PositiveThe Washington Post... the author’s anger is detectable on almost every page ... I was already familiar with many of the ways medicine has neglected women’s illnesses or failed to investigate their causes, but Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World makes connections between the role of physicians and society’s interest in controlling women’s bodies that I had never fully appreciated ... Cleghorn provides bracing accounts of the rise of feminism and of the women’s health movement, including the ethical and medical controversies surrounding the development of the first oral contraceptives, in the 1950s: relatively high-dose hormone combinations ... The scope and detail of Unwell Women are vast and, at times, overwhelming. Its most striking lesson is that, when it comes to women’s diseases and their treatment, false beliefs and sexist attitudes have a life of their own.
Jonathan M. Berman
PositiveThe Washington Post... devotes attention to prominent anti-vaccine activists and their claims — as well as their proposed modifications to the schedule of childhood shots and their promotion of an array of unproven alternative remedies for boosting the immune system. These chapters are packed with more scientific detail than some readers may want, although they make the book a useful reference. More enlightening and practical, at least for everyday life, is Berman’s advice on how to talk with people who are uncertain about vaccinating their children.
Beth Macy
PositiveThe Washington PostThis exhaustively reported book includes many heartbreaking examples of young lives lost to drugs, sometimes so suddenly that parents had been unaware of the problem, sometimes after repeated efforts to help a child get clean in rehabilitation facilities or treatment programs. Although Macy’s stories are set in Virginia, they could happen anywhere in the United States. Most compelling are the characters she was able to follow over time ... Tess’s struggles to stay off drugs and become a fit mother provide a moving counterpoint to Macy’s discussion of the controversies that roil our national debate over addiction treatment.
Mark Johnson & Kathleen Gallagher
PositiveThe Washington Post...a riveting scientific detective story, enriched by thorough research and the kind of intimate access to key players that good journalists develop during years of dogged beat reporting ... Without overwhelming the reader, Johnson and Gallagher provide clear, understandable explanations of the science involved ... Unfortunately, the book’s other major characters — the Volker family — aren’t captured as vividly as the doctors and researchers treating Nic.
