March Book Of the Month “The Emperor of All Maladies”

I love Audible.com!  Each night I like to pull out my Zune and listen to a good book while I load the dishes into the dishwasher and then wash the pots and pans by hand.  I generally get to listen for about 20 to 30 minutes in the evenings and the dishes get done, the counters get cleaned and I am entertained by some great writing.  I just finished a fascinating book called “The Emperor of All Maladies” by Siddhartha Mukherjee.  The book is the story of cancer.  The author does an exceptional job of detailing the history of cancer and cancer treatment complete with detailed discussions of research, scientific breakthroughs, political maneuvering, and patient experiences. 

I have heard about cancer of course and thought I was fairly informed. I was surprised to find out how little I really knew. I seemed to finish the dishes each night with new found knowledge or understanding.  I found myself having conversations with my wife, my co-workers, and even my children about what I was learning.  It was refreshing to be learning while at the same time being entertained. 

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in cancer.  It is a great book! 

The only downside I can find to this book (if you can call it that) is that it is quite lengthy.  In its unabridged form it took more than 21 hours to complete.  I was actually disappointed when the book came to an end.  There are of course plenty of unanswered questions related to cancer but the author does a great job at helping the reader understand the science behind where we are in cancer research and sets realistic expectations for future breakthroughs. 

Five stars for this book.  One of the best I have encountered in a long time.