Gift guide · 7 books

Gifts for doctors and nurses

The books clinicians hand each other: Gawande, Mukherjee, Kalanithi, Verghese and the diaries of a junior doctor.

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1. 01

   Complications (opens Bookshop.org)

   A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

   Atul Gawande · 2002

   Surgeon Atul Gawande writes candidly about his own errors as a resident and about uncertainty in medicine, in essays that first appeared in The New Yorker and Slate.

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2. 02

   Being Mortal (opens Bookshop.org)

   Medicine and What Matters in the End

   Atul Gawande · 2014

   Atul Gawande examines aging, nursing homes, hospice and the limits of treatment, and describes how his own father's illness changed how he talks with patients.

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3. 03

   The Emperor of All Maladies (opens Bookshop.org)

   A Biography of Cancer

   Siddhartha Mukherjee · 2010

   Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee traces cancer from ancient Egypt to modern targeted drugs, weaving in the stories of his patients. It won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

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4. 04

   When Breath Becomes Air (opens Bookshop.org)

   Paul Kalanithi · 2016

   Neurosurgery resident Paul Kalanithi wrote this memoir after his diagnosis with stage IV lung cancer at 36, and it was completed by his wife Lucy after his death.

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5. 05

   Cutting for Stone (opens Bookshop.org)

   Abraham Verghese · 2009

   Physician Abraham Verghese's novel follows twin brothers born to a nun and a surgeon in an Addis Ababa mission hospital, and their paths into medicine.

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6. 06

   This Is Going to Hurt (opens Bookshop.org)

   Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor

   Adam Kay · 2017

   Adam Kay publishes the diaries he kept as a junior doctor in the British NHS, mixing black comedy with the hours, pay and pressures that led him to quit.

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7. 07

   How Doctors Think (opens Bookshop.org)

   Jerome Groopman · 2007

   Harvard physician Jerome Groopman examines how clinicians reason and where diagnostic errors arise, using interviews and cases of patients whose illnesses were missed.

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Chosen by the Today Got Better desk. No publisher pays for a place on this list. Updated September 2026.