Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Origin, by Dan Brown. It’s a thriller, mystery, and history lesson all at once. I love to unwind by learning more about the world through fiction. Reading fiction gets my creative thoughts going, and often I find myself thinking about my own patients or insight into the medical world through a different lens.
Origin explores the questions, “How did we get here? Where are we going?” These questions make me think about certain diseases my patients have that often seem to just “pop” up. This simply cannot be, and more thorough review and reading is warranted on my end.
Thus, through storytelling and, of course, our patients, a physician is not only challenged, but may see a different way of viewing a problem, and, hopefully, a new answer!
William Greenough, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
“Fly Girls,” showed what many others besides Amelia Earhart did to advance flying in the early barnstorming days of aviation, including beating all the male pilots in the Bendix cross country air race in 1926!
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Scott Wright, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
“When,” by Daniel Pink. It made me think about how to be more efficient and the times of day when I am most sharp and productive. These perspectives will help me as I consider which tasks are best to do when, and I will also share some of the insights with my patients.
Mrin Shetty, MD, Saint Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey
“Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” by Carol S. Dweck.
Recommended by a mentor, it really challenged me to analyze preconceived biases in different domains I didn’t know I harboured. A great exercise in self-reflection!
Mike Fingerhood, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
While relaxing in the Outer Banks, I read Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, “Born to Run,” an incredibly poignant and poetic saga. I still have the vinyl album of the same name that I bought when I was in high school. I saw his play, an adaptation of the book, on Broadway in June. I had waited a year for tickets which were only available by a lottery. Amazingly, I received a text while interviewing a medical student for residency, that I had been selected.
Colleen Christmas, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
I just finished, “Beyond the Messy Truth,” by Van Jones and I really loved it. It was exactly the thing I was looking for. Van Jones, himself a liberal Democrat, provides a thought-provoking argument for why we as a society truly needs both liberals and conservatives to make our country thrive, and talks about both valuable perspective each group has about a range of problems facing the U.S. today, and about shared common ground, something that feels like the media tries to de-emphasize.
Reading this book felt like healing a bit to me, and empowered me to keep working towards causes I find are important, and keep working toward better understanding and working with those who feel very differently than I do. This book was absent of the bickering, name calling, and pettiness we are inundated by all sides of the political spectrum these days, and really helped to remind me that there are important issues not being addressed as we try to be the wittiest or snarkiest in the room.
