

King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story
Blood-and-guts accounts of Fallujah are not in short supply, but Jadick—a career Marine officer and brigade surgeon who took a demotion to battalion surgeon to volunteer for service in Iraq in 2004—tells the story through the eyes of a doctor. Unlike colleagues who remained in battalion aid stations behind the lines, Jadick and his medics accompanied their unit in makeshift ambulances as it battled through the streets. This was not bravado, he writes, but a calculated strategy to reach, stabilize and rush wounded troops to hospitals more quickly. He makes his case many times over, with dramatic accounts of catastrophically injured men from his unit and others who would not have survived a journey to the aid station. This remarkable man's story is well worth telling, although his writer should have discouraged him from frequent pauses for memorial essays on every soldier who died, and to remind readers of the Marines' bravery, of the dedication of the medics, and how much he loves his wife, the Marines and America. Readers who can skim past these segments will find the book a memorable experience.
How Doctors Think
Jerome Groopman pinpoints the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He explores why doctors err and shows when and how they can, with our help, avoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can have a profound impact on our health.
Outliers: The Story of Success In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

For 2,000 years, cadavers---some willingly, some unwittingly---have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and, in so doing, tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.