Science on Trial - Marcia Angell

I would not have thought it was possible to feel sorry for Dow Corning with regards to the silicone breast implant cases of the 1990s, but Marcia Angell's book made me feel just that. Angell is the former executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine - i.e., not a chemical company shill and not a dummy. She discusses the epidemiological evidence that shows no increase of autoimmune diseases, cancer, or any other systemic problem in women who have received silicone breast implants. And yet massive judgments were entered against Dow Corning and the company was driven bankrupt. Dow Corning's lawyers must have felt they were in cuckoo-land.

Completely fascinating reading.

Science on Trial: The Clash of Medical Evidence and the Law in the Breast Implant Case
Marcia Angell
1996
Available from Amazon

Autism's False Prophets - Paul Offit

An interesting book about the vaccines and autism controversy: how it began, what the bad science was, where the conflicts of interests were, how the public health community inadvertently stoked it. I previously recommended another book by Paul Offit, Vaccinated, about Maurice Hilleman's vaccine research.

I was convinced there was no relationship between vaccines and autism before this book, but I think the book lays out the evidence in a compelling way. And the author points out that one of the tragedies of the vaccine/autism controversy is the attention and funding it draws away from the search for actual causes and treatments for autism.

Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure
Paul Offit
2008
Available from Amazon

It's All Too Much - Peter Walsh

I picked up this book after seeing it recommended on Cool Tools. I really liked it. I'm a pretty organized person to begin with, and I like organizing books so I read them for more ideas. But there was still good stuff in here. (Some of my previous favorites: Getting Things Done by David Allen, and Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern.)

The two biggest ideas for me: 1) The amount of space you have to store stuff dictates how much stuff you can have. So, if you have 1 shelf for DVDs, and you have more than 1 shelf's worth, you need to get rid of some, rather than find more space for DVDs. 2) You don't have to hold onto a thing in order to keep the memories. Plus I found his tone really inspirational. I have been cleaning like mad.

It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff
Peter Walsh
2006
Available from Amazon

Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog - Kitty Burns Florey

I never learned how to diagram sentences, going through middle school in the 1980s, by which time it had fallen out of favor. But I always wished I had learned how to diagram sentences - it sounded fun! So I read this book. And I learned that diagramming sentences was fun, for the right kind of kid, which, let's face it, I probably was. But it also had it's flaws, and tree diagramming of sentences is now the in-thing. Which actually looks much cooler - more logical.

I didn't learn how to diagram sentences, but I got a little bit of the flavor from this book. And the author is funny and well-read. She has excellent side notes in the book - well worth reading. My favorite one lead me to read an essay by Mark Twain called Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. Boy howdy, you did not want to be a writer who Mark Twain thought was an idiot. Now I have to go read some Mark Twain (which I haven't read since middle school in the 1980s). Seriously, check out the Mark Twain essay. Even my very skeptical, non-grammar snob husband thought it was funny.


Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences
Kitty Burns Florey
2006
Available from Amazon

Traffic - Tom Vanderbilt

Roads that seem safer lead people to drive more recklessly, which makes them, on balance, less safe. The author examines this idea from a variety of points of view: vehicle design, human psychology, traffic engineering. This book has changed the way I drive for the better.

At the very least, you should read the introduction, titled something like: Why I Became a Side-Zoomer, and You Should Too.

Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do (And What It Says About Us)
Tom Vanderbilt
2008
Available from Amazon