This year's best of list includes only three titles that were actually published in 2025. Six books were written by doctors, and two provide complementary perspectives on the infamous Andrew Wakefield and the epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases resulting from falsified research and shameless self-promotion of a thoroughly debunked theory. As always, books are listed alphabetically by title. For more favorite reads, feel free to browse my lists from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and previous years.
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1. Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health, by Adam Ratner
2. The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield’s War on Vaccines, by Brian Deer
3. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in an Age of Indulgence, by
Anna Lembke
4. Dr. Mutter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine, by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
5. Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine, by Damon Tweedy
6. Gettysburg Surgeons: Facing A Common Enemy in the Civil War’s Deadliest Battle, by Barbara Franco
7. My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimers, by
Sandeep Jauhar
8. One by One by One: Making A Small Difference Amid A Billion Problems, by Aaron Berkowitz
9. A Return to Healing: Flexner, Osler, and How American Medicine Went Astray, by Andy Lazris and Alan Roth
10. Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics, by Marion
Nestle