Top ten medical memoirs … by patients

In 2008, Rebecca Fogg walked away from her New York life and career in financial services to move to London, where she co-founded the Institute of Pre-Hospital Care at London’s Air Ambulance and continues to work, write and learn Scottish fiddle.

Fogg's new book is Beautiful Trauma: An Explosion, an Obsession, and a New Lease on Life.

At the Guardian Fogg tagged ten "books written by patients who, for their own unique and fascinating reasons, also chose to incorporate the science underlying their experiences of illness." One title on the list:

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon

Solomon had not yet embarked on a PhD in psychology when he wrote this sweeping exploration of clinical depression. His rigorous insights into the biological, medical, cultural and political factors that shape people’s experience of the disease would stand on its own. But it’s the searing anecdotes from Solomon’s own experience with it, and that of many others he interviewed, that provide both a visceral understanding of its human toll, and cause for compassion and hope.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue