Most Read Health Books

The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir by the iCarly and Sam & Cat star, about a childhood organised entirely around her mother's ambitions — auditions from the age of six, calorie restriction taught as "a secret between us," and the eating disorders, addiction and early fame that followed — and the disorienting grief and relief that came after her mother's death in 2013. Adapted from McCurdy's one-woman stage show and written with mordant, disarming humour.

• coming of age

John Green, known for his advocacy in global healthcare, shares a deeply human story about the fight against tuberculosis. Through the personal journey of a young patient named Henry in Sierra Leone, Green explores the history of the disease, its connection to poverty and injustice, and the ongoing efforts to combat it. This book highlights the critical need for increased access to treatment and awareness of healthcare inequities.

Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain and body. Drawing on more than three decades of work with combat veterans, abused children, and survivors of assault and disaster, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk shows how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control and trust. Blending clinical case studies with cutting-edge neuroscience, van der Kolk explains why traumatized people are haunted by intolerable sensations and emotions long after the danger has passed, and why talk therapy alone is often not enough. He then explores a range of treatments — from EMDR and neurofeedback to yoga, theatre, and mindfulness — that can help the brain to "rewire" itself and reactivate the innate capacity for healing. The Body Keeps the Score is a landmark work on the science of trauma and recovery, arguing with clarity and compassion that by understanding how trauma lives in the body, we can find genuine paths back to wholeness.

When Breath Becomes Air is the posthumously published memoir of Paul Kalanithi, a gifted neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at the age of 36, just as he was completing a decade of training and preparing to begin his career. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a runaway bestseller, it is one of the most widely read meditations on illness and meaning of its generation. The book moves between two lives: Kalanithi's path into medicine and literature — the questions about mortality and the mind that drew him to neurosurgery — and his abrupt transformation from the doctor delivering diagnoses to the patient receiving one. With clarity and candor, he confronts what makes a life meaningful when the future he planned is taken away, and how to keep living fully while dying. Left unfinished at his death in 2015 and completed with an epilogue by his wife, Lucy, When Breath Becomes Air is a spare, unsentimental, and profoundly humane reckoning with mortality, vocation, and love.

This book tells the incredible true story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951. These cells, known as HeLa, became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine and countless other breakthroughs. Yet, Henrietta's family remained unaware of her contribution and its impact for decades, living in poverty while her cells were bought and sold worldwide.

• morally grey
• sacrifice

Lori Gottlieb is a practicing psychotherapist whose days are spent helping other people untangle their lives. Then her own long-term relationship collapses without warning, and she finds herself doing something she has spent her career recommending to others: sitting on the other side of the room, in a state of crisis, seeing a therapist of her own. The book braids Gottlieb's sessions with her wry, unsparing therapist, Wendell, together with the stories of four of her own patients. There is John, an abrasive Hollywood producer convinced everyone around him is an idiot; Julie, a young newlywed forced to reckon with a devastating diagnosis; Rita, approaching seventy and haunted by regret; and Charlotte, a twenty-something caught in self-defeating patterns. As their lives unfold, the line between healer and patient blurs, and Gottlieb turns the same searching attention on herself. Funny, humane, and quietly profound, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is a memoir about the strange intimacy of therapy and a wide-ranging meditation on change, mortality, and meaning. It demystifies what actually happens in the consulting room and makes a persuasive case that self-examination, however uncomfortable, is where real change begins.

What would you say if you knew you had only one chance left to speak? Computer science professor Randy Pausch, facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, delivered a powerful "Last Lecture" that became a message about living life fully. This book shares his inspiring wisdom on achieving childhood dreams, overcoming obstacles, and cherishing every moment.

At twenty-four, novelist Matt Haig's world caved in and he came close to ending his life. This bestselling memoir is his frank, hopeful account of living through severe depression and anxiety and slowly finding his way back — part personal story, part reflection on mental illness, and part reassurance, addressed to anyone in the dark, that things can and do get better.

Oliver Sacks, a practicing neurologist, gathers 24 case histories of patients living with unusual damage to the brain: a music teacher who can no longer recognize faces or ordinary objects by sight, a former sailor stuck in 1945 by amnesia, twin savants who trade six-digit primes like conversation. Sacks writes each case as a story, not a chart, and asks what these conditions show about memory, perception and identity in anyone.

A young journalist's life takes a terrifying turn when she begins experiencing memory loss and violent delusions. After numerous misdiagnoses, she's finally identified with a rare autoimmune disease affecting the brain. This memoir chronicles her arduous journey toward recovery and her quest to understand the lost month of her life.

• survival

Patric Gagne knew she made people uneasy before she started kindergarten. Fear, guilt and empathy did not arrive the way they seemed to for everyone else, and the absence built into a pressure she could only relieve by doing something she was not supposed to. Her account of working out what that meant, and of the doctorate she eventually wrote about it.

• coming of age

Neuroscientist Matthew Walker lays out what decades of sleep research have found: that too little sleep damages memory, mood, the immune system and long-term disease risk in specific, measurable ways. He explains how deep sleep consolidates memories and clears toxic waste from the brain, how REM sleep processes emotion, and what caffeine and alcohol actually do to both. The book closes with concrete steps for sleeping better.

In a world overflowing with instant gratification, Dr. Anna Lembke explores the science behind our constant pursuit of pleasure and its inevitable link to pain. This book offers practical advice for finding a healthier balance, helping readers manage their dopamine levels to achieve greater contentment and genuine connection.

• mentor figure

An accessible introduction to ikigai, the Japanese concept of a reason for being. Drawing on the habits of the long-lived residents of Okinawa's Ogimi village, Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles connect purpose, community, movement, and moderation into a gentle guide for a longer, more meaningful life.

Roxane Gay offers a raw and honest account of her life, focusing on her complicated relationship with food, her body, and the past traumas that have shaped her. This memoir explores the challenges of self-acceptance and finding peace in a world that often judges. Gay shares her personal journey toward understanding what it truly means to care for oneself, both physically and emotionally.

After a stroke left him with locked-in syndrome — fully conscious but able to move only his left eyelid — Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor of French Elle, composed this memoir by blinking out each letter as an assistant recited the alphabet. He describes the "diving bell" of his paralysed body and the "butterfly" of his still-free imagination, with grief, wit, and no self-pity. A luminous meditation on consciousness and the human spirit.

A beauty editor at New York's glossiest magazines, Cat Marnell had the dream job — and a secret, all-consuming addiction to prescription pills. In this unsparing, darkly funny memoir, she traces her path from a pill-strewn childhood through her rise in fashion media and her very public unraveling, writing with zero self-pity about ambition, privilege, and self-destruction.

Lena Dunham reflects on her experiences with illness, fame, and ambition, exploring the personal cost of pursuing her creative dreams. She shares her journey through chronic health issues and the challenges of navigating public life, all while searching for self-acceptance and lasting love. This book offers a candid look at the shadows cast by the spotlight and the wisdom gained from turning regrets into growth.

• coming of age

In "Complications," surgeon Atul Gawande offers a candid look inside the operating room. Through true stories, he explores the inherent uncertainties and the human side of medicine. Gawande shares the challenges and successes faced by medical professionals on the front lines of surgery.