My favorite public health and health care books of 2024

Five moving memoirs and five more outstanding nonfiction titles comprise this year's 10th annual list of my favorite health books, listed alphabetically by title below. For more great reads, feel free to browse my lists from 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2015-2020. Hope this list helps with your holiday shopping!

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1. Crisis Averted: The Hidden Science of Fighting Outbreaks, by Caitlin Rivers

2. The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER, by Thomas Fisher

3. The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics, by Barron Lerner

4. The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town, by Brian Alexander

5. How Medicine Works and When It Doesn’t: Learning Who to Trust to Get and Stay Healthy, by F. Perry Wilson

6. On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, by Anthony Fauci

7. Though the Darkness: Medicine, Missions, and Meeting God in Nepal, by Rebecca Martin

8. Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley

9. War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line, by David Nott

10. Within Reason: A Liberal Public Health for an Illiberal Time, by Sandro Galea