An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Richtel, 425 pages.

Richtel, a reporter who has written several novels and the nonfiction work, A Deadly Wandering, the account of fatal car crash, centers this work on the immune system and advances in immunology. He tells the stories of four people, a government attorney who contracted AIDS back in the mid-1980s, a professional golfer with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and two people who, for the love of god, I no longer recall (wait, I just remembered the main one--the author's high-school buddy who has developed a particularly aggressive cancer). He tells their stories, not only their lives, but the stories of their diagnosis and treatment.
With the four parallel stories and with the narrative history of immunology woven in there, Richtel does a good job of keeping the reader interested.
A decent introduction to immunology, written in an engaging and accessible style.

Brain on Fire

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan  264 pp.

It's been awhile since I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. to finish a book when I had to get up for work the next day but I got caught up in this one.  In 2009, twenty-four year old Cahalan suffered what, at first, seemed to be a breakdown which became more severe and evolved into a complete psychotic break. Her madness included hallucinations, paranoia, and violent outbursts against friends, family, and total strangers. The first doctor who "treated" her, concluded she was just drinking too much and that stopping alcohol would solve the problem. But Cahalan was not drinking to excess. When she began suffering seizures it was thought that her psychosis was what is called Postictal Psychosis, essentially psychosis caused by seizures. Treating the seizures did not solve the problem. It took multiple doctors and countless tests before she was diagnosed with a little known autoimmune disorder that was attacking her brain. Cahalan, a New York Post reporter, has written a fascinating account of what she went through based on journals kept by family members, videos of her behavior when hospitalized, accounts from medical professionals, and her own memories.