Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a doctor? Check out these memoirs by doctors and biographies of doctors for the inside scoop. You'll find books about doctors on the front lines of COVID, doctors considering the intersection of race, religion, and medicine in the U.S., doctors working abroad (and one on Nantucket), doctors who are also experiencing an illness, doctors who work with the terminally ill and those who are granted a second chance at life, biographies of historic doctors, and--as a bonus--a collection of fiction and nonfiction written by doctors. Many of the titles are available in digital formats, or visit us at the library to borrow or request print books and books on CD.
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Life on the line : young doctors come of age in a pandemic
by Emma Goldberg A New York Times reporter, weaving together in-depth interviews with doctors, their diaries, and notes, creates a page-turning account that follows the medical students who received their degrees early to help treat thousands of critically ill COVID-19 patients in New York City during the height of the pandemic. Borrow the e-book using Libby/Overdrive via partner network SAILS. |
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Every minute is a day : A Doctor, an Emergency Room, and a City Under Siege
by Robert Meyer Combining the frontline perspective of an ER doctor and a journalist's discerning research and reporting, Every Minute Is a Day takes us into a hospital ravaged by COVID-19, filled with the stories of promises made that may be impossible to keep, of life and death choices for patients and their families, and of selflessness on the part of medical professionals who put themselves at incalculable risk. As fast-paced and high-tempo as the ER in which it takes place, this book offers an incomparable firsthand account of unrelenting compassion and a reminder that every human life deserves a chance to be saved. |
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Love thy neighbor : a Muslim doctor's struggle for home in rural America
by Ayaz Virji In 2013, Dr. Ayaz Virji left a comfortable job at an East Coast hospital and moved to a town of 1,400 in Minnesota, feeling called to address the shortage of doctors in rural America. But in 2016, this decision was tested when the reliably blue, working-class county swung for Donald Trump. Virji watched in horror as his children faced anti-Muslim remarks at school and some of his most loyal patients began questioning whether he belonged in the community. Virji wanted out. But in 2017, just as he was lining up a job in Dubai, a local pastor invited him to speak at her church and address misconceptions about what Muslims practice and believe. That invitation has grown into a well-attended lecture series that has changed hearts and minds across the state, while giving Virji a new vocation that he never would have expected. Borrow the e-book using Libby/Overdrive via partner network BPL. |
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Black man in a white coat : a doctor's reflections on race and medicine
by Damon Tweedy A graduate of Duke Medical School and Yale Law School shares his experiences grappling with racial identity, bias, and the unique health problems of black Americans, examining the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. Borrow the e-book using Libby/Overdrive via partner network Minuteman. Borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Living and dying in Brick City : an E.R. doctor returns home
by Sampson Davis The best-selling author of The Pact presents a narrative exploration of the health-care crisis in inner-city communities as drawn from the author's experiences as an emergency room resident at Newark Beth Israel Hospital, in an account that illuminates the complicated human realities behind the statistics. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Libby/Overdrive via partner network Minuteman, or borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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The pact : three young men make a promise and fulfill a dream
by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Remeck Hunt Follows the experiences of Jenkins, Davis, and Hunt, three friends who grew up in impoverished families in Newark, New Jersey, and who supported one another in their dreams of becoming doctors in spite of tremendous disadvantages. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Libby/Overdrive via partner network BPL, or borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Tears of salt : a doctor's story
by Pietro Bartolo Pietro Bartolo, the doctor of the lone medical clinic on the Italian island of Lampedusa, chronicles his efforts to rescue, welcome, and care for many of the hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants from the Middle East and Africa who have washed up on the island’s shores. Borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Dottoressa : an American doctor in Rome
by Susan Levenstein After completing her medical training in New York, Susan Levenstein set off for a one year adventure in Rome. Forty years later, she is still practicing medicine in the Eternal City. In Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome Levenstein writes, with love and exasperation, about navigating her career through the renowned Italian tangle of brilliance and ineptitude, sexism and tolerance, rigidity and chaos. |
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The Lassa ward : one man's fight against one of the world's deadliest diseases
by Ross I. Donaldson Describes the author's journey to Sierra Leone as an untried medical student in order to help control the spread of lassa fever, battling poor working conditions, political strife, and contracting the disease himself. |
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Island practice : cobblestone rash, Underground Tom, and other adventures of a Nantucket doctor
by Pam Belluck An account of life on Nantucket as experienced by one of its only doctors describes his work as the island's football team medic, family practitioner, and only surgeon, offering insight into how regional healthcare has been shaped by island history and the independent views of eccentric residents. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Libby/Overdrive via partner network CLAMS, or borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Brave New Medicine : A Doctor’s Unconventional Path to Healing Her Autoimmune Illness
by Cynthia Li, M.D. Drawing on cutting-edge science, ancient healing arts, and the power of intuition, a board-certified physician in internal medicine details the physical and existential crisis that forced her to question her own medical training after developing a disabling autoimmune illness. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Chasing my cure : a doctor's race to turn hope into action : a memoir
by David C. Fajgenbaum An award-winning doctor and former college athlete recounts his battle with a rare health disorder that compelled his work with world-class scientists to find a cure, describing how he became a driven advocate for patients with under-researched diseases. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Libby/Overdrive via partner network Minuteman. |
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Free refills : a doctor confronts his addiction
by Peter Grinspoon Dr. Peter Grinspoon seemed to be a total success: a Harvard-educated M.D. with a thriving practice; married with two great kids and a gorgeous wife; a pillar of his community. But lurking beneath the thin veneer of having it all was an addict fueled on a daily boatload of prescription meds. When the police finally came calling--after a tip from a sharp-eyed pharmacist--Grinspoon's house of cards came tumbling down fast. His professional ego turned out to be an impediment to getting clean as he cycled through recovery to relapse, with his reputation, family life, and lifestyle in ruins. What finally moves him to recover and reclaim life--including working with other physicians who themselves are addicts--makes for inspiring reading. Borrow the e-book using Libby/Overdrive via partner network CW MARS or borrow the e-audiobook using Libby/Overdrive via partner network BPL. |
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Dear life : a doctor's story of love and loss
by Rachel Clarke As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr. Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Her training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing, even the best palliative care, can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love. And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life--more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion--than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time is running out, while we live as though we have all the time in the world. |
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That good night : life and medicine in the eleventh hour
by Sunita Puri Combining stories of the author's family and the patients she cares for, a meditation on impermanence in the role of medicine in helping us to live and die well arms readers with information that will transform how we communicate with our doctors about what matters most to us. |
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You can stop humming now : a doctor's stories of life, death, and in between
by Daniela Lamas A critical care doctor examines the lives of people who were given a second chance through treatments and technologies including a man whose heart was replaced by a battery-operated pump and a man who found a kidney donor on social media. Borrow the e-book using Libby/Overdrive or borrow the e-audiobook using Libby/Overdrive via partner network OCLN. |
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Rush : revolution, madness, and the visionary doctor who became a founding father
by Stephen Fried The remarkable story of Benjamin Rush, medical pioneer and one of our nation's most provocative and unsung Founding Fathers. A brilliant physician and writer, Rush was known as the "American Hippocrates" for pioneering national healthcare and revolutionizing treatment of mental illness and addiction. Yet medicine is only part of his legacy. Dr. Rush was both a progressive thorn in the side of the American political establishment--a vocal opponent of slavery, capital punishment, and prejudice by race, religion or gender--and close friends with its most prominent leaders. He was the protégé of Franklin, the editor of Common Sense, Washington's surgeon general, and the broker of peace between Adams and Jefferson, yet his stubborn convictions more than once threatened his career and his place in the narrative of America's founding. Borrow the e-book using Libby/Overdrive via partner network CLAMS. |
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The doctors Blackwell : how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women--and women to medicine
by Janice P. Nimura Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for greatness beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity won her the acceptance of the all-male medical establishment, and in 1849 she became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree. But Elizabeth's story is incomplete without her often forgotten sister, Emily, the third woman in America to receive a medical degree. Exploring the sisters' allies, enemies and enduring partnership, Nimura presents a story of both trial and triumph. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Libby/Overdrive, or borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Writer, M.D. : the best contemporary fiction and nonfiction by doctors
by Leah Kaminsky For centuries, doctors have turned to the written word, giving voice to their unique perspectives through literature. This collection of fiction and nonfiction by some of today's most beloved physician-writers explores a range of emotions deeply felt by doctors: an acute awareness of our mortality, of the interplay between medicine and humanity, of the weight of responsibility carried by the profession. They also bring into sharp focus the point of view of the patient, illuminating the experiences of grief, trauma, illness, and aging that doctors witness through their work. |