by Jason Karlawish ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 2021
An outstanding primer that readers should put into the hands of their doctors.
A professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania delivers a lucid, opinionated history of the science, politics, and care involved in the fight against this century’s most problematic disease.
The first symptom of Alzheimer’s is usually difficulty with memory, often recognized by a spouse, friend, or caregiver. Over years, memory deteriorates, and victims can no longer perform simple tasks such as paying bills or taking medicine. As the disease worsens, they become apathetic or delusional; lose the ability to dress, feed, and clean themselves; become bedridden and depressed; and often die from complications. Caring for an affected spouse or parent is a crushing experience, often bankrupting all but the wealthy because medical insurance and Medicare pay for medicine and doctor visits but not “custodial care,” which is estimated at as many as 170 hours per month. As Karlawish shows, Alzheimer’s usually causes more suffering for the caregiver than the patient. Until the 1970s, most doctors explained that this was “senility,” a consequence of aging beyond the scope of medical science. Eventually, researchers realized they were dealing with an epidemic of brain disease. At the same time, patient advocacy groups formed to lobby Congress, which was amenable to providing funding. Formerly, doctors diagnosed Alzheimer’s by examining the brain after death. Observing and testing living patients was a major advance. In 2012, the FDA approved an ingenious brain scan that illuminates the areas damaged by Alzheimer’s. Sadly, Medicare won’t pay for the $3,000 test, which doesn’t directly help patients because no good treatment exists (several drugs purport to slow its progress, but many experts believe they’re worthless). A medical expert with a page-turning style, Karlawish is mostly successful in conveying optimism. Hopeful drugs are in the research pipeline, but even better news is that physicians, institutions, and advocacy organizations are adopting more imaginative and humane programs to care for victims both before and after their disease becomes crippling.
An outstanding primer that readers should put into the hands of their doctors.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-21873-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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by Judith Butler ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2024
A master class in how gender has been weaponized in support of conservative values and authoritarian regimes.
A deeply informed critique of the malicious initiatives currently using gender as a political tool to arouse fear and strengthen political and religious institutions.
In their latest book, following The Force of Nonviolence, Butler, the noted philosopher and gender studies scholar, documents and debunks the anti-gender ideology of the right, the core principle of which is that male and female are natural categories whose recognition is essential for the survival of the family, nations, and patriarchal order. Its proponents reject “sex” as a malleable category infused with prior political and cultural understandings. By turning gender into a “phantasmatic scene,” they enable those in positions of authority to deflect attention from such world-destroying forces as war, predatory capitalism, and climate change. Butler explores the ideology’s presence in the U.S., the U.K., Uganda, and Hungary, countries where legislation has limited the rights of trans and homosexual people and denied them their sexual identity. The author also delves into the ideology’s roots among Evangelicals and the Catholic Church and such political leaders as Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán. Butler is particularly bothered by trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs), who treat trans women as “male predators in disguise.” For the author, “the gap between the perceived or lived body and prevailing social norms can never be fully closed.” They imagine “a world where the many relations to being socially embodied that exist become more livable” and calls for alliances across differences and “a radical democracy informed by socialist values.” Butler compensates for the thinness of some of their recommendations with an astute dissection of the ideology’s core ideas and impressive grasp of its intellectual pretensions. This is a wonderfully thoughtful and impassioned book on a critically important centerpiece of contemporary authoritarianism and patriarchy.
A master class in how gender has been weaponized in support of conservative values and authoritarian regimes.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780374608224
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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by Action Bronson ; photographed by Bonnie Stephens ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2021
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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