We get so caught in the whirlwind of our daily lives that sometimes we skip on the things we ought to do. Every January, we wish to make a reading list of the books we would like to read throughout the year. But alas! we seldom do. Life happens, and we forget all about reading the latest fiction and nonfiction books until the following January comes along! We at MMP want to make sure that this vicious circle breaks this year. No more, we would allow life to become a stumbling block between the distinguished literary fiction and nonfiction books and our beloved healthcare professionals.
Before our motivation levels drop, let us start with the first book recommendation.
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
by Lindsey Fitzharris
In The Butchering Art, historian Lindsey Fitzharris shows the terrible reality of nineteenth-century surgery on the eve of a significant revolution.
It is an era in which surgeons were lauded for their speed and brute strength, and the aftermath of surgery was often more dangerous than the patients' afflictions. At the time, the surgeons could not find a solution to the nagging infections that kept the mortality rate high. The situation changed when a young brooding surgeon, Joseph Lister, came along and solved the deadly enigma.
The author takes us through the eyes of Lister and narrates all his discoveries in riveting detail, leading to his audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection and could be countered by antiseptics. Before Lister, doctors did not wash their hands or their medical instruments all that often.
Lister's antiseptic theories were revolutionary, yet they were not well received. Lister was the target of an endless myriad of medical politics and reactions as a result.
The Butchering Art is chilling and enlightening literature that celebrates the accomplishment of a visionary surgeon whose ambition to integrate science and medicine brought us into the modern age.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
Cadavers have been involved in some of science's most daring and bizarre endeavors for over two thousand years, some wittingly, some accidentally. They've tried out France's first guillotines, flown in the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to verify the Shroud of Turin's authenticity, and assisted in the investigation of TWA Flight 800. Cadavers have quietly contributed to the history of every significant surgical practice, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery.
Bear in mind that "Stiff," by Mary Roach, is not a book intended for the general public. The author's meticulous documentation of the essential role that corpses have played in the interest of science is deeply morbid. When combined with Roach's snarky humor, the book can be a tough pill to stomach for some.
The act of dissecting is a recurring topic throughout the book. The author also goes over the various coping mechanisms employed by morticians. Some want to personalize their cadavers, while others prefer to "concentrate on the components, not the person." The confrontation that these subjects encounter as they analyze the deceased for altruistic goals demonstrates that there is no wrong way to come to terms with mortality.
This literary nonfiction is a must add to the reading list of any healthcare professional.
The Gene: An Intimate History
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Spanning the globe and several centuries, The Gene is the narrative of the effort to decode the master-code that creates and defines us, that determines our shape and function.
The gene's story begins at an inconspicuous Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856, when a monk discovers the concept of a 'unit of heredity.' It collides with Darwin's idea of evolution and the atrocities of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene alters postwar biology. It restructures our perceptions of sexuality, temperament, choice, and free will. It is a story about human inventiveness and compulsive minds, from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel through Francis Crick, James Watson, and Rosalind Franklin, as well as the thousands of scientists who are still striving to crack the code of codes.
The gene does an excellent job at explaining genetics. It explains how we came to know what we know and what we don't know (yet). It asks questions about who we are and who we might become (if we recklessly toy with genes). The author goes on to detail Thomas Morgan's fruit fly research in the early 1900s, as well as the stages that led to the discovery of the double helix, the deciphering of the genetic code, and the technological breakthroughs that have caused ethical dilemmas.
Healthcare professionals can see through the eyes of the author how far we have come and yet how much farther we still have to go.
There you have it, the three books we recommend you add to your reading list this year. Have you already read any of them? We are eager to read your review! Join our global online community of healthcare professionals here - https://www.mymedicalpanel.com/ and share your review with over 540000 healthcare professionals worldwide.
Do you have book recommendations of your own? Join now and share them, what are you waiting for!