Part illness memoir, part self-help book, and part manifesto, it was an odd blend of genres with a narrative arc that didn’t quite match anything I’ve ever read. Ramey bounded through it all with an exuberance that defies her myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (one of Ramey’s many diagnoses).
Category: Book Review
Book Review: Teach Us to Sit Still: A Skeptic’s Search for Health and Healing by Tim Parks
Teach Us to Sit Still is a thinking man’s memoir. Tim Parks is incapable of digesting an experience without putting it into words, and placing it in the center of web of newly connected thoughts. His pelvic pain bleeds over into the biographies of D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and even Gandhi.
Book Review: Stabbed in the Back: Confronting Back Pain in an Overtreated Society by Nortin M. Hadler
Until I read Stabbed in the Back: Confronting Back Pain in an Overtreated Society, I didn’t realize that it was possible to write a book about back pain that was thoughtful and full of interesting tidbits, and yet had nothing useful to say to patients.
Book Review: Treat Your Own Back by Robin McKenzie
After years of getting secondhand versions of his advice from websites, forums, and patient stories, I picked up Robin McKenzie’s book, Treat Your Own Back, to see what the man himself had to say.
Book Review: Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
Sonya Huber’s book, Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System, is a remarkable accomplishment. There were many points in this book where I felt the thrill of hearing someone say the thing you wanted to say, only better.
Book Review: The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care – and How to Fix It by Marty Makary, MD
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care and How to Fix It took my snippets of observation and placed them in a larger context. If you’re an American who wants to know what the heck is wrong with our health care system, then this book is for you.
Book Review: CROOKED: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting On the Road to Recovery by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
Crooked was sufficiently useful that I listened to the audiobook twice, and then bought a hardcopy so I could page through it more carefully. In many ways, it changed my thinking about back pain and treatment, and made me realize that my failure to respond to the treatments prescribed to me has less to do with my own unique situation and more to do with the failures of the system.
Book Review: Back Mechanic by Dr. Stuart McGill
Any budding complaints died on my lips somewhere around Chapter 2. Unlike most other books I’ve read that cater to patients, this one was straightforward and packed with information. Refreshingly, it did not seem to assume that I am a couch potato who is incapable of following a doctor’s advice.
Book Review: Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno
Sarno gained a minor celebrity status and cult following among patients, although he was largely shut out of the medical research community. After reading his book, I can understand both sides to some degree.