Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse's Life

By Mary Jane Nealon (Graywolf, 2011)

What it feels like to be a nurse

Shadows Bright as Glass

By Amy Ellis Nutt (Free Press, 2011)

The Remarkable Story of One Man's Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph

When Chicken Soup Is Not Enough

By Suzanne Gordon (Cornell University Press, 2010)

Stories of nurses standing up for themselves, their patients, and their profession

The Nightingale of Mosul: A Nurse Journey of Service, Struggle, and War

By Susan Luz with Marcus Brotherton (Kaplan, 2010)

Holding a gun, healing a patient

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

By Atul Gawande (Picador, 2009)

A checklist helps reduce panic in unfamiliar situations

Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer

By Nancy G. Brinker (Crown Publishing, 2010)

The power of one person to change the world

Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift of the Psych ER

By Julie Holland, M.D. (Bantam Books, 2009)

An insane career move?

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

By By Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner, 2010)

Under his pen in what he rightly terms a biography, cancer takes on the dark role of the shape-shifting main character

Genetic Rounds: A Doctor’s Encounters in the Field that Revolutionized Medicine

By Robert Marion, M.D. (Kaplan Publishing, 2010)

The ability to dissect the human genome allows us to identify mutations associated with specific diseases

Taking the Medicine; A Short History of Medicines Beautiful Idea, and Our Difficulty Swallowing it

By Druin Burch (Vintage Books, 2010)

Prescribing “off-label” enables physicians to use medication for whatever they want — in effect not a big change from the past

Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis

By Lisa Sanders, M.D. (Broadway Books, 2009)

Written by the technical advisor for the TV show House M.D.

The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy

By William Eamon (National Geographic Society, 2010)

He was an idiosyncratic outcast who understood hype. His 40-year quest for the super-drug continues today

Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals

By Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D. and Eric Vohr

If you don’t have a comprehensive unit safety program in place, read this book

Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life and Everything in Between

By Karen Buley, RN, BSN

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By Rebecca Skloot

A story of magic cells and exploitation

Camp Nurse

By Tilda Shalof, RN, BScN (Kaplan Publishing, 2009)

Pick up this book before you pack your duffle

The SuperStress Solution

By Roberta Lee, MD (Random House, 2010)

Feeling exhausted, frazzled and defeated? This book is for you.

Nurses: Discover the Healing Powers of Chocolate

By Cal Orey (Kensington Books, 2010)

The trick is eating just one square

A Final Arc of Sky, Memoir of a Critical Care Nurse

By Jennifer Culkin (Beacon Press, 2009)

Medicine in Translation: Journeys With My Patients

By By Danielle Ofri (Beacon Press, 2010)

Bridging the language barrier for the sake of adequate care

The Soul of Medicine & The Real Life of an Internist

By Sherwin B. Nuland & Mark D. Tyler-Lloyd, M.D.

Two books that delve into the mind of a physician

The Hospital At the End of the World

By Joe Niemczura, RN, MS; Plainview Press, 2009

Taking smart nursing practices global

Moloka'i

By Albert Brennert

Living with leprosy in the Hawaiian Islands

Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial

By Alison Bass; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008

The cost and effect of marketing drugs

Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant

By Elizabeth Hanink, RN, BSN, PHN

Confessions of cooking for one and dining alone