Around this time of year readers and critics alike post lists of favorite books, so I'm going to follow suit.
Some of the books are written by nurses, others by physicians, and others by just plain good writers.
Here's a list of some of my all-time favorites in no particular order — fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Take your pick, and share your list with the rest of us.

1. Between the Heartbeats: Poetry and Prose by Nurses, eds. Cortney Davis & Judy Schaefer
2. Intensive Care: More Poetry and Prose by Nurses
3. Details of Flesh: Poems by Cortney Davis
4. Leopold's Maneuvers: Poems by Cortney Davis
5. I Knew a Woman by Cortney Davis
6.Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gwande
7. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
8. The Heart's Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing by Cortney Davis
9. Reflections on Doctors, ed., Terry Ratner
10. The Poetry of Nursing: Poems and Commentaries of Leading Nurse-Poets, ed., Judy Schaefer
11. Speaking of Nursing: Narratives of Practice, Research, Policy and the Profession by Donna Diers
12. Anatomy of Hope by Jerome Groopman
13. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (This is the first in a fiction series about Maisie, who served as a nurse during WWI. I just love these books and share them with all my nursing and non-nursing friends. My latest mantra —*"What would Maisie do?")

Start cracking the covers and turning the pages. Enjoy!