The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis

Lance Woolaver. The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis. Nova Scotia : Nimbus 1994. Print.

First Sentences:

Nova Scotia is a rural province, as far removed from the great cities as any back-to-the-lander might wish. Yet when a Nova Scotian wants to call up the name of a faraway place, he is likely to turn towards Yarmouth, a county of fishing and farming communities, home to such names as Hebron, Hectanooga, Chegoggin and the birthplace of Maud Lewis.

Description:

For those of you who enjoyed the 2016 film, Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke about the crippled folk painter, Maud Lewis, you will love The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver. For those of you unfamiliar with this remarkable woman and her simple life in a remote region of Nova Scotia, well, all I can say is look into this short biography and gaze on her beautiful paintings and the note cards she sold for a few dollars from in front of her house on an isolated road. 

 

 

 

Whether familiar with Maud Lewis or not, Maud Lewis is a treasure of clear writing, researched details, photographs, and, of course, colorful paintings. Maud was born with severe birth defects around the turn of the century, afflictions that rounded her back and caused her constant pain through arthritis, especially in her hands. She endured constant teasing from schoolmates and only achieved a fourth-grade education due to constant absences for health reasons.

 

Trying to achieve an independent life after the death of her parents, she answered a scrap want ad posted by Everett Lewis on the local general store bulletin board asking for a live-in housekeeper and cook. Lewis was currently living a simple life by selling fish, firewood, and handyman work at the poor house/orphanage that adjoined his one-room house, the same poor house where he was raised. A notable miser, he hoarded his money and refused to get electricity, gas, or running water in his house until his death.

 

He hired Maud as housekeeper, but soon they both realized that, due to her physical limitations, she could not handle cooking, cleaning, and other chores. So Maud began to paint, a skill she had dabbled with her entire life. She covered every surface of their tiny house with tiny birds, flowers, and butterflies, from cupboards to windows, from their salvaged stove to tables, walls, and doors. What was once a ramshackle shed soon became a charming, colorful home. 

 

 

 

Everett scrounged for Maud brushes and leftover paint abandoned in trash piles and empty homes. Besides her house, Maud's painting surfaces were cardboard boxes and slats of wood, wall paper, particle board, and Masonite panels. Whatever paint cans he found were the colors Maud used in her paintings. 

 

When a few passersby on the road noticed her decorated house, Everett (Maud was too shy) showed them her other paintings and sold them for small amounts of money. She painted and then posted a sign outside their front door and began a roadside business. Everett did the selling and took all the earnings, putting it in jars and then burying them in their yard. He even took over the household chores of cooking, cleaning, and washing to free Maud to paint more. Maud enjoyed her new life with freedom to paint, a roof over her head, basic food to eat, and "a much-needed sense of worth."

 

 

 

And the paintings? Since she rarely left her chair by the window, they were created from her memories and imagination. Farm scenes, town buildings, cats, butterflies, birds, and cows were her favorite subjects. There were few people portrayed, but those men pictured driving a cart or hauling lumber were always wearing a red cap and checked shirt just like Everett. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved reading about her quiet life where she accepted bitter winters, poverty, a miserly husband, and a few scavenged art materials. She constantly demonstrated that she was a survivor who pursued her art with whatever was at hand, depicting the scenes she remembered from childhood or could envision in her imagination.

 

This is a book full of charm, beauty, and Maud's perseverance over major obstacles. Author Woolaver and photographer Bob Brooks combined thorough research along with historic photographs of Maud, Everett, their family, and the world they lived in to produce this colorful, revealing book. Highly recommended for art lovers and anyone just interested in the life of a woman who pursued the drive of her desires: to paint for its own beauty.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Kane, William and Gabrielle, Anna. Every Picture Hides a Story.

Very readable and informative background stories and explanations of the most famous works by artists including Michaelango, Da Vinci, Ver Meer, Degas, Manet, and many more. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

Special Post - "Reading Trends in America"

Montgomery, David.  "Most Americans Didn't Read Many Books in 2025." YouGov/USA (https://tinyurl.com/34vcp8tw). December 31, 2025. Online.

First Sentences:

Six in 10 Americans (59%) say they read at least one book in 2025, a new YouGov survey finds. That's in line with similar YouGov surveys in 2024 and 2023. Most Americans who did read books only finished a handful of books, while a minority of Americans were plowing through the pages.

 

Description:

Just a short post to bring to your attention the recent annual survey conducted by YouGov regarding the reading habits of Americans in 2025. I found some of this data encouraging, while other items worrisome:

• Besides the 40% of Americans who didn't read any books in 2025, another 27% read one to four books. And 13% read five to nine books. That leaves 19% of Americans who read 10 or more books, including 9% who read 10 to 19 books, 6% who read 20 to 49 books, and 4% who say they read 50 or more books; 

• Americans 65 and older read significantly more books (12.1) than those 45 to 64 (6.4), 30 to 44 (8.2), and 18 to 29 (5.8);

• 46% of Americans read at least one physical book, 24% read at least one digital book, and 23% listened to at least one audio book;

• The most popular genre of books that Americans read in 2025 was mystery and crime: 35% of Americans who read at least one book read a mystery or crime novel. Other top genres are history (30%), biography and memoir (27%), thrillers (23%), fantasy (23%), and romance (23%);

• Half of Americans don't have library cards. Many of those who do rarely or never use library services;

• One in five Americans (20%) say they own between one and 10 physical books, while 14% own between 11 and 25 books, and 13% between 26 and 50. Overall, counting the 9% who say they own no physical books, at least 69% of Americans own no more than 100 books.

There is plenty of additional interesting data in this study, including how many books different demographic groups (age, sex, education, income, etc.) own, how they sort them, and what subjects each group reads. The YouGov data collection method is carefully explained and there are color charts and graphs to further clarify their findings.

 

Its a fascinating data collection about how our country reads, so please click here to learn more. You might be surprised at what you find.

 

U.S. Reading Survey article - https://tinyurl.com/34vcp8tw

Complete U.S. Reading Survey data document - https://tinyurl.com/4e9fws6d

About YouGov - https://yougov.com/en-us

[from their website]

YouGov is an international online research data and analytics technology group. Our mission is to offer unparalleled insight into what the world thinks. Our purpose is to give our global community a voice by collecting, measuring and analyzing their opinions and behaviors and reporting the findings accurately and free from bias.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Dirda, Michael. Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books.

History of one of the greatest libraries of the current age, The United State Library of Congress. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

Chasing the Moon

Stone, Robert and Andres, Alan. Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America into the Space Age. New York : Ballantine 2019. Print.

First Sentences:

The sun began rising over the northeast coast of Florida on what would be a humid subtropical mid-July morning....Nearly a million people were gathering under the harsh Florida sun to witness the departure of the first humans to attempt a landing on another world, the Earth;'s moon, 239,000 miles away. Should it be successful, the piloted lunar landing would culminate a decade of mounting anticipation.

Description:

I've had a long-time interest in the space program and have read many books about it. But my favorite for all-inclusiveness has always been The New Ocean (see below) by William E. Burrows. The only problem with it is it's huge (750 small print pages), very detailed with inclusions of reports, meeting notes, newspapers articles, interviews, etc. that, while fascinating to fans like me, might appear too daunting to the casual moonshot reader.

 

Enter my new favorite space age book: Robert Stone and Alan Andres' Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America into the Space Age. This is the companion book to the excellent six-part PBS television series of the same name. Here is a much more focused (350 pages) account of humans and space flight, from 1903 to the last man to walk on the moon, especially focusing on the United States' program to land a man on the moon and bring him home safely. 

 

Chasing the Moon introduces and provides information on:

• Wernher von Braun, who at age 18 started experimenting with rocket launching, free to do so since the WW I Treaty of Versailles did not specify rocketry in its military rearmament restrictions for Germany. After WW II, von Braun became one of the leaders of the US space program, rescued by the US government special program along with 100 other German rocket scientists and brought to the US. This action was made to close the rocket gap with Germany and Russia despite these scientists history of working during the War with POWs and slaves to build German V-2 rocket-launched weapons;

• Arthur C. Clarke, British science fiction writer and member of the British Interplanetary Society, whose articles and stories about the future of space and the current US program rockets, inspired the world's interest in the US program and thus its Congressional financing;

• The US Army, Air Force, and Navy originally developed separate rocket programs and competed with the other branches to win space contracts with the US government. After the Russian Sputnik launch President Eisenhower combined these separate programs into one new civilian department, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA);

• John F. Kennedy, reeling from the poor publicity from the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the successful flight by Russia of first man in space Yuri Gagarin only one week apart, desperately seized on the US space program as a means to "dramatically alter the narrative about America's future and its standing in the international arena." Although Kennedy had shown little interest in outer space and knew virtually nothing about the US program, he learned that communication satellites beaming to television sets would be a way to regain superiority in space, something the Russians had not begun to explore;

• At Attorney General Robert Kennedy demanded, NASA would only accept the land donated by nearby Rice University for NASA headquarters on the condition that Rice changed its discrimination policy and admit Black Students, which they did;

• The ongoing controversy over NASA not selecting a Black candidate for training in the astronaut program after many years, despite the stellar experience from some of these men;

• While there was much speculation between astronauts, media, and the public on who would be the first man to walk on the moon, the placement of the lander hatch door which, when opened, blocked the right side seat and astronaut from exiting before the left side seat was vacated. Therefore, only the man sitting in the left chair, (Armstrong) was physically able to exit the landing pod first. Decision settled;

• William Safire, Nixon's speechwriter, wrote the president two separate speeches for the public: one after a successful moon mission and one should the astronauts be forced to remain on the moon or died due to some failure;

• Writer Arthur C. Clarke had a beloved dog named Sputnik which was the son of Laika, the first animal launched into space.

I had so many more items marked I found interesting through my reading Chasing the Moon, but want to keep this review at a readable length. I figured by now either you are fascinated enough to read more of this book on your own or you have decided it simply isn't for you. So you are now on your own.

 

But there are many, many more people, incidents, successes, failures, and dreams clearly presented by authors Stone and Anders. You would be missing the beautiful B & W and color photographs, the in-depth interviews, the newspaper clippings, and the words of astronauts during training, flight, and moon landings. It's all here.  

 

I hope you will pick up this fine, important history and learn more about one of humankind's greatest achievement: putting humans on the moon and returning them safely. Highly recommended.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Burrows, William E. The New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age.

Simply the best, most readable yet most detailed account of the United State space program. Includes documentation from newly-released Russian files, meeting notes, documents, government involvement, astronauts, behind0the-scenes personnel ... in short, everything possible about the movement of humans into space. Tremendous. Highest recommendation. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Greatest Sentence Ever

Isaacson, Walter. The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. New York : Simon & Schuster 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

"We hold these truths to be sacred ..."

Sacred? No. That doesn't sound right.

But that's how Thomas Jefferson wrote it in his first draft. 

Description:

Now who can resist looking into a book with this title? Certainly not I. 

 

Here's a short, but important and captivating book for lovers (like me) of history, documents, and human rights: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written by Walter Isaacson. This title refers to the second sentence of the United States' Declaration of Independence. I'll refresh your memory here of its glorious second sentence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Powerful words to frame the concepts behind the creation of a new country. Simple words, easily understood and eventually, sometimes grudgingly, agreed upon by its writers: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston of the Declaration Drafting Committee, as well as the 60 other colony representatives assembled in 1776. After agreement, the representatives then had to sell it to their own people and the other thirteen colonies for their accpetance before it could be sent on to England and the King.

Author Isaacson, inspired by the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration signing, created this 67-page book to analyze the wording, concepts, and behind-the scenes-battles surrounding this sentence. 

In brief two- to four-page chapters, he examines key words and concepts. The word "We, the People" gets its own three pages:

That phrase, We, the People, is as profound as it is simple. Our governance is based not on the divine right of kings or the power imposed by emperors and conquerors. It is based on a compact, a social contract, that we the people have entered into.

The Declaration writers employed this Social Contract idea from the writings of Thomas Hobbes, David, Hume, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, political and social philosophers popular with Jefferson, Franklin, and the other Declaration creators. 

Of course, "All men are created equal" was a problematic issue. Almost all the signers of the Declaration (41 out of 56) owned slaves, including Jefferson who had enslaved "more than 600 men, women and children." While John Adams was against slavery, he did write "The subject is too dangerous to be touched in public." His wife, Abigail, had a stronger opinion:

How can those who advocate the right of man hold their fellow creatures in chains? It is a contradiction that much wound the conscience of every honest man. 

But to secure the signatures of the Southern colonies' representatives, the issue of slavery was glossed over, hopefully to be addressed by calmer people at a more rational time after the Union had been formed and settled.

Besides Isaacson's commentary, the book also contains appendices with the entire Declaration of Independence, Jefferson's original Declaration draft, Virginia's Declaration of Rights of 1776, Rousseau's Social Contract of 1762, and even John Locke's Second Treatise of Government from 1690, all used as the source of political and social ideas. 

He also provides his thoughts on the Declaration power and its affect today, and how we as a individuals and country can move forward based on these fundamental principles. The key is finding the "Common Ground" to contentious issues that divide us, to work together to understand and develop systems and institutions that provide for the greater good for the greatest number of people.

It's a short, but inspiring analysis of an important sentence, one that defines the foundation of our nation. It is well worth an hour or two of your time to pursue its clear, concise history and interpretation of these powerful words from our own Declaration of Independence. 

[Franklin and Jefferson]'s goal on contentious issues was not to triumph but to find the right balance, an art that has been lost today. Compromisers may not make great heroes, Franklin liked to say, but they do make great democracies. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Conaway, Janes. America's Library.

History and important documents contained in of one of the greatest libraries of the current age, The United State Library of Congress. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Asimov's Guide to Science

Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Guide to Science. New York : Basic Books 1960. Print.

First Sentences:

Almost in the beginning was curiosity....There comes a point where the capacity to receive, store, and interpret message from the outside world may outrun sheer necessity. An organism may for the moment be sated with food, and there may, at the moment, be no danger in sight. What does it do then?....[The] higher organisms, at least, still show a strong instinct to explore the environment. Idle curiosity we may call it. ....The more advanced the brain, the greater the drive to explore....[Curiosity] for its simplest definition is "the desire to know."


Description:

This is a first for The First Sentence Reader. I am recommending a book that: 1) I have not finished reading yet and therefore will only review the first 100-page section; and 2) It is a book I don't expect anyone else to read (although I would hope someone out there would be interested enough in some content to at least flip through it and maybe even get caught up enought o read a section or two - or the entire book as I will certainly do.)

Behold, I enthusiastically recommend Isaac Asimov and his thrilling, all-encompassing, wonderful, 945-page Asimov's Guide to Science. 

As a very poor student of any science class but still an interested outsider, I finally wanted to try to understand the world around me. Asimov to the rescue! In his Guide to Science, Asimov covers in separate sections and chapters:

• What is science?
• The Physical Science (The Universe, Earth, Atmosphere, Elements, Energy, etc.)
• The Biological Sciences (Molecules, Proteins, Cells, Microorganisms, The Body, The Mind, etc.)  

Already I can sense your feeling of being overwhelmed by this vast amount of information. Maybe you've never really been interested in science in general. But Isaac Asimov is the most gentle, understanding, clear-thinking, and readable non-fiction author you will ever find. Pick a random subject in any field of science that interests you and he will give you the background, historic figures of relevant scientists in this field and their discoveries, the current advancements, and the plans for the future. 

 

And it is all delivered in easy-to-read sentences chock full of fascinating details that pull you along from paragraph to paragraph until you find you have read 20 pages (or even more) on this scientific topic - and miraculously you've understood it. And you'll also find that you cannot wait to bend the ears of friends and family with fascinating scientific tidbits from Asimov about the world around us.

So as I said, I have only started this tome, finishing the first 100+ pages on "What Is Science" and "The Universe." Both were absolutely riveting. What did I learn?

• What separates humans from most other animals and drives science is curiosity, the "need to know" and to find answers;
• How to measure great distances, such as miles from the Earth to the Moon, to the Sun, to other planets, and far-flung stars as well as determine planetary and other astronomical orbits;
• With the naked eye, we can see about 6,000 stars on a clear night;
• Galileo's telescope showed for the first time that the Milky Way was composed of millions of stars and was flat-shaped;
• A light year is 5.88 trillion miles, i.e., 186,282 miles per second (the speed of light) x 31,536,00 (the number of seconds in a year);
• The unsolved question whether the universe is "evolutionary" (continually expanding and contracting), or whether it is "steady-state" (density of galaxies remains the same);
• A nova is not the death of a star but simply its sudden expansion (sometimes "a millionfold in less that a day") before settling back into its usual brightness;
• Clear explanations and examples of white dwarfs, red giants, super novas, comets, quasars, interstellar gas, dust clouds, telescopes, spectrum photography, radio waves, and so much more)

 

Hope I haven't bored you already. If so, I am very chagrined to have done so. For me, it's so exciting to finally be able to understand scientific terms and the descriptions of the universe I see or read about daily, and in words and examples I can comprehend. I found every page, almost every paragraph, fascinating, informative, and very entertaining. And although I have a lot of the book to go, I cannot wait to dip into its treasures with Asimov as my patient, understanding, and wise guide.

[P.S. I just noticed Asimov wrote an updated and expanded version of his Guide to Science (see below). This new text was written 22 years after the original Guide, so covers new discoveries in fields of computers, AI, robotics, astronomy, biology, etc. Looks like I have my lifetime To Be Read list filled up for the near future. FR]

[N]o one can really feel at home in the modern world and judge the nature of its problems -- and possible solutions to those problems -- unless he has some intelligent notion of what science is up to. But beyond this, initiation into the magnificent world of science brings great esthetic satisfaction, inspiration to youth, fulfillment of the desire to know, and a deeper appreciation of the wonderful potentialities and achievements of the human mind.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's New Guide to Science.

Updated version (written 25 years later in 1984) of the original Guide to Science, and covers new discoveries in physics, robotics, biology, astronomy, computers, artificial intelligence, and other fields.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.] 

Shock

Dukakis and Tye, Larry. Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy. New York: Penguin 2007. Print.

First Sentences:

 

There is no treatment in psychiatry more frightening than electroconvulsive therapy. It works like this: Two electrodes are strapped to the patient's skull. The doctor presses a button that unleashes a burst of electricity powerful enough to set off an epileptic-like convulsion. The sheer strength of the seizure shocks the brain back into balance.

 

There also is no treatment in psychiatry more effective than ECT. 

Description:

 

Wow! Those are some mighty strong, challenging first few sentences which launch into Kitty Dukakis' (with Larry Tye) memoir of her depression, addictions, and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) treatment. Her book is Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy. And in a world where I, along with probably many other people, only have knowledge of ECT (commonly referred to as "Electroshock") from films like The Snakepit, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and A Beautiful Mind, I felt it would be interesting to learn the facts behind this seemingly scary procedure and the patients who receive it. 

 

In those films, ECT is often used as a punishment rather than as a real treatment, nefariously meant to be administered to a recalcitrant patient. Results were portrayed as similar to a lobotomy, making patients passive, submissive, and quiet.

It was the medical madness of an earlier era, a remedy forever equated with thrashing limbs and obliterated memories. Now, at the same Harvard teaching hospital where Kitty Dukakis gets her treatment, twenty patients a week volunteer for shock therapy....Today [2007] the number of Americans getting ECT each year is almost 100,000 and growing.

The reality presented by Dukakis' spellbinding recollections of her personal ECT experience helps readers understand that this treatment can be highly beneficial for a great number of patients suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts, and addictions. Shock presents Dukakis' honest, often powerful recollections of her decades-long journeys into addiction (diet pills and later alcohol), overwhelming depression, and suicidal thoughts, as well as her experiences with various psychologists and prescribed medications. 

 

Dukakis first became addicted to diet pills when she was very young to achieve her mother's image of a slimmer daughter. She also received a tremendous energy boost from these daily tablets. Later, as she tried to kick that addiction, she began to rely on alcohol to blot out her overwhelming depression about her appearance. 

She soon lacked any of her former commitment to social programs, volunteering, and even family, remaining in bed for days, and was regularly found passed out in her vomit. As a governor's wife, she realized she was a danger to her politician husband, Michael's, campaign for president, but was helpless to overcome her mental illness.

[In 1988] I stopped showing up at my office. I spent all day at our duplex....I got up in the morning, waited for Michael to leave, then canceled all my appointments. I headed straight to the liquor cabinet in the dining room, carried the bottle into the kitchen, poured out three or four ounces of spirits, and gulped it down. Then I grabbed a newspaper or magazine, went upstairs, drew the blinds, unplugged the phone, and read for the ten minutes it took me to pass out. When I got up two hours later, I did it all again. 

When ECT was suggested to her as a last resort, she naturally was hesitant. But after undergoing her first treatment on her 38th wedding anniversary, she immediately felt lighter, less stressed, and with enough energy to go home that same day. She continued the normal series of five ECT treatments spread over the next weeks, finding she was much improved mentally for about eight months. After that time, she then began a new series. This became her regular pattern over the rest of her life.

 

There is one predictable drawback faced by Dukakis and other ECT patients: memory loss. Sometimes it is only portions of minor memories that are lost only for a few weeks. But for other patients, the loss might be of more important events and permanent. Dukakis completely forgot a romantic trip she took with husband Michael to Paris. Re-enacting that vacation, even staying in the same hotel and eating at the same restaurants, did not jog a hint of the old memory.

 

But that same memory loss side effect also included forgetting about those areas that troubled her into depression. She no longer could remember why she was insecure about her image and personality, could not conceive of the causes of her depression, nor remember her flawed behavior when under the influence of diet pills and alcohol.    

Co-author Tye, in alternate chapters, delves deeply into the historical background of these mental illnesses and ECT treatment, including its discovery and testing in 1938 (which first included putting patients into a medical coma). Tye interviews  doctors, psychiatric hospital staff, and patients themselves, presenting a well-rounded picture of individuals and research involved with these paralyzing and all-encompassing mental illnesses, as well as the changes brought about by ECT. He also examines the extreme backlash from many doctors, teaching hospitals, and public organizations who vocally denounce and actively work against the benefits of ECT.

 

Of course, as published in 2007, the medical treatments and advances in ECT presented in Shock make some data, both for and against ECT, possibly dated. But regardless, the confessions of Dukakis and others, her struggles, and her triumphs over crippling mental illness cannot be discounted.

 

I was swept away by her candid narration as well as Tye's medical and personal interview and research to provide a more clear picture of ECT and its affect, good and bad, on its patients. There were fascinating facts and personal assessments of this treatment on every page. 

I know it sounds strange to go on and on about this controversial treatment. But Dukakis' book is a must read for anyone interested in depression, addictions, psychiatric treatments, and impacts of individuals suffering from mental illness.

How one of the most reviled psychiatric procedures is fast becoming one of its mainstays is an astounding yet untold chapter of American medical history. 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Mukherjee, Siddhartha. The Emperor of All Maladies  

In-depth research into the medical history and current status of all forms of cancer, treatments, and patients. Fascinating.

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 475 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).