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

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

By Atul Gawande (Picador, 2009)

A checklist helps reduce panic in unfamiliar situations

Nurses are Trusted to Care

By Christine Contillo, RN, BSN

Remembering why we deserve the trust of our patients, their families and our fellow nurses

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.

Sleep Deprived? Read this before taking that extra shift

By Christine Contillo, RN, BSN