Archive for January 2013

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks



 
Being my first review, I probably should have picked an easier book. I mean really, who picks a non-fiction book of case studies?  It is incredibly difficult to figure out where to start on a non-fiction book. Not to mention that this is basically a book of case studies. It makes it hard to try and depict what the author was “trying to do” or "analyze the story". All I can do is ramble on about the writing style and my opinion on how the history was presented, so here it goes.

            If I were to have to describe the book in one “sound bite” phrase, it would have to be intriguing and wonderfully difficult. Thank god there was a glossary in the back, and if you are going to tackle this book, you might want a dictionary with you as well. Awakenings by Oliver Sacks is a non-fiction view of the mysterious sleeping sickness epidemic that was present during and after World War I. Oliver Sacks, a doctor at Mount Carmel Hospital, uses a lot of tricky medical terms and very advanced language to describe his patients. Once you get through all of the fancy terms and get used to having to look something up every other sentence it is an incredible story. It is amazing, and sad, to read about all the different patients, and the effects of this new “miracle” drug L-DOPA. The case studies are a rollercoaster ride of emotions to read through. Most are only a few pages long, but are extremely effective in showing the struggles of each individual patient.

            I probably would never have picked this book up without having it recommended to me during my senior year in college. I was researching Parkinson’s disease for my senior thesis and the librarian mentioned this book. The sleeping sickness was discovered to be a form of Parkinson’s disease and this book describes the initial trials with the drug L-DOPA in trying to cure it. The history is amazing, as are the stories of these people. It was a difficult read, and I probably would not recommend it to anyone who doesn’t have an interest in the history of Parkinson’s. I am not sure how to give a rating to books because most books I have only read once, with the exception of the Harry Potter books, and I am not very good at trying to rate things to the general public, sorry.
Friday, January 18, 2013
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Introduction

Hey guys,

So, like alexthedinosaur, I have decided to attempt this blog/reviews thing. I enjoy writing, and would like to get better at it so I am going to try and do some book reviews and maybe throw in a random other something every once in a while. Keeping that in mind it takes me a while to finish a book so bear...bare? with me here I might only post an actual book review once a month or something like that, depending on the book. If you have any book suggestions, or suggestions on my reviews I would love some feedback.

Thanks so much!
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