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Title: The Language of Cells: A Doctor and His Patients by Spencer Nadler ISBN: 0-375-70869-3 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 08 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.64 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Life and Death Matters
Comment: There's more to disease than the cells a surgical pathologist sees under a microscope. These cells can nail a diagnosis, but tell us nothing about the person suffering from a disease. Spencer Nadler in The Language of Cells reveals the complexities of a cell as well as the human patient whose diagnosis can mean life or death. Nadler combines the insight of a scientist with the language of a poet as he weaves the stories of patients he has known. Disease sometimes takes on a benign form as we read of the individual people in this volume, whose illness brings them closer to life as they draw nearer death. Even death, in the chapter, "Dying Matters," can instruct and inspire. Also inspiring is the story of Alzheimer patients who learn ways to enrich their lives despite their increasing loss of memory. And who can help but admire the courage of an African American boy who lives with the searing pain of sickle cell anemia, or the woman with breast cancer who asks to see her cancer cells with her own eyes? As a special bonus are color plates that show the unexpected beauty of the cells Nadler sees every day in the course of his work. I plan to give this book to my friends during the holiday season. I know they will enjoy it as much as I did.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Language of Surprise
Comment: Being a suspense-thriller freak, this is not the kind of book I would read but, given to me as a gift, I dutifully picked it up, thinking I'd read the first story and put it down. Wrong!
The stories are about any one of us or someone we may know, written in a very readable way that any non-medical person can easily understand. It is as intriguing as any thriller. I lent it to a friend, an oncology nurse, who lent it to her boss, who lent it to another doctor and so it's been making the rounds. I don't think I'll ever see it again and have ordered another copy that I won't lend: this is a book you want in your home library to pick up every now and then for it's inspiration and plain beauty.
Spencer Nadler is the kind of doctor we want and need to take care of us...his insight, his feelings, his empathy, knowledge, care and concern for his patients is there from page one. The stories are heart-wrenching and heart-warming, moving and inspiring and even though the book is not yet available here in Israel, I found it worth the expense to order several from abroad to give as gifts here.
Rating: 5
Summary: Praise for an observant, compassionate doctor
Comment: Every once in a while I pick up a book or choose to purchase a book on the basis of a slim review, or because the book itself looked interesting. I tend to buy books in bulk, often more than one at a time. This was one such instance where four books were bought about two months ago. This one was put aside, as I had to finish two classes and do work for the two computer web sites I work for. The other books were read and discarded, appreciated for what they were...then given to the library so others may enjoy them to. This particular book, from which I expected little, will remain in my own personal library to be lent to the few who I know can appreciate both the medicine and the literacy of this particular doctor-author.
Other reviewers have outlined the stories of this book. It is immediate recognized that it is a different book...it's table of content is not a one-page outline of the chapter titles. Rather each chapter is outline by a large photograph of the cell types dealt with in that chapter. The 'name' of the chapter is in small typeface below or adjacent to the electron photograph. This warns the reader that whatever they had expected from this book, is liable to be different from what they get. Thankfully, this is so...
Nadler is a pathologist, a man who devotes his life to diagnosing the secrets of the individual units of our bodies. Pathologists are decoders basically. They read and tell other surgeons and doctors what they have biopsied or what they have seen. Pathologists rarely have intimate contact with the people whose cells they have examined. I worked in two neuropathology labs for almost six years. It is fascinating work, but other than your fellow lab workers, there is no human contact.
Somehow, from reading Dr. Nadler's book, I will guarantee that this physician has made it a point throughout his life and career to purposely remain involve with individuals. Unlike some doctors who I know have much more contact with patients, this doctor refuses to consider the cells alone, without considering the person. Perhaps because he is not involved in the conveyor belt of modern medicine, he has not lost that compassion or steeled himself against 'feeling' too much. For that alone, he deserves accolades.
His language, his metaphors, the observations he makes are far beyond the abilities of most doctors, indeed beyond the abilities of most people period. Like Oliver Sacks, he brings attention to a disease through the person who is affected by that disease. In doing so, readers become aware of the courage these individuals choose to face their illness with. So many times in labs and hospitals, we forget that what we see under the microscope was once deeply embedded in an individual. Nadler reminds us exquisitely of that, and in his writing, he brings an understanding of not just the disease, but of those who must deal with these particular disease. The story told, the picture drawn...may start with the cell that he originally focused on, but Nadler quickly changes the focus to the person.
An outstanding book by an outstanding person...
Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh
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Title: Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution by Randal Keynes ISBN: B00013AX5I Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Energy of Life: The Science of What Makes Our Minds and Bodies Work by Guy C. Brown ISBN: B0000VYDSY Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: April, 1900 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Take the Bully by the Horns: Stop Unethical, Uncooperative, or Unpleasant People from Running and Ruining Your Life by Sam Horn ISBN: 0312278209 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 12 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Sotheby'S--Bidding for Class: Bidding for Class by Robert Lacey ISBN: B0000VZEB4 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $27.45 |
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Title: Fragments of Infinity: A Kaleidoscope of Math and Art by Ivars Peterson ISBN: B00013AX1C Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 14 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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