Medical Mysteries & Thrilling Histories

Updated June 7, 2026
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Destiny of the Republic A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Millard, Candice.
Paper Book
James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the...
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Skloot, Rebecca
Paper Book
Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer, was buried in an unmarked grave sixty years ago. Yet her cells -- taken without her knowledge, grown in culture and bought and sold by the billions -- became one of the most important tools in medical research. Rebecca Skloot takes us on an...
The emperor of all maladies : a biography of cancer
Mukherjee, Siddhartha
Paper Book
Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, adapted as a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is "an extraordinary achievement" (The New Yorker)--a magnificent,...
Five days at Memorial : life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital
Fink, Sheri
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The award-winning book that inspired an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ * A landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina--and the suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice--from a Pulitzer...
Bad blood : secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup
Carreyrou, John
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The gripping story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos--one of the biggest corporate frauds in history--a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley, rigorously reported by the prize-winning journalist. With a new Afterword.
All in her head : the truth and lies early medicine taught us about women's bodies and why it matters today
Comen, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Finalist for the 2025 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award USA Today Bestseller "All in Her Head accomplishes a remarkable feat of storytelling. By combining essential medical histories about women's bodies with all the narrative...
The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales
Sacks, Oliver W.
Paper Book
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NBC SERIES BRILLIANT MINDS * A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition of Dr. Sacks's most extraordinary book, in which the "poet laureate of medicine" (The New York Times) recounts fascinating case histories of patients with neurological disorders. ...
The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures
Fadiman, Anne
Paper Book
Now with a new Afterword from the author Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over...
The code breaker : Jennifer Doudna, gene editing, and the future of the human race
Isaacson, Walter
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Time, and The Washington Post The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a "compelling" (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna...
I contain multitudes : the microbes within us and a grander view of life
Yong, Ed
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller New York Times Notable Book of 2016 * NPR Great Read of 2016 * Named a Best Book of 2016 by The Economist, Smithsonian, NPR's Science Friday, MPR, Minnesota Star Tribune, Kirkus Reviews,...
Medical apartheid : the dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present
Washington, Harriet A.
Paper Book
Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both...
The gene : an intimate history
Mukherjee, Siddhartha,
Paper Book
The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies--a fascinating history of the gene and "a magisterial account of...
And the band played on : politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic
Shilts, Randy.
Ebook
Upon its first publication more than twenty years ago, And the Band Played on was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of investigative reporting. An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed...
The poisoner's handbook : murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York
Blum, Deborah
Paper Book
Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie." --The New York Observer "The Poisoner's Handbook breathes...
The ghost map : the story of London's most terrifying epidemic--and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world
Johnson, Steven
Paper Book
A National Bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year from the author of Extra Life   "By turns a medical thriller, detective story, and paean to city life, Johnson's account of the...
Forensics : what bugs, burns, prints, DNA, and more tell us about crime
McDermid, Val
Paper Book
Val McDermid is one of the finest crime writers we have, whose novels have captivated millions of readers worldwide with their riveting narratives of characters who solve complex crimes and confront unimaginable evil. In the course of researching her bestselling novels McDermid has become...
The butchering art : Joseph Lister's quest to transform the grisly world of Victorian medicine
Fitzharris, Lindsey
Paper Book
Winner, 2018 PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Short-listed for the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize A Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2017, Publishers Weekly A Best History Book of 2017, The Guardian "Warning: She...
Awakenings
Sacks, Oliver
Paper Book
The classic account of survivors of the sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I--and their return to the world after decades of "sleep." *  From the distinguished neurologist and the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife...
How to survive a plague : the inside story of how citizens and science tamed AIDS
France, David
Paper Book
A New York Times 2016 Notable Book The definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic--from the creator of, and inspired by, the seminal documentary How to Survive a Plague. A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the...
The occasional human sacrifice : medical experimentation and the price of saying no
Elliott, Carl
Paper Book
Shocking cases of abusive medical research and the whistleblowers who spoke out against them, sometimes at the expense of their careers. The Occasional Human Sacrifice is an intellectual inquiry into the moral struggle that whistleblowers face, and why it is not the kind of...
Pox : an American history
Willrich, Michael.
Paper Book
The untold story of how America's Progressive-era war on smallpox sparked one of the great civil liberties battles of the twentieth century. At the turn of the last century, a powerful smallpox epidemic swept the United States from coast to coast. The age-old disease spread...
Genome : the autobiography of a species in 23 chapters
Ridley, Matt.
Paper Book
"Ridley leaps from chromosome to chromosome in a handy summation of our ever increasing understanding of the roles that genes play in disease, behavior, sexual differences, and even intelligence. . . . . He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the...
The social transformation of American medicine
Starr, Paul
Paper Book
"A monumental achievement" (New York Times) and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize in American History, this is a landmark history of the American health care system.   Considered the definitive history of the American health care...
Rumbles : a curious history of the gut, the secret story of the body's most fascinating organ
Richardson, Elsa
Paper Book
The fascinating--and often secret--history of the body's most fascinating system: the gut. The stomach is notoriously outspoken. It growls, gurgles, and grumbles while other organs remain silent, inconspicuous, and content. For centuries humans have puzzled over this rowdy, often...
Phantoms in the brain : probing the mysteries of the human mind
Ramachandran, V. S.
Paper Book
Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments--using such low-tech...
Blood work : a tale of medicine and murder in the Scientific Rvolution
Tucker, Holly.
Paper Book
"Excellent...Tucker's chronicle of the world of 17th-century science in London and Paris is fascinating." --The Economist In December 1667, maverick physician Jean Denis transfused calf's blood into one of Paris's most notorious madmen. Days later, the madman was dead and...

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