One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient (2009)

At 31, David Biro was an ambitious young doctor in his father's Brooklyn practice who spent mornings writing his novel and weekends with his wife, a fashion-industry exec. His engrossing first book, One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient, tells how a rare blood disease landed him on the wrong side of the examining table. But even as a patient, Biro maintains his insider's advantage, calling medical experts at home, rushing blood-test results, and phoning his dad for prescriptions. Little escapes Biro's pitiless scrutiny, from the ravages of chemotherapy to his guilty dependence on his family (his younger sister donated bone marrow for a transplant). It's a harrowing tale of one man's journey to a place where, ultimately, privilege is no protection, told without a shred of self-pity or sentimentality. Not your usual sickbed saga. A-