Books and Reviews - Hektoen International

Book review: Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History

May 4, 2023

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, UK Cover of Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History by Jonathan Kennedy I do not use superlatives lightly, but this is an extraordinary book. It is ambitious in scope and seeks to describe the progress of humanity from earliest times with an emphasis on the role of infectious diseases in our […]

Book review: My Years with the British Red Cross

January 18, 2023

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Cover of My Years with The British Red Cross: A Chief Executive Reflects by Sir Nick Young. The Red Cross is known worldwide as a great humanitarian achievement. The charity was founded by Swiss businessman Henri Dunant, who was moved by the lack of care available to people who […]

Book review: The Soul of Medicine: Tales from the Bedside

January 17, 2023

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden “Life is short, and the art long; the occasion fleeting, experience fallacious, and judgment difficult.” – Hippocrates Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash. The Soul of Medicine is a slender (200-page) book by surgeon-author Sherwin B. Nuland. It contains twenty-one essays, each one based on a “tale” told […]

Book review: The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World

November 1, 2022

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, UK Cover of The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World, edited by PT Keyser and J Scarborough. Classical antiquity has long been a subject of human fascination. The time period covered in this book ranges from around 1000 BCE to 650 CE. The editors have produced […]

Movie review: Bisturi: La Mafia Bianca

September 26, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Surgeons operating aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. US Navy photo via Wikimedia. Public domain. “Medicine is power. It makes us giants.” – Dr. Daniele Valotti in Bisturi: La Mafia Bianca Bisturi: La Mafia Bianca (1973) is an understated, well-acted, and critical “doctor movie.” Unlike The Hospital, it is […]

Book review: Am I Normal?

September 22, 2022

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, England Cover of Am I Normal?: The 200-Year Search for Normal People (and Why They Don’t Exist) by Sarah Chaney “Am I normal?” is a question that many of us ask at some point in our lives. The existential angst of the twentieth century has resulted in a desire to […]

Doctor Cabbie: No good deed goes unpunished

September 19, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Restored Checker cab in use as a wedding photo prop in New York City. Photo by Jim.henderson, May 14, 2011, on Wikimedia. Public domain. “I was bound by an oath that I took.” – Doctor Cabbie Doctor Cabbie (2014) begins with Deepak V. Chopra (played by Vinay Virmani) reciting […]

Movie review: Where Does it Hurt?

September 8, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Peter Sellers in 1971. RR Auction. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. “This film is dedicated to the honest, sincere MDs—whose lives are dedicated to the sacred Hippocratic oath. Will these three doctors please stand up?” This dedication sets the tone of Where Does It Hurt? (1972). Unlike the 1971 film […]

Old dogs teach psychology

September 6, 2022

Simon Wein Petach Tikva, Israel The dog is a man’s best friend. Cats, horses, cows, rabbits, dolphins, and rarely goldfish are also good friends to humans, but none compare with the dog. In support of this contention, there are many wonderful books and films about dogs. The other animals, especially horses, are also the […]

Book review: How the Mind Changed: A Human History of Our Evolving Brain

August 25, 2022

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Cover of How the Mind Changed: A Human History of Our Evolving Brain by Joseph Jebelli. The human brain has long been a source of wonder and a fascinating subject for study. Philosophers, scientists, biologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and medical scholars have spent lifetimes studying the brain and how […]