The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Mukherjee rocks. After reading [b:The Gene: An Intimate History 27276428 The Gene An Intimate History Siddhartha Mukherjee https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463591739s/27276428.jpg 46190748], I knew I had to pick, up this book. He has an undeniable skill of bringing complex medical concepts to life for lay-readers. That said, he wrote [b:The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer 7170627 The Emperor of All Maladies A Biography of Cancer Siddhartha Mukherjee https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1280771091s/7170627.jpg 7580942] before The Gene, and there's a clear improvement in his skills over the years. Several sections of this book were drags that took me a long time to get through. I happened to meet a geneticist shortly after reading this book (shoutout to Jon!), and I was able to ask meaningful questions about his research and discuss the historical context of his specific research. Our understanding of cancer is developing very rapidly, but it's far from straightforward. It's hard to believe that only a few decades ago there weren't any known health risks of smoking. Mukherjee mentions several doctors who stopped smoking cold turkey once they recognized the damage smoking was causing to their own patients.