Pre-Health Reading List
These recommendations come from Carol Bokros, Assistant Director of Pre-Health Professions Programs. Her goal in assembling the list is to easily direct pre-health students to materials to help them better prepare for entrance exams, professional schools, and for careers in the health professions. Of special note are titles recommended by Mercer faculty who responded to the question "what books do you wish your own doctors had read?"
The collection is divided according to the categories in the table of contents box to the right.
Clicking on links in the lists below will take you to the catalog where you can determine availability, view the summary and/or table of contents when available, and find a map of where items not shelved in the collection are available. If the item you need is in another location, view this guide on locating and requesting items. Links are provided for audiobooks that appear with the description [sound recording] and videos that appear with the description [videorecording].
DVDs
- Awakenings
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1586453~S18 - Being Mortal
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b2504144~S1 - Discovery Channel Series Body Story
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819636~S18 - The Doctor
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819644~S18 - Doctors' Diaries
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1666152~S18 - Escape Fire
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b2504142~S1 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1559243~S18 - Patch Adams
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819642~S18 - Sick around America
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1897546~S1 - Sick around the World
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b2504143~S1 - Something the Lord Made
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819641~S18 - Still Alice
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1915442~S1 - The Waiting Room
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1898131~S1 - Wit
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819637~S18
You can also search Kanopy Video Streaming to find other films on health (using subject Health) and Alexander Street Video using the discipline of Health Sciences:
Training for and Practice of the Health Professions
- All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, 1973
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1201512~S1 - Art of Medicine in Metaphors: A collection of poems and narratives edited by James Borton
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1836773~S1 - Awakenings by Oliver Sacks, 1990
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1572557~S1 - Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1522430~S1 - Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, 2009
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819628~S1 - Doctor Stories by W. Carlos Williams, 1984
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819629~S1 - Doctors: The Biography of Medicine by Sherwin Nuland, 1995
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819063~S1 - Everything I Learned in Medical School by Sujay Kansagra, M.D.
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1897545~S1 - Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink, 2013
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1840745~S1 - Gentle Vengeance: An Account of the First Year at Harvard Medical School by Charles LeBaron, 1982.
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1821325~S1 - Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson, 1996
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1840760~S1 - Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson, 1996
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1840572~S1 - God's Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet, 2012
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1818662~S1 - Haiti after the Earthquake
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027060~S1 - Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1618544~S1 - House of God by Samuel Shem
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b2429375~S1 - Human Side of Medicine: Learning What It's Like to be A Patient and What It's Like to be A Physician by Lawrence Savett, 2002
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819068~S1 - I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse edited by Lee Gutkind
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1840374~S1 - Illness As Narrative
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1786926~S1 - Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition by Arthur Kleinman, 1989
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1821324~S1 - Intern Blues: The Timeless Classic about the Making of a Doctor by Robert Marion, 2001.
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819016~S1 - Learning to Play God: The Coming of Age of a Young Doctor by Robert Marion, 1991.
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819017~S1 - Life after Medical School: Thirty-two Doctors Describe How They Shaped Their Medical Careers by Leonard Laster, 1996
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819064~S1 - Longer Stories from the Last Decade
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1637845~S1
Notes: short story Ward Number Six included in this volume - Making of a Nurse by Tilda Shalof, 2008
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819018~S1 - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1052834~S14 - Medical School Coach: Waking Your Inner Doctor
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1921050~S14 - Mindful Medical Student by Jeremy Spiegel
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1836774~S1 - My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of Aids by Abraham Verghese, 1995
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819627~S1 - Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819065~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student by Perri Klass, 1988.
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819620~S1 - On Becoming a Doctor by Tania Heller
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1836775~S1 - Reflections on Doctors: Nurses' Stories about Physicians and Surgeons by Terry Ratner, 2008
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819626~S1 - To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation by Paul Farmer, 2013
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1842953~S1 - Something for the Pain: Compassion and Burnout in the ER by Paul Austin, 2009
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819630~S1 - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1561073~S1 - Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Own Bodies by Sayantani DasGupta, 2007
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819066~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - True Confessions of a Veterinarian: An Unconditional Love Story by Gene Witiak, 2004
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819070~S1 - Vetting: The Making of a Veterinarian by Pete Freyburger, 2009.
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819621~S1 - What Doctors Feel
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027084~S1 - When Doctors Don't Listen by Leana Wen and Joshua Kosowsky, 2013
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1842954~S1 - When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes: Memoirs of a Deaf Doctor by Philip Zazove
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819071~S1 - White Coat, White Cane: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Blind Physician by David Asbell Hartman, 1979
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1821321~S1
Critical Thinking and Scientific Thought
- Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1638097~S14 - Broca's Brain by Carl Sagan, 1980
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1027353~S1 - Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom by Peter Huber, 1991
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819622~S1 - How Science Works
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027061~S1 - How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life by Thomas Gilovich, 1993
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819061~S1 - Is That a Fact?: A Field Guide to Statistical and Scientific Information by Mark Battersby, 2010
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819623~S1 - On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819062~S1 - Reliable Knowledge: An Exploration of the Grounds for Belief in Science
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1196763~S1 - Science and Human Values
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819624~S1 - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1334998~S1 - The Checklist Manifesto
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1633431~S1 - Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michel Shermer, 2002
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819625~S1
- Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, 2003
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819072~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - The Cancer Journals
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1488159~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics by Miriam Engelberg
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1840769~S1 - Cancer Vixen: A True Story
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1770676~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1122356~S1 - The Diagnosis by Alan Lightman, 2000
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819076~S1 - Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby, 2007
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1821319~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - The Fault in our Stars
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1783708~S1 - Girl, Interrupted
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1307990~S1 - I Watched You Disappear
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1882021~S14 - Intoxicated by My Illness by Anatole Broyard, 1992
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819073~S1 - It's Always Something by Gilda Radner, (20th anniversary edition), 2009
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819074~S1 - A Leg to Stand On
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1574558~S1 - My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819633~S1 - Over My Head: A Doctor's Own Story of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Out by Claudia L. Osborn, 2000
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819075~S1 - Poetic Medicine
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1359813~S14 - Poetry in Medicine
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1920109~S14 - Still Alice
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027083~S1 - What the Body Told
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1323375~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - Wit
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1451760~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - Wounded Storyteller by Arthur W. Frank, 2013
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819069~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English
Historical Aspects of Disease
- Disease: The Extraordinary Stories Behind History's Deadliest Killers by Mary Dobson
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819078~S1 - The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1661329~S1
Note: Recommended by Dr. Anya Silver, Mercer University Department of English - The Gospel of Germs by Nancy Tomes
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b2429376~S1 - The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1479832~S1 - Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in American History by Sheila Rothman, 1994
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1821322~S1 - The Medical Messiahs; A Social History of Health Quackery in Twentieth-Century America
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1821585~S1 - The Plague Makers: How We Are Creating Catastrophic New Epidemics--And What We Must Do to Avert Them by Jeffrey Fister, 1994
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1821323~S1 - Polio: An American Story
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1509739~S1
Biographies and Autobiographies
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1615972~S1 - Black Man in a White Coat
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1919961~S1 - Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1662023~S1 - Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1879088~S1 - Lives of Moral Leadership: Mean and Women Who Have Made a Difference by Robert Coles, 2001
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819079~S1 - Memoirs
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1009377~S1 - No Such Thing as A Bad Day: A Memoir
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1436903~S1 - Out of My Life & Thought: An Autobiography
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1223055~S1
Ethical Issues
- Classic Works in Medical Ethics: Core Philosophical Readings by Gregory Pence, 1997
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819080~S1 - Doctors' Dilemmas: Moral Conflict and Medical Care by Samuel Gorovitz, 1985
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819081~S1 - Drawing the Line: Life, Death, and Ethical Choices in an American Hospital
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1186420~S1 - First, Do No Harm
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1268065~S1 - Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure (2nd ed.) by Charles Bosk, 2003
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1025487~S1 - Illness as Metaphor; and AIDS as Metaphor by Susan Sontag, 1978
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1399645~S1 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1917279~S1 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (audiobook)
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1644242~S1 - Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues by Paul Farmer, 2001
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819083~S1 - Medical Ethics and the Faith Factor by Robert D. Orr
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1662015~S1 - Professionalism in Health Care
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027062~S1 - Professionalism in Medicine: A Case-Based Guide for Medical Students Edited by John Spandorfer
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1900198~S1
History, Social Issues, Perspectives
- Anatomy of Racial Inequality (W.E.B. DuBois Lectures) by Glenn Loury, 2003.
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819086~S1 - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1559153~S1 - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (audiobook)
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1624349~S1 - Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness: Five Steps to Help Kids Create and Sustain Lifelong Joy by Edward M. Hallowel, 2003
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819087~S1 - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1493628~S1 - Composing A Life
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1442789~S1 - Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1283426~S1 - Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, 2004
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819085~S1 - Engineering of Consent by Edward Bernays, 1955
Note: unable to obtain a copy, still trying - Excellence, Can We be Equal and Excellent Too?
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1169656~S1 - History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals (second edition) by Spiro Kostof, 1995
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819084~S1 - In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America by Laurie Edwards
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1837081~S1 - Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine by Francis Collins, 2011
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819088~S1 - Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1449978~S1 - The Moral Sense
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1243713~S1 - The Places In Between
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1515398~S1 - Race Matters
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1248175~S1 - The Selfish Gene
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1192191~S1 - Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1445215~S1 - Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer, 2003
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1819090~S1 - Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1764596~S1 - Unequal Treatment edited by Brian D. Smedley, Adrienne Y. Stith, and Alan R. Nelson
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1464731~S1 - The White Nile
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1068782~S1 - The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b1808280~S1
Planning for, Applying to, and Getting into Professional School
- ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3026025~S1 - Applicant's Guide to Physician Assistant School and Practice
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027063~S1 - Caribbean Medical Schools: A Journey and Guide
https://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3042963~S1 - Dental School Interview Guide
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027064~S1 - Essays that Will Get You into Medical School
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027082~S1 - Essays that Will Get You into Physician Assistant School
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027073~S1 - Essays that Worked for Medical School
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027065~S1 - Essential Advice for Pre-Meds
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027066~S1 - Everything Practice Interview Book
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027070~S1 - Get into Medical School: A Strategic Approach
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027067~S1 - Getting into Medical School: the Premedical Student's Guidebook
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027068~S1 - Getting into Physician Assistant School
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027069~S1 - How to Ace Your Medical School Interviews
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027071~S1 - How to Write the Perfect Personal Statement
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027079~S1 - Medical School Essays that Made a Difference
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027074~S1 - The Medical School Interview
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027072~S1 - The Medical School Interview: Secrets and a System for Success
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027078~S1 - Official Guide to Medical School Admissions
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3026024~S1 - Osteopathic Medical College Information Book
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3268237~S1 - Perfect Phrases for Medical School Acceptance
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027076~S1 - So You Want to be a Physician Assistant
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027075~S1 - The Top 100 Health-Care Careers
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027081~S1 - Ultimate Guide to the Physician Assistant Profession
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3027077~S1 - Veterinary Medical School Admission Requirements
http://catalog.mercer.edu/record=b3268238~S1