How We Live

How We Live, by Sherwin B. Nunland, is an intriguing, well-written book worthy of a five-star review. The 364-page book is beautifully written, with excellent descriptions and powerful stories. In addition to scientifically accurate descriptions of each body system, How We Live relates the structure of each part of the body to the function of a human being as a whole. This book is truly the work of an excellent author. The first chapter, "The Will to Live", is a story of just that - a woman who requires immediate emergency surgery top treat a desperate condition. The descriptions in this chapter are vivid and graphic - including detailed accounts of the surgery itself. Spurting blood, ruptured organs, and jerking muscle are described so intensely it is easy to imagine what the scene described would look like. In fact, this chapter is so well-written, I advise anyone with a weak stomach to skip it! The second chapter provides many accurate descriptions of the body and how it works - everything from blood and capillaries to the differences between voluntary and involuntary muscle. The circulatory system is described in such detail that it is easy to forget this is a scientific book! The body and its structures are described as wonders of nature. The third chapter goes into a story of breast cancer and gets more deeply into the endocrine system. There is, in this chapter, an interesting description of a cancerous breast and the procedure done to remove it. The fourth chapter deals with the nervous system, and provides several helpful illustrations to help the reader understand somewhat challenging information. The fifth chapter details the cell, and the sixth and seventh chapters discuss sexuality and the reproductive process. The book goes on the discuss birth, the heart, the digestive system, and the brain. These chapters add up to a scientifically accurate, yet interesting book. How We Live is different from most other science books in that it isn't dry or confusing. It combines accurate information with heart-warming stories and is fun to read. The information is surprisingly easy to understand and the book is interesting enough to contend with fiction novels. This is a must read!

I bought this book under the title "Wisdom of the Body". Because it was written after "How We Die", which won a National Book Award, it was changed from "Wisdom of the Body" to "How We Live" because so many reviewers nicknamed it that. Dr. Nuland is one of the best writer's I have come across concerning the function of the human body. He writes with such clarity and interweaves his stories with wonderful references to the history of medicine. I think everyone that has the least bit of interest in how their body works should read his books. You don't have to have a medical background to understand his writing, but if you do have a medical background, he helps you see things even more clearly. These books are especially meaningful for anyone who has an aging parent suffering from certain illnesses. It will give you an understanding and a peace that you might not find elsewhere.

Dr. Nuland has written a well constructed book that leads the reader through a bit of anatomy, together with helpful discussions of the Greek and Latin words behind the anatomical names. However, the main focus is on how the body strives to maintain health and how the emergent phenomena of 'Human Spirit' plays into that maintenance. Contrary to the impressions from earlier reviewers, I found this book to be extremely well written, and carefully constructed so that the reader is exposed to the nature of the material in a well ordered way. I loved his writing style, I loved the emotion behind the stories he told, and I appreciate his struggles with how the human spirit could emerge from the chaos of evolution. I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed Nuland's book. For those who know a little, or a lot, about anatomy and physiology, this is an excellent read. Nuland has a passion for his work as a surgeon and a talent to make the complex understandable. His philosophical expository is punctuated with real life cases.

This was the first of Nuland's books that I have read and it will definitely not be the last. I found it extremely fascinating to read, both from the perspective of the scientific and humanities aspects to medicine. He tells about the body's inner workings through unique case studies over the course of his career. The physiology is very descriptive, but not in a boring text-book type of way. The pages flow from one to the next as he explores the various aspectes that living organisms, especially humans, go through in the process of life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in medicine or biology. There are better books that focus on only the science or personal aspect of medicine, but this is a rare and fabulously written combination of the two. Nuland's command of the English language is a joy to read and will be extremely informative and entertaining to the novice or expert reader.