MixedNew York Times Book ReviewChapter by chapter, the book stresses that our lungs are important while neglecting the specifics of why and how they function ... Further undermining the message, Stephen makes some factual slips when he wanders wider afield from medicine ... While not critical to the book’s central point, such errors highlight what can happen when experts wander too far from a fact checker’s gaze ... But there are bright spots. Stephen peppers the chapters with medical anecdotes of various patients whose pathologies underscore how a healthy respiratory system should behave. Breath Taking is not quite advocacy, not quite pop science exploration, but something of an anthology of tidbits on the theme of lungs, never wholly functioning in the harmonious way that our respiratory system does.
