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Bookshelf

This is meant as a leisurely reading list, not a "must-read" list for the process of applying (of which the Medical School Admissions Requirements is one). If you are seeking information on "why you should be a doctor," or advice on how to get more information about medicine, here's one such list from my advisor at Duke; my list below for general reading complements this list.

I hope that my list will provide additional insight that will be helpful for future scientists and physicians. It is not comprehensive, so I suggest searching the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database at New York University School of Medicine for more possibilities. I also welcome additional suggestions.

The following books (which address more the scientific aspects than medical) are on my shelf in my office or on my wish list. If you wish to borrow a copy of any of these books, please let me know and I'll see if I'm willing to part with the book temporarily.

On balancing work with family concerns as academic professionals

• Dispatches from a Not-So-Perfect Life: Or How I Learned to Love the House, the Man, the Child by Faulkner Fox. ISBN: 1400049393 (December 2003).
• Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists by Ellen Daniell. ISBN: 0300113234 (March 2006).
• The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars: Who Decides What Makes a Good Mother by Miriam Peskowitz. ISBN: 1580051294 (April 2005).

On etiquette and behavior (and my resources for evaluating applicants for health professions programs)

• Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro. ISBN: 0670034509 (October 2005).
• Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. ISBN: 0316172324 (January 2005).
• Emily Post's the Etiquette Advantage in Business: Personal Skills for Professional Success by Peggy Post and Peter Post. ISBN: 0062736728 (November 1999).
• Never Eat Alone: and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz. ISBN: 0385512058 (March 2005).
• Practical Intelligence: The Art and Science of Common Sense by Karl Albrecht. ISBN: 0787995657 (October 2007).
• Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success by Karl Albrecht. ISBN: 0787979384 (October 2005).

Fiction on research and science

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The edition I have is ISBN: 0060901012, which may be out of print.
• Copenhagen (play) by Michael Frayn. ISBN: 0385720793 (August 2000),
• Intuition by Allegra Goodman. ISBN: 0385336128 (February 2006).
• Proof (play) by David Auburn. ISBN: 0822217821 (January 2002).

Non-fiction or advice on the practice of dentistry

• The Art and Science of Being a Dentist: Leading Dentists Reveal the Secrets to Professional and Personal Success by Jeffrey May. ISBN: 1587621622 (August 2003).
• Confessions of a Modern Dentist by Sherwin Shinn. ISBN: 0967261007 (January 2001).
• The Dentist of Auschwitz by Benjamin Jacobs. ISBN: 0813190126 (April 2001).
• The Excruciating History of Dentistry by James Wynbrandt. ISBN: 0312263198 (August 2000).

Non-fiction (for general public) on the practice of medicine

• Two books about training at Harvard Medical School.
  • A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student by Perri Klass. ISBN: 0452272580 (1994).
  • White Coat: Becoming a Doctor at Harvard Medical School by Ellen Lerner Rothman. ISBN: 0688153135 (1999).
• Better: a Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande. ISBN: 0805082115 (April 2007).
• Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab by Christine Montross. ISBN: 1594201250 (June 2007).
• Complications: a Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande. ISBN: 0805063196 (April 2002).
• The DO's: Osteopathic Medicine in America by Norman Gevitz. ISBN: 0801878349 (March 2004).
• From the Farm to the Pharmacist and Beyond by Bill Haithco.  ISBN: 0595438652 (August 2007).
• How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman. ISBN: 0618610030 (March 2007).
• Illness in the Academy by Kimberly Myers. ISBN: 155753442X (July 2007).
• Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation by Dr. Sandeep Jauhar. ISBN: 0374146594 (December 2007).
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. ISBN: 0684853949 (January 1985).
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder. ISBN: 0812973011 (August 2004).
• Revolutions in Sorrow: The American Experience of Death in Global Perspective by Peter Stearns. ISBN: 1594514550 (August 2007).
• The Renewal of Generousity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live by Arthur Frank. ISBN: 0226260151 (May 2004).
• Second Voice: A Century of Osteopathic Medicine in Ohio by Carol Poh Miller. ISBN: 0821415948 (December 2004).
• The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: the First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing by Lori Alvord and Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt. ISBN: 0553378007 (June 2000).
• The Soul of a Doctor: Harvard Medical Students Face Life and Death.  ISBN: 156512507X (June 2006).
• Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor by Perri Klass. ISBN: 0465037771 (June 11, 2007).

Non-fiction, policy, or advice on research and science

• Advice to a Young Scientist by Sir Peter B. Medawar. The edition I have is ISBN 0465000924 (1979).
• Countdown: The Race for Beautiful Solutions at the International Mathematical Olympiad by Steve Olsen. ISBN: 0618562125 (July 2005).
• In the Nation's Compelling Interest: Ensuring Diversity in the Health Care Workforce by the Institute of Medicine, National Academies. ISBN: 0-309-09125-X (access entire book for free).
• It's Alive: The Coming Convergence of Information, Biology, and Business by Christopher Meyer. ISBN: 1400046416 (May 2003).
• Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty from the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• Who Rules in Science?: An Opinionated Guide to the Wars by James Robert Brown. ISBN: 0674013646 (March 2004).

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