What Chicks Are Reading

This book will make you think twice about the drugs you take and the "fad" remedies you prescribe to for various reasons, especially those that have only recently been approved by the FDA. It also offers incredible insight into the manipulation by the drug companies of the regulatory process of the FDA.

The author tells the story of Mary Linnen, age 29, who was determined to lose 25 pounds before her wedding... READ ENTIRE REVIEW
  

Interesting read but this book did not meet my expectations. I am not certain whether I wanted a lesson in leadership or a warm, sensitive novel about one of the world's greatest business leaders and perhaps the most famous CEO. It was neither.

The book recounts how under his leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business. The book begins with Welch's childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, then quickly progresses from his first job in GE's plastics division to his ambitious rise up the GE corporate ladder, which culminated in 1981. What comes across most in this autobiography is Welch's passion for business as well as his remarkable directness and intolerance of what he calls "superficial congeniality" -- a dislike that would help earn him the nickname "Neutron Jack." Chick Susie
  

Swimming Across: A Memoir by Andrew S. Grove

I have read and reviewed many biographies and autobiographies; none have touched my heart like this one. Andrew Grove has earned fame and fortune as chairman and cofounder of Intel. But, from this remarkable memoir, he began life under very different circumstances. The book is a narrative of his first twenty years, how he narrowly escaped the Holocaust and the closing of the Iron Curtain. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1936, Grove -- then called Andras Grof -- he grew up in a modestly prosperous, secular Jewish family. Through foresight and sheer good fortune, they avoided the fate of many of their fellow Jews, fleeing the Nazis into the countryside and living in a dark cellar in which "the sound of artillery was a continuous backdrop." Under the Communist regime that followed, Grove distinguished himself as a student of chemistry and was seemingly destined for a comfortable position in academia or industry--until revolution broke out in 1956 and he found himself in that cellar once again.

Swimming Across is an excellent account and would be so even without the context of the enormous impact this man has had on technology. I say that as I write this email review on a computer with "Intel Inside." Grove indicates that he wrote this book for the sake of his grandchildren, I suggest that this is for all of us to better understand the human behind the legend.

If you have to choose between Andy Grove's and Jack Welch's (see above) books, I would choose Swimming Across. Chick Susie
 

They are all talented in different ways and lead quite different lives from each other. When they are all about to turn 40, they share the momentous occasion together at a summerhouse in Maine, talking up a storm and taking stock of their lives and loves, their wishes and choices. There they each receive a very special gift -- the chance for each of them to turn some special dreams into realty.

It's quick reading and fairly interesting. Chick Jeanette
 

The author tells the story of Mary Linnen, age 29, who was determined to lose 25 pounds before her wedding. In May 1996, her doctor prescribed a combination of drugs known as Fen-Phen. When Linnen complained of dizziness and shortness of breath 23 days after starting the medications, her doctor told her to stop the drugs, but didn't examine her or order further tests. Linnen got better for a time, then the shortness of breath and exhaustion returned worse than ever. Her legs and stomach swelled. She collapsed at work. Six months after taking Fen-Phen, Linnen was admitted to the emergency room with primary pulmonary hypertension: the capillaries that sent oxygen to her lungs had thickened and were closing, suffocating her. Her survival expectation after heart surgery was less than four years. Hooked up to a tube in her chest to prevent heart failure, she died three months later.

The book reads like a thriller, and the information it contains is especially vital to anyone who has ever taken Fen-Phen. Even if you would never consider taking a diet drug, you need to learn how ineffectual the FDA has become in the face of the super-powerful drug companies. The drug companies involved knew about the serious health risks associated with these drugs and made every effort not to inform doctors and drug users about the potential dangers. Worse yet, they knew that the drug didn't work. And although they were recommending it for long-term use, they had tested it only for short-term use.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this book is its tone, in the midst of a story that is frightening and sad, the author is witty, and an incredible story teller. I felt great disappointment with the drug industry, but at the same time I was hopeful, as the author finds many rays of light. For example, one of the heroes in the book was a med tech in Fargo, North Dakota named Pam Ruff, who pursued a strange coincidence in the echocardiograms of her patients not because she thought she could profit, but because she thought she could help. And then there is the FDA's Leo Lutwak, who risked his reputation and his job to voice his dissent over the approval of the dangerous drugs.

A must read for women of all ages and also a helpful reminder to all of the investors who fall in with pharmaceutical companies.  Chick Susie

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