The Etiquette of Illness: What to Say When You Can’t Find the Words

Reviewed: Fall-Winter 2005

Wouldn’t it be lovely if there were a how-to guide for dealing with people who have illnesses or disorders? We could just hand a copy to our friends and family, and they would probably be relieved having a simple set of rules to follow. Susan P. Halpern’s The Etiquette of Illness strives to be that book. It falls short, but is a worthy read all the same.

Reviewed: Spring-Summer 2005

"Chronic Pain and the Family is a brief overview of the consequences of pain for family life, from the point of view of a pain specialist. The author, Dr. Julie K. Silver, is a professor with Harvard Medical School and a Medical Director for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. She writes as a medical doctor, and not as person with first-hand experience of daily living with pain, or even with a loved one in pain. This makes Chronic Pain and the Family useful as a window in the mind of our doctors. Ever wonder what they are really thinking? Silver lets you know, and you will probably find it helpful."

Reviewed: Fall-Winter 2004

"Are you increasingly finding yourself left out of activities? Do your friends call less and less often? Do family members make comments about you being lazy? Do you suffer in silence rather than admit that you can’t keep up? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, you will want to read Stacy Taylor’s workbook, Living Well with a Hidden Disability..."
 

Reviewed: Spring-Summer 2004

"Isadore Rosenfeld's Power to the Patient is one of a growing number of patient self-education manuals...  ...sense that the book was thrown together quickly and with little forethought is accentuated by the poor proofreading on the part of the publisher...  Despite these drawbacks, Power to the Patient is still worthwhile.  It is to-the-point, mostly clear in style, and informative regarding current widely available treatment..."

Reviewed: Fall-Winter 2003

"Why did trees have to die for this?  ... I really cannot imagine anyone who needs this book.  If you can use a search engine and have some basic literacy skills, you can find all the information presented in the book on your own.  If you cannot use a search engine and are not literate, this book will be useless."

Reviewed: Fall-Winter 2003

"Despite the shortcoming of not addressing physically disabled people, Ratey and Johnson's Shadow Syndromes is a reassuring and eye-opening work.  I wish that more popular works on medical conditions were as accessible and useful as this one."

Reviewed: Spring-Summer 2003

"...that is how I feel about Pain:  The Fifth Vital Sign. I had high hopes at first. An entire book about what is known about pain, written in layman's terms. Perhaps there would be discussion of the problems getting pain relief, the problems getting doctors to take seriously patient complaints of pain, the different sorts of body pain and what they indicate. That would be a book to treasure. This one, well, it does have some useful information squeezed in here and there. Unfortunately, author Marni Jackson is so self-absorbed that it is hard to pay attention."

Reviewed: Spring-Summer 2003

"Dr. Vertosick is one those precious gems, a doctor who does not need to be convinced that his patients suffer. Rheumatoid arthritis he calls "the horror."  Carpal tunnel syndrome he likens to the suffering of crucifixion, and details how the similarity extends from pain experienced to the very same nerve involvement from wrist to neck. Just reading that gave me new respect for my own arm pain. Vertosick covers in thirteen precise chapters the same issues as Jackson does in thirty-three, but with more efficiency and humor."

Reviewed: Fall-Winter 2002

Reviewed: Spring-Summer 2002

Reviewed: Fall-Winter 2001

"Author Neal Barnard, M.D., offers some common sense advice along with generous helpings of macrobiotics masquerading as science...  ... All in all, I don't think EDSers will get a lot from this diet book." 

Reviewed: Fall-Winter 2000

Reviewed: Spring-Summer 2001