BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEWS
NEW BOOKS
Who killed Princess Diana?
On the 5th anniversary of the death of the photogenic, charismatic
humanitarian Princess of Wales Diana (August 31, 1997), her brother Earl Charles
Spencer is convinced that her death with Mr. Dodi Fayed and their driver was
accidental. On the contrary, Mr. Mohamed Al-Fayed (Dodi's father) is still
convinced with a conspiracy theory and mentioned to the media that the removal
of her organs during the embalming process in Paris was to remove her uterus,
and evidence that she was pregnant from his son, Dodi. The conspiracy theory was
rejected by both British and French investigators. Scotland Yard officials
considered suing Diana's former police bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, in a bid to stop
him cashing in on revelations about her private life in his new book, "Diana:
Closely guarded secret" (Michael O'Mara Books 2002).
Queen Victoria's paternity in question
In
his book, "The Victorians", biographer A.N. Wilson alleges that
Victoria's mother, Princess Victoire of Leiningen, had a lengthy affair with her
secretary Sir John Conroy and that he, rather than Prince Edward, the Duke of
Kent, was Victoria's real father. But Harold Brooks-Baker publishing director of
"Burke's Peerage" was skeptical of Mr. Wilson's theory which was based
on medical data. Mr. Wilson mentioned that Queen Victoria was a carrier of
hemophilia, although medical records tracing her ancestors show no evidence of
the disease. He suggests Victoria inherited the disease from Mr. Conroy, but
researchers said that the disease was more like to have resulted from a genetic
mutation since Mr. Conroy was not hemophilic. The book is published by W.W.
Norton & Company and will be released in January 2003.
Celebrities with bipolar manic-depressive illness
Lizzie Simon, a 23 year old American youth with manic-depressive illness, became one of the celebrities in June 2002 after she released her book "Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D". Lizzie Simon graduated from Columbia University and became a creative producer at a theater in New York. Despite her many successes, Simon was restless and ultimately decided to leave the theater and go cross-country seeking other young, successful people with bipolar disorder. The book describes her personal experience with this illness and interviews with others affected by it. It has already been listed as bestseller, attracting global attention. Interestingly, more than 2 million people have this illness including Ernest Hemingway, Vincent Van Gogh, Robert Schumann, and Lord Byron are among the celebrities mentioned to have bipolar disorder.
Who Discovered the Double Helix?
In
time of the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of DNA in 2003, Brenda Maddox
wrote a new book about the controversy surrounding one of the greatest
scientific discoveries. The book tells the story of Rosalind Franklin, the young
British scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the DNA structure
and was masked behind the back of those accredited for making the discovery (US
scientist James Watson and British scientist Francis Crick who won the Nobel
Prize for their discovery in 1962). Rosalind Franklin died in 1958, when she was
37 years old with ovarian cancer. In Watson & Crick's historic letter to the
journal Nature in 1953 they included a footnote that said, "Without
this data from the King's College Group, the formulation of our structure would
have been most unlikely, if not impossible." It was Franklin's X-ray
picture of DNA that was crucial to their discovery. Her story first came to
light by James D. Watson in his autobiography published by Simon & Schuster,
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure
of DNA in 1968, which was published in 18 languages. He began the book 3
years after winning the Nobel Prize while he was a professor at Harvard
University. A new book authored by Brenda Maddox and entitled "Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA"
chronicles her life (October 2002).
The Noble Prize and the Karolinska Institute
A
recent book published by Karger in April 2002 is entitled "The Noble Prize in
Medicine and the Karolinska Institute: The Story of Axel Key and Alfred Nobel." The authors are Prof. B. Ljunggren
(Lund University) and Prof. G.W. Bruyn (Leiden University). The book provides
enjoyable and informative reading about the early teaching of medicine and neuro-research
in Karolinska Institute. It also presents the harmony between Prof. Exel Key and
Alfred Noble and intimate relationships of academia in promoting their dreams to
fruition. Prof. Exel Key played a decisive role in the final implementation of
Alfred Noble's will and association of the Karolinska Institute and the Noble
Prize in Medicine. This book is a must not only for neuroscientists and
historians, but also for physicians all around the world who are interested in
the history of medicine, the Karolinska Institute.
Shakespeare's controversial portrait
Sullivan has spent much of the last year working on issues of Genealogy and Provenance of the painted portrait alleged to be of William Shakespeare. He traced the painting to John Sander's hand, 400 years ago, demonstrating that it was done between 1559-1605. In the Art Gallery of Ontario, Prof. Alexander LeGatt lecture entitled, "The Sander's Portrait: Why does it matter?". A recent book was written by Stephanie Nolen entitled, "Shakespeare's Face" (Random House, July 2002) tells the story of Sander's portrait.
New textbook on Tropical Surgery with 200 contributors
Two international distinguished surgeons, Prof. R. Kamel and Prof. JSP Lumley are the editors of a new textbook discussing topical surgery issues. The book has more than 200 contributors and will be published this year by Springer-Verlag. This textbook is very comprehensive in its coverage of different issues and includes interesting data about tropical diseases in the Ancient and modern populations, as well as information on the emerging tele-medicine in the post-Human Genome Project era.
Support groups and pastoral counseling
With those suffering of eternal illnesses, the new book "What
Dying People Want: Practical Wisdom for the End of Life" written by Dr.
David Kuhl, MD (PublicAffairs, July 2002), enlists the help of friends, family and support groups with
those diagnosed with cancer and treated with surgery, chemotherapy and
radiotherapy and showed both recurrence and bone and liver metastasis that
affects their quality of life: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, financial
and social. Dr. Kuhl prescribes the way to manage these conditions and to
benefit from the emotional support which can be offered from their family
members, friends, support groups and spiritual counseling.
New Book on Orthopedic Surgery traces historical roots and modern novelties
The former dean of Tanta Medical college, Egypt and international orthopedic surgeon Prof. Abdelhay Mashhoor recently published a book entitled Orthopedic Surgery Past and Present: An Anthological Study (In Arabic). The book discussed the history of traumatology and diseased in both ancient and modern populations.
