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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019
| Contributor Information
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Read any good books lately? Medscape's staff of doctors and nurses certainly have. We asked them to tell us their favorite recent nonfiction works. Whether you're holiday shopping or just looking for a page-turner of your own, these recommendations are some of the most interesting and rewarding reads of the year.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas
It takes a uniquely talented humorist like Adam Kay, author of the best-selling memoir This Is Going to Hurt, to wring belly laughs from the grind that is the hospital Christmas shift. Whether delivering babies while exhausted or treating eggnog-induced traumas, Kay's hilarious (and occasionally heartbreaking) account of working six tours of Christmas duty in the National Health Service is the ideal stocking stuffer for the overworked caregiver in your life.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Patrick Radden Keefe's account of Northern Ireland's tumultuous 20th century was named one of the year's 10 best books by The New York Times. You'll see why within the first few pages, as Keefe deftly turns a methodically detailed history of The Troubles into something more like a detective novel. Investigating the mysterious 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a young, widowed mother of 10 children, the author gives this complex geopolitical quagmire something it is rarely afforded: a human face.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor
Considered the father of medical anthropology, Arthur Kleinman has published over 40 essential books on the topic. This one is different, a deeply affecting memoir of how Kleinman became the caregiver for his wife, who eventually died with Alzheimer disease. It is primarily a love story, yet Kleinman spares no criticism of modern medicine's more soulless aspects.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Doctor Dogs: How Our Best Friends Are Becoming Our Best Medicine
From alleviating psychiatric symptoms to accurately detecting cancers, Parkinson disease, Clostridium difficile infections, and other serious conditions, dogs have a surprisingly robust role to play in modern medicine. Author Maria Goodavage provides a compelling overview of how dogs' keen sense of the human body has evolved over millennia to get us to this point. After reading about the lifesaving feats of these "personal MDs" (aka, medical dogs), you'll wonder whether we humans are actually pulling our weight in this storied interspecies friendship.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir
Jayson Greene recounts how he and his wife endured the tragic death of their 2-year-old daughter, Greta, who was struck by a brick that fell from a Manhattan high-rise. The memoir beautifully explores how the couple was able to cope with unthinkable grief and move from a place of anguish to one of hope and optimism—a courageous book to write if ever there was one.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Those Who Wander: America's Lost Street Kids
What caused three "throwaway" street kids to commit a 2015 double homicide in the Bay Area? Vivian Ho's book offers no excuses but plenty of compelling evidence of how America is institutionally failing its growing subculture of homeless youth. It's a trenchant reminder of how easily the gulf between the haves and have-nots can turn into a powder keg.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust
Have you heard that artificial intelligence (AI) is coming for our jobs? Those looking for a second opinion are advised to seek out this book by Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis, who relieve anxiety by pointing out the myriad limitations of deep-learning AI and the long road needed to address them.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution
Richard Wrangham is at the forefront of dogma-shifting anthropologic ideas. He's linked human evolution with the harnessing of fire among our hominin ancestors, and written extensively on how our conflicting capacities for violence and peace are reflected in our closest ape cousins, chimpanzees, and bonobos. In his latest book, Wrangham further explores why people can at once be the "nicest and nastiest" of species.
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Lori Gottlieb has crafted the perfect book for all who have wondered what their therapist is possibly thinking. In this insightful and funny first-person account, Gottlieb shares her own journey through therapy and the stories of the patients she has cared for along the way. Don't worry—she got their written permission!
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Get Book-Smart: Medscape Prescribes 2019's Best Nonfiction
John Watson | December 19, 2019 | Contributor Information
How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information
Data visualization expert Alberto Cairo breaks down the ways that charts, graphs, diagrams, and other tools of the trade shape our perception of the truth, for good and bad (though usually the latter). Consider this book essential training for your eyes before sitting through another infographic-driven medical meeting.
Here are 25 great vacation choices, which include snow and ski destinations, sun and sand locales, cultural spots, adventure and outdoors sites, and foodie getaways.Medscape Features Slideshows, October 2019
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John Watson
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Disclosure: John Watson has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
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