A (Very Brief) Literary Tour of Medicine

First published in 1989, this was rereleased in 2001 with a new preface and afterword. This was one of the first medical memoirs I’d ever read, and it has stuck with me to the point where I reread it every few years. Marion asked three of his interns to keep a diary over the year. What these three young doctors record is a starkly honest depiction of medical training in the 1980s. In the newer version, Marion addresses today’s medical training, as well as updates the reader on the doctors. If you’re thinking of going into medicine, this would be one of the first books I’d recommend.

Dissecting a cadaver is a rite of passage in medical school. All first year students do it. When Montross is faced with the task, she finds herself wondering about the cadaver, whom she names Eve: who she was, and what her life was like. As the dissection progresses, we explore the wonders of the human body and the stories our bodies might tell one day. Montross discusses the history of dissection, along with her first-year med school experiences in this compellingly readable book.

Not medical school per se, but this book is about a life in medicine. Even with the field of medicine evolving, women still face many, many challenges that their male colleagues do not. Koven writes about this in these letters with honesty and wit: juggling medicine and motherhood, caring for aging parents, practicing medicine during the AIDS era and again in COVID-19, pay inequity, and sexism, to name a few. She traces her time in medicine and shares how she deals with burnout and where she finds inspiration. Despite the title, this is a book for everyone.

Learning about the heart was one of my least favorite things, and to this day, it’s still not a favorite of mine — but Jauhar’s book fascinated me. He brings the history of cardiology to life, but also weaves in personal stories and discusses his family’s history of heart disease. He writes about both the future of medicine and the limits of it, while bringing humanity to the art of doctoring. (I’d also recommend his searing look at the medical profession, Doctoring: The Disillusionment of an American Physician).

I remember picking this book up when it first came out, and loving the subtitle. I thought, okay, I’ll give this a try. Needless to say, I became a big fan and have read everything Gawande has written ever since. In this book, he writes about surgery, making mistakes, performance, and decision-making. He’s one of the best nonfiction writers out there; need I say more? (Also pick up Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, since you’ll want to read that one right after this one).

Combining medical, social, personal, and cultural perspectives, Raza explores cancer, its treatment, and the cancer industry itself. She questions what most people see as our “victories” over cancer, because the reality is a bit different. Oncology’s main focus has been on treating cancer at all costs, at the expense of exploring how it starts in the first place. Raza challenges the cancer community to do better, and discusses all of this in an accessible way to the lay reader.

Newman is president and CEO of Children’s National Medical Center, and this book is about the children and parents he’s worked with over the years as a pediatric surgeon. He especially writes about the parents in such a way that keeps the child at the forefront (they are his patients, after all), but he recognizes their feelings and brings them into the fold. He discusses how pediatric care has evolved over time, and directions for the future.

I will read anything Klass writes, and this is a classic of hers. This is her chronicle of her pediatric internship and residency in the ’80s and ’90s; stories of patients and reflections on medical dilemmas and issues, along with reflections on the nature of medical education itself. She’s brutally honest about her work and life, and although it’s an older book, it is still just as pertinent today as it was back then.

Puri is the daughter of two immigrants, and the two things that often provided some common ground were medicine and spirituality. The two are not as necessarily at odds as you might think, and Puri does a stunning job at braiding the two together, in her work and in her writing. We see her eventually decide on palliative medicine, which is a multi-disciplinary field that helps provide pain relief, stress relief, and preserves quality of life. She writes about living and dying well, and how medicine can help us do both.

This isn’t a book on palliative care, per se. But it felt like the best place to put it. Chen is a transplant surgeon, and as a young doctor she envisioned herself saving lives — after all, that’s what doctors do, right? But she didn’t realize how much death there was. What she also didn’t expect was the depersonalization of death and dying. Chen examines why doctors are so bad at facing death — why do they tend to avoid it at all costs, and the toll it takes on both doctors and patients.