5 Top Reads for Travel Clinicians in Summer 2022

Summer vacation is the time to relax, regroup, vacation, and get lost in a good book. Whether reading a guilty pleasure or a book to top off your knowledge, we have pulled together a list that we think all travel clinicians will enjoy. This list has clinician-centered stories, inspiring memoirs, and travel adventure tales that you can read while poolside this summer.

Check out these five books below.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

Jump into the life of Oliver Sacks and his decades-long career as a clinician. In addition to studying the physical aspects of therapy, Sacks also specialized in the study of neurological disorders. They wrote more than 12 books, and was also a professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine.

In this bestselling book, he shares his own experiences, from strange encounters to heartwarming moments, and everything in between. This book tells stories of people who suffered from neurological impairments. It highlights how they were remarkably gifted in areas like math or art. You will find inspiration throughout the entire book.

BONUS BOOK: Oliver Sacks also wrote Seeing Voices. Known as a provocative meditation on communication, biology, adaptation, and culture, diving into the subject of deafness and minority struggles.

The Unseen Body: A Doctor’s Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of Human Anatomy by Jonathan Reisman, M.D.

In this journey through the human body, Dr. Reisman offers a new and deeply moving perspective. It helps us make sense of our bodies and how they work in a way readers and clinicians have never imagined.

Reisman is a physician, adventure traveler, and naturalist that will navigate you through human bodies like an explorer discovering a new world in The Unseen Body. With unique insight, Reisman shows us how understanding mountain watersheds helps to diagnose heart attacks, how the body is made mostly of mucus, not water, and how urine carries within it a tale of humanity’s origins.

One online review states, “Through his offbeat adventures in healthcare and travel, Reisman discovers new perspectives on the body: a trip to the Alaskan Arctic reveals that fat is not the enemy, but the hero; a stint in the Himalayas uncovers the boundary where the brain ends and the mind begins; and eating a sheep’s head in Iceland offers a lesson in empathy. By relating rich experiences in far-flung lands and among unique cultures back to the body’s inner workings, he shows how our organs live inextricably intertwined lives―an internal ecosystem reflecting the natural world around us.”

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

This powerful memoir has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and begin listening to our own needs.

As a travel clinician, this book will inspire you to put your career, desires, and dreams first with no remorse. It emphasizes honoring the voice inside of you and letting it lead your decisions to ultimately get where you have always wanted to be. It has been referred to as a “wake-up call” that will rejuvenate your career goals this summer.

If you have already read this bestseller, check out the accompanying journal Doyle has crafted: Get Untamed: The Journal (How to Quit Pleasing and Start Living).

The Art of Leaving: A Memoir by Ayelet Tsabari

For the traveler in you, pick up The Art of Leaving. Tsabari shares her travel experiences from Israel to New York, Canada, Thailand, and India. The book seeps with details of her falling in and out of love with the countries. And also her refusal to settle in one place. Throughout the journeys, Tsabari recounts her first marriage, her struggle to define herself, her decision to become a mother, and finally her rediscovery and embrace of her family history. Eventually, she realizes that she must reconcile the memories of the sadness of her past in order to come to terms with herself.

This piece is fierce and emotional. But it shares so much about the lengths we will travel to escape our struggles. Every page will have you riding along with Tsabari as she searches for a place to belong on this earth.

Physical Therapy The Truth: For Students, Clinicians, and Healthcare Professionals by Monie Phillips

Calling all travel PTs. This book shares insight into other PT’s experiences on the job. And explores everything it takes to be a travel PT. If you haven’t traveled in your specialty before, this is a great resource to read. You'll discover if traveling is for you.

This book dives into advice about the potential future of the healthcare industry and Phillips discusses specifically not only what it takes to make it in physical therapy, but how to keep yourself relevant in it. Whether you are a student or a seasoned PT, this book is certainly worth a read to explore your career and future deeper.

Travel with Us

Being a traveling clinician is a rewarding and challenging job. These books will equip you to face those challenges on your next assignment. As you travel this summer, pack one of these titles and recharge your mind.