Best Books for Nurses: Memoirs, Self-Care and Novels from the Wards
Books for nurses and for anyone who works in care: true stories from the wards, a guide to the stress cycle, and novels with nurses and doctors at their center. Every book here is in the Tori catalog, and each line says why it fits.
True stories from the wards
2014Being MortalAtul Gawande
Nonfiction · ThoughtfulSurgeon Atul Gawande asks what matters most when life nears its end.
2015The NursesAlexandra RobbinsNonfiction · WarmAlexandra Robbins spends a year with working nurses.
2002Call the MidwifeJennifer WorthNonfiction · WarmA midwife's memories of the London Docklands in the 1950s.
- The Language of Kindness2018The Language of KindnessChristie WatsonNonfiction · Warm
A nurse's memoir of two decades on the wards.
1859Notes on NursingFlorence NightingaleNonfiction · ThoughtfulFlorence Nightingale's 1859 notes on caring for the sick.
2016When Breath Becomes AirPaul KalanithiNonfiction · MelancholicA neurosurgeon becomes a patient and writes about what makes life worth living.
2019BurnoutEmily Nagoski
Self-help · HopefulEmily and Amelia Nagoski explain how to complete the stress cycle.
Novels with nurses and doctors
2009Cutting for StoneAbraham Verghese
Literary Fiction · EpicTwin brothers born in an Addis Ababa mission hospital grow up among its doctors and nurses.
1929A Farewell to ArmsErnest Hemingway
Classics · MelancholicFrederic Henry, an American ambulance officer in the Italian army, falls in love with an English nurse.
1992The English PatientMichael Ondaatje
Historical Fiction · MelancholicFour people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of the Second World War.