As a haematologist’s daughter, the terms ‘leukemia’ and ‘remission’ floated fairly frequently through the house. I didn’t quite understand them to begin with except that there were frequent phone calls, stories of children who had come to be examined at the Institute and the haunting tale of a patient who had been told by a psychic that everything would be all right who stopped all treatment despite protests from my father and who finally died, so presumably he was ‘all right’ in the sense that he was free from all physical ills. Later, without being asked, I heard stories about bone marrow transplants and spine taps and how painful it was for children. Leukemia, I gathered was an incurable ill that could only be fought with whatever tools there were at hand while researchers frantically sought to evolve a cure.

cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee

Continue reading

Lorna Brunelle was just 33 when a routine medical exam alerted her to a problem in her neck which subsequent tests showed to be papillary thyroid cancer, the most common format of this relatively rare form of cancer. As a professional voice user (she’s a singer, acting coach and trainer) and a plus-sized model she was terrified that surgery on her neck might damage both her voice and her looks and hence her career. She kept records of her experience throughout her ‘journey’ with cancer and these were used to create her book ‘Dirty Bombshell – from Thyroid Cancer back to Fabulous’ which I have recently read on my Kindle after downloading a copy from Amazon for about £7.

cancer, Lorna J Brunelle

Continue reading

Dan Ariely’s The Upside of Irrationality is a summary of the behavioural patterns that he has been studying over the years. The book is a follow up to his Predictably Irrational, which was a runaway success when it came out, and The Upside of Irrationality shows every sign of following in its footsteps. What it is is a study of the irrational way in which people behave in a manner that goes against their best interests. The book tries to change the “rational consumer” principal into advice on how to lead a better life and it is fairly successful in this endeavour. However, some of what Ariely points out as habitually irrational behavior cannot be changed despite out best efforts to do so, which is why ‘fairly successful;’ best describes Ariely’s work.

Dan Ariely

Continue reading

I’ve worked in the food industry for nearly 15 years. I think I’m quite a thoughtful and philosophical soul. So the idea of a book on Food and Philosophy appealed to me. However, perhaps I’d been expecting something a bit ‘lighter’; a bit more ‘Food for Dummies’ perhaps. I’d not really prepared myself for a highly academic treatment on the subject of food. I tried to read it in bed, I tried to read it in the bath but I never really found the time and place to get the most of this book.

In the introduction to the book the editors – Fritz Allhoff and Dave Monroe – suggest that the reader can treat the book as a menu from which choose the courses that interest them.

Dave Monroe, Fritz Allhoff

Continue reading

The Real Me Is Thin is a biography by actress, comedian and writer, Arabella Weir. Arabella was a regular face on the comedy series ‘The Fast Show’ with Paul Whitehouse, where her catchphrase “Does my bum look big in this?” featured regularly. As well as being a regular on the series ‘Grumpy Old Women’ she has appeared in plays and TV series such as ‘Skins’.

A few years ago I read a previous book of Arabella’s which was named after the aforementioned catchphrase “Does My Bum Look Big In This” and quite enjoyed it, so when I was given a copy of her latest offering, ‘The Real Me Is Thin‘ I was interested in reading it, particularly as this was a biography highlighting her issues with food and eating throughout her life.

Arabella Weir

Continue reading

“I found the lump twenty minutes before breakfast, three weeks after my marriage broke up,” Katherine Russell Rich’s book opens with a slap in the face. And it continues at that pace, slap after slap as the author unfolds her journey through an Inferno that she calls Cancerland. We meet doctors who hover on the brink of malpractice suits and who are unwilling to believe that any woman in her thirties could possibly have breast cancer. And there are co workers who avoid anyone who reminds them that they may one day die. And relatives who cannot mention the ‘c’ word. And friends who are as young as Russell Rich and therefore cannot deal with the reality of cancer.

Katherine Russell Rich

Continue reading

When I ordered this book I was under the impression that it was just a cookery book, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was a substantial introductory section written by a dietician, Catherine Collins, that explains how cholesterol travels round the body, how it builds up and why this is dangerous, how to reduce your risk factors, what a healthy-heart diet is and why a Mediterranean diet is one to be seriously considered. This section is followed by one hundred healthy and delicious recipes from chef Daniel Green.

Cholesterol

Continue reading