Best medical fiction books according to redditors

We found 331 Reddit comments discussing the best medical fiction books. We ranked the 93 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Medical Fiction:

u/cowens · 234 pointsr/funny

> Since the face of Violet’s watch is still glowing, she decides to calculate the temperature using cricket noises, something her father taught her how to do when she was twelve, and at least gives you an answer in metric. By cricket it’s ten degrees centigrade out. By conversion: fifty degrees Fahrenheit. It gets her off the porch. Whatever’s out there is better than thinking about this bullshit.

You can read the rest in the book which is a sequel to Beat the Reaper, but you don't really need to read the first book first (but I think it is the better of the two).

There are apparently at least two versions of Wild Thing, as the image above says "Violet decides that while her watch face is still glowing,", but in the Kindle version, the line after "because you can't directly relate any of those quantities." is the one I quoted above. So, I don't actually know what happens to her watch. It could be in that version aliens step out from behind a bush and kidnap her. Who knows.

Another difference comes before the main quote: "[Being raised, as Violet was, without the] metric system is like being raised with a harness on your brain." In the Kindle version, it says "Being raised, as Violet was, without the metric system is like being raised without Vitamin D. Whatever the fuck rickets are, it gives you the mental version of them."

I wonder if the image is from an early draft or something.

u/Ansalem · 15 pointsr/SF_Book_Club

Harmony by Project Itoh

> In Japan, Tuan Kirie and her friends Miach Mihie and Cian Reikado are taught about a period called the Maelstrom during which nuclear bombs and diseases ran rampant and destroyed the country once known as the United States of America. A horror of disease has driven the older generation to remake society, replacing nation-states with smaller "admedistrations," organizational bodies that use nanotech "medicules" and societal pressure to ensure that each person is as healthy as possible. The three teenagers, led by Miach, attempt to use this technology to commit suicide and thus rob society of valuable resources-their own lives. Miach is successful but Cian reveals the plot and she and Tuan are saved. Thirteen years later, Tuan continues to rebel, even while she attains a high-level position in the international medical police corps. It is under this aegis that she investigates when Cian commits suicide (one of thousands, worldwide). During her search, Tuan discovers that there may be something even more repugnant than a world of perfectly healthy people. Itoh presents a future in which humanity willingly collaborates in its own subjugation to "medical correctness."

The amazon page lets you read the first bit of the book for anyone interested. The prose has parts formatted like coding inserted into it, giving it a little unusual style.

u/dakta · 12 pointsr/pics

Looks like Miracle Cure.

u/tromik · 8 pointsr/pics
u/JoNightshade · 7 pointsr/suggestmeabook

I think you're going to have a hard time finding a book that "teaches men about women," because women are all, uh, different. You could find a book that teaches men about a particular woman, but that's about it. :)

That said, I'll offer up my own: Courting Greta. Contemporary setting, from a man's perspective (albeit an unusual one), and definitely lots of dialogue going on.

u/ObiWanBiscotti · 7 pointsr/ems

[Bringing Out the Dead] (https://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Out-Dead-Joe-Connelly/dp/0375700293) by Joe Connelly is an interesting book - I read it in EMT school on the recommendation of my instructor. Lately I've been reading [Rescuing Providence] (https://www.amazon.com/Rescuing-Providence-Michael-Morse/dp/158160629X) by Michael Morse. I like it so far but I haven't read much of it yet.

u/proarisetfocis · 6 pointsr/tipofmytongue

I thought for a second it would be "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" but by the time I finished reading your post I knew that wasn't it. If you absolutely can't find the one you're looking for but want another good read about a woman in inpatient care for schizophrenia that's a good one.

http://www.amazon.com/Never-Promised-You-Rose-Garden/dp/0312943598

u/slambikins · 4 pointsr/NatureIsFuckingLit

You should read Michael Crichton's "Micro". It isn't exactly "working together with insects to survive" but more of surviving insects when you're microscopic.

https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Novel-Michael-Crichton/dp/0060873175

u/[deleted] · 4 pointsr/booksuggestions

Complications is great. It's worth the price of admission for the chapter on necrotizing fasciitis alone. Also, check out Gawande's semi-regular dispatches for The New Yorker (most available online without paywall).

Also, if you like the show House, the first few seasons were largely inspired by the stories in Berton Roueche's The Medical Detectives, a collection of non-fiction vignettes about epidemiologists running-down medical mysteries. It's great even if you've already seen the House episodes that cover the same diseases. There are also a couple of sequels, but they were out of print the last time I checked.

And then you have your paperback medical thrillers. Off the top of my head, a couple of decent House-esque ones were Joshua Spanogle's Isolation Ward and EARLY Tess Gerritsen books like Bloodstream.

If you want something a little more character-driven and a lot more cynical, try Richard Dooling's Critical Care, which is about 20 years old, but I think its critique of U.S.-style medicine is still relevant. (BTW, everything Dooling has written is terrific -- he's sort of a thinking person's John Grisham -- with White Man's Grave probably being his best book; I have no idea why he's not better known.)

u/cathalmc · 3 pointsr/suggestmeabook

Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers.

It's a novel about a group of university professors, linguists, literature professors, philosophers, and cognitive scientists, who collaborate in the creation of a complex neural-network based program. Their intention is to create an artificial intelligence which could pass a Turing test by writing an essay indistinguishable from one written by a student in the literary criticism department. They create version after version, sometimes ending up with nonsense, sometimes seeming to get closer to intelligence, or even an emotional response. Finally, the program seems to be asking introspective questions, but the cognitive scientists don't quite believe it.

u/Swift_Reposte · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

Check out Drood by Dan Simmons. I picked it up on a whim, and couldn't be happier that I gave it a chance. It's a total trip, and suspenseful in a laid-back / behind-the-scenes sort of way.

Also, I find anything by Michael Chrichton to be utterly "un-put-downable". I'd recommend starting with Congo or Prey, but definitely give Sphere a shot before you move on.

Edit: Sorry I meant Micro instead of Prey. Prey was "meh" but Micro is great. Also definitely check out Timeline! (Sorry, I'm basically obsessed with Chrichton)

Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is another favorite of mine. But, it's been so long since I last read it that I can't really remember why. I'm going to be rereading that one again soon.

u/keryskerys · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

I have not read "This is Not a Test", but I looked it up and added it to my list of books to buy.

I'm going to do something unusual here, and recommend a book that I have not yet read, but I love this subject as well and I am awaiting the arrival from Amazon of "The Cobra Event" by Richard Preston.

I have read his "The Hot Zone" which was a compelling and awful read about the true events unfolding in Washington D.C. involving the Ebola virus. So, I imagine "The Cobra Event" will be well researched and - well - scary.

u/mdc124 · 3 pointsr/printSF

Omg Passage. 800 pages of miscommunication and blocked-off passageways. I still have nightmares about that. I'm a slow reader, but I stuck with the whole book -- for a payoff that never happened!

u/paiute · 3 pointsr/boston
u/ponspeduncles · 2 pointsr/slp

Still Alice a personal account about Alzheimers

Far From the Tree, a family centered book on identity and disability

Since you mentioned Ted Talks, check out Temple Grandin's Ted Talk on her perspective of Autism Spectrum Disorders

u/triggerfish_twist · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions
u/mel_cache · 2 pointsr/dementia

Very well-written novel (and movie) from POV of Alzheimer's sufferer: Still Alice

u/cuidadollamas · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

Michael Crichton books are always a good bet -- [Terminal man] (http://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Man-Michael-Crichton/dp/006178267X) and [Micro] (http://www.amazon.com/Micro-Novel-Michael-Crichton/dp/0060873175/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376689097&sr=1-1&keywords=micro+michael) are fantastic and speedy reads.

[Mary Roach] (http://www.maryroach.net/) - writes non-fiction titles based around her interests. Consider Stiff and Gulp for your reads.

[Alan Bradley's] (http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Bradley/e/B001JRTK5O/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1376689204&sr=8-2-ent) books are fun murder thrillers where the detective is a spunky 11ish year old with a knack for poisons and investigating murders. There are six books in the series and it should still be ongoing (unless something happens)

If you want something a little deep try [Kate Atkinson's Life after Life] (http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Novel-Kate-Atkinson/dp/0316176486/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376689325&sr=1-1&keywords=life+after+life+kate+atkinson).

Hope these help!

u/liebereddit · 2 pointsr/suggestmeabook

I would wholeheartedly recommend Beat the Reaper.

I was browsing through a used bookstore. I opened it up, read the first line, and bought it. It pretty much never let up.

The first line:

"So I'm on my way to work and I stop to watch a pigeon fight a rat in the snow, and some fuckhead tries to mug me!"

u/you_me_fivedollars · 2 pointsr/movies

I'll definitely give it a shot - but I dunno. I'm passionate about my job, but also humble. I never really liked that whole "people's lives are in our hands" attitude, it just never sit with me. We do what we can to help, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I always liked this quote from "Bringing out the Dead" by Joe Connelly - later a great Nic Cage film:

"I realized that my training was useful in less than ten percent of the calls, and saving lives was rarer than that. After a while, I grew to understand that my role was less about saving lives than about bearing witness. I was a grief mop. It was enough that I simply turned up."

u/afdsadf · 2 pointsr/pics

Crichton's last book he was writing. Quite bad. I really REALLY hope the point where the main character is killed was after the point that Richard Preston took over after Crichton died.


Wait, you're pretending it doesn't exist, that's it!

u/KittenAnne · 2 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

This book Atlantis looks super interesting - I can only have hard copy right now :)

If I were a book, I hope that I'd be a great one.

u/pmenzel · 1 pointr/videos

Still Alice..... read it.... its about early onset Alzheimer's

Here is a brief passage from the book:
"And I have no control over which yesterdays I keep and which ones get deleted. This disease will not be bargained with. I can't offer it the names of U.S. presidents in exchange for the names of my children. I can't give it the names of state capitals and keep the memories of my husband."


http://www.amazon.com/Still-Alice-Lisa-Genova/dp/1439102813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289841585&sr=8-1

u/MinervaDreaming · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

I definitely recommend Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell. Fun book - I listened to the audiobook, which had a great reader.

u/LemmeTasteDatWine · 1 pointr/BabyBumps

Ooo, I loved His Dark Materials! I read a ton and the last few book that made me really happy were Gone Girl, Where'd You Go Bernadette?, and if you are open minded, Prepared, which is a novel about the lives of morticians. It was a surprisingly fun read! http://www.amazon.com/Prepared-Lindsay-K-Mason/dp/149222037X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409858324&sr=8-1&keywords=lindsay+k.+mason+prepared

u/bumbletowne · 1 pointr/books

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

gangster in witness protection gets discovered, takes badass revenge

Andromeda Strain or Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Jurassic park is dinos in a 'modern lost world' scenario and andromeda strain is alien bacteria creating zombie apocalypse without the zombies

Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber

people get shrunk down and discover the empire of the ants

Watership Down by Richard Adams

animal farm with rabbits and australians

The Lies of Locke Lemora by Scott Lynch

adventure with magic and ocean's 11 style crime. Sometimes funny othertimes adventurous and sometimes badassery

Tunnel in the Sky by Heinlein (very adventure/survival thriller)

kids are getting their survival badges, shit gets real very quickly. Lord of the flies meets firefly

u/dilithium · 1 pointr/programming

Something like that happens in Galatea 2.2.

Very bleak novel.

u/Aerrowae · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

What a fantastic idea!

Smile, It's a Cute Red Panda!

Either This or This

Your choice!

u/amazon-converter-bot · 1 pointr/FreeEBOOKS

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

u/Raymond_Carver · 1 pointr/pics

Giant Huntsman Spiders.... Giant Bugs....

You should all read Michael Crichton's "Micro."

http://www.amazon.com/Micro-A-Novel-Michael-Crichton/dp/0060873175http://imgur.com/KM5v2W6

u/Kingcrowing · 1 pointr/science

If you like Michael Crichton & The Hot Zone, check out Micro. It was Crichton's last work and he died before finishing it. Richard Preston picked it up and finished it. They are my two favorite authors and something like this almost never happens.

u/huyvanbin · 1 pointr/seduction

I read a description of this in House of God, which is sort of the bible of such shenanigans. I asked my med student friend if this really happens, and he says it pretty much only happened in the 70s. The relevant passage is here:

> Often I'd find myself entwined in variants of the same erotic theme: late at night, the eerie artificial Unit light punctured only by the green-flashing BLEEP-BLEEP of the cardiac monitors. The nurse calls me from the bed to see a comatose patient whose body is being run by the machine, one parameter of which has gone awry. Following her to the bedside, I notice her bralessness, that she wears no pantyhose. I put a stethoscope on the body. I need to listen to the chest, and ask the nurse to help me. She bends over, the two of us hoist the body to sitting, tube dangling down. I listen to the clogged lungs, inflated by respirator, my fingers on the waxy skin, fighting the stench of chronic disease. I smell her perfume, coconut. Our heads are close together. I drop my stethoscope, put my free hand around her neck, kiss her. Her tongue and my tongue slither together. I lean my shoulder against the patient's body, freeing the other hand. The kiss prolonged, I fondle her breast through her cotton dress, a feeling the coarse fabric scratching against the skin, pulling the nipple erect. We part, the body falls back THUMP on the bed. Later, on her break, she comes to the on?call bunk bed, hoisting up her green surgical skirt because there isn't time to undress. We two begin to take out our hatred, our loneliness, our horror with human suffering and our despair at human endings in the most tender of human acts, making love. Knowing that she hates me for being a doctor, for forgetting her name three times that shift, for being a Jew who views her eunuch Pope's pronouncements on "Human Life" as comical at best, for running her Unit, for her being trammeled on by men like me, for my always being the smarter one in the class, for all those hates and for the arousal bred by hates, bash away at each other savagely, skin on skin, cock in cunt, with the desperation of two space travelers on a journey of light-years, with death at the far end and no way back, imprisoned in a spacecraft of chrome and lights and computers and MUZAK. She will not talk to me about her hatred, she will not even gesture to me about her hatred, she will only fuck me for her hatred, and let it go at that. Groaning, we rattle the springs of the bunk bed, secured by the vigilance of two machines: her IUD, and each of our abilities, the next morning, to forget. California, here I come! We finish. Blushing from the clitoris and not from the heart, she goes back to work.

u/Brickshoop · 1 pointr/funny

I thought I recognized this. It's from Wild Thing by Josh Bazell. It's the sequel to Beat the Reaper but honestly not anywhere as good. Beat the Reaper was a fun read though. Kind of a satirical crime thriller. Reads like a mixture of Hiaasen and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. With lots of swearing - which is a little juvenile - and some thinly-veiled social commentary. Overall I'd recommend it if you're stuck in an airport or need something engaging while on vacation.

u/breads · 1 pointr/IAmA

You should read Passage by Connie Willis. It's about a psychologist researching near-death experiences. It's not great literature or anything, but it's super super interesting.

u/celticeejit · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Josh Bazell: Beat the Reaper



u/Animes2Deep4U · 1 pointr/LightNovels

It has no official release, so the online fan translations I linked are the only ones that exist for it.

A single light novel volume that is licensed that you can buy though is [Bakemono no Ko] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boy-Beast-Mamoru-Hosoda/dp/0316270601/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458357939&sr=8-2&keywords=the+boy+and+the+beast) in that case. And Another

Project Itoh's novels Harmony & Genocidal Organ are also good.

u/Crhallan · 1 pointr/ID_News

A little sensationalised, but an easy read - Hot Zone by Richard Preston

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Zone-Chilling-Story-Outbreak/dp/0552143030/ref=nodl_

u/spockosbrain · 1 pointr/books

The Sparrow: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Doria-Russell/e/B000APW42W/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1373741779&sr=1-2-ent
Brilliantly written, powerful ending. So powerful I was afraid to read the sequel for years. I'm glad I did, but wow. This book hit me hard.
It has a lot of different themes, music, the place of humanity in the universe, how different intelligent races view the world and how their culture can be very different from ours and not be "wrong" how entire ecologies work and what can happen when humans meddle. Also,
Religion, Jesuits, God, faith.

Passage by Connie Willis
Is there an afterlife? Can we use science to measure it look into it?
Where do "you" go after death, no where? Somewhere? What is a good metaphor for dying?
Willis' Domesday Book aslo is great but Passages have me, the emotionless Vulcan crying. But just reading a book for a good cry isn't what makes it a good book. I really cared about the Characters.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0553580515

u/justsomeguy75 · 1 pointr/ems

Bringing Out the Dead, the book that inspired the cult classic movie by the same name.

A Paramedic's Story: Life, Death, and Everything in Between, which was written by a guy who writes a popular EMS blog.

Paradise General is a great book about the doctors and surgeons who served in Iraq during The Surge.

u/Tiro1000 · 1 pointr/NoSleepOOC

Sealed In by Jacqueline Druga was a pretty good one IMO. It's about a hybrid virus known as Ebolapox breaking out in the midwest. Scary thing is that it's an actual experiment from during the cold war.

Also, check out Isolation Ward by Joshua Spanogle. This one isn't about a big scale breakout, but more of the CDC preventing one. Still, it's one of my favorite medical thrillers (and a big inspiration for my writing); so I would definitely suggest it.

u/WhitneyRobbens · 1 pointr/pics

Pheidole megacephala aka the bigheaded ant. Ugh, I can't look at ants the same after reading "Micro" by Michael Crichton