Friday, January 13, 2012

Non-Fiction Book Club: The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, Thursday, February 2, 2012 @ 6:30PM


I'll have to admit that I did not enjoy reading last month's book selection but the discussion it generated at the book club meeting was well worth the slog. This month's book is challenging in a different way. The story is engaging and fascinating, the subject matter is somewhat disturbing (especially to my inner hypochondriac). The subject, of course, cancer. The most dreaded of all diseases. I'll defer to the cover jacket to give you a better sense of what Dr. Mukherjee has accomplished with his biography of cancer:
The Emperor of all Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane "biography" of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist's precision, a historian's perspective, and a biographer's passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years.
Don't miss this month's discussion—it's going to be grand. Not only that, but we'll be voting for the titles to be discussed in April and May. If you want more information, or a ballot please let me know at sthibodeau@mvlc.org. Happy reading!

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