Title: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★★
Fun Fact: In 1953, American adults smoked on average 10 cigarettes a day
Review Summary: Elegantly written, with both scientific precision and human empathy, both historical interest and fascinating stories about people.
This “biography of cancer” starts with the first documented cases of cancer, continues through initial attempts at cures, and finishes with descriptions of the most recent discoveries. Intertwined with the historical narrative are the stories of the author’s patients, giving us just a glimpse of what it’s like to live with cancer. Continue reading
Title: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
Title: The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference 
Title: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet
Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds is a manifesto strongly opposing our current use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As someone pursuing a PhD in bioinformatics and generally comfortable with the idea of genetic engineering, I expected to be entirely unconvinced by the author’s arguments. In fact, I almost didn’t pick this book up at all, because I wasn’t sure I could read it objectively enough. However, I think avoiding reading books by author’s with viewpoints opposed to my own would seriously limit the amount I learn from this project. 
There were two reasons I knew I had to read Silent Spring. First, all of the environmentalist books I’ve been reading in the 630′s quote Silent Spring and a lot of them clearly aspire to be the next Silent Spring. Second and more pragmatically, it was the only book my library had in the 632′s 
This weekend, I finally finished A Spring Without Bees. This was definitely not a book which took a while because I wasn’t into it, but because I was busy. Plus I had to restrain myself from stopping every few sentences to write down interesting facts about bees! Did you know, bees travel approximately 7 million miles per gallon of honey they produce? 
