This
book saves lives -- and that is not hyperbole! It opened my eyes to the dangers
of the poorly regulated generic drug industry.
I was horrified to learn I had
been taking a prescription drug for several years that was manufactured by a
disreputable company in India that, like a number of other foreign
manufacturers, skimps on or adulterates active ingredients. While I didn't die
as a result, some people prescribed medication for heart ailments and cancer did.
The
book reads like a thriller. Eban spent years investigating the generic
pharmaceutical industry, accompanying a whistle-blower through his nearly
decade-long saga of losing his job, being blackballed, and impoverished.
The
book was recommended to me by a doctor who has been studying generics and advocating
for tighter regulation. Every doctor, nurse, and pharmacist should read it, as
well as the patients.
Kirkus Reviews Best Health and Science Books of 2019
Science Friday Best Books of 2019
New postscript by the author
From an award-winning journalist, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals fraud and life-threatening dangers on a global scale—The Jungle for pharmaceuticals
Many have hailed the widespread use of generic drugs as one of the most important public-health developments of the twenty-first century. Today, almost 90 percent of our pharmaceutical market is comprised of generics,…
Books
that astound me teach something important I didn't know. After 15 years of
schooling, I still have much to learn, which keeps me reading.
In Negro
President, I learned that Jefferson achieved the presidency because of the
then-clause in the US Constitution that gave slave owners additional votes
equal to three-fifths of a person, based on the number they owned. The slaves
didn't have a say in it. While Wills admires Jefferson and has written much
about him, he reveals how Jefferson helped maintain slavery in the South.
This
proves two maxims: 1) we're none of us all good or all bad, and 2) the US was
indeed created in slavery. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to
understand racism in the US, then and now.
Offers a new look at Thomas Jefferson and his presidency, his election due to the "slave power" vote, the relationship between the power of the slave states and his administration's policies, and the opposition he faced.
I
thought I knew all there was for an average, responsible citizen to know about
the John Birch Society until I read Claire Conner's memoir of growing up with
parents in the movement.
It was far more influential then and now than I
understood. The Society has a prominent place in the history of today's radical
right. Conner's personal story helped me understand how an ideology can consume
one's thoughts, actions, and emotions to the exclusion of even one's children.
It also illuminated the Herculean effort it takes to break free. This memoir is
eminently readable. I was shocked, angered, and heartbroken over Conner's
personal journey. As well, I greatly admire what she was able to achieve.
A narrative history of the John Birch Society by a daughter of one of the infamous ultraconservative organization’s founding fathers.
Named a best nonfiction book of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews and the Tampa Bay Times
Long before the rise of the Tea Party movement and the prominence of today’s religious Right, the John Birch Society, first established in 1958, championed many of the same radical causes touted by ultraconservatives today, including campaigns against abortion rights, gay rights, gun control, labor unions, environmental protections, immigrant rights, social and welfare programs, the United Nations, and even water fluoridation.
Twilight of Impunity: the War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic. In my first hand account of the trial, I explain legal aspects in lay language and relate the heart-rending stories of witnesses who lived through the wars in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo/a.
