Welcome to Litsy!

Very interesting, although a bit of a slog in the middle

Despite already being 12 years old, this book is still relevant. It is also a great read, especially for people who are no stranger to medically-themed nonfiction. It's well-written if technical in places; it gets personal yet sticks to the facts; it's well-researched and informative, and written by an expert in the field—all in all, the kind of #nonfiction I like best.

5.0/5

Reading how quickly and mercilessly childhood leukemia used to kill, from the perspective of someone who just a few yers back had a case in the family (the kid is well now), is... something else.

Humanity is a disaster, but we've come a long way.

Starting this for my monthly #nonfiction read. It's a long one, and well-reviewed, and I've been meaning to get to it for some time now.

This book was phenomenal and an excellent read. Maybe I need to read his one on genes next? Highly recommend this if you‘re in the right mood and circumstances. Glad I finally finished it! Now I just need to return it and pay my overdue fine… couldn‘t finish on time!

I vaguely knew this would intersect with early HIV but now I obviously need to read more about this. Should I just start with And the Band Played On? That‘s the only title that comes to mind on early AIDS/HIV activism and research. Any other recommendations??? Add them if you have them!

“The relationship between smoking and lung cancer, the committee found, was one of the strongest in the history of cancer epidemiology- remarkably significant, remarkably conserved between diverse populations, remarkably durable over time, and remarkably reproducible in trial after trial.” Holy *#%!!!

4 🌟

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Interesting to read about the scientists and doctors who pioneered new treatments and research.

The Author does a good job of simplifying cancers and treatments. I wish they would have used standard chapter breaks to make it easier to flip between different formats. This book left me queasy at times due to the indifference shown by early scientists and doctors towards the suffering of patients. I would have appreciated a focused look at hospice and palliative care for those for whom cures are not an option.

Feeling ambivalent about this book. I am amazed by the ingenuity yet sickened by the primitive treatment and sometimes paternalistic tone of doctors towards patients. I hope hospice and palliative care come more into play in the second half.

Some of the science is a little confusing, but the author lays things out as clearly as possible. A great explanation of how cancer works and the history of cancer research and treatment. I will never complain about getting my Pap smear again. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My #anywayyoureadathon goals are a tad ambitious (what else is new?) but I hope that this forces me out of a reading slump and helps me make some good progress on my #bookspinbingo blackout!

I‘ve been meaning to read this for a long while and finally tackled the 22-hour #audiobook narrated by Fred Sanders. It‘s approachable science with a broad scope, from cancer‘s first recorded history, to research into the causes and cures, to the author‘s own clinical experience with the disease as a doctor. It‘s fascinating & I learned a lot. Also, I felt closer to my loved ones who live with & have died of cancer.

Horizontal gene transfer is discussed in two audiobooks in a row: the tagged one on cancer, and Entangled Life, which is about fungi. Both books are excellent, btw.
(Internet image in the background)

Seen on yesterday‘s #audiowalk

A thorough book, well put together. I lost a bit of steam toward the end but overall found this informative.

“In 1884, at the prime of his career in New York, Halsted read a paper describing the use of a new surgical anesthetic called cocaine.”

Did NOT know cocaine was used for that purpose!

This was a thorough insight into the history of our knowledge & fight against cancer. I am glad I listened to the audio book. I think it made it easier to stick with it, that I could listen as a backdrop to drives and runs. It is long, but I did learn quite a bit.

For #scienceseptember, this is the main book by a BIPOC on my shelves. Wonder why I‘ve been putting this one off?! Think I‘m going to read to page 50 to see if it‘s something I actually want to read in the next 5 years, or whether it‘s something I need to pass on for now. From the dogears, the last reader made it as far as p5 😬

#integrateyourshelf

@ChasingOm @Emilymdxn my username‘s changed - was @ RachelO - sorry!

Compulsory reading for all medical professionals and a riveting referral for those interested in the human anatomy. Siddhartha was able to poetically narrate the story of a disease which we all fear, giving us non-medics a simple yet beautiful understanding of where we are in finding a treatment for it. Absolutely worth the read!

Ultimately a bit choppy of a read, but it mirrored the subject matter. The history of cancer is not a neat and linear story. It has no climax, rather many, but no resolution—yet. We are in the middle of its history and the author had a massive challenge to reflect that, in which he succeeded.

I‘ve been think about this for a couple of days & here‘s my #top10ofthedecade #nonfictionedition. I read so many good ones! As always, it was hard to choose. I picked ones I read this decade, I didn‘t care if they were published this decade. Stay tuned for the fiction edition....

Into part 2 and already recommend to everyone interested in our healthcare system and what we know and don‘t know. And how we learn about medicine and our bodies. Cancer touches pretty much all of us, Mukherjee‘s “biography” helps us grapple with what is going on, by contextualizing cancer within history.

TIL The tobacco industry is scum of the earth. When they couldn't keep their hold on American households, they moved on to greener underdeveloped pastures, using the knowledge they learned from the legal battles in America.

Currently reading this one. I love this kind of non- fiction. This one is easy to read and this far very interesting. Has anyone else read this, or do you have any recommendations for non-fiction?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Truly worth the #PulitzerPrize.
An absolute thrill to read. Mukherjee does an excellent job of taking such a complex and technical subject and bring it to a level that the average reader can understand.
This book is perfect if you're trying to get a better understanding of what cancer is and why we haven't discovered a cure yet.
#Nonfiction #cancer #medical #science #NYTBestseller

Last chapter! Almost done!
#Nonfiction #medical #SoClose

Perhaps the scariest #Halloween reality of all: #cancer.
Thankfully doctors have discovered at least 5 Achilles Heels.
1. Originates as a local disease before spreading.
2. Rapid growth rate (easier to target).
3. Accumulation of mutations in it's DNA required for growth.
4. Dependent on proto-oncogenes & tumor suppressor genes.
5. Dependent on multiple corrupt properties from other areas of the body.
#Nonfiction #medical #science

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book is incredibly researched. It‘s so packed with info that I‘m not sure I even absorbed half of it. My favorite parts were the few times the author discussed his own patients and experiences. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator‘s voice was nice to listen to but I found myself zoning out pretty often and I‘d need to rewind. 😬 I‘m definitely more interested in Mukherjee‘s book on genes now!

And look at that progress! I'm up to Part 6 of 6. Almost there...
#Nonfiction #GreenvilleSC #Medical #BridgeCity #coffee #espresso

Tried a cortado to go with my book.
#GreenvilleSC #BridgeCity

Trying a new coffee shop in #GreenvilleSC to finish this book up. Bridge City Coffee.

Part 4 of 6!
#Nonfiction #GreenvilleSC #history #medical #progress

"the only intervention ever known to reduce the aggregate mortality for disease - any disease - at a population level was prevention."

(Part 2 of 2) and ventilation - had driven TB mortality down in Europe and America. Polio and smallpox had also dwindled as a result of vaccinations. Cairns wrote, 'The death rates from malaria, cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, scurvy, pellagra and other scourges of the past have dwindled in the US because humankind has learned how to prevent these diseases....To put most of the effort into treatment is to deny all precedent.'"

(Part 1 of 2) "In the history of medicine, no significant disease had ever been eradicated by a treatment-related program alone. If one plotted the decline in deaths from tuberculosis, for instance, the decline predated the arrival of new antibiotics by several decades. Far more potently than any miracle medicine, relatively uncelebrated shifts in civic arrangements - better nutrition, housing, and sanitation, improved sewage systems...

"care, she wrote, 'is a soft word' that would never win respectability in the medical world."
[Don't ever let the cause become bigger than the people it's designed to help.]

Almost 1/2 way through! @strandbookstore #Nonfiction #historical #GreenvilleSC #medical #PulitzerPrize #progress

How do I choose between 2 large books? Read both of course. I alternate everytime I finish a chapter.
#BookHero #GreenvilleSC #history #Nonfiction

An amazing and detailed book. Wow.

Started this yesterday and am having a hard time putting it down! #amreading #pulitzerprizewinner #nonfiction

I did it! I finally finished this #behemoth of a book! Solid 5/5. #science #cancer

Still working on this #behemoth. About 100 pages to go! #science #cancer

As a big nonfiction reader & lover, this one just didn‘t click for me. I found the incredibly clinical subject matter and the framing such as “on a warm Autumn morning” just didn‘t quite gel for me. I‘m certainly in the minority though! #aroundtheyearin52books

Was recommended by my BIL who eventually succumbed to cholangiocarcinoma. Such a detailed and interesting book into cancer history and research and hope for the future of cancer treatments. I‘ll want to go back to this again since it‘s so dense and I‘m sure I‘ve missed parts of the book that were “sciencey” and I should read again. But much of it is written in language that is meant for non-medical people to understand.

Here we go! Getting ready to start this guy. It was my Christmas gift ... figure I should read it before Christmas rolls around again!

#makemereadit #mountTBR
#readwhatyouown #nonfiction