A fine primer to an essential organ.
A concise and accessible look into one of the body’s most “incredible” organs.
The heart, brain, and sex organs have long dominated popular health writing, but Covid-19 has raised the profile of the lungs; readers seeking a painless introduction will find it here. Pulmonologist Han, professor of medicine at the University of Michigan and national spokesperson for the American Lung Association, clearly has an abiding love for her favorite organ, which “provides our bodies with life-giving oxygen, rids us of excess carbon dioxide, and regulates the blood’s acid-base balance while also moving air past our vocal cords and nose, allowing us to speak, sing, and even smell.” Unfortunately, the lungs suffer from neglect in government and the health care industry; compared with heart disease, research on lung disease is trivial. We’re familiar with the blood pressure cuff, but few family doctors have a spirometer, a simple device that measures lung function. Han’s expert summary of lung diseases includes the familiar infections as well as asthma, emphysema, and lung cancer, still the leading malignancy. “Roughly 10 percent of long-term smokers will eventually be diagnosed with lung cancer,” she notes. Children of mothers who smoke during pregnancy suffer more respiratory illnesses, and if raised in a house where the parents smoke, they’re at higher risk of asthma as well as lung and ear infections. Cigarette smoking is unquestionably deleterious, but, as a physician, the author cannot generate enthusiasm for any method of quitting; she emphasizes that e-cigarettes, widely promoted as a safer alternative, are no such thing. The author also discusses why vaccines work superbly against infections and how diet and exercise prevent heart disease. However, there is only feeble evidence for any positive action to strengthen lungs. Mostly, it’s a matter of avoiding things. Not smoking is achievable, but avoiding air pollution is difficult; the same goes for secondhand smoke and innumerable chemicals, vapors, dusts, and molds.
A fine primer to an essential organ.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-393-86662-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
