A veritable dictionary of cancer that provides background on medical terms and resources for patients and their loved ones.
Laughlin, a doctor, presents a revised edition of his 2001 alphabetized catalog covering oncology topics from a patient’s perspective. The book has entries on diagnoses, medications, treatment types and side effects, ranging from ablative therapy (cancer treatment that uses extreme cold or heat instead of radiation) to Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (a disorder involving excessive gastric acid production that leads to painful ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding, and a possible symptom of stomach cancer). Each entry offers an overview and provides context in terms of cancer pathology and treatment. Some entries debunk myths with passing references to medical studies, such as the entry for “fruit intake,” which indicates that a study of 9,000 cancer patients showed that a diet heavy in fruits and vegetables offers “little to no protection from cancer” in adults. Laughlin also includes terms that highlight cancer’s ripple effects: Sufferers of bone cancer and other metastatic cancers are likely to suffer from bones that “fracture.” Longer entries cover oncology basics, such as “radiation therapy,” “staging” and “tumor marker.” Through these terms, readers unfamiliar with epidemiology will be able to piece together a disease’s origins and behaviors and get a glimpse into the treatment process. Although the guide often eschews medical jargon, the informal, passive voice and occasional oncology vocabulary (such as the use of the term “osteogenic sarcoma” rather than “bone cancer”) can sometimes make the guide feel clinical rather than consolatory. The middle section breaks down oncology terms into specific cancer types, with sections describing risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and staging in detail, and the final section groups support services by category, with contact information listed alphabetically. The listing of agencies helpfully points to organizations and hospitals that specialize in certain cancers or provide particular services, such as Camp Keser, a free sleep-away camp in California for kids whose parents have cancer.
An often useful primer for readers dealing with a recent cancer diagnosis.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484908228
Page Count: 564
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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