Somebody's gotta keep up with the pop (if not quite junk) fiction in this erudite collection of Important Stuff. Dragon Tattoo is the first of a trilogy that Larsson delivered to his publisher then had the bad manners to die before the first was in print. The series has taken Europe by sturm and the third installment is eagerly awaited by any here in the US this summer who ever opened the cover and got hooked. (The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second.) The characters are well oiled and chiseled, a smart, young journalist and his randybabe publisher, a wierdo don't-mess-with-me girl superhacker, some nasty industrialists...a well-rounded cast. The twists and conundrums are just what you need for a long (VERY long) plane ride or a few days on a palm-covered beach in an exotic corner of the world (when you disabuse yourself of seeking all the cultural treasures that corner has to offer...and just order-up another caipirinha). I could tell you all about the story, but that would kill the fun. Read about it on Amazon, if you must, it's in the 1-thou sales rank.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
3 Hot Titles and R.I.P.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, Vintage, ISBN 978-0307454546, 608 pages.
A Question of Intent by David Kessler
This name will be very familiar to Rog, as I've been telling him to read this for years. I actually reread it this month, so I can discuss with a lawyer friend, the topic of FDA jurisdiction and preemption for medical devices vs. drugs/biologics. [What do you discuss on vacation????]
David Kessler is former FDA commissioner under George HW Bush and Bill Clinton. He is known for many things, the most notable of which was his fight to have nicotine fall under FDA jursidiction, as a drug delivery device. The question he said, hinges on the intent of the tobacco companies: is the intent to deliver an addictive substance. Kessler feels (and proves) the answer is an unequivocal "Yes". He also felt the conversation and laws should turn, so that smoking is recognized as a pediatric disease. If you do not start smoking by the time you are 18, odds are extremely high that you will not ever start. Kids, never intending to become addicted, take a single cigarette and try it, and before they have time to think about the consequences, are hooked for life. Kessler wants to regulate cigarette availability to minors. He ultimately took his battle to the Supreme Court, and lost in a 5-4 opinion during the Rehnquist court. I believe the case is FDA v. Brown & Williamson.
The book is fascinating, thought-provoking and certainly controversial. It will make you angry beyond belief.
And it's a "must read". I've read it a half dozen times, and have given it as a gift a few times. For years it was my "best book ever" until finally Shilts' book superceded it (clears throat to Roger).
Next time-- a light offerring. Really!!!
Lisa
David Kessler is former FDA commissioner under George HW Bush and Bill Clinton. He is known for many things, the most notable of which was his fight to have nicotine fall under FDA jursidiction, as a drug delivery device. The question he said, hinges on the intent of the tobacco companies: is the intent to deliver an addictive substance. Kessler feels (and proves) the answer is an unequivocal "Yes". He also felt the conversation and laws should turn, so that smoking is recognized as a pediatric disease. If you do not start smoking by the time you are 18, odds are extremely high that you will not ever start. Kids, never intending to become addicted, take a single cigarette and try it, and before they have time to think about the consequences, are hooked for life. Kessler wants to regulate cigarette availability to minors. He ultimately took his battle to the Supreme Court, and lost in a 5-4 opinion during the Rehnquist court. I believe the case is FDA v. Brown & Williamson.
The book is fascinating, thought-provoking and certainly controversial. It will make you angry beyond belief.
And it's a "must read". I've read it a half dozen times, and have given it as a gift a few times. For years it was my "best book ever" until finally Shilts' book superceded it (clears throat to Roger).
Next time-- a light offerring. Really!!!
Lisa
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Sacred Hunger (how's THAT for a title?)
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth, W.W. Norton & Co, 1992, ISBN 0393311147.
Thomas Flanagan wrote in The New York Times, "...a book of grace and meditative elegance, and of great moral seriousness." Damn. Wish I'D written that. Or that someone would write that about MY books. (Though it may not be quite so appropriate for "How the Russian Snow Maiden Helped Santa Claus"). This is Georgian English angst, power-hungryness, domination, greed, ignorance and introspection at their classic best. The look into the "triangular" slave trade of the period is infuriating and depressing in equal measures, though fascinating through the eyes of a contemporary. It's believably accurate historically. This is a yarn, alright, and a good read, with well-developed characters and the smell of old and unpleasant worlds you can't imagine, but can picture just a little better through Mr. Unsworth's work. No wonder this guy won a Booker Prize.
Best Book I've Ever Read
Rog should have anticipated that I would make a post about Randy Shilts' treatise on AIDS, And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic in this blog. I've been telling him for years he must read it. It's simply one of, if not the, best book I have ever read. Add to that his career in public health, and it is a must read.
Below is a review by a friend of mine who I gave it to. She also declared it would have a permanent spot on her "best of" lists.
It is not always an easy read, especially when you know what is coming. This book is credited with forcing the acknowledgment of AIDS.
Sadly, Shilts' life was cut short by the disease. He refused to be tested while writing the book, thinking it may bias him. The last chapters he wrote from the hospital. It is a loss I feel, not knowing where else his life may take him. Shilts was also the author of Mayor Castro Street about Harvey Milk, and Conduct Unbecoming, about gays in the military.
If you do read this (or have read it) please post and let me know what you think.
Lisa
--------
This book shot to the top of my nonfiction reads for 2005, an amazing feat because I also read Lindbergh this year and expected it to hold the top position.
And the Band Played On is an act of phenomenal research and writing, and a very frightening book on many levels because of the political wrangling, political bumbling, and political disregard for a medical crisis which cost the lives of so many, the scientific in-fighting which slowed medical break throughs and sacrificed lives, and the insanity of national agencies which were supposed to be saving lives, but which in this case knowingly risked the lives of many either because they didn’t want to do the work, didn’t want to spend the money, or didn’t want to anger certain political groups. Gay men were deemed to be utterly dispensable by so many.
It’s the sign of a good book when it brings out strong emotions. This book provoked in me anger, rage, confusion, compassion, sadness, and tears. I wish I could thank all those, like Don Francis, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Dr. Selma Dritz, Marc Conant, Dr. Dale Lawrence, Paul Volberding, and Dr. Arye Rubenstein, who tried so hard, against such overwhelming odds, to save lives quickly. I would also chastise President Ronald Reagan and Merve Silverman and give Margaret Heckler and Bob Gallo a piece of my mind — the skunks!
I am thankful that there are politicians like Orrin Hatch and people behind the scenes like Bill Kraus and Cleve Jones. Though he was woefully slow in responding I’m grateful for the response of C. Everett Koop and that once he made his stand he never wavered and took it to the media wherever he could.
Randy Shilts did an excellent job of showing the culture in the United States and France and the politics in the medical and scientific communities and the political posture and arena during the 1980s. He also humanized the crisis by following many of the patients from onset of medical problems to death (Enno Poersch, Gary Walsh, Frances Borchelt, Bill Kraus, and Gaetan Dugas) and by following the doctors and scientists in their fight to discover the properties of this terrible disease and conquer it. It was enlightening and helpful to have the book structured as a time line.
The amount and variety of research done for this book is astounding, requiring Shilts to conduct hundreds of interviews and read millions of pages of articles and medical material.
It is a great tragedy that AIDS killed Randy Shilts as it had killed so many other innocents, and that as I write this there is still no cure for AIDS. As far as I can tell, it is again being largely ignored by governments and the medical community. Where will the next Bill Kraus, Dr. Gottlieb, and the other saviors come from and will they come soon enough?
I cannot thank PokPok enough for lending me this book. My education has been enhanced and my life is more full and forever changed as a result of reading it. I'll return it to her on the 15th at our meetup.
Below is a review by a friend of mine who I gave it to. She also declared it would have a permanent spot on her "best of" lists.
It is not always an easy read, especially when you know what is coming. This book is credited with forcing the acknowledgment of AIDS.
Sadly, Shilts' life was cut short by the disease. He refused to be tested while writing the book, thinking it may bias him. The last chapters he wrote from the hospital. It is a loss I feel, not knowing where else his life may take him. Shilts was also the author of Mayor Castro Street about Harvey Milk, and Conduct Unbecoming, about gays in the military.
If you do read this (or have read it) please post and let me know what you think.
Lisa
--------
This book shot to the top of my nonfiction reads for 2005, an amazing feat because I also read Lindbergh this year and expected it to hold the top position.
And the Band Played On is an act of phenomenal research and writing, and a very frightening book on many levels because of the political wrangling, political bumbling, and political disregard for a medical crisis which cost the lives of so many, the scientific in-fighting which slowed medical break throughs and sacrificed lives, and the insanity of national agencies which were supposed to be saving lives, but which in this case knowingly risked the lives of many either because they didn’t want to do the work, didn’t want to spend the money, or didn’t want to anger certain political groups. Gay men were deemed to be utterly dispensable by so many.
It’s the sign of a good book when it brings out strong emotions. This book provoked in me anger, rage, confusion, compassion, sadness, and tears. I wish I could thank all those, like Don Francis, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Dr. Selma Dritz, Marc Conant, Dr. Dale Lawrence, Paul Volberding, and Dr. Arye Rubenstein, who tried so hard, against such overwhelming odds, to save lives quickly. I would also chastise President Ronald Reagan and Merve Silverman and give Margaret Heckler and Bob Gallo a piece of my mind — the skunks!
I am thankful that there are politicians like Orrin Hatch and people behind the scenes like Bill Kraus and Cleve Jones. Though he was woefully slow in responding I’m grateful for the response of C. Everett Koop and that once he made his stand he never wavered and took it to the media wherever he could.
Randy Shilts did an excellent job of showing the culture in the United States and France and the politics in the medical and scientific communities and the political posture and arena during the 1980s. He also humanized the crisis by following many of the patients from onset of medical problems to death (Enno Poersch, Gary Walsh, Frances Borchelt, Bill Kraus, and Gaetan Dugas) and by following the doctors and scientists in their fight to discover the properties of this terrible disease and conquer it. It was enlightening and helpful to have the book structured as a time line.
The amount and variety of research done for this book is astounding, requiring Shilts to conduct hundreds of interviews and read millions of pages of articles and medical material.
It is a great tragedy that AIDS killed Randy Shilts as it had killed so many other innocents, and that as I write this there is still no cure for AIDS. As far as I can tell, it is again being largely ignored by governments and the medical community. Where will the next Bill Kraus, Dr. Gottlieb, and the other saviors come from and will they come soon enough?
I cannot thank PokPok enough for lending me this book. My education has been enhanced and my life is more full and forever changed as a result of reading it. I'll return it to her on the 15th at our meetup.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Proust Was A Neuroscientist
By Jonah Lehrer. Fascinating examples of how artists developed important concepts that scientists later confirmed. Whitman, Geo. Eliot, Escoffier, Proust, Cezanne, Stavinsky, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf. My fav so far: the culinary genius Escoffier developed cooking methods and theories that foreshadowed the discovery of umani, the fifth taste described as "tastiness". A Japanese scientist trying to figure out why his wife's soups were so delicious discovered the role of glutamate (and also developed MSG, the flavorless enhancer of flavors). Other scientists finally found glutamate receptors on the tongue. Other examples are just as interesting. Lehrer knows his science but also does a wonderful job of describing the art of the 8 artists. Just 197 pages. Highly recommended.
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