Book Club

The title alone pulls you in – Economic Ideas You Should Forget. Ideas and theories that everyone believes but aren’t true. 71 eminent economists and social scientists from around the world each contributed an economic theory that should be forgotten. Myths debunked include more choice is better, that economic growth increases well-being, and that CEO…

It’s a shame that this book is written in the style of a textbook rather than for the general public, because we all need to hear David Harker’s message. Created scientific controversies surround issues where there is broad scientific agreement but the public’s perception is that there is uncertainty and doubt. The false controversies can…

Every first year public health student hears the story of London’s 1854 cholera epidemic, Dr. John Snow, his map, and the Broad Street pump handle — but there is so much more to that story. The Ghost Map describes in terrifying detail the disgusting details of life in an over-populated Victorian city, the devastating disease…

Sometimes raw and even offensive, in Hand to MouthLinda Tirado describes for middle class readers what it is like to live in working class America. Tirado is an educated white married mother of two who needs two jobs, in addition to her husband’s two jobs, to make ends meet. She describes in vivid detail why…

In the 1890s New York’s Lower East Side was the most densely populated square mile on the planet, with largely immigrant residents. A third of children born there died before their fifth birthday often due to epidemics of diarrhea, smallpox, typhus, child labor, poor sanitation, and other preventable conditions. But by 1911 the child death…

The Myths of Modern Medicine: The Alarming Truth about American Health Care by John Leifer is very readable. The book organizes the problems in modern American health care into ten myths, that are accessible to any reader, but not dumbed down. The myths are simple and straightforward, without all the usual waffling. The descriptions not…

Public health students know the famous story of John Snow’s 1854 map of London cholera cases that highlighted clustering around the Broad Street water pump. He removed the pump handle and the number of deaths dropped. (It turns out that deaths were dropping anyway and the pump handle may have had nothing to do with…

The title of the latest addition to the CT Health Policy Project Book Club, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking, sold this book but the content delivered on the promise. It was entertaining and funny – not what you expect from a book about math. The author dives into fascinating questions…

The Health Care Handbook is the newest addition to the CT Health Notes Book Club. The new edition of this incredibly helpful primer on the US health system is even better than the 2012 version. Written by two med students who searched for a balanced, useful, and readable source of information for students like themselves…