87 books like Population

A Thousand Naked Strangers is the definitive book about life on an ambulance. I’ve never read another book about this or any other topic for that matter, which made me think, “Yes! Exactly, you get me!” When anyone asks me—and they never do—what is it really like working on an ambulance? this is the book I point to.

Not only is A Thousand Naked Strangers full of great stories from the author’s time on the bus, but Kevin Hazzard, is also a journalist and it shows. This book is fast-paced, funny, and authentic.

People Care is a book that should be given to every EMT and medic student. Caregivers in the field would also do well to read it. There are two sides to emergency medicine: There is the bit about interpreting ECGs, poking people with needles and splinting mangled bones—and there is the human side; treating people like people, not just “patients”. People Care is about the latter.  

Without getting overly sappy, People Care is full of reminders and tips that can reel a salty provider back from the edge. I read this book with about eight years in EMS under my belt and it gave me a lot to think about and changed the way I work.

I found Trauma: My Life as an Emergency Surgeon when I was on a read-all-the-books-about-emergency-medicine kick. I had recently gotten my paramedic certification and was trying to learn all I could about the science of medicine. My brain does not do well with textbooks, so I gravitated towards memoirs.

Unfortunately, being a great doctor and being a great—or even good—writer, seldom go hand in hand. Most of the doctor memoirs I came across were as thrilling as an Anatomy and Physiology textbook.

Dr. Cole’s book was different. He’s a skilled writer and his experiences are exciting and varied.

Although not exactly a book on emergency medicine, I recommend this book for several reasons. First, as a rock climber, Hans Kraus is one of my personal heroes. He was an early pioneer of free climbing in New York’s Shawangunks (the mountains of my youth). But secondly—and more relevant here—he was considered the grandfather of sports medicine. His philosophy of less is more rehab, has stuck with me in theory and in practice.

Oh, and he was also JFK’s secret “back doctor”. A fascinating read about a fascinating man.

I’ve lived in Wisconsin since 1985, and somehow I had no idea there used to be a thriving Playboy resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

After the book came out I learned I even have a family member who worked security there—that’s how little people around here talk about this juicy history. Christina Clancy’s book is set in the 1980s in both Lake Geneva and the smaller community of East Troy, and she does an excellent job of balancing the celebrity and historical elements with the young Wisconsin women themselves and the complex relationship so many of them had with the seedy perception of Playboy. A lot of them were from farms and rural towns, and their families didn’t even know they worked there.

This particular Playboy resort was even known as a family-friendly destination. I loved learning about a world I had no idea existed, set against one I thought… show more.

Reading Shotgun Lovesongs years ago is my first adult memory of seeing myself on the page—the kind of thing that probably happens more frequently if you’re from New York or L.A. but isn’t as common for those of us born and raised in so-called flyover states.

I fell hard for Nickolas Butler’s debut—the story of four boyhood friends in a small Wisconsin town, one of whom becomes a famous rock star—from the first chapter. While it became an international bestseller for its universally appealing story, hooky concept, and lyrical prose (not to mention its rumored, real-life inspiration),

I personally was drawn to the intimate portrayal of life-long, small-town friendships, the precise push-pull of life in a fishbowl; the loyalty we feel for each other that isn’t always earned; and the way we tether ourselves to people and place, for better or for worse.

I was working part-time at an independent bookshop in 2008 when this book arrived in the latest shipment. In addition to the title—named for Driftless Region near where I grew up—the author’s personal comeback story was a novel in itself: Iowa Writers Workshop graduate Rhodes published three books in quick succession in the 1970s, then promptly fell off the face of the earth until, decades later, fledgling Milkweed Editions tracked him down and learned he’d been paralyzed in a motorcycle accident but was still very much alive (and writing) in a small farmhouse in rural Wisconsin. Hooked, I read the book—and was moved to my core.

Nobody captures the particular quirkiness, heart and faith of the people that make up tiny Wisconsin communities better than Rhodes.

I’m a sucker for gorgeous prose, Wisconsin landscape as a character, strong female protagonists, small-town community dynamics, and the complexities of found family—Carol Dunbar’s debut novel checks all of these boxes and then some.

I got so excited when I read this book. The prose crackles. The sensory details are vivid. It’s a literary slow-burn with just enough sizzle to keep you turning pages, and I savored every word. What would you do if you were a young wife and mother living off-grid in Northwoods, Wisconsin, and your partner suddenly became incapacitated? Dunbar left me feeling like I now know.

Josh Seim wrote a powerful book about the complex roles of paramedics and ambulances in US cities. What I particularly enjoyed about this text was the way in which it understands the ambulance crew, not so much as the heroic life-savers of TV lore, but rather as downtrodden workers in a broken system of poverty management.

Working as an EMT and documenting his experiences, Seim brilliantly shows how the disjointed and crumbling healthcare system of the United States is failing its citizens and its emergency workers. The EMTs and paramedics of a private ambulance company in Agonia County do their best to serve the public, but they are in very trying conditions. Although the US pre-hospital system is quite different from what I’m familiar with in the UK, I also found dozens of issues that I can relate to. 

Mixing elves and eldridge powers into the gang warfare of prohibition Chicago, this book is a fast-paced wild ride into the dark and seedy lives of those who use violence to hold on to power.

The key to a good noir story is that it forces the protagonist to confront something they’d rather not know and to survive, they must find a way to live with that dark truth. This is a journey too many of us face, and Ford writes just such a brilliant journey for his protagonist, Doc.

Once I started reading this, it gripped me like cold iron until I was done.