Books like Mountains Beyond Mountains

01

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Atul Gawande · Health

Being Mortal is Atul Gawande's investigation into why modern medicine is so bad at helping people die well.

Both dig into medicine.

02

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Bryan Stevenson · Memoir

Bryan Stevenson's memoir of his career as a capital defense attorney in Alabama, and specifically of his years working on the case of Walter McMillian — a Black man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Monroe County, Alabama — is simultaneously a riveting legal narrative and a sustained moral argument about the American criminal justice system's treatment of the poor and of Black defendants.

Both dig into poverty.

03

The Soul of a New Machine

Tracy Kidder · Memoir

Tracy Kidder's account of the engineers at Data General Corporation who designed a new minicomputer under enormous competitive pressure in the late 1970s won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1982 and effectively invented the genre of technology-company narrative journalism.

A kindred biography read.

04

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer · Biography

Into the Wild is Jon Krakauer's account of Christopher McCandless, a twenty-four-year-old who graduated from Emory University in 1990, gave his savings to charity, abandoned his car and possessions, and spent two years drifting through the American West before hitchhiking into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992.

Both dig into idealism.

05

The Path to Power

Robert A. Caro · Biography

The first volume of Robert A.

Both dig into poverty.

06

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.

07

Angela's Ashes

Frank McCourt · Memoir

Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's memoir of a catastrophically impoverished Irish Catholic childhood, first in Brooklyn and then in Limerick, during the 1930s and 1940s.

Both dig into poverty.

08

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

Katherine Boo · History

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is Katherine Boo's account of three years spent in Annawadi, a Mumbai slum built on reclaimed land next to the international airport.

Both dig into poverty.

09

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.

10

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.

Both dig into medicine.

11

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Matthew Desmond · History

Evicted is Matthew Desmond's account of eight Milwaukee families — tenants and landlords — living through the American housing crisis at its most basic level: the cycle of eviction.

Both dig into poverty.

12

Finding Me: A Memoir

Viola Davis · Memoir

Finding Me is Viola Davis's account of her childhood in extreme poverty in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and her path from that starting point to becoming one of the most decorated actors in the history of American theater and film.

Both dig into poverty.