The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil
This book was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, and it has received acclaim from critics and clinicians alike. Dr. Bruce Cheson, a hematologist and professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, recently gave a copy of the book to each his fellows. "It talks not only about how we arrived at our current surgical techniques and chemotherapy, but also about the people and how important their personalities and their drive were; what they did; and how they sometimes missed things," he explains. "I gave this book to my fellows because my feeling is, if you don't know where you have been, you are not going to know where you are going." Dr. Cheson describes the book as well written and easy to read. "It's a valuable lesson in how to deal with patients, how to deal with the system, and the importance of the history of oncology and hematology."
Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of all Maladies, is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. What does he recommend for clinicians to read? My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, by Abraham Verghese. That book describes the first days of the AIDS epidemic in rural Tennessee. "As the epidemic begins to loom over cities such as New York and San Francisco, many patients (typically gay men, once ejected from their homes) return to Tennessee to live out the last days of their lives," Dr. Mukherjee says. "Verghese's portrait of these patients is intimate, compassionate and unforgettable."
Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese, MD
Set in Ethiopia, this epic novel tells the story of twin brothers who grow up at a mission hospital and eventually become doctors themselves. It has appeared on several prestigious bestseller lists, including The New York Times, and was soundly endorsed by Medscape readers. In the book, one of the brothers recalls this advice from his surgeon father: "The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny."
What does Dr. Abraham Verghese recommend reading? Love in the Time of Cholera, by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "Marquez is one of the most lyrical writers I know," he says, "and the sentences all (even in translation) seem so beautifully crafted; just when you think you have read something utterly amazing, along comes another line that tops it." The book's plot involves a love triangle between a woman who falls in love with a lowly clerk and the wealthy doctor she marries. "Magical realism does not begin to capture his ability to get the reader to suspend disbelief and enter a world more real than our own," Dr. Verghese says.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
This book has won numerous awards, including the National Academy of Sciences' 2011 Best Book Award. One Medscape reader described it as "un-put-downable." Hematologist Dr. Bruce Cheson gave a copy of this book to each of his fellows: "This is a story of the HeLa cell -- the first human cancer cell to be grown and cultured," he explains. "Not only did it grow and culture, but it kept growing and taught us lessons about how to turn genes on and off. It led to the development of the polio vaccine and other vaccines as well as all sorts of tissue culture techniques." This true story began at a time when "informed consent" had not yet been widely adopted, so the family of Henrietta Lacks -- source of the HeLa cells -- only learned the truth many years later. The book raises significant ethical issues, Dr. Cheson says. "I don't know of a book that I have read in the last few years that I can recommend as highly as this one."
The House of God, by Samuel Shem
Originally published in 1978 amid considerable controversy, this book has become a cult favorite among physicians. It offers a fictional account of a medical intern at Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Hospital and it satirizes the dehumanizing demands of residency. "I read House of God over and over as an intern and resident," says Dr. John Tydings, an orthopedic surgeon in New Jersey. "I read it again after residency and thought it was one of the saddest books I ever read," he continues. "Much is outdated but much is still painfully true." The latest book by Samuel Shem, The Spirit of the Place, has been given a much warmer reception, winning numerous awards and accolades from clinicians and book reviewers.
Some readers may be surprised to learn that "Samuel Shem" is a pen name for psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Bergman, who was a professor at Harvard Medical School for 35 years. What does he recommend reading? Another book by Garcia Marquez, Of Love and Other Demons, which he describes as one of the few "perfect novels." It is set in a South American Caribbean seaport in colonial times, and it tells the story of a 14-year-old girl bitten by what might be a rabid dog. The attending physician advises the girl's father: "Play music for her, fill the house with flowers, have the birds sing, take her to the ocean to see the sunsets, give her everything that can make her happy. No medicine cures what happiness cannot." Dr. Bergman views the character and his advice as timeless: "He does what we docs all try to do at our best: be fully alive with others. Marvelous."
Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis
Published in 1925, this book won the Pulitzer Prize the next year (though the author refused to accept it). It follows the life and evolution of Dr. Martin Arrowsmith, while providing social commentary on the state of medicine in the United States. The book has received much critical acclaim, and it is still popular among current physicians. "This book inspired me to pursue a career in medicine and research," wrote one anonymous physician in our Medscape survey; that sentiment was echoed by others.
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, and Better, by Atul Gawande, MD, MPH
One physician responding to our online survey recommended "anything written by Atul Gawande." Many other respondents offered more specific praise for these 2 books. "Gawande's prose is elegantly simple with practical teaching points," wrote one physician. Another said he gave a copy of Better to every resident in the program after finishing it himself. Dr. Gawande practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He is also a frequent columnist for The New Yorker magazine, and his columns are frequently discussed on medical blogs.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
The sub-title captures the essence of this book: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. This book "really changed my approach to my culturally diverse practice," writes a Medscape endocrinologist. "Should be required reading for all future MDs," adds a Medscape family physician.
