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stevenyenzer's review
4.0
The title of this book is too limited — it's really about prion diseases as a whole, and Max covers fatal familial insomnia, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Creutzfeld-Jakob Syndrome, and a range of other similar illnesses. But The Family That Couldn't Sleep doesn't read like a textbook. It's very personal, and Max provides a personal account of these ancient diseases.
jenniepicky's review
3.0
D.T. Max outlines the fascinating history of prion protein diseases including FFI (Fatal Familial Insomnia), and "mad cow" disease. Reading this left me wondering about the Canadian view on prions and the handling of mad cow by the Canadian government and beef industry (I may never eat beef in the US or Britain again...)
Pair this book with the fiction book 12.21 by Dustin Thomason and you may never sleep again. (see what I did there?)
Pair this book with the fiction book 12.21 by Dustin Thomason and you may never sleep again. (see what I did there?)
dayseraph's review against another edition
5.0
I just read this book yesterday in the airport and on the plane. It was very engaging. It's about fatal familial insomnia and mad cow disease and chronic wasting disease and prions and Nobel prizes and scientists and cannibalism. It's also about the mysteries of medicine and how that affects families. Despite the complicated subject matter, I found the book to be very accessable to the non-scientist. It's intriguing and a little bit scary but definitely worth the read.
sjeckert's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting, intellectual read that describes the progression of prion disease from scrapie in sheep to chronic wasting disease in American deer to CJD, FFI, and BSE in humans over the last few centuries. It is informative, anecdotal, scientific, yet accessible. It presents history, science, current events, and cultural/societal issues that promote further thought and reading on the subject. A great read if you're interested in prion disease, medical or scientific research, history, or just want to be informed.
scheu's review against another edition
4.0
Considerably better, and more in-depth, than Rhodes' _Deadly Feasts_, which I will need to re-review. Everything you ever wanted to know about prions but were afraid to ask - although it has to be said that what we know is still very limited.
darkbaysfordays's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve wanted to read this book since learning about prions in my college neurobiology class. I’m sad that I waited so long! Couldn’t put it down, the pace is perfect. Super interesting (scary!) and thoroughly written information presented in an organized way. You really feel for the victims of all prion diseases and start questioning things you feel are routine (like consuming meat).
mrswythe89's review
2.0
Light, fast read, entertainingly written. Useful for its go-over of mad cow disease -- I only had a very vague idea of what it was all about because I was fairly young when concern about it was at its height. Very unimpressed by the chapters on the Fore and the treatment of Carleton Gajdusek, a known paedophile -- the sentence that sticks in the mind is one where Max points out that rival scientist Prusiner was notably not on the list of people who supported Gajdusek when he went to jail for molesting kids (one recalls the Polanski petition). Because the only reason why someone would refrain from supporting a paedophile is because out of professional rivalry? Weak. Footnotes on the sources on which Max based his writing about the Fore reveal that they were all written by Western names -- but then I could have told you that without looking.