Posts Tagged ‘book review’
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
One of the jobs of a practicing internist is to help patients improving health through lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise and sleep. This can be quite challenging for me, so the fact that fascinating book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business delves into the neuroscience behind our daily routines, was…
Read More“Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance
“Hillbilly Elegy” has been on the New York Times bestseller list for weeks. The author is a 31 year old Yale law school graduate who grew up in “Rust Belt” Ohio, but whose roots are from Appalachian Kentucky. He explains the culture and circumstances of poor working class whites. As he puts it, “Americans call…
Read MoreThe Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer is Winnable–and How We Can Get There By Vincent T. DeVita, Jr. M.D
The first book review I wrote for this website focused on The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. I absolutely loved that book. Critics agreed, since it won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. It is hard to top such a sweeping drama in terms of the breadth and depth of cancer research. Therefore, this book…
Read MoreCAN’T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? By Roz Chast – a book review
Are your parents aging? Are you trying to attend to their needs, perhaps to their medical crises, while working and raising children? Or, are you wondering what will happen when your parents can no longer take care of themselves? If so, you are not alone and Roz Chast‘s memoir “Can’t we talk about something more…
Read MoreBeing Mortal by Atul Gawande
A few years ago, I read a newspaper article about a 65 year old physician who died climbing Mt. Everest. My first reaction was “how wonderful”, not THAT he died, but HOW he died — doing something he enjoyed and presumably at his physical and mental peak. I would wish that kind of death for…
Read MoreThe Caregivers: A Support Group’s Stories of Slow Loss, Courage and Love by Nell Lake
The unsung heroes of our society often labor without recognition, and outsiders may wonder how they cope. This book chronicles the grief process of a small group of caregivers who find assistance in a hospital support group in Boston. The author follows the lives of 8 people who give significant care to a parent, spouse or family…
Read MoreThe Happiness Advantage: A Book Review
When we started our Lady Docs Corner Cafe website last year, I planned to have many discussions on issues related to mental illness. We did not, however, keep up with this promise and did not venture into this aspect of medicine too much. During this time, I went to a lecture organized by Sidwell Friends for high…
Read MoreDavid and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
Previous Malcolm Gladwell books, Outliers, Blink and The Tipping Point, have used psychosocial research to explain little known phenomenon that are often the opposite of what one would expect. His most recent publication, David and Goliath, also focuses on surprising findings from research on the nature of advantages and disadvantages and how so called underdogs can and do succeed. Well written and…
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