{"id":1934,"date":"2015-07-26T11:20:42","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T16:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2015-07-26T11:26:15","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T16:26:15","slug":"review-the-emperor-of-all-maladies-a-biography-of-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2015\/07\/26\/review-the-emperor-of-all-maladies-a-biography-of-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/7170627\" style=\"float: left; padding-right: 20px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/d.gr-assets.com\/books\/1280771091m\/7170627.jpg?w=840\" border=\"0\" alt=\"The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/7170627\">The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer<\/a> by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/3032451\">Siddhartha Mukherjee<\/a><br \/>\n      My rating: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/show\/569062048\">5 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n<p>      A truly beautiful book about what is certainly a terrible and often terrifying collection of illnesses. Our family, like almost all families, has wrestled with cancer and wrestled with the scary and frequently devastating treatments that hope to kill the cancer before they kill the patient. This book provides a rich and illuminating context for those struggles, giving a palpable sense of the diseases and how our understanding and approaches have changed and how they&#8217;ve stayed the same. Mukherjee&#8217;s story telling is deft and compelling, sharing a complex and often very technical history in a way that remains personal, compelling, and accessible. It at times borders on the poetic, but without ever becoming sentimental or maudlin.<\/p>\n<p>While this is technically about cancer, the book provides valuable insight into the complexities of medical research, whether scientific, mathematical, political, or social. We&#8217;ve made huge strides in so many areas of medicine in the last two centuries, but we rarely appreciate the oft tortured, surprising, and complex channels wended along the way. Yet to understand cancer and cancer treatment, and important challenges such as antibiotic resistance, and drug R&amp;D, funding, testing and approval, it&#8217;s critical that we have this sort of context.<\/p>\n<p>So most highly recommend; absolutely one of the best books I&#8217;ve read.<\/p>\n<p>      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/show\/569062048\">View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t<div class=\"st-post-tags \">\n\tTags: <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/book-reviews\/\" title=\"book reviews\">book reviews<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/cancer\/\" title=\"cancer\">cancer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/health\/\" title=\"health\">health<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/medicine\/\" title=\"medicine\">medicine<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/science\/\" title=\"Science\">Science<\/a><br \/><\/div>\n\n\n\t<h4>Related posts<\/h4>\n\t<ul class=\"st-related-posts\">\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/08\/10\/youd-almost-think-women-were-important\/\" title=\"You&#8217;d almost think women were important (10 Aug 08)\">You&#8217;d almost think women were important<\/a> (1)<\/li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/22\/victory\/\" title=\"Victory!!! (22 Feb 07)\">Victory!!!<\/a> (4)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee My rating: 5 of 5 stars A truly beautiful book about what is certainly a terrible and often terrifying collection of illnesses. Our family, like almost all families, has wrestled with cancer and wrestled with the scary and frequently devastating treatments that hope &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2015\/07\/26\/review-the-emperor-of-all-maladies-a-biography-of-cancer\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[8,1,15],"tags":[856,162,163,855,866],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-vc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":389,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/10\/31\/my-father-has-become-a-foot-soldier-in-the-war-on-cancer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1934,"position":0},"title":"My father has become a foot soldier in the war on cancer","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"31 Oct 06","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hard to know how to say this. \"My father is fighting cancer.\" Nope. Sounds too much like a back alley brawl, and this is a much bigger deal than that. \"My father is battling cancer.\" Closer. Given the great chunks of medical machinery being brought to bear on his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":746,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/12\/13\/our-thoughts-are-with-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":1934,"position":1},"title":"Our thoughts are with you","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"13 Dec 07","format":false,"excerpt":"The mother of a good friend was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (Wikipedia, National Cancer Institute). They don't know much about her situation yet (she's down at the Mayo Clinic undergoing tests), but pancreatic cancer generally has a very poor prognosis, so this is likely to be a tough time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":532,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/04\/08\/mutant-variety-show-accounting\/","url_meta":{"origin":1934,"position":2},"title":"Mutant Variety Show accounting","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"8 Apr 07","format":false,"excerpt":"For the bored among you, I've posted the accounting or the Mutant Variety Show as a Google Doc. I'm writing the checks to the two organizations as we speak, and we've raised (to date) a total of $748, or $374 for each organization (the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":484,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/22\/victory\/","url_meta":{"origin":1934,"position":3},"title":"Victory!!!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"22 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Victory!!!, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. Or at least damn good news! My dad IM'ed me in the office this morning to say that he'd just gotten back from his first major doctor's visit since radiation treatment ended last month, and he got a clean bill of health. They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":410,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/12\/12\/hitting-yourself-in-the-face-with-a-hammer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1934,"position":4},"title":"Hitting yourself in the face with a hammer","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"12 Dec 06","format":false,"excerpt":"Impact Originally uploaded by darkmatter. Those wild and crazy people at WalkingTimeBomb.com have a whole host of ads aimed at college students who blithely assume (despite all the evidence to the contrary) that they'll quit smoking after they graduate. Some of them are pretty strange and don't make a lot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Family&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":507,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/03\/08\/mutant-variety-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":1934,"position":5},"title":"Mutant Variety Show!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"8 Mar 07","format":false,"excerpt":"It may be 460 miles from Morris to Wall Drug, but it's only 28 days from here to The Mutant Variety Show! Yup - Thursday, 5 April 2007 at 7pm, in the HFA Recital Hall right here on the UMM campus. This will be a crazy evening featuring all manner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/81\/212107701_c9caf53219_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1935,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/1935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}