctorbookshelf), a blog of books every doctor should read and The Doctors Book Club (@DoctorsBookClub on Twitter) for more fantastic recommendations and discussions.
The Ultimate Booklist for Doctors
Sorted alphabetically by specialty
Addiction
- In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Mate
Biographies of Women in Medicine
- Cicely Saunders – A Life and Legacy, by David Clark
- Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time, by Michael du Preez and Jeremy Dronfield
- Elizabeth Blackwell: A Doctor’s Triumph, by Nancy Kline
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, by Jo Manton
- Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend, by Mark Bostridge
- Frankie: The woman who saved millions from Thalidomide, by J Essinger & S Koutzenko
- In Praise of Imperfection, by Rita Levi Montalcini
- Mary Edwards Walker: Above and Beyond, by Dale walker
- Sophia Jex Blake, by Shirley Roberts
- The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine, by Janice P Nimura
- The Hospital by the River: A Story of Hope, by Catherine Hamlin
- The Life of Florence Sabin, by Judith Kaye
- The woman who knew too much: Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiation, by Gayle Green
- To Heal the Heart of a Child: Biography of Helen Tausig, by Joyce Baldwin
- Virginia Apgar, by Xina M Uhl and Melanie Ann Appel
Cardiology
- Heart: A History, by Sandeep Jauhar
Critical Care
- Every Deep-Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU, by Wes Ely
- Hurt: The Inspiring Untold Story of Trauma Care, by Catherine Musemeche
- In Shock: How Nearly Dying Made Me a Better Intensive Care Doctor, by Rana Awdish
- Seven Signs of Life: Stories from an Intensive Care Doctor, by Aoeife Abbey
Dementia
- Alzheimer’s: The Silent Plague by Dr Andrew Lees
- Dementia Reimagined: Building a Life of Joy and Dignity from Beginning to End, by Tia Powell
- Finding the right words – A Story of Literature, Grief, and the Brain (A moving memoir about a loving parent, and compassionate guide to Alzheimer’s), by Cindy Weinstein with Bruce L Miller
- Life in the Balance: A Physician’s Memoir of Life, Love and Loss with Parkinson’s Disease and Dementia, by Thomas Graboys with Peter Zheurlin
- The Problem of Alzheimer’s by Jason Karlawish
Dermatology
- The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman
Endocrinology
- Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything, by Randy Hutter Epstein
Forensic Medicine
- Unnatural Causes, by Dr Richard Shepherd
Gender
- Gender Medicine, by Marek Glezerman
- The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain, by Simon Baron-Cohen
- The Gendered Brain, by Gina Rippon
- The XX Brain, by Lisa Mosconi
General
- Also Human: The Inner Lives of Doctors, by Caroline Elton
- God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine, by Victoria Sweet
- Kill as Few Patients as Possible, by Oscar London
- Listen, by Kathryn Mannix
- My Patients and Me: Fifty Years of General Practice by Dr Jane Little
- Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein
- The Finest Traditions of my Calling: One Physicians Search for the Renewal of Medicine by Abraham Nussbaum
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman
- When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error, by Danielle Ofri
- Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients, by Adam Kay
Genetics
- A Crack in Creation: The New Power to Control Evolution, by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg
- DNA: The Secret of Life, by James Watson
- Junk DNA, by Nessa Carey
- Mutants, by Armand Marie Leroi
- She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity, by Carl Zimmer
- The Epigenetics Revolution, by Nessa Carey
- The Gene: An Intimate History, by Siddhartha Mukherjee
- The Mysterious World of the Human Genome, by Frank Ryan
- The Telomere Effect by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel
- The Violinist’s Thumb, by Sam Kean
- Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are, by Lawrence Wright
- Virolution, by Frank Ryan
Humanitarian Medicine
- An Imperfect Offering: Dispatches from the Medical Frontline, by James Orbinski
- Fever, Feuds and Diamonds, by Paul Farmer
- Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders, by Dan Bortolotti
- Mountains Beyond Mountains: One Doctor’s Quest to Heal the World, by Tracy Kidder
- One by One: Making a Small Difference amid a Billion Problems, by Aaron Berkowitz
- The World’s Emergency Room, by Michael van Rooyen
- War Doctor: Surgery on the front line, by David Nott
Immunology
- An Elegant Defence: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Ritchel
Infectious Diseases
- The Malaria Capers: Tales of Parasites and People, by Robert S Desowitz
- The Vaccine Race, by Meredith Wadman
Junior Doctors
- A Young Doctor’s Notebook, by Mikhail Bugakov
- The House of God, by Samuel Shem
- The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year, by Matt McCarthy
- This is Going to Hurt, by Adam Kay
- Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas, by Adam Kay
- In Stitches, by Anthony Youn
- Your Life in My Hands, by Rachel Clarke
Medicine for the Elderly
- Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life, by Louise Aronson
Neonatology
- Life Unfolding, by Jamie A Davies
- The First breath: How Modern Medicine Saves the Most Fragile Lives, by Olivia Gordon
- The Making of You, by Katharina Vestre
Neurology
- A Molecule Away from Madness: Tales of the Hijacked Brain, by Sara Manning Peskin
- A Return to Duty, by Clodagh Dunlop
- Brain Fables: the hidden history of neurodegenerative diseases and a blueprint to conquer them by Alberto Espay and Benjamin Stecher
- Brainspotting: Adventures in Neurology by AJ Lees
- Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology, by Suzanne O’Sullivan
- Migraine: A History, by Katherine Foxhall
- My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, by Jill Bolte Taylor
- Patient HM: A Story of the Most Studied Individual in the History of Neuroscience, by Luke Dittrich
- Reaching down the Rabbit Hole: Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain, by Brian Burrell and Allan H Ropper
- Sacred Lives: An account of the History, Cultural Associations, and Social Impact of Epilepsy, by Ian Bone
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks
- The Man Who Tasted Words, by Professor Guy Leschziner
- Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World’s Strangest Brains, by Helen Thomson
Obstetrics
- Birth: The Surprising History of How We are Born, by Tina Cassidy
- Womb With a View: Tales from the Delivery, Emergency and Operating Rooms, by Rebecca Levy-Gantt
Oncology
- The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukarjee
- The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last by Azra Raz
Palliative Care
- Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
- Dear Life: A Doctor’s Story of Love, Loss and Consolation, by Rachel Clarke
- Dying Well, by John Wyatt
- How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter, by Sherwin B Nuland
- The Art of Dying Well, by Katy Butler
- The Language of Kindness, by Christie Watson
- When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanthi
- With The End in Mind, by Kathryn Mannix
Psychology/Psychiatry
- An Unquiet Mind: An Autobiographical Portrayal of Bipolar Disorder), by Kay Redfield-Jamison
- How the Brain Lost its Mind: Sex, Hysteria and the Riddle of Mental Illness, by Allan Robber and BD Burrell
- Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
- It’s all in your head: Stories from the Frontline of Psychosomatic Illness, by Suzanne O’Sullivan
- Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, by Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir, by Michele Harper
- The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity – and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, by Daniel Z Lieberman, Michael E. Long et al.
- The Other Dr Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice, by Benjamin Gilmer
- The Painful Truth: The New Science of Why We Hurt and How We Can Heal, by Monty Lyman
- The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness, by Suzanne O’Sullivan
- We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine, and Healing, by Jillian Horton
Racism in Medicine
- Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers: A Kidney Doctor’s Search for the Perfect Match, by Vanessa Grubbs
Renal
- Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine, by Damon Tweedy
- Medical Apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present, by Harriet A Washington
- Under the Skin: Racism, Inequality and the Health of a Nation, by Linda Villarosa
Respiratory
- Breath from Salt: A wonderfully written, thorough history of cystic fibrosis, by Bijal P Trivedi
- Dustfall, by Michelle Johnston
Science of Medicine
- Advice for a Young Investigator, by Santiago Ramon y Cajal
- Letters to a Young Scientist, by EO Wilson
- Rigor Mortis: How sloppy science creates worthless cures; crushes hope, and wastes billions, by Richard Harris
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
- The Dance of Life: Symmetry, Cells and How we become Human, by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and Roger Highfield
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
- The Youngest Science, by Lewis Thomas
Sleep
- Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, by Matthew Walker
Surgery
- All that moves us: A Paediatric Neurosurgeon, his young patients, and their stories of grace and resilience, by Jay Wellons
- Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery, by Richard Hollingham
- Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
- Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
- Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery, by Henry Marsh
- Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality, by Pauline W. Chen
- Mr Humble and Dr Butcher: A Monkey’s Head, the Pope’s Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul, by Brandy Schillace
- Open Heart: A Cardiac Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table, by Stephen Westaby
- Small: Life and Death on the Frontline of Paediatric Surgery, by Catherine Musemeche
- The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine, by Dr Lindsey Fitz
- The Invention of Surgery, by David Schneider
- The Knife Man: Blood, Body-Snatching and the Birth of Modern Surgery, by Wendy Moore
- Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations, by Arnold van de Laar
Technology in Medicine
- Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again, by Eric Topol
Transplant Surgery
- Spare Parts: A Surprising History of Transplants, by Paul Craddock
- How Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon, by Joshua Mezrich
Women and Medicine
- Doing Harm. The truth about how bad Medicine and Lazy Science leave women dismissed, misdiagnosed and sick, by Maya Dusenbery
- Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life, by Suzanne Koven
- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado Perez
- This Side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine, by Eliza Lo Chin
- Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World, by Elinor Cleghorn
