Grouped by type Grouped by theme Books

See the Grouped by type group for links to the text or the Books group for book links to Amazon (where available).

Grouped by type

Poems

W.H. Auden, "Musée des Beaux Arts"; "Give Me a Doctor", Funeral Blues
Billy Collins, "Another reason why I don't keep a gun in the house"
Emily Dickinson, "Surgeons must be very careful"
Mark Doty, "Beau: Golden Retrievals", "Ultrasound"
Louise Gluck, "Horse"
Thomas Hardy, "Snow in the Suburbs" - find the poem and commentary in our blog
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Stethoscope Song, a Professional Ballad
Jane Kenyon, "Let Evening Come"
Maxine Kumin, "Amanda Dreams She Has Died and Gone to the Elysian Fields", "Eyes"
Denise Levertov, "Talking to Grief"
Denise Levertov, "Come Into Animal Presence"; "Her Sadness"; "The Secret"
Thomas Lux, "The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently"
Molly Peacock, "Fellini the Cat" and "Widow"
John Stone, "Talking to the Family" in On Doctoring
Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle"
Hilde Weisert, "Guess Work, Scientists, Poets, and Bees" and "Imagination Itself"
William Carlos Williams, "Pictures in Brueghel: II. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"
Harold Witt, "Microbe Hunters"

Essays, memoirs

Robert Coles, "Vocational Choices and Hazards" in The Call of Stories
Paul de Kruif, Chapter 5, "Pasteur and the Mad Dog," and Chapter 8, "Theobald Smith: Ticks and Texas Fever,"in The Microbe Hunters
Atul Gawande, "Education of a Knife" in Complications
Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, "Language Barriers", in On Doctoring, Richard Reynolds and John Stone, Simon & Schuster, NY 2001
Lewis Thomas, "Lives of a Cell"and "Germs"in Lives of a Cell, Viking Press, NY, 1974 (discussion led by Dean Oscar Fletcher; year 1 course)
William Carlos Williams, "The Practice", in On Doctoring, Richard Reynolds and John Stone, Simon & Schuster, NY 2001
William Carlos Williams, The Doctor Stories, New Directions Publishing, April 1985

Short stories

Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Birthmark"
Rudyard Kipling, "The Cat That Walked by Himself"
Richard Selzer, "Imelda", in On Doctoring, Richard Reynolds and John Stone, Simon & Schuster, NY 2001

Novels

Greg Lewbart, Chapters 1, 2, and 3 in The Pavilion Key: Isle of Buried Treasure (Discussion led by author)
James Herriot, Chapter 2, All Creatures Great and Small
James Herriot, Chapter 14, Every Living Thing
James Herriot, Chapter 1, Every Living Thing
James Herriot, Chapter 4 and Chapter 52, Every Living Thing
Hugh Lofting, Chapter 2 and 3, Dr. Doolittle

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Grouped by theme

Thematic grouping is a useful organizing principle for teaching or discussion groups.

Why a course in veterinary medicine and literature?

Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, "Language Barriers", in On Doctoring, Richard Reynolds and John Stone, Simon & Schuster, NY 2001
James Herriot, Chapter 2, All Creatures Great and Small
Emily Dickinson, "Surgeons must be very careful"
Mark Doty, "Beau: Golden Retrievals"
Thomas Lux, "The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently"
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Stethoscope Song, a Professional Ballad

The transformation from past lives to veterinary students to veterinarians

Robert Coles, "Vocational Choices and Hazards" in The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination
Atul Gawande, "Education of a Knife"in Complications
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Birthmark"
W.H. Auden, "Musée des Beaux Arts"; "Give Me a Doctor"
William Carlos Williams, "Pictures in Brueghel: II. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"
John Stone, "Talking to the Family" in On Doctoring, Richard Reynolds and John Stone, Simon & Schuster, NY 2001

Client communication; The human-animal bond; Why write?

Greg Lewbart, Chapters 1, 2, and 3 in The Pavilion Key: Isle of Buried Treasure (Discussion led by author)
William Carlos Williams, “The Practice”, in On Doctoring, Richard Reynolds and John Stone, Simon & Schuster, NY 2001
James Herriot, Chapter 14, Every Living Thing
Hugh Lofting, Chapter 2 and 3, Dr. Doolittle
Rudyard Kipling, “The Cat That Walked by Himself
Denise Levertov, "Come Into Animal Presence"; "Her Sadness"; "The Secret"
Maxine Kumin, "Amanda Dreams She Has Died and Gone to the Elysian Fields", "Eyes"
Hilde Weisert, "Imagination Itself"

Finding and telling your stories, Being a scientist, First, do no harm; Dying, death, and grief

Richard Selzer, "Imelda", in On Doctoring, Richard Reynolds and John Stone, Simon & Schuster, NY 2001
Lewis Thomas, "Lives of a Cell" and "Germs"in Lives of a Cell, Viking Press, NY, 1974 (discussion led by Dean Oscar Fletcher; year 1 course)
James Herriot, Chapter 1, Every Living Thing
Harold Witt, "Microbe Hunters"
Hilde Weisert, "Guess Work, Scientists, Poets, and Bees"
Denise Levertov, "Talking to Grief"
Molly Peacock, "Fellini the Cat" and "Widow"
Jane Kenyon, "Let Evening Come"
Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle"
W.H. Auden, "Funeral Blues"
Mark Doty, "Ultrasound"

Telling your story, part 2; Retaining purpose and joy

James Herriot, Chapter 4 and Chapter 52, Every Living Thing
Paul de Kruif, Chapter 5, "Pasteur and the Mad Dog,"and Chapter 8, "Theobald Smith, Ticks and Texas Fever," in The Microbe Hunters
Billy Collins, "Another reason why I don't keep a gun in the house"
Louise Gluck, "Horse"

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Books used

Hilde Weisert and Elizabeth Arnold Stone, editors: Animal Companions, Animal Doctors, Animal People: Poems, essays, and stories on our essential connections, Ontario Veterinary College, Univeristy of Guelph, 2012.
Robert Coles, The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination
Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
Molly Peacock, How to Read a Poem, Riverhead Books, 2000
Richard Reynolds and John Stone, On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays (also now available in digital format), Simon & Schuster, NY 2001

In our reading discussion group:

Susan D. Jones, Valuing Animals: Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America

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