Scan barcode
sjruskin's review
1.0
This was one of the most boring books I have ever listened to. The content was there to make it interesting, but it just was not. I do not recommend this book unless you need to sleep.
debs4jc's review against another edition
2.0
In sharing the story of an Italian family beset by a strange medical illness that causes insomnia and eventually death, the author also explains the history of that rare class of illness known as prion diseases. Much is still unknown about them, but he goes through the history of how what we do know was discovered. Prion diseases, like scrapie in sheep and mad cow disease in humans and cattle, are caused by a malformed protein. The author explains things pretty well this book does get dry in places. If you are interested in medical stuff or have a personal interest in prion diseases then this book will interest you. Otherwise it might not, but I did find the stuff about mad cow disease a bit frightening, as still so much is unknown about how it is spread, who might be exposed, and there is no cure.
ahanyok's review
2.0
Interesting topic but poor execution at key moments. For example, he never questions medical imperialism, racism, and guinea pig testing in Papua New Guinea. He poorly addresses the pedophilia of a Nobel laureate, calling it a sexuality and dismissing it as a reason for him to go to a remote nation in the first place. The author goes on for chapters about this researcher, despite him not finding much, while leaving just a paragraph to the anthropologists that discovered the cannibalistic transmission of Kuru. This and other biases make me question the other history and research he covers.
stevenyenzer's review
4.0
The title of this book is too limited — it's really about prion diseases as a whole, and Max covers fatal familial insomnia, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Creutzfeld-Jakob Syndrome, and a range of other similar illnesses. But The Family That Couldn't Sleep doesn't read like a textbook. It's very personal, and Max provides a personal account of these ancient diseases.
jenniepicky's review
3.0
D.T. Max outlines the fascinating history of prion protein diseases including FFI (Fatal Familial Insomnia), and "mad cow" disease. Reading this left me wondering about the Canadian view on prions and the handling of mad cow by the Canadian government and beef industry (I may never eat beef in the US or Britain again...)
Pair this book with the fiction book 12.21 by Dustin Thomason and you may never sleep again. (see what I did there?)
Pair this book with the fiction book 12.21 by Dustin Thomason and you may never sleep again. (see what I did there?)
dayseraph's review against another edition
5.0
I just read this book yesterday in the airport and on the plane. It was very engaging. It's about fatal familial insomnia and mad cow disease and chronic wasting disease and prions and Nobel prizes and scientists and cannibalism. It's also about the mysteries of medicine and how that affects families. Despite the complicated subject matter, I found the book to be very accessable to the non-scientist. It's intriguing and a little bit scary but definitely worth the read.
sjeckert's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting, intellectual read that describes the progression of prion disease from scrapie in sheep to chronic wasting disease in American deer to CJD, FFI, and BSE in humans over the last few centuries. It is informative, anecdotal, scientific, yet accessible. It presents history, science, current events, and cultural/societal issues that promote further thought and reading on the subject. A great read if you're interested in prion disease, medical or scientific research, history, or just want to be informed.
scheu's review against another edition
4.0
Considerably better, and more in-depth, than Rhodes' _Deadly Feasts_, which I will need to re-review. Everything you ever wanted to know about prions but were afraid to ask - although it has to be said that what we know is still very limited.