70 books like Intern

THOG (yes, we called it by its acronym) was released around the time I entered medical school, and was widely referenced during my training.

Fortunately I was far too occupied to read it at the time, as its revelations, however parodied and overblown, would likely have caused me to leave medicine before earning my license to practice. Encountering it years later, when the whole experience could be reviewed through a humorous retrospective lens, I found the book to be wonderfully entertaining, and spot on in many of its particulars.

Shem’s masterpiece of revelatory satire is the safest, silliest way for anyone to experience medical training, and a proper warning for anyone wishing to enter the field.

Oh, this book! It’s so moving. It’s so sad. It’s so beautiful. And it lingers in my mind years after I first read it.

Paul Kalanithi wrestles with a question you’d never wish upon a 36-year-old neurosurgeon with stage IV lung cancer, married with a child. What makes life worth living in the face of death? He writes, “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything… I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” While he stared bravely ahead as he faced death, he penned a beautiful book about life.

I read Atul Gawande’s first book, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, soon after it was published. I loved his writing, and as someone who reads (and writes) about health, healthcare, and medicine, I went on to read every book he’s written since then.

Being Mortal crossed my path at the same time my beloved father was making his way out of this life to whatever lies beyond.

Gawande’s book—an examination of modern medicine’s reluctance to acknowledge the “inescapable realities of aging and death” to focus on “what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should do”—hit close to home. But the book was the genesis for a much needed, ongoing national conversation on a topic that will, sooner or later, touch us all.  

Dr. Koven and I are on the same broad faculty at Harvard Medical School, though we had never crossed paths until our medical memoirs were released the same year. I got to know her a bit in that time, but even more so in the pages of her wonderful memoir, Letter to a Young Female Physician. This book so clearly elucidates and humanizes the complex path of becoming a physician as a woman and the lessons she learned along the way. Its pages are as charming as they are poignant.

Tense and twisty, All the Dangerous Things is psychological suspense at its finest.

It alternates between the past and present, letting dual mysteries unfold. Both storylines are equally interesting and surprising. I was surprised at nearly every turn, and despite my best efforts, unable to predict how either storyline would unfold.

What I really enjoyed is that it would have been easy to dislike the main character, but by learning her backstory in alternating chapters, I grew more invested in this complicated character as the story went on.

This book has always been one of my all-time favorites because I love the clarity of Lewis’ writing and it deals with the real-world challenges faced by scientists in general and medical doctors in particular. The moral, financial, and romantic dilemmas faced by Martin Arrowsmith constantly keep my teeth on edge as I read this book, never leaving me starved for excitement or something unexpected at every turn. I love how Martin personally transforms throughout the novel and deals in various ways with the emotional challenges of different types of romantic relationships as he faces the obstacles within his career that ultimately shape his internal moral fiber. 

The coolly creepy cover of Survive the Night compelled me to pick it up, but I was hooked by the set up: four teen girls at an all-night rave in an abandoned section of New York City’s underground subway system where someone or something is hunting them. It hits all my worst fears: being trapped underground, total darkness, and tunnels filling up with water. Casey, the main character was fresh from rehab, vulnerable, and unsure of where she fits in and her unease with herself and her friends added such a delicious tension to the story. She goes to the rave out of peer pressure but quickly realizes this is a big mistake. This book is an off-the-rails ride with unexpected twists and the sort of scares that made me keep the lights on while I read.  

My personal creativity is not tidy… I believe nobody creates in a vacuum. The disabled contribute intelligence, perspective, and expression to all modes of creative production. Understanding how to utilize talent from any historically marginalized group means learning how to communicate with folks with diverse abilities and backgrounds. Utilizing respectful language and practices with diverse communities will draw and engage audiences with more vibrant storytelling in today’s world. This practical guide includes case studies designed to guide theater companies to create inclusive productions with the disabled in central and creative roles. Disability and Theatre illustrates how in the theater, where “all the world is a stage”, as in our own lives, creative processes emerge when people with different abilities work together… that is just good living.

My favorite of Miller’s books, Tropic of Capricorn is based on Miller’s life in Brooklyn in the 1920s. It’s a dizzying stream-of-consciousness array that sweeps you along. Miller’s occasional poignant reminiscences about the magic of his boyhood and friendships contrast with the soul-sucking realities of adulthood and workplace bureaucracy that try to stamp out the embers of wonder and passion like a boot heel. Like most of his books, Capricorn celebrates the absurd miracle of consciousness. Miller’s influence on my education as a writer was indispensable. His books didn’t serve so much as a template as how to write, as how to be a writer, specifically how to observe and appreciate the vast madness of the world, reject conformity, and the embrace the anarchist spirit of artistic creation.

If you like small town settings with big old houses and hints of a ghost, intrigue, and simmering romance, you’ll love Storms of the Heart.

The story’s female main character, Emerson Lane, finds herself right in the middle of a raging thunderstorm at night on her way to her Uncle Wayne’s house in Twin Creeks, where she lived when her parents died in a car crash. She’s on a mission to reconnect with her uncle after leaving abruptly years ago to live in New York City. Trouble is waiting for her in the name of Sheriff Max Lomax, who she left behind.

Max has his own problems, but he is secretly but begrudgingly thrilled to see her, but questions whether this time she’ll stay. I liked the interesting characters in this story and the pleasant descriptions of Emerson’s hometown. The writing was so nice it felt like I could just… show more.