by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 30, 2021 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Dr. MeiLan Han transfers years of knowledge as a lung doctor, or pulmonologist, to the printed word in her upcoming book Breathing Lessons: A Doctor’s Guide to Lung Health. With this book, she offers explanations of many lung-related conditions including asthma,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 22, 2021 | RELAX: Memoir
Sarah McBride covers a wide variety of topics in Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality. But given the complexity of gender identity and McBride’s own path, it’s not surprising. This was also a perfect pick for Pride Month. It fits...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 6, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Danielle Girard introduces readers to Dr. Annabelle Schwartzman, Medical Examiner in a new series. This first book is called Exhume and it includes a variety of themes. First, of course is the world of morgues and autopsies. Second, is the way her role of gathering...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 10, 2020 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen is two parts gasping at astounding purported medical cures. It’s also one part rubbernecker can’t look away no matter how yucky the example might be. I thoroughly enjoyed...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 13, 2020 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
In Lakewood, the debut novel from Megan Giddings, Lena Johnson is just trying to hold it all together for her family. And that family recently lost its most senior member, her grandmother. That leaves Lena with her ailing mom to care for, as their mountain of debt...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 16, 2020 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Randy Shilts creates a tour de force history of the early years of the AIDS epidemic in And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic. It’s 600 pages of intense details, drawn from thousands of interviews with 900+ people. Despite being published in...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 4, 2020 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Maya Dusenberry compiles and analyzes a boat load of important information in Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick. Now you know her theme—the way women suffer because of misogyny and prejudicial...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 17, 2019 | LEARN: Medical Memoir
In No Apparent Distress, Rachel Pearson writes a riveting account of her time in medical school. She’s especially focused on her work at a student-run charity medical clinic in Galveston, TX. Given everything happening these days along the Texas border, it’s even more...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 5, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Tosca Lee brings us a strong entry for the “young innocent woman tries to save the world” genre. The Line Between is a cult escapee, pandemic, dangerous emergency road trip book. Its heroine is likable, and the topic is fairly relevant.The young protagonist is Wynter...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 3, 2019 | LEARN: Chronic Illness, LEARN: Medical Memoir
Louise Aronson subtitles Elderhood with the following: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life. I submit that she focuses primarily on the second of these topics, rather than the other two. And that makes sense because she has many years of...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 3, 2018 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Mimi Swartz tells the story of a group of cardiac surgeons all vying for the title of creator. Not with a capital C, but creator of the first functional artificial heart. And by group, I don’t mean to imply they worked together. Some did, and some didn’t. Competition...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 10, 2018 | LEARN: Everything Else
To learn what the latest Michael Pollan book, How to Change Your Mind, is about just check out its subtitle: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Pollan creates an epic book. It’s part...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 5, 2018 | LEARN: Medical Memoir
Thomas Hager writes a compelling medical and scientific history in The Demon Under the Microscope. Subtitled From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor’s Heroic Search for the World’s First Miracle Drug, its scope is incredibly wide. This book is the perfect...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 23, 2017 | LEARN: Everything Else
Physician Gavin Francis truly takes readers on Adventures in Human Being. From stem to stern, tip to toes, Francis picks a vital part of anatomy and verbally dissects it. It’s a fascinating premise for anyone who enjoys information about their body, or who is just...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 14, 2017 | LEARN: Everything Else
Part of my business is holistic health coaching, so Giulia Enders’ Gut is my kind of book. The full title is actually Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. I think that when it was written in 2014, there were many fewer public conversations about...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 31, 2017 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
If healthcare in the United States frustrates you, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal is the book for you. It alternately made me furious, sad, and empowered me to ask a thousand more questions...
Recent Comments