Health & Medicine

The Plague, a philosophical novel by French author Albert Camus, was first published in 1947 and immediately won the prix des Critiques, a literary prize awarded to Francophone authors by the French publishing industry. Having also published The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, and The Fall, Camus, an absurdist writer who wrote extensively in support of the French Resistance against Nazi Germany’s occupation of France, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. In... Read The Plague Summary

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York is a 2010 non-fiction book by science writer Deborah Blum. This guide follows the first edition of the book. In The Poisoner’s Handbook, Blum explores how Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler laid the foundations for the modern field of forensic science in New York in the 1920s. Through Norris and Gettler’s stories, Blum also narrates a number of important social... Read The Poisoner’s Handbook Summary

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The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness is a 1994 memoir that chronicles the years-long struggle of Lori Schilling, a bright, promising, high-achieving Jewish woman, born to affluent parents and afflicted with schizophrenia. Ultimately, Schilling will emerge triumphant from her journey, which includes many stints, both voluntarily and involuntarily, in mental hospitals, several suicide attempts, and a constant battle with hallucinated voices that viciously assail Lori and bid her to kill... Read The Quiet Room Summary

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The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing (1999) is the autobiography of Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord. It details her journey to become the first Navajo female surgeon, overcoming the challenges presented to her by her own Navajo culture as well as the prevailing stereotype at the time that only men could be surgeons. Along this journey, Lori realizes that western medicine is facing a crisis... Read The Scalpel and the Silver Bear Summary

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Anne Fadiman’s nonfiction book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures chronicles the life of Lia Lee, a Hmong girl who lives with her family in Merced, California, in the 1980s and 1990s. The book examines the cultural misunderstandings and conflicting belief systems that result in Lia’s poor medical treatment after she is diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome... Read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Summary

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance is a 2013 non-fiction book by David Epstein that investigates the role of genetics in athletics. The Sports Gene became a New York Times best seller and was nominated for the 2014 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Epstein, an investigative reporter and a passionate runner, combines data from scientific research, interviews with experts, and biographies and anecdotes of individual athletes to paint a complex... Read The Sports Gene Summary

The Story of My Experiments with Truth is the autobiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more widely known as Mahatma Gandhi. A key political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement, Gandhi penned this work to narrate his quest for truth and the principles that underpinned his life’s journey. Originally published in 1927, this memoir provides a meticulous account of Gandhi’s spiritual, moral, and political evolution. The literary era in which this was... Read The Story of My Experiments with Truth Summary

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health—and a Vision for Change (2010) is a book by Annie Leonard. It is based on a short animated documentary with the same title (2007) written and narrated by Leonard. Leonard criticizes American consumer society that values novelty, accumulation, and low prices for being unsustainable. Overconsumption affects our health, our happiness, and our planet. Leonard travels from factories, to... Read The Story of Stuff Summary

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The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults (2014) is by American neurologist Frances E. Jensen with journalist Amy Ellis Nutt. A New York Times bestseller, the book was nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing. The Teenage Brain is a guide to the workings of the adolescent brain aimed at parents. Using scientific research data combined with real-life stories and anecdotes, the author explains the changes... Read The Teenage Brain Summary

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The Tennis Partner: A Story of Friendship and Loss (1998) is a memoir by physician Abraham Verghese. It follows his friendship with David Smith, a medical student recovering from drug addiction, and the regular games of tennis that lie at the heart of their relationship. The book explores the themes The Disease of Addiction, The Power of Ritual, and Navigating Loneliness and Conflict in Relationships.Verghese is a physician, professor, and best-selling author. His first book... Read The Tennis Partner Summary