Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection John Green (2025) John Green guides readers through the sad history of tuberculosis (TB), which has been killing people all over the world for millennia. His narrative is made poignant by accounts of individual cases, especially that of a young man from Sierra Leone, Henry Reider. Today, TB is almost always curable if it is diagnosed early in the infection and if drugs specific to the TB variant are available. However, due to the rapacity of pharmaceutical companies and the inaction of wealthy nations, TB is still killing more than a million people every year. Green is a global advocate for policies that could eliminate TB, and this book is his powerful call to action. (Green is also the author of the 2021 bestseller The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, and several other titles.)
The Cycle: Confronting the Pain of Periods and PMDD Shalene Gupta (2024) If you’ve never heard of PMDD, you’re not alone. I’ve been a women’s health advocate for decades, and it was a new one for me. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), characterized by intense physical and mental symptoms, that millions of women around the world suffer from without correct diagnosis and treatment. For years, Shalene Gupta was one of these women. Thanks to her research and doggedness, she finally found answers—and an effective medication—at the age of 32. In The Cycle, she weaves her own story in as she recounts the historical stigma around menstruation and reports on the many interviews she conducted with those seeking answers to PMDD, both sufferers and physicians. Gupta’s extensive footnotes to the medical literature reflect her credentials as a respected journalist. Her personal revelations about her symptoms and about her diagnosis journey are specific and searing, giving her book an exceptional authenticity. (Disclosure: Shalene Gupta is a family friend, but she had no previous knowledge of this review.)