Books by Atul Gawande

“This book is not so much about cancer. It’s more about aging and death—but, as I said, aging and cancer are two sides of the same coin, and death is the common denominator of both. This is another classic, where Gawande is asking us—and the medical community—to reconsider how we think about life and death in particular. The medical community is sustaining the modern fear of—and distance from—the concept of death, and it’s time to confront our own mortality.” Read more...

The best books on Cancer

Jarle Breivik,

This 2002 collection of 14 essays by the surgeon and New Yorker writer slice the practice of medicine open to reveal it as it really is: not the practice of carefully calibrated textbook procedures, but an uncertain world of frightened patients, burnt-out doctors, baffling symptomatology and crises of confidence during life-and-death decision-making. Gawande expands on these insights in Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance (2007).

From our article Books like This is Going to Hurt

“Atul is really talking about how absolutely powerful checklists are, and I think he makes a very creative point: that checklist are not just some static, boring thing. They actually allow you to do excellent work and free up your brain by not having to keep remembering what you need to do when. That then allows your brain to be a lot more creative about whatever it is you’re doing.” Read more...

The best books on Productivity

David Allen, Entrepreneurs & Business People

“He has a way of explaining the medical world in a manner that is both compassionate but also very much data driven.” Read more...

The best books on Health and the Internet

Elad Yom-Tov, Technologist