James Gleick’s Chaos: Making a New Science (originally published in 1987) details the history and ideas of chaos theory, or chaos science. Many of these ideas have since become relatively mainstream; for example, a 2004 science fiction movie, The Butterfly Effect, was named for one of its key precepts. However, when Gleick was writing, in the mid-1980s, chaos was still a fairly revolutionary concept. Gleick, a renowned science historian, explores the breakthroughs that chaos science... Read Chaos: Making a New Science Summary

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs is a 2015 work of investigative nonfiction by British-Swiss author Johann Hari. Hari explores the so-called international war on drugs by looking deeply into its historical roots, its legal and social implications, and the possibility for reform. He examines addiction and the consequences of past and present drug laws across nine continents and 30,000 miles. A major focus is the criminalization and... Read Chasing the Scream Summary

Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It is a psychological exploration written by Ethan Kross, an award-winning neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan who directs the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. Published in January 2021, this science-based self-help text draws from cutting-edge research in psychology, neuroscience, and sociology to examine the phenomenon of internal dialogue. The work represents a significant contribution to both academic... Read Chatter Summary

Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want To Know About Fast Food, co-written by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson, aims to show young readers “the ripple effect near and far” of the fast food industry (199). Schlosser and Wilson go on to show that fast food can affect consumers on the immediate level of their own bodies and on the less obvious level of destroying indigenous food cultures.In the Introduction, Schlosser and Wilson describe the... Read Chew On This Summary

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself (Revised and Updated) is a self-help book written by Melody Beattie, a renowned author and expert on codependency. First published in 1986, this work has become a cornerstone in the field of codependency recovery, selling over eight million copies and being translated into more than a dozen languages. Beattie draws from her personal experiences with alcoholism, addiction, and codependency to provide a... Read Codependent No More Summary

Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski, PhD, presents a new way of thinking about sex and desire that challenges the traditional male-centric narrative. Dr. Nagoski is a writer and lecturer with a background in women’s sexuality and health. Come as You Are presents an understanding of sex that emphasizes the roles of “accelerators” and “brakes” in arousal and desire. When she worked as a... Read Come As You Are Summary

Atul Gawande’s Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science is a collection of essays that weaves narratives from Gawande’s personal experience as a surgical resident together with research, philosophy, and case studies in medicine. Published in 2002, Complications became a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction. Gawande, a Rhodes Scholar and MacArthur Fellow, is a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at... Read Complications Summary

Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, published in 2006, is a blend of memoir and journalism by author and Washington Post journalist Pete Earley. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 and recounts the struggles of Earley’s son, Mike, to receive treatment for his mental illness, which results in Mike’s arrest. Earley juxtaposes Mike’s story with the stories of Miami residents with mental illnesses as they navigate life in... Read Crazy Summary

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese was published in 2009. Verghese, an Indian American doctor born in Ethiopia, interrupted his medical career to attend the University of Iowa’s Writing Workshop and wrote two memoirs before publishing this novel. The book is notable for its incorporation of medical knowledge and its intimate portrayal of the lives of medical doctors. The novel spans several decades, weaving a deeply personal story with the complex 20th-century history of Ethiopia... Read Cutting for Stone Summary

Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause by Naomi Watts is a nonfiction self-help and wellness guide that explores the physical, emotional, and societal dimensions of menopause. Published in 2025 by Crown Publishing Group, the book reflects Watts’s personal journey through perimenopause and menopause, blending candid storytelling with expert insights from leading medical professionals. Best known as an award-winning actor, Watts has become a vocal advocate for menopause awareness, launching the... Read Dare I Say It Summary

In December 1985, prominent novelist William Styron, in the depths of severe depression, found himself at a crossroads. Prepared to commit suicide, Styron opted instead to seek treatment. After seven weeks in a psychiatric ward, Styron reentered the world with a renewed sense of self and a will to live. When Primo Levi, a prominent Italian scientist, writer, and Holocaust survivor, killed himself in 1987, Styron responded to the widespread criticism of Levi’s suicide with... Read Darkness Visible Summary

Dead Med (2024) is a psychological thriller by Freida McFadden set in the high-pressure world of medical education. The novel follows five first-year medical students as they navigate the grueling pressure of DeWitt Medical School, an institution nicknamed “Dead Med” due to a history of student drug overdoses. As they struggle with their classes and relationships, the students become entangled in a web of secrets that culminates in a night of shocking violence. The novel... Read Dead Med Summary

Deaf Like Me is a non-fiction biography of the Spradley family and their experiences raising their daughter, Lynn, who was born deaf. It was written by Lynn’s father, Tom Spradley, and her uncle, James Spradley. Deaf Like Me was first published in 1979; the second edition, published in 1985, includes an Epilogue Lynn wrote when she was 19 years old. In 1965, when Lynn was born, it was common to push deaf children to learn... Read Deaf Like Me Summary

Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (published in 1994 and revised in 2005) is neuroscientist Antonio Damasio’s first full-length work on the physiology of rational thinking. It posits that human emotions play a crucial role in guiding (and occasionally hindering) decision-making. The author refers to this as his “somatic-marker hypothesis” (12). As the title implies, Damasio rejects the Cartesian concept of mind-body duality, a philosophical notion (which Descartes championed) that affected the development... Read Descartes' Error Summary

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery (2014) is a medical memoir by British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh. Organized as a series of vignettes titled after specific medical conditions, the book provides an unflinching look into the high-stakes world of neurosurgery. Marsh recounts pivotal cases from his long career at a London hospital, detailing his triumphs, most devastating failures, and the profound ethical dilemmas he has faced. The memoir explores themes of Professional... Read Do No Harm Summary

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence is a 2021 book by Dr. Anna Lembke, a clinical psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. In the book, Lembke explores the biological processes behind addictive behaviors and conditions. Using patient anecdotes from her clinical practice, Lembke examines the significant role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in addiction. While the book offers informative reading, Lembke’s ultimate purpose is to persuade people to... Read Dopamine Nation Summary

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America is a 2018 nonfiction book in which journalist Beth Macy describes how a liberal prescription policy for opioid drugs like OxyContin led to a heroin epidemic in rural Appalachia and adjacent suburban communities. The book is the first in a two-book series on the opioid epidemic; the second, Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis, is due for publication in 2023... Read Dopesick Summary

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon, published by Random House in 1992, is the second novel in the highly successful romance series, Outlander. Continuing the story of Claire Randall Fraser and Jamie Fraser, this novel returns the reader to 1744, as Claire and Jamie travel to France to escape the tyrannical forces led by Jack Randall, an ancestor of Claire’s first husband, Frank. The novel not only highlights the unlikely romance between a modern woman... Read Dragonfly in Amber Summary

Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsburg Press, 2015) is a nonfiction book by American journalist and writer Sam Quinones. It won the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction and was on Amazon’s list of best books of the year in 2015 as well as Slate’s list of the 50 best books of the past 25 years. In the book Quinones charts the parallel rise of prescription opiates and black tar heroin, and describes... Read Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic Summary

Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland (2019) is a work of nonfiction by American writer and psychiatrist Jonathan M. Metzl. The text is based on research that Metzl conducted in Missouri, Tennessee, and Kansas between 2013 and 2018. In these states, he traces gun control, opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and tax reforms—issues that form the core of the Republican Party’s platform. He argues that these policies... Read Dying of Whiteness Summary