A review by izzyisreading
The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee

4.75

Beautiful, enchanting, philosophical take on the biology of cells. Definitely would recommend to anybody with an interest in biology, especially cell biology. I was really surprised at how masterful this book was- the case studies and personal anecdotes intertwined beautifully with the research and the history of science. One thing I particularly liked about this book was the openness it provided- it did not seek to answer every question, but to keep arising new ones. I also appreciated Mukherjee's interconnected view of the cell and the organism as a whole. I found the chapters on stem cells, immunotherapy, and cancer cells fascinating and I learned a lot from those chapters in particular. There were some chapters near the beginning that were a bit tedious (if you were already acquainted with cell biology), but overall I learned a lot from each of the chapters. This book brought philosophy, humanity, and the power of storytelling to a field that is prone to plain data and facts. You can tell the author loves his work, and it makes me love this book as well. One of the best nonfiction books I've read. It is quite dense though, so I'd only recommend if you are interested/have a background in science.