Books like Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

01

When Breath Becomes Air

Paul Kalanithi · Memoir

When Breath Becomes Air is Paul Kalanithi's account of his life before and after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at 36, while completing his residency in neurosurgery at Stanford.

Shares medicine and mortality with Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

02

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity

Peter Attia · Health

Peter Attia's Outlive is a book about how most people approach longevity backwards.

Both dig into aging.

03

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel van der Kolk · Psychology

The Body Keeps the Score is Bessel van der Kolk's account of four decades spent studying and treating trauma, from Vietnam veterans at the VA in the 1970s to survivors of childhood abuse, accidents, and domestic violence.

A kindred health read.

04

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl · Psychology

Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the psychological theory he developed from that experience.

A kindred health read.

05

Do No Harm

Henry Marsh · Memoir

Do No Harm is Henry Marsh's memoir of life as a senior neurosurgeon in the National Health Service.

Shares medicine and mortality with Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

06

Complications

Atul Gawande · Health

Complications is Atul Gawande's first collection of essays, drawn from his New Yorker writing and his early years as a surgical resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Both dig into medicine.

07

The Blue Zones

Dan Buettner · Health

The Blue Zones is Dan Buettner's investigation into five geographic regions where people live measurably longer and healthier lives than global averages: Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), Loma Linda (California), the Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica), and Ikaria (Greece).

Both dig into aging.

08

The Checklist Manifesto

Atul Gawande · Health

The Checklist Manifesto is Atul Gawande's argument that the single most underused tool for preventing catastrophic failure in complex fields is also the simplest: a well-designed checklist.

Both dig into medicine.

09

The Longevity Paradox

Steven R. Gundry · Health

Steven Gundry is a cardiac surgeon turned functional medicine physician who built his practice around the hypothesis that gut microbiome health is the central driver of aging and age-related disease.

Both dig into aging.

10

Younger Next Year

Chris Crowley · Health

Younger Next Year is the book that resulted when Chris Crowley, a retired New York lawyer in his mid-sixties, and Henry Lodge, his internist, decided to write down the case Lodge had been making in his practice for years: that the physical and cognitive decline most people experience in the second half of life is not inevitable, and that exercise is the most powerful tool available to interrupt it.

Both dig into aging.

11

An Elegant Defense

Matt Richtel · Science

An Elegant Defense is Matt Richtel's attempt to explain the immune system to a general audience through a combination of narrative science and personal story.

Both dig into medicine.

12

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates · Memoir

Between the World and Me is a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his teenage son, Samori, about what it means to live in a Black body in the United States.

Both dig into mortality.