The best books about medicine capture the diverse subjects of the field, and this list of the best books to read about medicine capture every corner of the medical profession, from examining corpses to treating psychopaths to grappling with the enormity of cancer. This medicine book list is perfect for aspiring doctors or armchair physicians looking for deep dives into the various specialities that come under the umbrella of the best books about doctors and medicine. In these good books about medicine, you’ll find something that will teach you something new, open your eyes, and expand your knowledge of the medical field. And without further ado, here’s our list of the best nonfiction books about medicine.
And now for the best books about medicine…
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
You’ve no doubt heard of Elizabeth Holmes, the charismatic and ambitious CEO and founder of Theranos, a med tech startup company that wanted to do the impossible: create a simple pin-prick blood testing product. The story has been told in an HBO documentary and was adapted into a Hulu miniseries, The Dropout. Even if you think you know all there is to know about Theranos and the fallout, Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood is still shocking and revelatory. If you’re wondering about why a true crime book is included in this list of the best books about medicine, it’s because it is a cautionary tale about the med tech startup culture. Holmes wanted to run Theranos like other tech startups like Apple, Google, and Facebook. What’s different is medicine is hard to adapt to technology companies. There are real people involved looking to get accurate medical exams. Someone could get a false positive or false negative. Treatment decisions might be made based off those tests. Fortunately no one’s life was in jeopardy by Theranos, but their story is still a valuable lesson for running a medical technology startup in Silicon Valley’s ultra-competitive, high-stakes, move-fast-and-break-things, venture-funded world.
How to read it: Purchase Bad Blood on Amazon
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
Ever wonder why we act the way we do? Longing for a popular psychology read that will illuminate fundamental human truths? Then you’ve got to check out Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, one of the best books about medicine and psychology. This engaging book highlights the biological background at work that shows up in our behavior. You’ll learn all about how our bodies impact the behavior we present to the world, from morality and ethics, us vs. them mentality, free will, crime, and war and peace. Exhaustive, revealing, and readable, Behave is one of the good books about medicine.
How to read it: Purchase Behave on Amazon
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
New Yorker writer and practicing surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande scrutinizes his own profession’s limitations and inadequacies as life draws to its close in Being Mortal, one of the best selling books about medicine Dr. Gawande contends that medicine lacks the proper treatment for people who are on the verge of passing away. In Being Mortal, Dr. Gawande offers another way forward to helping people approach death with dignity, agency, and respect.
How to read it: Purchase Being Mortal on Amazon
Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky
From Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Oshinksy, Bellevue is among the greatest history of medicine books. Oshinksy’s Bellevue shines a light on the three decades-old hospital in New York City, Bellevue. America’s oldest hospital, Bellevue has seen evolutions in medicine as practices have evolved over time. Bellevue has been at times the seat of medical research, a safety net for patients who cannot go anywhere else, the home of many mental patients, and the pioneer of new forms of treatment. Read this book and find out why this hospital has been so groundbreaking, so legendary, and so essential to medical history in the United States.
How to read it: Purchase Bellevue on Amazon
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
Acclaimed author Bill Bryson turns his attention to the human body in his book The Body, among the most popular books about medicine. Subtitled “A Guide for Occupants,” this lively and entertaining book takes a tour through our physical existence, from skin and hair to the mouth and throat to the lungs and breathing. For those looking for an engrossing read packed with dinner party anecdotes, Bryson’s The Body is for you.
How to read it: Purchase The Body on Amazon
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
The essential guide to trauma, The Body Keeps the Square is one of the best books about medicine and a breakout bestseller with crossover appeal. You’ll find The Body Keeps the Score on the shelves of Target as well as those of your local bookstore and library. And it’s not hard to see why. This book breaks down the biological, mental, and neurological response to trauma and offers hope for healing from it with new breakthroughs in medical treatment and neuroplasticity. Definitive, exhaustive, and optimistic, The Body Keeps the Score belongs on the shelf of any medical student or enthusiast.
How to read it: Purchase The Body Keeps the Score on Amazon
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
Susannah Cahalan details her harrowing episode of illness in Brain on Fire. Cahalan had it all as a promising young journalist with a boyfriend, a cozy apartment, and a bond with her family. When she began to exhibit alarming symptoms, Cahalan spiraled down until she was hospitalized and near catatonic. As doctors raced to understand her illness and find the right diagnosis, Cahalan was very close to being dismissed as a schizophrenic and doomed to a psychiatric hospital. Fortunately, physicians discovered her behavior and symptoms stemmed from an autoimmune disease. Brain on Fire is told with riveting pacing like a medical mystery so you’re right there with her as time seems to be running out and doctors race to find the cause and cure of her illness. It’s no wonder how Brain on Fire has become one of the most popular books about medicine.
How to read it: Purchase Brain on Fire on Amazon
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris
Among the top books about the history of medicine, The Butchering Art makes a significant contribution to medical history, specifically of the Victorian era. Lindsey Fitzharris illuminates the medical breakthroughs in the late 19th century surgical practices,. Credit goes to newfound practices with antiseptics and radical shifts due to germ theory. Just as surgery was undergoing radical changes thanks to orthodox and unorthodox research, so, too, did the art and science of surgery expand with more modern methods. Read this one if you have a strong stomach; Fitzharris spares no bloody detail in this celebration of early surgical pioneers.
How to read it: Purchase The Butchering Art on Amazon
Diagnosis: Solving the Most Baffling Medical Mysteries by Lisa Sanders
Yale School of Medicine doctor and New York Times writer of the Diagnosis column Dr. Lisa Sanders here relates some of the most confounding illnesses ever to receive a diagnosis. This essential read definitely ranks among the best books about medicine. Dr. Sanders was allegedly the model for the beloved House, M.D. television show as she specializes in finding diagnoses for patients whose underlying cause for illness is unknown. In Diagnosis, Dr. Sanders collects some of her most fascinating, most mysterious, and most radical case studies she’s experienced in arriving at the correct diagnosis.
How to read it: Purchase Diagnosis on Amazon
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
No medicine book list is complete without exploring the opioid epidemic. IN Dopesick, journalist Beth Macy has penned a masterful account of the origins, explosive growth, and deadly effects of opioids, the highly addictive pain killer medications that have sent many souls to death in a national epidemic. Macy explores the inevitable intersection of multiple parties that have contributed to the epidemic, including dealers, doctors, and Purdue Pharma. Dopesick definitely belongs on any list of the best books about medicine. It is tough to take but makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the opioid epidemic.
How to read it: Purchase Dopesick on Amazon
Dr. Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
As a Philadelphia local, I’ve long heard of Thomas Dent Mütter’s infamous Museum in Center City Philly. But thanks to Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s book Dr. Mütter’s Marvels, I have a new appreciation for this eccentric doctor and collector of medical curiosities. In this fascinating story, a crucial entry on any medicine book list of the best books about medicine, Aptowicz relates the stunning biography of Dr. Mütter’s colorful life as a plastic surgeon in mid-nineteenth century Philadelphia. We have Dr. Mütter to thank for his bold innovations in surgery and medicine, such as sterilizing equipment, using ether for anesthetization, and treating the deformed with compassion. A trailblazing physician who helped make Philadelphia the destination for medical treatment and education, Dr. Mütter lives on in his museum and in history thanks to Aptowicz’s book.
How to read it: Purchase Dr. Mütter’s Marvels on Amazon
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Siddhartha Mukherjee’s astonishing The Emperor of All Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize, which should tell you how big of an impact this so-called “Biography of Cancer” has had since its publication in 2010. One of the best selling books about medicine, Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies is vast and all-encompassing in its history of cancer, going way back thousands of years all the way up to present. Mukherjee weaves together patient, doctor, researcher, activist, policy maker, and advocate stories in one spellbinding narrative that reads more like a novel. This is the one book on cancer you need to read and a key book about medicine and its contribution to humanity.
How to read it: Purchase The Emperor of All Maladies on Amazon
The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last by Azra Raza
Looking for more on the best books about medicine that explore cancer? Another excellent book about cancer is Dr. Azra Raza’s The First Cell. This bold book alleges that both society and the field of medicine are mistreating cancer. As the oncologist to her husband as he died of leukemia, Dr. Raza has a unique perspective as a physician, advocate, and loved one of someone who cancer claimed as a victim. Dr. Raza’s book makes key arguments that stand up to conventional cancer culture and treatment methods. This is simply a book you must read.
How to read it: Purchase The First Cell on Amazon
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
As Hurricane Katrina raged outside in 2005, Memorial Medical Hospital of New Orleans faced choices we never hope we have to make, about who should live and who should die, who should receive care and who should suffer, and who should be sacrificed so others can live. Months after the fact, the hospital decision makers faced criminal allegations that they gave patients who were the worst off drugs that would hasten their passing. One of the New York Times‘ 10 Best Books of 2013, Five Days at Memorial by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Sheri Fink is a gripping read with breathless pacing that brings up serious questions of medical ethics.
How to read it: Purchase Five Days at Memorial on Amazon
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
We’re living with a pandemic right now, but history has other deadly infectious diseases that have been as or more catastrophic, perhaps none other than the 1918 Influenza. Better known as “The Spanish Flu,” this illness tore through the globe and claimed 100 million lives across the globe in just twenty four months. In The Great Influenza, John M. Barry situates the flu in its historical, medical, and sociological context, unearthing new facts about this deadly and destructive pandemic while recreating the flu’s catastrophic course and the panic it unleashed. The Great Influenza doubtless has many takeaways we could stand to learn from in our current bout with COVID and ranks high on any list of the best history of medicine books.
How to read it: Purchase The Great Influenza on Amazon
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
I featured this book in my list of the best books about schizophrenia, and it definitely deserves to appear on this list of the best books about medicine. This powerful read by Robert Kolker tells the story of the Galvin family. Of Don and Mimi Galvin’s twelve children, six of the ten boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia by the mid-1970s. This remarkable strike of lightning brought them to the attention of the National Institute of Mental Health, who studied the Galvins. Their experiences helped inform schizophrenia’s diagnosis, treatment, and genetic profile. Kolker’s book was named an Oprah’s Book Club pick and one of the New York Times‘ 10 Best Books of 2020.
How to read it: Purchase Hidden Valley Road on Amazon
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston
Unfolding like a thriller, Richard Preston’s classic The Hot Zone traces the ghastly origins and rapid spread of Ebola as it spiraled out of the central African rain forest to suburban Washington, D.C. and all across the world. Ebola had a kill rate of 90%. In The Hot Zone, Preston gives readers an inside look at how a team of medical professionals teamed up with SWAT team soldiers to study and contain the virus. This must-read book runs on adrenaline that will undoubtedly be transferred to its readers as you reach the book’s conclusion. Just make sure you clear your schedule first before you tackle The Hot Zone, definitely one of the good books about medicine.
How to read it: Purchase The Hot Zone on Amazon
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France
Want more history of medicine books? Try this one. David France adapts the landmark documentary he created, How to Survive a Plague, about the early days of the AIDS epidemic, into book form. A journalist, France covered the beginnings of the AIDS crisis as it cascaded through the LGBT community in the late 1980s and 1990s. In particular, France amplified the citizen and doctor activists who rallied for better treatments, more humane treatment, influential policy changes, and increased research funding. How to Survive a Plague is a crucial history of how AIDS emerged and morphed over time from a death sentence into a more manageable, livable chronic condition, told with compassion and respect for the epidemic’s victims.
How to read it: Purchase How to Survive a Plague on Amazon
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Rebecca Skloot’s bestselling The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been popular since its publication in 2010, making it one of the best books about medicine. This eye-opening story traces how Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer and descendent of slaves, became “HeLa,” a group of cells taken from Lacks without her knowledge or approval. These “immortal” living cells are still used (and sold and purchased) today more than 60 years after Lacks’ death. HeLa cells have been instrumental in creating the polio vaccine, shaping cancer treatments, and studying the effects of the atom bomb. Skloot’s book reveals Lacks’ hidden story and amplifies her important contribution to medicine.
How to read it: Purchase The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on Amazon
Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive by Philipp Dettmer
You might know Philipp Dettmer, the author of Immune, by way of his videos. Dettmer manages the most popular science channel on YouTube, Kurzgesagt. And in Immune, his entry in this list of about the best nonfiction books about medicine, he brings his trademark fun and insightful vibe to this brilliantly illustrated guide to your immune system. This book contextualizes our immune system within our bodies, introducing the complex network of defenses (antibodies and inflammation) that fight threats (cancer, allergies, viruses) in an epic war waging in your body. Dettmer also looks at the evolutionary beginnings of our immune system and why it is so vital to our survival even today, thousands of years later after it was first developed. You’ll develop a greater appreciation for your body and its sophisticated defense and offense system.
How to read it: Purchase Immune on Amazon
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
No list of the best books about medicine would be complete without an entry from the late neurologist and pop sci writer Dr. Oliver Sacks. Start with his best-known book, The Man Who Mistook HIs Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. This collection of case studies of patients experiencing bizarre manifestations of neurological phenomena, like the titular story of a man who mistook his wife for a hat. Dr. Sacks’ curiosity and appreciation for his deeply human patients carries through these tales that seem almost too out there to be true. A classic, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is one of the good books about medicine.
How to read it: Purchase The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat on Amazon
The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris
In Thomas Morris’ The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth, you’ll encounter a variety of “curiosities” of medicine, like the titular epidemic of exploding teeth. This book is up there with the best history of medicine books. Morris digs up scandalous, outrageous, and beguiling stories from medical history, offering an entertaining trip through the archives. Medicine has never seemed so strange as in this entertaining read.
How to read it: Purchase The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth on Amazon
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
What Siddhartha Mukherjee did for cancer in The Emperor of All Maladies (discussed above) Andrew Solomon has done for depression with The Noonday Demon, which belongs on any best medicine book list. This important book about medicine and its contribution to our understanding of mental illness makes this one one of the best books about medicine. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award winner, The Noonday Demon is a history of the dark illness of depression. Solomon traces this affliction through time, from the earliest recorded appearances to its modern manifestations, and consults everyone from medical experts to patients to policymakers, attempting to find hope (and finding it!) for a better tomorrow.
How to read it: Purchase The Noonday Demon on Amazon
The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
I’ve featured The Psychopath Test here on the blog before in my list of the 30 best criminology books, and it deserves to appear here in this list of the best books about medicine. Journalist Jon Ronson falls down the rabbit hole of the “madness industry” as he looks at psychopathology from a triad of psychopathic patients, those who treat them, and those who stand to profit off them. What makes this book so brazen is it asks questions that medicine does not have any clear-cut answers to, like how we can possibly treat psychopathology with medicine, whether psychopaths should be treated with compassion and patience since their illness is biological, and how far is too far in medicating children and young adults with psychopharmaceuticals. Hard-hitting and humorous at the same time, The Psychopath Test is thought provoking stuff and one of the most popular books about medicine.
How to read it: Purchase The Psychopath Test on Amazon
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
Mortician Caitlin Doughty lifts up the veil behind what happens to our bodies after we die in Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, a key entry on this epic list of the best books about medicine. Turning a morbid lifelong interest into a profession, Doughty studies the lessons we can learn from the dead. Doughty approaches her subject with dark humor and fascination alike, helping to reveal the biological, scientific, and medical processes our bodies undergo after death. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is also a thoughtful meditation on the circle of life and the natural fact of death, laced with Doughty’s wit.
How to read it: Purchase Smoke Gets in Your Eyes on Amazon
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Before Anne Fadiman wrote Ex Libris, the reading memoir I listed in my Best Nonfiction Books about Books, she penned the National Book Critics Circle Award winning The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This spellbinding story about the clash of cultures follows the complexities of medical treatment. Lia Lee is just three months old when she arrives in a California ER. Lee’s parents were part of a community of Hmong immigrants. When the Americans want to treat Lia for epilepsy, they spar with Lia’s family, who believe illness is a spiritual concern, far away from the American doctors who separate the mind from the body from the spirit. While Lia’s parents believes she has qaug dab peg, translated as “the spirit catches you and you fall down,” and conclude she has a wandering soul, the doctors she meets in the hospital believe she has a biological condition that can be treated with medication. This book is a must-have for anyone who loves a good yarn about medicine and required reading for people looking for the best books about doctors and medicine.
How to read it: Purchase The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down on Amazon
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Science writer Mary Roach has a trademark style balancing wit with the wonders of the scientific field she studies. In Stiff, Roach explores the life of human cadavers. While Caitlin Doughty invites you into the crematorium in Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (listed above), Roach here follows the afterlife of our bodies, from medical school fodder to plastic surgery research specimens to organ donor sources. You’ll learn more about today’s campaign for human composting and yesterday’s Ancient Egyptian spiritual practices of mummification. Along the way, you’ll see why Roach has such a cult following among medicine and science fans and get to experience why she pen so many popular books about medicine.
How to read it: Purchase Stiff on Amazon
Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations by Arnold van de Laar
If you’ve ever watched Grey’s Anatomy, you’re doubtless fascinated by surgeons like the characters on the show. But even if you’re not a fan of the show, you might also be curious about this branch of medicine. Enter Arnold van de Laar’s Under the Knife, a top choice for history of medicine books. This book tells the story of surgery in 28 notable operations. A surgeon himself, van de Laar is an entertaining tour guide through the history of surgery. Along the way, van de Laar lifts up the curtain on the operating room, inviting readers to learn why modern surgery is the way it is.
How to read it: Purchase Under the Knife on Amazon
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jameson
I featured Dr. Kay Redfield Jameson’s An Unquiet Mind in my list of the “20 Best Books about Bipolar Disorder,” and I’m also pleased to include it in this list of the best books about medicine. Dr. Jameson’s memoir is a classic, detailing in an emotionally visceral style her descent into the madness of bipolar disorder. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Jameson has a uniquely twin perspective of being a clinician who treats people with the same illness she has. And its that one-of-a-kind insight that makes her memoir An Unquiet Mind essential reading for anyone hoping to understand mental illness.
How to read it: Purchase An Unquiet Mind on Amazon
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
We close our list of the best books about medicine with When Breath Becomes Air. At 36, ambitious aspiring neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi received an earth-shattering diagnosis: he had stage IV lung cancer. And so began Kalanithi’s book When Breath Becomes Air, an attempt to grapple with the end of life from the viewpoint of a doctor and a patient both. Although he died while writing the book, this Pulitzer Prize finalist is still an unforgettable read.
