Mini-Reviews: Medical Non-Fiction

I like to read medical non-fiction. Not textbooks, but the kind of book a layperson with an interest can read, and someone in a medical profession may also enjoy, and learn from. There are three important things I look for in these books: Contributes to the non-medical reader’s understanding/interest of their health and/or bodies in

[Book Review] The Lion in the Living Room

Did you know that housecats are classified as one of the world’s 100 Worst Invasive Species?

Sex in the Sea: This Post Is Not What You Think (Or Is It?)

“Forget the Kama Sutra. When it comes to inventive sex acts, just look to the sea.” Well now. If there’s one way of making sure people read something important, you might as well throw some sex into it. Sex in the Sea: Our Intimate Connection with Sex-Changing Fish, Romantic Lobsters, Kinky Squid, and Other Salty Erotica

What If Everything You Knew About Breastfeeding Was Wrong?

How does one react to seeing a book cover that claims breast feeding is “big business and bad policy”? If you’re me, you request a review copy of that book, fully intending to expose how wrong it is. As a medical student, one of the important things I was taught again and again is this:

Jonas Salk, A Life | Thinking About Biographies

Are biographies supposed to build up the heroes in our eyes? Or reveal them as the flawed humans they are? Or, are they supposed to give us the facts and nothing else? (If that’s the case, then some of my favourite biographies are interminably flawed.) Nobody wants to read a biased biography, but there were times that I felt as though the author was another intellectual who would never give Salk the acceptance he craved.

Medicine: Keep Up!

I love how fast this field moves, and grows. It is refreshing, and it keeps me on my toes, and it demands: if you’re not ready for change, you’re not ready for MEDICINE! Three years ago, during a Family Medicine rotation, a young Zimbabwean girl came to us for removal of a stick-like thing in

Did You Know That Seeds Are Freaking Awesome?!

I love micro-histories – books that delve into the history and specifics of one small specific thing. One of my favourites is The Big Necessity by Rose George, about human waste (and the toilet). Just for balance, my least favourite is Stiff by Mary Roach.

War, Latin America and Pre-Eclampsia: A History

The 1970s was a turbulent time in Argentina, which was experiencing a military dictatorship and a lot of oppression. At this time, anybody considered to be a remote threat was eliminated; including many talented young people who could be considered ideological threats.
One young OBGYN in Argentina feared for his own life after his brother and sister-in-law – similarly well-educated – disappeared. Nobody knew where these thousands of young people were disappearing to, but years later it was revealed that many of them were loaded in airplanes and then dropped out into the ocean.

A Tale of Two Sciency Books

I quite enjoy sciency books – from the focused, like Seven Modern Plagues and Stuff Matters, to the kind that addresses all sorts of random topics, like What If.

The Ultimate Book at the Start of a New Era in my Medical Career [Review]

What I thought this book would be about:

Doctors are too paternalistic, patients know better than doctors, FREEDOM TO THE PEOPLE YO, doctors are obsolete, welcome our overlords the computers who will heal you now.

What this book was about:

The inevitable changes in medical science that give us the choice: adapt or die. (Spoiler alert: adaptation is usually the preferable option.) Awesome technology! Awesome ethics! Incredible advancements! Medicine is NOT stagnant! Awesome peer-reviewed research!