The Woman Who Couldn’t Wake Up: Hypersomnia and the Science of Sleepiness by Quinn Eastman (Colummbia University Press, August 2023) is a medical examination of figuring out the rare condition of idiopathic hypersomia (IH), including the history of the diagnosis and the pharmacological treatment the condition. As the title suggests, it begins with the story of

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I was so excited to read a novel that took place during the early days of the COVID pandemic, so I eagerly sought out Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult (Ballantine, 2021). I read it last month and even today I’m struggling to eek out thoughts on what I think of it. I don’t

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As a woman, getting a medical degree in the 1880s was no small task, and Martha Hughes Cannon was determined to do so in order to better serve those in her Utah pioneer community. Her Quiet Revolution by Marianne Monson (Shadow Mountain, 2020), a work of historical fiction, captures the life of this frontier doctor,

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In Nothing is Little by Carmella Van Vleet (Holiday House, 2022), middle schooler Felix begins to come to terms with himself, his place in his family, and his identity as a person. His story is driven by his own search for the identity of his absent father, with “detective work” he hides from his mother

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The almost-magical The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (originally published serially in 1910) captures the transformation of a lonely girl into an outgoing and confident one through the power of magic and friendship. With a focus on the healing power of nature, it is also perfect for spring. It is a book that is

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As the title and the cartoonish digitally rendered illustrations may suggest, I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History’s Strangest Cures by Carlyn Beccia (Houghton Mifflin, 2010) is a rather silly book. By providing quizzes along the lines of “which remedy will help you feel better?” Ms. Beccia manages to surprise the reader

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Awwwww … newborn babies! I am a bit excited by the image of an innocent, soft, wrinkly newborn baby these days, for obvious reasons. Less than eight more weeks until a newborn daughter joins my family! I found Birth Day by Mark Sloan (published 2009) one day when I was browsing the shelves looking for

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As regular readers of this blog know, I’m currently expecting my second child, a girl. Monkey should join my family at the end of February or maybe early March. I’m quite excited to meet my little girl. What better way to get in a baby mood by start reading some books about babies! I gave

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Ginko Ogino was just sixteen when her mother and older sister arranged her marriage, as was custom in nineteenth-century Japan. When she returned home violently ill three years later, overcome with fever and infection due to gonorrhea, her family was shamed. Her story begins here, though, for during her embarrassing treatment in the male-dominated hospital,

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