See One, Do One, Teach One: The Art of Becoming a Doctor by Grace Farris

April 1, 2026 Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

I confess I've been a book snob—snobbish about book clubbers who claim they've "read" a book after listening to it; snobbish about popular fiction vs literature and memoir vs biography—that changed when Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends came out in 2011. (Yes, I listened to it!) A bookworm from birth, I was a pretentious, bookish teenager. Pointing at Peyton Place on my mom's bedside table, I inquired why she was reading "that trash." Her snappish response—"Because I've read all the classics!"—took me down a peg. I couldn't make that claim.

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke

May 7, 2025 Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

*The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness* was published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2022.

What does it mean to be sick when medicine refuses to believe you are ill? In The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, poet, journalist and memoirist Meghan O’Rourke invites readers into the haunting, liminal world of unvalidated illness—a place all too familiar to millions suffering from autoimmune and complex chronic conditions. O’Rourke’s work is both a personal chronicle and a searing cultural critique, combining lyricism with investigative rigor. For readers of Intima, especially those who straddle the spaces of caregiving, patienthood, and medicine, this book is not merely relevant—it is essential.

Becoming a Better Physician: Insightful and Inspirational Stories from Attending Physicians, Residents, and Medical Students, edited by Mark Allan Goldstein and Kathy May Tran

February 23, 2025 Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

Becoming a Better Physician - book cover image

Every obstacle in the life of a medical student or physician leaves a mark. No one can truly know how they will cope with a spouse’s death, academic failure, a parent’s dementia, work-life upheaval, sudden trauma, or chronic debility. If left unexamined, the scars accumulate since, of course, the work of medicine and healthcare must continue unabated.

Uncaring: How The Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients by Robert Pearl

February 26, 2023 Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

In Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients (published by Public Affairs), Dr. Robert Pearl, a Stanford professor, plastic surgeon, and former chief operating officer of Kaiser Permanente, writes a well-documented panoramic narrative and insider view that demystifies the complicated healthcare system. His book offers a disturbing look at healthcare system that has lost its purpose. Pearl relates inefficiencies and slow changes, as patient centric views held by physicians and systems that have failed to adapt, both to cultural and individual principles, held so dearly for decades.

MedSpeak Illuminated: The Art and Practice of Medical Illustration by François I. Luks

September 12, 2022 Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

MedSpeak Illuminated: The Art and Practice of Medical Illustration by François I. Luks is a remarkable volume that expertly brings together humanities and science.