A review by ablotial
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
3.0
This was a really interesting, horribly depressing book. I couldn't read it in long spurts because I found it so frustrating and depressing. Especially the parts about smoking and lung cancer, and how long it took to find the correlation and the effort that people put into denying it.
I liked that the author inserted real stories, both happy and sad, about real people and didn't just spurt off fact after fact. It really brings the story home for the reader.
What I found the most interesting is that "cancer" is a one-size-fits-all name for a lot of VERY DIFFERENT problems. While they all involve some type of cells growing out of control, the way this happens, the rate of growth, the ways in which a particular "type" of cancer must be treated all vary wildly. It almost makes sense to think of them as different diseases.
I'm glad I read it, and I'll keep it around but ... not sure when I'd pick it up again.
I definitely do NOT recommend this book if yourself or a loved one is going through cancer at the time you are reading it. You won't come away with a happy picture. :/
I liked that the author inserted real stories, both happy and sad, about real people and didn't just spurt off fact after fact. It really brings the story home for the reader.
What I found the most interesting is that "cancer" is a one-size-fits-all name for a lot of VERY DIFFERENT problems. While they all involve some type of cells growing out of control, the way this happens, the rate of growth, the ways in which a particular "type" of cancer must be treated all vary wildly. It almost makes sense to think of them as different diseases.
I'm glad I read it, and I'll keep it around but ... not sure when I'd pick it up again.
I definitely do NOT recommend this book if yourself or a loved one is going through cancer at the time you are reading it. You won't come away with a happy picture. :/