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inkocean's review against another edition
3.0
Pisani is insightful and acerbic in her evaluation of the international HIV/AIDS machine. Some portions of the book dragged a bit, but the heart and soul of Wisdom of Whores cuts to the heart of barriers people face in preventing HIV. The great strength of this work is that she pulls readers back to the root of HIV/AIDS, which is 95%+ sex and drugs. If politicians and policy makers spoke openly and honestly about these topics, then HIV/AIDS probably would wither away within several generations.
She spends 300+ pages building her case, but in the end she fits all of her recommendations onto 3 pages and you really feel that those 3 pages could save the world. Despite the international, multi-billion dollar machine that is the HIV/AIDS aid network, if we talked more honestly about safe sex and drug use, HIV/AIDS doesn't spread.
She spends 300+ pages building her case, but in the end she fits all of her recommendations onto 3 pages and you really feel that those 3 pages could save the world. Despite the international, multi-billion dollar machine that is the HIV/AIDS aid network, if we talked more honestly about safe sex and drug use, HIV/AIDS doesn't spread.
nunom's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. If you're interested in a first person account of how it felt like to work for epidemiology groups during the peak of the AIDS epidemic, you should give this book a shot.
Elizabeth Pisani is intelligent, funny, and above all honest. She is not shy to mention the successes that she and the organisms she has worked for have had, but she is humble enough to admit the failures. She also explains why some of the failures were purely due to human error (which is unavoidable), or due to the intrusion of strong political and/or religious ideologies during a decision-making process that should rely on the most objective analysis possible.
Pisani addresses the problems with gathering epidemiology data regarding indicators apparently as simple as the people infected with HIV, or how the infection proceeds from these people to new hosts. She explains why policies should be precisely targeting these risk groups, instead of the naïve, albeit more palatable, "general population". She also explains why our unease with dealing with the traditionally "weirdos" of society has prevented some countries to put in place effective policies aiming at stopping or slowing the progression of the HIV infection.
All in all, a great book.
Elizabeth Pisani is intelligent, funny, and above all honest. She is not shy to mention the successes that she and the organisms she has worked for have had, but she is humble enough to admit the failures. She also explains why some of the failures were purely due to human error (which is unavoidable), or due to the intrusion of strong political and/or religious ideologies during a decision-making process that should rely on the most objective analysis possible.
Pisani addresses the problems with gathering epidemiology data regarding indicators apparently as simple as the people infected with HIV, or how the infection proceeds from these people to new hosts. She explains why policies should be precisely targeting these risk groups, instead of the naïve, albeit more palatable, "general population". She also explains why our unease with dealing with the traditionally "weirdos" of society has prevented some countries to put in place effective policies aiming at stopping or slowing the progression of the HIV infection.
All in all, a great book.
mstera's review against another edition
3.0
A wonderful informative and actually entertaining book on a subject that you would imagine to be dry and depressing. Elizabeth has a great voice and allows personality and humanity to take hold of the subject matter rather than an bury the reader with mind numbing facts.
Perhaps if the subject matter was dealt with in our communities, schools and even homes with the same informative yet humanizing approach progress would be more than a goal.
Perhaps if the subject matter was dealt with in our communities, schools and even homes with the same informative yet humanizing approach progress would be more than a goal.
lindsayw's review against another edition
5.0
June 2016 re-read: I graduated from my MSc. in Epidemiology last week, so I thought I would re-read the book that started it all: The Wisdom of Whores. I first read this book back in 2010 and it literally changed my life. I was in the middle of a degree in International Development, and my main interest was in Global Health, with a particular emphasis on HIV. I was really unclear about what I wanted to do with my life and was increasingly dissatisfied with the largely ineffective development work we've been doing for the last century or so and the seemingly ambiguous marking schemes this degree involved. As I became increasingly jaded, I picked up this book. In it, Elizabeth Pisani mentions that she is an epidemiologist (the first time I'd ever heard that word) and on learning what the hell that was, I said, "That's what I've been looking for. That's what I want to do."
Cut to six years later, where I ultimately finished that undergraduate degree in 2012, started a graduate epidemiology program in 2013, and defended my Master's thesis (focusing on HIV testing) at the end of last year. I've also spent the last two years working in harm reduction research focusing on HIV and Hepatitis C. So, with all the ceremony surrounding convocation last week, I thought I'd revisit this book to really bookend the whole thing. Now that I've given this exceedingly long back-story, here are my highly anticipated thoughts on the re-read.
This book is still amazing. I'm glad to see I had good taste in books six years ago, and I still see why it spoke to me so deeply. The only difference this time around was that now I've spent two years of my own life actually working on this issue rather than just researching it for school, and I've come across so many of the issues that Elizabeth Pisani talks about in my own life that it's frankly alarming. That so little has changed in the near decade since the book came out is a travesty. My work with people who use drugs has given me a pretty good idea of the lack of existing political will that would make the health of people who use drugs a priority. There have been encouraging steps forward in some areas, but there is still so much more to do. (For specifics of what those seemingly straightforward solutions are, I encourage literally everyone to read this book.)
Elizabeth Pisani is unflinching in her delivery of the realities of working in the field of HIV and her no-bullshit explanations of why we are failing so badly in getting HIV under control is eye-opening. She says so much of what needs to be said. If we could just get some more people saying it, maybe we could do better for the people who would genuinely benefit from the industry getting its shit together.
Original Review: "The Wisdom of Whores" immediately captured my attention with its thought-provoking title. The book within the cover just served to draw me in further. Elizabeth Pisani brilliantly captures one of the main obstacles in dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis - sometimes smart people make bad choices. This is just one of the simple, yet brillint insights provided in this book; I couldn't put it down.
I have been studying HIV/AIDS for several years, and never has a book on the subject spoken to me in such a profound and meaningful way. In fact, due in large part to the world I was exposed to through Pisani's writing, I am now applying to my Masters in Epidemiology. Never underestimate the power of an excellent book.
Cut to six years later, where I ultimately finished that undergraduate degree in 2012, started a graduate epidemiology program in 2013, and defended my Master's thesis (focusing on HIV testing) at the end of last year. I've also spent the last two years working in harm reduction research focusing on HIV and Hepatitis C. So, with all the ceremony surrounding convocation last week, I thought I'd revisit this book to really bookend the whole thing. Now that I've given this exceedingly long back-story, here are my highly anticipated thoughts on the re-read.
This book is still amazing. I'm glad to see I had good taste in books six years ago, and I still see why it spoke to me so deeply. The only difference this time around was that now I've spent two years of my own life actually working on this issue rather than just researching it for school, and I've come across so many of the issues that Elizabeth Pisani talks about in my own life that it's frankly alarming. That so little has changed in the near decade since the book came out is a travesty. My work with people who use drugs has given me a pretty good idea of the lack of existing political will that would make the health of people who use drugs a priority. There have been encouraging steps forward in some areas, but there is still so much more to do. (For specifics of what those seemingly straightforward solutions are, I encourage literally everyone to read this book.)
Elizabeth Pisani is unflinching in her delivery of the realities of working in the field of HIV and her no-bullshit explanations of why we are failing so badly in getting HIV under control is eye-opening. She says so much of what needs to be said. If we could just get some more people saying it, maybe we could do better for the people who would genuinely benefit from the industry getting its shit together.
Original Review: "The Wisdom of Whores" immediately captured my attention with its thought-provoking title. The book within the cover just served to draw me in further. Elizabeth Pisani brilliantly captures one of the main obstacles in dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis - sometimes smart people make bad choices. This is just one of the simple, yet brillint insights provided in this book; I couldn't put it down.
I have been studying HIV/AIDS for several years, and never has a book on the subject spoken to me in such a profound and meaningful way. In fact, due in large part to the world I was exposed to through Pisani's writing, I am now applying to my Masters in Epidemiology. Never underestimate the power of an excellent book.
library_hungry's review against another edition
3.0
This was a very interesting and well-written book, a fun look at the world of AIDS research, if you'd believe it. I learned a lot about the international public policy system, and a lot about prostitution and the underworld in different Asian countries.
The only drawback to the book is something you can't blame the author for--you can't help but get bogged down in long organization names, acronyms, amounts of money. Describing international politics inevitably results in long paragraphs, just because everything that happens has a list of countries behind it, and the amounts they all gave, and which long-named NGO they gave it to, and which long list of countries it was spent in. There is no way to avoid it, and no way to avoid getting just a little bogged down in it.
But just a little. A very interesting book in a lot of ways.
The only drawback to the book is something you can't blame the author for--you can't help but get bogged down in long organization names, acronyms, amounts of money. Describing international politics inevitably results in long paragraphs, just because everything that happens has a list of countries behind it, and the amounts they all gave, and which long-named NGO they gave it to, and which long list of countries it was spent in. There is no way to avoid it, and no way to avoid getting just a little bogged down in it.
But just a little. A very interesting book in a lot of ways.
brittanyplusbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Very data/statistics heavy, but unexpectedly entertaining.
left_coast_justin's review against another edition
3.0
Pisani is a good journalist and writer -- I thoroughly enjoyed her book Indonesia, Inc. -- and I was carried along through this one by its page-by-page readability. Along the way, I learned quite a bit about the numbers behind the headlines, and how prevalent risky behavior is, even in areas where it is quite hidden from view. I was unaware, for example, that metro NYC has more than 180,000 burghers who inject drugs, and that about a third of these are not what we'd think of as junkies, but rather functional people with families and careers and a carefully-managed heroin habit.
What would have made this book better is a tighter narrative arc -- she vividly describes her entree into this field in Hong Kong, and the conference that made her quit -- but a more disciplined story showing how A led to B led to C.... would have resulted in a shorter, less repetitive and better book.
What would have made this book better is a tighter narrative arc -- she vividly describes her entree into this field in Hong Kong, and the conference that made her quit -- but a more disciplined story showing how A led to B led to C.... would have resulted in a shorter, less repetitive and better book.