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Nine Pints
Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood | Rose George
12 posts | 9 read | 1 reading | 26 to read
An eye-opening exploration of blood, the lifegiving substance with the power of taboo, the value of diamonds and the promise of breakthrough science Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many dont even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event. Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, is renowned for her intrepid work on topics that are invisible but vitally important. In Nine Pints, she takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to modern hemovigilance teams that track blood-borne diseases. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the worlds first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as Menstrual Man for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the OPEC of plasma. And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you. Spanning science and politics, stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life's blood in an entirely new light.
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review
Daisey
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Pickpick

This book was a fascinating listen! It describes very little about how blood works inside the body. Instead, 9 chapters focus on more external factors like blood donation vs. payment for plasma, leeches, hemophilia, HIV & Hepatitis C, blood usage in trauma care, cultural views of menstruation, menstrual products, possibilities of synthetic blood, and blood as medical treatment. It combines history and current medicine.

#nonfiction #audiobook

FlowerFairy As a phlebotomist (professional vampire 🧛‍♀️) this sounds intriguing. 2y
Daisey @Cinfhen Here‘s my review. I ended up finding it completely fascinating, but it has a lot of cultural and historical information alongside the pop science I was expecting. 2y
See All 8 Comments
Kinniska FWIW I bet you‘d also like (if you haven‘t already read it) “Dark Banquet” about obligate sanguivores like leeches, ticks, two species of bats (and the underappreciated scientists who study them), and the evolutionary cost of limiting themselves to a single source of food. It was surprisingly awesome. 2y
Daisey @FlowerFairy It really was! 2y
Daisey @Kinniska It does sound interesting! I‘ll have to add it to the never ending TBR list. 2y
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 2y
Cinfhen Thanks for tagging me! It does sound interesting and I‘m so glad it was a pick for you, but i don‘t think it‘s for me 😉 2y
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Smrloomis
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So good!

wanderinglynn Sounds interesting. 4y
bnp I would never heard of this before Litsy. Added to Mt. TBR. 4y
Smrloomis @wanderinglynn it was! And @bnp so glad to be of service 😉 4y
70 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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Smrloomis
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“Details of what goes into tampons and sanitary pads are sparse... If we were inserting lollipops in our vaginas, we‘d know a lot more about them.” Both funny and scary

bnp Eww! And I wanna know more! 4y
Smrloomis @bnp me too! This book is pretty interesting although the tampon part isn‘t long enough for me (and probably too long for other readers). 4y
Vansa Oh my god that is so insightful. I should read this book too. 4y
Smrloomis @Vansa it‘s really good! 4y
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Smrloomis
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Getting more recognition? “As this is Britain, the recognition often consists of free hot drinks and nods and waves from police and paramedics.” 😂

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Smrloomis
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Blood is the “stuff that spurts out when you are not very well.” Yes. Hard to argue with that I guess.

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Mrgoudabook

Hello my fellow book friends I finished nine pints a couple of weeks ago and jumped immediately into The Red Market by Scott Carney and I can‘t get enough of this topic! So I need your help on what to read next on this topic of this crazy body parts market.😲 #scribd4life

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Twainy
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🎧 if you are curious about blood this is the book for you!! It‘s infinitely fascinating but you cannot be squeamish at all & be ready for some seriously gross strait talk! You‘ve been warned. Factual and seriously more than you will ever want to know about blood! Recommendation. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

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Cinfhen
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Hey @Megabooks Have you listened to either of these??? I‘m thinking of purchasing them
Any other Littens try either of these audiobooks??? #AudibleSale

Cinfhen Turns out the Jen Lancaster book is free on Kindle Unlimited 5y
Megabooks I almost got Nine Pints, but then I didn‘t like the narrator in the sample. I haven‘t heard of the other one. 5y
See All 9 Comments
Megabooks @Cinfhen I bailed on Maid, but I hope you enjoy it. Believe it or not, I‘ve never read Elizabeth Strout! I should get around to it at some point. 👍🏻 5y
MicheleinPhilly I‘ll be very curious to hear what you think of Maid. I hated it. 5y
Cinfhen @Megabooks didn‘t like it either @MicheleinPhilly 😬uh oh!! 5y
MicheleinPhilly @Cinfhen I‘m pretty sure we‘re in the minority on that one. 5y
Megabooks I had the same complaints about her attitude that some people have voiced here, but some didn‘t notice, others did and liked the book anyway. 🤷🏻‍♀️ it‘s returnable. 5y
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Eggs
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Everything you ever wanted to know about blood (and some you didn‘t)!! The chapter on leeches (gag) gave me the willies, though they were a significant part of what we now know about blood.

Mandigolightly Omg this looks so interesting 5y
63 likes7 stack adds1 comment
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sparrowssavvy
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Pickpick

Parts of this book I found captivating and truly couldn‘t put the book down. Other chapters and subjects truly had me struggling to get through, and were a bit depressing. That said, definitely worth a read and I learned so many new wonderful things about blood.

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DreesReads
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The average adult has 9 pints of blood. In this book, George discusses different aspects of blood (and the blood industry) in 9 chapters. She covers everything from bloodletting and leeches (historical and modern uses), to the history of British blood banks, to blood-transmitted diseases (especially AIDS and Hep C), to menstrual practices, to trauma treatment, to vampires and the possibility of manufactured blood. Info-dense but very good!

gradcat This sounds really interesting, a bit like Mary Roach‘s takes on specific bodily functions and/or organs. 6y
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