Tag: Humanities Highlights

[Note: this book is temporarily unavailable due to damages; it will soon be available again, pending the replacement copy]

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. 

About the Book: In short, fascinating chapters – many of them originally published as articles – Sacks records the case studies of his neurological patients. Told with erudite whimsy, these case studies incorporate Sack’s knowledge of philosophy, from Nietzsche to Goethe to Wittgenstein, and his humane spirit. Many chapters expand the original article with a postscript that further defines the neurological condition (like Korsakoff’s Syndrome) and connects Sack’s research with similar cases and increased insights. 

Reasons to Read: Oliver Sacks is the kind of author I’d recommend to almost anyone. These cases are like Poe, Lovecraft, Kafka, and Philip K. Dick, except more astonishing because of their reality. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat could be enjoyed both by readers that want to ponder the philosophical implications of these cases and those who simply want to read something interesting. 

Reasons to Avoid: Primarily, if you had to decide between An Anthropologist on Mars (also highlighted in the Rotation) and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, I recommend the former. With only seven case studies in Anthropologist, Sack has much more space to develop the patient’s story and the background of their condition. But, both books are great. 

Further Reading: 

• An Anthropologist on Mars [available at Himmelfarb]
• The Man with a Shattered World [available through the consortium]
• The Mind of a Mnemonist [available through the consortium]

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World,” by Steven Johnson. 

About the Book: A story of epidemiology in its infancy, Steven Johnson analyzes the cholera outbreak in 1854 and the key investigators unraveling the mystery of transmission. Balancing urban planning, biology, and politics, The Ghost Map explores the rise of ultra-dense urban communities and the trial-and-error discovery of basic civic needs, like waste management. It’s a book about ideas: both why we cling to bad ones and the consequences of doing so. 

Reasons to Read: If you enjoy medical detective stories, Johnson provides an excellent one, assembling information into an efficient and intelligible chain of cause and effect while commenting insightfully on the history of disease. The book has no shortage of Victorian horrors, as well, if you want to further your gratitude for 21st century life. 

Reasons to Avoid: well, it is fundamentally a book about poop (and ingesting it); "what cholera wants is an environment where people are eating other people's excrement” (Johnson, 2006, pg. 40). Scatological tolerances aside, it’s a book as much about urban planning and the competition of ideas as it is a straightforward disease narrative, compared to something like Pale Rider. 

Further Reading: 

• The Power of Plagues [available in Himmelfarb’s Humanities collection]
• Pale rider : the Spanish Flu of 1918 and how it changed the world [available in Himmelfarb’s Humanities collection]
• Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: a Life of John Snow [Available Online through Himmelfarb]
• Underworld [available through the Consortium Loan Service] - Delillo’s novel of nuclear waste management spanning the 20th century

References

Johnson, S. (2006). The Ghost Map. Penguin.

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers,” by Mary Roach. 

About the Book: The book that launched Mary Roach's science-writing career, "Stiff" investigates the contribution of human cadavers to science [with studies ranging from humane to grisly to wacky; from crash safety to the physics of crucifixion], as well as human burial practices [including alternatives to burial or cremation]. Written with humor and respect – and without sacrificing the ethical questions – Roach follows her journalistic interest while guiding readers along the various labs, morgues, and fields of rotting corpses in the industry.

Reasons to Read: If you like books that make you say "dang" a lot (or your preferred utterance), if you want to take a steady (but never overly macabre) look at death (and maybe get a party fact about Victorian medicine along the way), or if you want to understand the reality of cadaver testing for you or your loved one.

Reasons to Avoid: If you like your books to be focused [Roach encompasses the history of anatomy, organ donation, crash and ballistics testing, embalming techniques, funeral practices, and more.], or if you'd rather dial down the wisecracks in books about death.

Further Reading: 

• The Knife Man [available at Himmelfarb]
• The Butchering Art : Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine [available at Himmelfarb]
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
• Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex [available through the Consortium Loan Service]

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “An Anthropologist on Mars,” by Oliver Sacks. 

About the Book: "An Anthropologist on Mars" explores seven fascinating cases of mental conditions, depicting outliers who not only had a rare experience but the talent or background to make sense of it. Drawing from his direct contact with these patients, Sacks enriches the facts of these accounts with history and a strong narrative sense. These limit cases help us not only understand others with these conditions but human cognition itself.

Reasons to Read: If you like listicles but want something more robust and literary; "Anthropologist" is a set of seven attention-grabbing, memorable cases; except, unlike the average listicle (which features recycled content and minimal research), the stories in "Anthropologist" come from first-hand accounts and benefit from Sacks bountiful knowledge and narrative capabilities. Recommended if you enjoy thinking about creativity and the relationship between limitations and strengths.

Reasons to Avoid: While eloquent and readable, the book is aimed at general readers (and therefore contains broad overviews of neurological conditions that might be redundant to researchers); moreover, Sacks interacts with patients in a "gonzo journalism" kind of way, embedding himself in their lives outside of a clinical setting. This gonzo psychiatry makes excellent reading but may be of less clinical use.

Further Reading: 

• Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain [available at the Himmelfarb Library]
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
• A Collection of Moments: A Study of Involuntary Memories [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
• Scattered Shadows: a Memoir of Blindness and Vision [available online through E-Book Central Complete]

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Everyman,” by Philip Roth. 

About the Book: Winner of the Pen/Faulkner award in 2007, Philip Roth’s slim novel portrays a man’s life in miniature that begins with the main character’s funeral. Eschewing conventional narrative structure, Roth weaves in and out of memories, forming a tapestry of regret and loss as the main character pursues a long-forestalled art career amidst health failure. Everyman is a novel that collapses personal history with medical history, investigating the way disease and aging shape us. 

Reasons to Read: if you’re looking for scathing insights into complex emotions around aging and the disappointments of aging, brisk novels that offer an easy entry point into an acclaimed author’s oeuvre, or novels built around poetic (and surprisingly, often funny) moments rather than plot. 

Reasons to Avoid: if you don’t like novels that lack chapter breaks, stories about serial philanderers who can’t stop philandering (even in the retirement home), or if you prefer developed characters rather than generalizations. 

Further Reading: 

• American Pastoral [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
• Goodbye, Columbus [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
• Portnoy’s Complaint [available through the Consortium Loan Service]

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Healthcare,” by T.R. Reid.

About the Book: A unique and grounded book on comparative policy: author T.R. Reid takes his ailing shoulder to healthcare systems around the world, creating a highly personal/practical look at different healthcare options [a healthcare Big Mac Index of sorts], all while informing the reader about the systems themselves. Morally-minded but never overwrought, “The Healing of America” lays out practical steps for improving America’s healthcare system that appeal both to a love of efficiency and a concern for human flourishing. 

Reasons to Read: If you want to educate yourself about policy but would rather read about anything else, “The Healing of America” is exceptionally readable and filled with concrete examples. If you’re looking for a hopeful take on the subject, Reid provides simple and tested adjustments to improve healthcare and delivers them with the pluckiness of someone who believes victory is possible. 

Reasons to Avoid: If you want to avoid jealousy over almost anyone’s healthcare system but our own. If you’re less interested in Otto Von Bismarck and just want to read about policy, you might begrudge the frequent history lessons. And if you would rather have the most succinct reading, the book (like many of its kind) becomes repetitive at points.

Further Reading: 

• An American Sickness: how Healthcare Became Big Business, and How You Can Take it Back
• America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Patient: the True Story of a Rare Illness,” by DJ and alt-rock musician Ben Watt, one half of the duo Everything But The Girl.

About the Book: A memoir of Ben Watt's hospital days after being diagnosed with the rare auto-immune disease Churg-Strauss syndrome – just before his world tour. Told in sparse, poetic prose with candor and a lack of self-pity, this novella-length work expertly captures the gulf between the healthy and unwell.

Reasons to Read: If you like stories of novel medical situations, if you savor great observational details (of his experience and ICU neighbors: a gallery that wouldn't be out of place in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) or understated tales of romantic devotion, or if you simply seek insight into the detachment, uncertainty, and unexpected clarity that can come from illness.

Bonus reason: if you're nostalgic for the 90s (and casual mentions of floppy disks).

Reasons to Avoid: If you hope for information about Ben's music – or how his illness inspired or impacted Everything But The Girl's breakthrough albums – you'll find almost no information about it. Similarly, if you want a medical-mystery à la House, be warned the mystery is backseated to the patient-experience, which could prove disappointing.

Further Listening/Reading: 

As soundtrack to the memoir, check out Everything But the Girl's most successful albums, which released in the years following his diagnosis:

• Amplified Heart
• Walking Wounded

Or read the memoirs of Watt's bandmate and partner, Tracey Thorn:

• Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star
• Naked at the Albert Hall: the Inside Story of Singing

Perhaps you’ve perused the humanities collection and noticed a small shelf with bound journals. A curiosity - especially since the library no longer retains physical journals. If you picked up one of these volumes, you’d be looking at the Bellevue Literary Review: a highly respected, prize winning literary journal (Duotrope, an online compendium of literary magazines, lists their acceptance rate at 1.51%). More importantly, you’d be looking at one of the premiere literary journals founded in the medical field, specifically in the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, making it rather unusual (most university-related journals are centered in literature or creative writing departments). 

During April’s poetry month, we discussed possible publication venues for the literary among us, including Bellevue. April might be over, but the art of writing is year long. Despite its potentially intimidating stature, as a health sciences student (who writes), you’re exactly situated to submit. 

On Bellevue’s submissions page, they define the kind of writing they’re looking for: 

Bellevue Literary Review seeks high-caliber, unpublished work, broadly and creatively related to our themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. We encourage you to read BLR before you submit.

(Bellevue Literary Review, 2024)

Note that last sentence. Almost every literary magazine will encourage you to read before submitting, but many higher-end magazines do not publish online (or only publish small excerpts). Himmelfarb’s copies of Bellevue provide a nice chance to peruse without having to subscribe, which helps clarify what the publisher actually wants. For example, Bellevue values “character-driven fiction with original voices and strong settings” (Bellevue Literary Review, 2024), but publishers can interpret something like “strong settings” many different ways. Reading, therefore, truly does increase your odds of acceptance. 

That being said, the journal isn’t just for writers. It also provides a nice reading break for the non-writers at Himmelfarb. 

In this digital world, we have endless options to eject us from our current moment or task, but many of these provide more stimulation than reset. Fiction lets us get out of our own heads for a bit, while expanding our imaginative and empathetic capacities, if we let it. And refreshingly, short stories are finish-able within a single sitting, unlike many of the books in the Humanities collection. 

So if you have a moment, check out Bellevue Literary Review or ask the folks at the circulation desk for help finding them!

References:

Bellevue Literary Review. (2024). Submissions. https://blreview.org/submit/.

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions,” by NPR science-journalist Richard Harris. 

About the Book: 

Applying his decades of journalistic experience to the “reproducibility crisis” - a term coined to describe the difficulty in replicating large amounts of published science - Richard Harris interviews many key figures attempting to improve the standards of science. Chapter by chapter, he analyzes factors of the crisis such as human error (reporting only what works, not doing double blind experiments, refusal to comply with fact checkers), sample sizes determined by budget, experiments that use only one cell line, test animal problems, a culture that incentives publication speed over accuracy, debunked facts circulating like ghost ships, and more. 

Part compendium of errors, part call to action, “Rigor Mortis” is an eye-opening account of the last couple decades of scientific rigor. 

Reasons to Read: 

If you’re looking for a balanced, outsider’s take on the subject, Harris does an excellent job presenting arguments and counter-arguments. For example, he discusses both Brian Nosek’s Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, which attempted to replicate 50 published attention-gathering papers, and the criticism of the project from Robert Weinberg, one of the lead scientists of the chosen studies (Harris, 2017, pg. 159). 

Despite the aggressive (and somewhat hyperbolic) title, Harris writes with a sense of concern that never feels disparaging. If you’re looking for a broader look at the issue, the extensive interview range presents a fuller picture than many of the articles out there. 

Reasons to Avoid: 

If you’re already familiar with the issue, “Rigor Mortis” could prove depressing. 

Although science self-corrects, and although Harris presents improvements across the board (and emphasizes how many of them would be cost effective), the road ahead seems long, and the weight of culture change seems daunting. 

Further Reading: 

• The C. Glenn Begley pieces about the Reproducibility crisis mentioned in chapter one: “Raise standards for preclinical cancer research” and his followup, “Six Red Flags for Suspect Work.” 
• Nigel Hawkes’ BMJ article: “Most Laboratory Cancer Studies Cannot Be Replicated, Study Shows.” 
• John P. A. Loannidis’ Plos Medicine article: “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False”

References: 
Harris, Richard. (2017). Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions. Basic Books.

With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion. 

About the Book: “The Year of Magical Thinking” is a memoir of the grief experienced by Joan Didion, novelist and journalist, after the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Written the year after his death, Didion turns her journalistic eye to her own raw thought processes, resulting in a masterful study of grief and a testament to a successful marriage. 

Reasons to Read: Since Didion wrote “The Year of Magical Thinking  so close to her husband’s death, the work maintains an immediacy; reading it almost captures the evolution of her thoughts as they developed. Raw but measured, it provides a sharp picture of grief that could very well help those who are grieving. 

Reasons to Avoid: If you’re triggered by flaunting of luxury, be prepared for copious references to exotic travel, hotel living, ruby crystal glasses, and phrases like [speaking of the late 60s], “a mood where no one thought twice about flying 700 miles for dinner" (Didion, 2005, p. 49). 

Further Reading: 

• Play It as It Lays - Didion’s classic 1970 novel, which depicts 1960s Hollywood and an emerging nihilism (available at Himmelfarb through Ebook Central Complete). 
• Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Didion’s 1968 collection of non-fiction, often regarded as the best example of her new-journalism  (available through consortium loan).

References:

Didion, J. (2005). The Year of Magical Thinking. Vintage International.