Admissions Guides
Reading for Fun!
Chemistry
Le Couteur, P. and Burreson, J. Napoleon's Buttons : How 17 Molecules Changed
History, 2003. QD37 L34x 2003
QD37 L34x 2003
Chronic Illness
Groopman, J. The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness, 2004, R726.5 G76 2004
Medical Training
Konner, M. Becoming a Doctor : A Journey of Initiation in Medical School, 1987. R154.K44 A3 1987
Ofri, D. Incidental Findings:
Lessons from my Patients in the Art of Medicine, 2005. R705 O38 2005
Ofri, D. Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue, 2003
Pories, S., Jain, S. H., Harper, G., Groopman, J. E. (eds.). The Soul of a Doctor: Harvard Medical Students Face Life and Death, 2006
Rothman, E. L. White Coat : Becoming a Doctor at Harvard Medical School, 1999. R154 R755 A3 1999. A female perspective about Harvard Medical School.
Takakuwa, K. M., Rubashkin, N., Herzig, K.E (eds.) What I Learned in Medical School: Personal Stories of Young Doctors, 2004. R705 W48 2004. A collection of short essays.
Transue, E. On Call - A Doctor's Days and Nights in Residency, 2004. R154 T673 A3 2004
Young, A. What Patient's Taught Me: A Medical Student's Journey, 2004.
Medicine
Coles, R. and Testa, R. (eds.) A Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology, 2002
Fadiman, A. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, 1998. RA418.5 T73 F33 1998
Groopman, J. E. Second Opinions:
Stories of Intuition and Choice in a Changing World of Medicine, 2000
Groopman, J. The Measure
of Our Days: New Beginnings at Life's End. 1997
Remen, R. N. My Grandfather's
Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging, 2000
Remen, R. N. Kitchen Table
Wisdom: Stories That Heal, 1996
Roueche, B. The Medical Detectives, 1980
Straus, E. W. and Straus, A. Medical Marvels: The 100 Greatest Advances in Medicine, 2006. R131 S83 2006
Nursing
Gordon, S. Nursing Against the Odds : How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care, 2005. RT86.5 G67 2005
Physician Biographies
Bliss, M. Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery, 2005. RD592.9 C87 B55 2005
Carson, B. Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence, 1992. Biography about an African-American neurosurgeon.
Collins, M. J. Hot Lights, Cold Steel : Life, Death, and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years, 2005.
Firlik, K. Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside, 2006
Gawande, A. Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, 2002. RD27.35 G39 A3 2002
Kidder, T. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, 2003. R154 F36 K53 2003
McCrae, D. Every Second Counts: The Race to Transplant the First Human Heart, 2006
Mohrmann, M.E. Attending Children: A Doctor's Education, 2005
Nielsen, J. Ice Bound : A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole, 2001. RC280 B8 N54x 2001
Ruhlman, M. Walk on Water: A Pediatric Surgeon's Journey, 2003.
Verghese, A. The Tennis Partner: A Doctor's Story of Friendship and Loss, 1998.
Verghese, A. My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and its People in the Age of AIDS, 1994. Dr. Verghese is an infectious disease specialist who began practicing in 1985 in Johnson City, TN. In five years, he had cared for over 80 AIDS patients.
Vertosick, Jr., F. When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales of Neurosurgery, 1996.
Ziegler, E. Emergency Doctor
Pharmacy
Angell, M. The Truth about the Drug Companies : How they Deceive Us and What to Do About It, 2004. HD9666.5 .A74 2004
Avorn, J. Powerful Medicines :The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs, 2004. HD9666.5 .A94 2004
Baenninger, A. Good Chemistry : the Life and Legacy of Valium Inventor Leo Sternbach, 2004. RM666 B42 G66 2004
Jeffreys, D. Aspirin : The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug, 2004. RM666 A82 J44 2004
Hawthorne, F. Inside the FDA : The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs We Take and the Food We Eat, 2005. RA401 A3 H39 2005
Kassirer, J. P. On the Take : How America's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health, 2005. R725.5 K376 2005
Moynihan, R. and Cassels, A. Selling Sickness : How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning us All into Patients, 2005. HD9665.5 M69x 2005
Anatomy and Physiology
Hayes, B. Five Quarts : A Personal and Natural History of Blood, 2005. QP91 H454 2005
Roach, M. Stiff : The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, 2003. R853 H8 R635 2003
History of Medicine
Fenster, J. M. Mavericks, Miracles, and Medicine : The Pioneers who Risked Their Lives to Bring Medicine Into the Modern Age, 2003. R134.5 F46x 2003
Rutkow, I. M. Bleeding Blue and Gray : Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine, 2005. E621 .R88 2005
Diseases
Cardiovascular Disease
Levy, D. and Brink, S. A Change of Heart : How the Framingham Heart Study Helped Unravel the Mysteries of Cardiovascular Disease, 2005. RA645 C34 L48 2005
Influenza
Barry, J. M. The Great Influenza : The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, 2004. RC150.4 B37 2004
Byerly, C. R. Fever of War : The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I, 2005. RC150.4 B946 2005
Infectious Disease
Nagami, P. The Woman with a Worm in Her Head: And Other True Stories of Infectious Disease
Insect Bites
Nagami, P. Bitten: True Medical Stories of Bites and Stings, 2004. RD96.2 N34 2004
Lou Gehrig's Disease
Estess, J. and Estess, V. Tales from the Bed: A Memoir, 2004
Weiner, J. His Brother's Keeper: One Family's Journey to the Edge of Medicine, 2004
Multiple Sclerosis
Murray, T. J. Multiple Sclerosis : The History of a Disease, 2005. RC377 M88 2005
Polio
Kluger, J. Splendid Solution : Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio, 2004. QR31.S25 K58 2004
Oshinsky, D. M. Polio : An American Story, 2005. RC181 U5 O83 2005
Shell, M. Polio and Its Aftermath : The Paralysis of Culture, 2005. RC181 U5 S53 2005
Wilson, D. J. Living with Polio : The Epidemic and Its Survivors, 2005. RC180.2 W47 2005
Journals and magazine are a great way to keep up with current events related to medicine and science. These are just a few titles:
New England Journal of Medicine
- See
Medical Education & Training Collection.
Journal of the American Medical Association
Annals of Internal Medicine
Science
Nature
Scientific American
Other
Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database (http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/about.html)
Literature and Medicine, a reading list compiled by Syracuse University (http://hpap.syr.edu/book.htm)
Writings by Abraham Verghese, M.D.
Writings by Atul Gawande, M.D.
Bellevue Literary Review (http://www.blreview.org/)
Content last updated
10/14/2006
Links last checked 10/14/2006
Compiled by Andrea L.
Dinkelman, Assistant Professor/Science & Technology Librarian
Parks Library
Iowa State University
adinkelm@iastate.edu