Library's review
I finished this very hefty (more than 700 pages, not counting endnotes and bibliography) just hours before the Overdrive fairy godmother turned my library e-copy back into a pumpkin. While the book took me a while to read (10 days, which is an eternity for me), it was certainly not due to its
I am not a science nerd but I found the science-y bits quite easy to follow. Some of the descriptions of the treatments that were thought to be effective in earlier times are gruesome but merely reflect the state of what was known about biology and medicine at the time. It was fascinating to read about how the "war on cancer" has waxed and waned with the political tides, and how that elusive that goal of a permanent cure still is, even as we continue to expand the boundaries of our knowledge about what causes cancer to emerge in any given body and how it grows and spreads.
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readability or the interest I had in the material. The book's subtitile, "A biography of cancer," sounds like a gimmick but is actually pretty much right on. Mukherjee ranges from ancient Egypt to modern America as he explores how the diseases we now lump together as cancer have slowly given up some of their secrets to the doctors and scientists seeking "magic bullets" to vanquish them forever.I am not a science nerd but I found the science-y bits quite easy to follow. Some of the descriptions of the treatments that were thought to be effective in earlier times are gruesome but merely reflect the state of what was known about biology and medicine at the time. It was fascinating to read about how the "war on cancer" has waxed and waned with the political tides, and how that elusive that goal of a permanent cure still is, even as we continue to expand the boundaries of our knowledge about what causes cancer to emerge in any given body and how it grows and spreads.
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Description
A "biography" of cancer from its origins to the epic battle to cure, control, and conquer it. A combination of medical history, cutting-edge science, and narrative journalism that transforms the listener's understanding of cancer and much of the world around them. The author provides a glimpse into the future of cancer treatments and offers a bold new perspective on the way doctors, scientists, philosophers, and lay people have observed and understood the human body for millennia.
Media reviews
It's time to welcome a new star in the constellation of great doctor-writers. With this fat, enthralling, juicy, scholarly, wonderfully written history of cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee - a cancer physician and researcher at Columbia University - vaults into that exalted company ...
Awards
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — General Non-Fiction — 2011)
Audie Award (Finalist — History — 2012)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Science & Technology — 2010)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — Nonfiction — 2010)
The Economist Best Books (2010.12)
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Longlist — Nonfiction — 2011)
Books for a Better Life Award (Winner — 2010)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Nonfiction — 2012)
Guardian First Book Award (Winner — 2011)
Wellcome Trust Book Prize (Shortlist — 2011)
PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award (Winner — 2011)
Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award (Finalist — Non-Fiction — 2010)
Wissensbuch des Jahres (2012)
SB&F's Best Books (2011)
J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize (Finalist — 2011)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2010)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2010)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2010)
Notable Books List (Nonfiction — 2012)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (2010)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2010