Where is your nonfiction section please.
I wanted to include When Breath Becomes Air in my medical nonfiction roundup, but this memoir takes a different path and deserves its own standalone post. (After this I'll return to non-medical topics next week, I promise!) I came across a coffee-stained copy (I hope it's coffee) in my neighborhood's Little Free Library while I... Continue Reading →
There was a time I didn't want to read one word about bodies or medicine, but maybe because of developing chronic health issues myself, or again living in the US uninsured, but as I mentioned in my first Nonfiction November post, I've been drawn to medical-related nonfiction lately. Here are three targeted at lay readers... Continue Reading →
Happy first (second? what is time?) day of Nonfiction November! I'm even more excited than usual to celebrate nonfiction right now, mainly because 2020 hasn't been a spectacular reading year for me (in addition to every other reason it's been the worst, obviously). My attention has been spread unusually thin and my reading is basically... Continue Reading →
Apollo's Arrow, by Nicholas A. Christakis (Bookshop.org) It seemed to me that the novel coronavirus was a threat that was both wholly new and deeply ancient. Yale sociologist, public health educator, and former hospice physician Nicholas A. Christakis's Apollo's Arrow covers the coronavirus pandemic, drawing comparisons to previous plagues and pandemics from history and mythology,... Continue Reading →
The Beauty in Breaking, by Michele Harper As a black woman, I navigate an American landscape that claims to be post-racial when every waking moment reveals the contrary, an American landscape that requires all women to pound tenaciously against the proverbial glass ceiling, which we've since discovered is made of palladium, the kind of glass... Continue Reading →
Book review: Clean: The New Science of Skin, by James Hamblin (Amazon) James Hamblin is a doctor of preventive medicine and staff writer at The Atlantic. His latest book, Clean: The New Science of Skin, looks at the mix of confusing messaging around what actually works in skincare, the scientific limits of products against their purported... Continue Reading →
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, by David Quammen (Amazon) The purpose of this book is not to make you more worried. The purpose of this book is to make you more smart. I bought this book as soon as COVID-19 appeared in the US for the above reason. I completely understand why... Continue Reading →
Not to sound like a cliched ancient person, but even given the surreal circumstances, this year is positively flying by, isn't it? I can't even fathom that we've already made it halfway. And yet we have! These are my favorite new releases of the nonfiction published between January and June 2020. What's been your favorite... Continue Reading →
I love narrative nonfiction, and in discussing this genre, two titles that inevitably come up as outstanding examples of nonfiction perfectly crafted into a narrative structure are Five Days at Memorial and In the Kingdom of Ice. Let's talk about them! Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink Physician and... Continue Reading →
Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens, by Muhammad H. Zaman, PhD (Amazon / Book Depository) Muhammad H. Zaman is a researcher and professor of biomedical engineering and international health at Boston University. In Biography of Resistance he traces the evolution of superbugs, namely how strains of bacteria have become resistant to... Continue Reading →
Book review: Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and On Us, by George Zaidan (Amazon / Book Depository) George Zaidan, an MIT-trained chemist, calls himself a "science translator", so someone who helps make scientific concepts and literature more understandable for the layperson. This is a concept in popular science that I... Continue Reading →
The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness, by Sarah Ramey (Amazon / Book Depository) This prologue is typical of women like me. A simple and innocuous medical event -- often with a gyno or gastro tilt -- that should have resolved simply, but it didn't. She thinks it is just another one of life's ups... Continue Reading →
