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DANGEROUS DOSES

Name: DANGEROUS DOSES
Author: Katherine Eban
ISBN: 0-15-101050-1

HOW COUNTERFEITERS ARE CONTAMINATING AMERICA’S DRUG SUPPLY

by Katherine Eban ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2005

Vivid writing and impressive documentation in a powerful indictment of a system in need of immediate repair.

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An investigative journalist digs into the chilling story of how degraded, expired, contaminated and diluted medicines are being sold to American pharmacies and hospitals.

Eban, a Rhodes scholar whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Observer, The Nation and other publications, spent two and a half years interviewing numerous government investigators and regulators, pharmaceutical wholesalers, doctors and patients, and reviewing surveillance videos, investigative reports, court records and other documents. The result is a story rich in distinctive characters whose actions range from courageous to outrageous. Fortunately, the author has provided an annotated list of the major players in her enormous cast. The story begins with a 2002 break-in at a pharmaceutical warehouse in Florida and follows investigators as they pursue those trafficking in counterfeit drugs. What Eban found was that large volumes of drugs made by U.S. pharmaceutical companies don’t flow directly from manufacturer to hospital or pharmacy but are sold and resold in a gray market without a paper trail or with phony papers that obscure their origin. To become a pharmaceutical wholesaler in Florida requires only a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a security alarm, $200 for a security bond and $700 for a license. Aided by lax regulations, holders of these licenses, many of them criminal kingpins and street thugs, make fortunes trading in adulterated and counterfeit drugs. Eban shows the tragic results through her stories of patients whose lives have been affected by bogus medicines they believed were legitimate. Even more disturbing is what she reveals about the weakness of federal oversight in the distribution of pharmaceuticals. Her concluding two-page summary of the steps consumers can take to protect themselves from counterfeit drugs is little comfort.

Vivid writing and impressive documentation in a powerful indictment of a system in need of immediate repair.

Pub Date: May 9, 2005

ISBN: 0-15-101050-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.