Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital

The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital

by Samuel Shem

Now a classic! The hilarious novel of the healing arts that reveals everything your doctor never wanted you to know. Six eager interns -- they saw themselves as modern saviors-to-be. They came from the top of their medical school class to the bottom of the hospital staff to serve a year in the time-honored tradition, racing to answer the flash of on-duty call lights and nubile nurses. But only the Fat Man... (more)

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

by Atul Gawande

In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Atul Gawande explores the power and the limits of medicine, offering an unflinching view from the scalpel’s edge. Complications lays bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is—uncertain, perplexing, and profoundly human.

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures

by Vincent Lam

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures welcomes readers into a world where the most mundane events can quickly become life or death. By following four young medical students and physicians – Ming, Fitz, Sri and Chen – this debut collection from 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Vincent Lam is a riveting, eye-opening account of what it means to be a doctor. Deftly navigating his way through 12 interwoven short... (more)

I Knew a Woman: Four Women Patients and Their Female Caregiver

I Knew a Woman: Four Women Patients and Their Female Caregiver

by Cortney Davis

"I cannot ignore the reality of the body, its glorious beginnings and its subtle endings," writes Cortney Davis in this intimate and startlingly original account of her work at a women's clinic. A poet and nurse-practitioner with twenty five years' experience, Davis reveals the beauty of the body's workings by unfolding the lives of four patients who struggle with its natural cycles and unexpected surprises:... (more)

MY OWN COUNTRY, A DOCTOR'S STORY

by Abraham Vergehese, Abraham Verghese, A. Verghese

Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City saw its first AIDS patient in August 1985. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases who became, by necessity, the local AIDS expert. Out of his experience comes a startling, ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland.

The Soul of Medicine

by Sherwin Nuland

Like all doctors, Sherwin Nuland collects stories, and over thirty years in the practice of surgery, he has collected a consider number of both his own stories as well as the stories of surgeons he has worked with and admires. The remarkable stories told in this book are filled with the lessons of humanity. They describe that sacrosanct connection between two people we call the doctor-patient relationship, and... (more)

Kill As Few Patients As Possible

by Oscar London

London, an internist in private practice, offers 56 short essays on his profession that consist of alternating doses of slapstick and poignancy. For example, in moving tones he tells of his joy at consulting a dour hematologist who properly diagnosed a 24-year-old woman's elusive illness and saved her life. Then he makes an all-too-familiar, if well-phrased, complaint about being forced to look at other doctors'... (more)

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