Says Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air, “Chances are, you’ve never heard of William Stewart Halsted, but if you’ve ever had a surgical procedure of any kind, you could say he’s affected your life…no one did more to modernize medical surgery.”

He was also a cocaine and morphine addict.

Gerald Imber, who has written a book about Halsted, was interviewed on last night’s show (listen here. Warning: surgical procedures are described; don’t listen before lunch)

The book rose to #74 on Amazon. Library ordering is light.

Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted Gerald Imber Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 412 pages Publisher: Kaplan Publishing – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1607146274 / 9781607146278

The essential question when deciding whether to buy more copies of a suddenly-successful book is, “How long will the interest last?”

In the case of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, all signs indicate that interest is not going to fade soon.

The book tells the sad and fascinating story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, some of her cancer cells were removed and are still living in medical laboratories where they have played a part in major medical breakthroughs, including the discovery of the polio vaccine. The fact that her descendents are unable to afford medical care is just one of the many moral issues that the book raises.

The book’s story as well as the story of the author who became obsessed with it, have generated a great deal of media coverage, as we noted earlier, but beyond that, the reviews indicate the book is as strong as the story it tells.

Entertainment Weekly’s review editor, Tina Jordan, who has read a LOT of books, calls it  ”The best book I’ve read in quite a while,” on the magazine’s blog Shelf Life. She even included this personal information in the review that appears in the magazine’s current issue,

Honestly, I shouldn’t even have been reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I had the flu and was so feverish that sweat was dripping off my nose and spattering the pages. But I could not put the book down — or even stop for a glass of ice water. Lacks’ story was that compelling.

The many consumer reviews to date have been strong, with several attesting to the book’s readability.

San Francisco Chronicle, “[Lack's descendent], Deborah at times seems as if she walked out of a novel’s pages. She is so vivid, so unforgettable, that it seems as if Skloot must have invented her. On the other hand, maybe no novelist, however skilled, could have imagined a character quite like Deborah.”

The New York Times, “…floods over you like a narrative dam break, as if someone had managed to distill and purify the more addictive qualities of Erin Brockovich, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The Andromeda Strain.

Boston Globe, “…a fascinating read and a ringing success. It is a well-written, carefully-researched, complex saga of medical research, bioethics, and race in America. Above all it is a human story of redemption for a family, torn by loss, and for a writer with a vision that would not let go.”

It’s on the 2/28  NYT Nonfiction list for the second week, and is rising on the US Today list; libraries are showing heavy holds.

We recommend buying more now; word of mouth could carry this into the summer.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1400052173 / 9781400052172

Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307712509; $35
Audio and e-book available from OverDrive.

Rebecca Skloot became obsessed with a story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman who contracted cancer in 1951; it was so virulant that it killed her within the year. She was just 31.

Amazingly, however, her cancer cells went on to have a life of their own. A medical researcher had been trying to find cells that would live indefinitely so he could use them in experiments. Lacks’ cells had that unique characteristic and have been used in labs around the world ever since; they were used to develop the first polio vaccine as well as drugs for many other diseases.

But neither Lacks nor her family knew that her cells were going to be used in this way.

Skloot just published a book about the story, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It was covered on ABC’s World News Tonight on Sunday and in the New York Times‘ “Health” section yesterday. Calling the book “gripping,”  the article notes that it raises difficult ethical issues; “if scientists or companies can commercialize a patient’s cells or tissues, doesn’t that patient, as provider of the raw material, deserve a say about it and maybe a share of any profits that result?”

The book is currently at #10 on Amazon. UPDATE: After the author was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross on Feb. 3, the book rose to #7 on Amazon.

Ordering is light with heavy holds in most  libraries. Where the audio is owned, it is also showing heavy holds

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1400052173 / 9781400052172

Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307712509; $35
Audio and e-book available from OverDrive.

The New York Times Science section calls Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle, “an exquisite picture guide to the universe,” adding, “Actually ‘exquisite’ does not really do justice to the aesthetic and literary merits of the book…”

Online, the NYT offers a slide show of some of the book’s amazing images.

The book is owned by most large libraries. Today, it rose from #29,203 on Amazon sales rankings to #18.

Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle Michael Benson Retail Price: $55.00 Hardcover: 328 pages Publisher: Abrams – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0810949482 / 9780810949485

After the author appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation yesterday, What on Earth Evolved? rose to #134 on Amazon; few libraries show it on their catalogs.

The book celebrates the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by ranking the top 100 species, in terms of their impact on evolution, human history and the environment. Species also get marks for how long they’ve survived and how far they have expanded across the globe.

The most influential species? Earthworms. Humans don’t even make the top five.

The book was not reviewed prepub, but it is described on the the National Geographic blog.

Be sure to check out the What on Earth Evolved? game on the book’s web site; it’s challenging and £1 is donated to charity for each person who plays.

——————–

What on Earth Evolved?: 100 Species That Changed the World Christopher Lloyd Retail Price: $45.00 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA – (2009-11-10) ISBN / EAN: 1596916540 / 9781596916548

If you’re wondering about the price — the publisher says it’s “lavishly illustrated.”

One of the people interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning’s cover story about  the safety of flu vaccine, was Michael Specter, author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. As is probably clear from the book’s subtitle, Specter, who writes about science and technology for The New Yorker, believes that the risks of not getting the vaccine outweigh any other concerns. He also was interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday and the book was reviewed in the New York Times.

Holds are heavy on modest ordering in the large libraries we checked.

Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives Michael Specter Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-10-29) ISBN / EAN: 1594202303 / 9781594202308

eBook downloadable from OverDrive.

CBS sunday Morning

Two books released on the same day, make quite different cases; the atheist Richard Dawkins makes the case for evolution in The Greatest Show in Earth, while Karen Armstrong makes The Case for God.

Armstrong’s book was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered last night; Dawkins is scheduled for the Colbert Report tomorrow night.

Both are showing heavy holds (Dawkins is running ahead of Armstrong) on light ordering.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution Richard Dawkins Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 1416594787 / 9781416594789

Unabridged Audio:
Simon & Schuster Audio; 9780743579278 $ 39.99; 9/1/09

—————————–

The Case for God Karen Armstrong Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 0307269183 / 9780307269188

Unbridged Audio:

• Random House Audio; 9780307702371; $50.00; 9/1/09
• Books on Tape; 9780307702395; $100; 9/22/09

Large Type:

Thorndike Press; 9781410421531; $ 32.95; 11/1/09

Downloadable audio and eBook from OverDrive

The NYT BR calls The Strangest Man, a biography of Paul Dirac, a mathematical physicist and the youngest theoretician to receive the Nobel Prize, “a gift,” saying it is both “wonderfully written” and “a thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations and the relations between the two.”

Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly were all equally rhapsodic. The book is on order in small quantities in most large libraries, with some holds.

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom Graham Farmelo Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 560 pages Publisher: Basic Books – (2009-08-25) ISBN / EAN: 0465018270 / 9780465018277

Downloadable ebook available from OverDrive.

This week’s CBS Sunday Morning Cover Story featured Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart. The book is now at #12 on Amazon and is showing heavy holds in some libraries (119 on 25 in one large system). It’s also on the Indie Bound nonfiction bestseller list, at #13.

The book was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition in mid-June. The LA Times called it “Deliciously eerie…entertaining, informative — and a little unsettling.”

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities Amy Stewart Retail Price: $18.95 Hardcover: 223 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2009-05-21) ISBN / EAN: 1565126831 / 9781565126831

In the 8/3 issue of Time magazine, Lev Grossman calls Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes, the “most flat-out fascinating book so far this year” and,

You wouldn’t get that from its title, which sounds like a tender coming-of-age novel, nor from its subtitle —How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science — which sounds like a course you napped through in college. But Holmes’ account of experimental science at the end of the 1700s — when amateurs could still make major discoveries, when one new data point could overthrow a worldview — is beyond riveting. Science was like punk rock: if you had a basement, some free time and some hubris, you could do it.

Large libraries are showing heavy holds on light ordering (27 on 2 copies in one instance).

It’s also been admiringly reviewed in the NY Times, the NYT Book Review, and the Wall Street Journal.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science Richard Holmes Retail Price: $40.00 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2009-07-14) ISBN / EAN: 0375422226 / 9780375422225

Now at #109 on Amazon, Bill Streever’s new book about life at polar and scientific extremes, Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places, is the happy beneficiary of two prominent New York Times reviews–and both critics love the book. Dwight Garner weighed in on Friday, July 24th in the daily Times, while Mary Roach, the much-praised author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, reviews it for the cover of the New York Times Book Review on Sunday, July 26. According to World Cat, 126 libraries have Cold. But of the four major systems we checked, two didn’t have it, and the other two had substantial holds on fewer than 10 copies.

Streever’s travels to the coldest places on our warming planet spark reflections on hibernation, frostbite and life in a snowpack, among many other intriguing topics. Garner praises his writing as ”flinty and tough-minded, with just enough humor glowing around the edges to keep you toasty and dry,” calling the book “an unusual and welcome addition to the literature of cold weather and the great north.”

Roach, meanwhile, heartily embraces Streever’s quirky science: “Streever reminds us that everything is molecules — bouncing energetically off one another in heat, sticking closer together and moving sluggishly in cold. As he makes clear, the sluggishness can spell trouble, whether it’s affecting your nerves (freezing digits go numb because synapses are too cold to fire), your blood, your car.”

And although Roach cautions that the book is “structured more like a blog,” with chapters that “aren’t united by easily discerned themes,” she declares “the book is so interesting it doesn’t matter.”

Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places Bill Streever Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2009-07-02) ISBN / EAN: 978-0316042918 / 0316042919

Fueled by Wayne Dyer’s appearances on PBS pledge drives since mid-May, Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits is back at #1 on Amazon, and has spent 17 days in the Top 100. Libraries we checked are catching up to heavy reserves, with copies on order. 

Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits Wayne W. Dyer Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2009-05-26) ISBN / EAN: 1401921736 / 9781401921736

However, none of the libraries we checked had copies of Dyer’s related children’s book, now up to #88 on Amazon: No Excuses!: How What You Say Can Get In Your Way, written with Kristina Tracy and illustrated by Stacy Heller Budnick.

No Excuses!: How What You Say Can Get In Your Way Wayne W. Dyer, Kristina Tracy Retail Price: $14.95 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2009-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 1401925839 / 9781401925833

Dyer’s publisher, Hay House, is also promoting two related adult books to his readers on Amazon:Virus of the Mind and The Biology of Belief. Both have spent nine days in Amazon’s Top 100, probably helped by the discount Amazon offers for buying the books together with Dyer’s. We’re not sure if this activity will stimulate library demand, but just in case, read on for more info about the books. And please use our comments are to alert us to any related activity you find in your library! 

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme by Richard Brodie, currently at #21 on Amazon, is a hardcover reissue of the book, which was first published in 1995 by Integral Press. One library has 32 holds on a single copy, but none of the others we checked had it. The book ”builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett,” according to the publisher, and describes how “mind viruses have already infected governments, educational systems, and inner cities, leading to some of the most pervasive and troublesome problems of society today.” It was featured on Oprah in the late 90’s, after its original publication.

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme Richard Brodie Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2009-05-15) ISBN / EAN: 1401924689 / 9781401924683

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles by Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D. is currently # 19 on Amazon. Libraries have up to 39 holds on modest numbers of copies, in several cases the 2005 edition published by Mountain of Love/Elite Books. According to Hay House, the book “shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts.”

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D. Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2008-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 1401923119 / 9781401923112

Audio available from Sounds True

• $24.95; 9781591795230 

Also available on Playaway

• $59.99; 978160812778

Nearly a month after publication, Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior by evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller climbed to #196 on Amazon last week, suggesting the book has some staying power thanks to New York Times Science section and Time magazine coverage. Half the libraries we checked had no copies, the rest have at least a couple, and one library has 92 holds, possibly because the author recently made a local appearance on his book tour.

Miller argues that biologists have sharper insights into our buying habits than marketers or consumers, who both miss the point that Ivy League diplomas and smart phones serve the same social functions as a fancy peacock’s tail. The New York Times focuses on how Miller deconstructs the social signals we send by choosing, say, the “conspicuous precision” of a BMW or Lexus  (e.g. extraversion and aggression) over a Toyota and Honda (e.g. high conscientiousness). The Times also notes that Miller bursts the “fundamental consumerist delusion” that everyone cares about what we buy, and concludes that evolution “is good at getting us to avoid death, desperation and celibacy, but it’s not that good at getting us to feel happy.”

Time magazine is more skeptical of Miller’s view that our personal acquisitions “are motivated by the primal desire for procreation, pleasure or both,” and criticizes him for ”broad, rambling arguments read at times like a college professor’s lecture notes.” Yet the reviewer’s observation that Miller’s ideas “don’t seem particularly groundbreaking,” and his recommendation the readers skim the book rather than read it all the way through, is somewhat at odds with his lively overview of Miller’s arguments.

Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior Geoffrey Miller Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-05-14) ISBN / EAN: 0670020621 / 9780670020621

Also available from Overdrive:

• Adobe EPUB eBook; $26.96; 9781101050842
• Adobe PDF eBook;  $26.96; 9781101048405
• MobiPocket eBook; $26.96; 9781101050231

Librarians have been wondering about an untitled book from Little, Brown with a 150K print run that appeared on B&T’s Fast Facts last month, with the following blurb:

This is a scientific discovery that is currently embargoed until it is announced at a major press conference and a documentary on History channel that will air on 5/20. This discovery will change textbooks, science, and change how we understand the human race.

The promised press conference was held in New York City today, revealing that a 47-million-year-old fossil, that may be the missing link, has been discovered in Germany (thanks to Cindy Orr for pointing this out on The Readers Advisor Online Blog). Called “Ida,” the fossil was actually uncovered in 1984, but, according to the Daily Mail (UK),  ”the collector who put her on his wall had no idea of her significance.”

Objecting to the hype surrounding the unveiling, the Guardian tut-tutted about

…the desperate, unseemly scramble to grab some of the action. In a display that was utterly primatal, figures as varied as the mayor of New York and the higher education minister of Norway made sure they were front and centre stage.

The most sublime image was of Michael Bloomberg standing beside Ida’s glass box, his arm around the shoulders of a school girl who was wearing a T-shirt with the TV tie-in logo: “The Link. This changes everything”. 

The History Channel will air a documentary, called The Link, on Monday, Memorial Day, at 9 pm ET/PT. There is also a Web site on the find; www.revealingthelink.com

The mystery title from Little, Brown releases tomorrow:

The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor Colin Tudge, Josh Young Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 262 pages Publisher: Little Brown and Company – (2009-05-20) ISBN-10: 0316070084 ISBN-13: 9780316070089

Are library buyers multitasking too much to keep track of Winifred Gallagher’s new book, Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life? It’s jumped to #26 on Amazon.com after a New York Times “Science” section story by John Tierney on “The Science of Concentration,” and by critic Laura Miller in Salon. Yet the libraries we checked showed low ordering (in some cases, no copies; in others, a single copy against 35 or more requests).

Gallagher argues that how we focus our attention is not only the key to mood, productivity and relationships, it’s the sum of our very being. A journalist and author of two other psychology books, she came to recognize the importance of attention while fighting cancer, when she discovered that consciously focusing on meaningful, productive or energizing subjects transformed her experience of the world. On a practical level, she recommends starting the workday with 90 minutes of undistracted attention on your most important task—bearing in mind that the brain can take 20 minutes to reset after an interruption.

Both reviewers clearly found Gallagher’s ideas engaging, although Miller found her writing “frustratingly scattered, self-contradicting and platitudinous” and questioned if we really need “more hand-wringing about families who don’t have dinner together or reheated summaries of scientific studies demonstrating the power of positive thinking?” Yet the Amazon rankings make clear that this subject strikes struck a chord. At this rate, we can expect to see it on bestseller lists next week.

Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life Winifred Gallagher Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-04-16) ISBN-10: 1594202109 ISBN-13: 9781594202100

Rapt is also available on audio from Brilliance:

• 7 audio CDs: 978-1-4233-9321-4
  $82.97 
• 1 MP3-CD: 978-1-4233-9323-8
  $39.97 

And a downloadable e-book is available from Overdrive:

• Adobe EPUB eBook ISBN:  9781101032596
  $25.95