Exhibitions: Take Two and Call Me in the Morning: The Story of Aspirin Revisited”

Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug by Diarmuid Jeffreys

Bloomsbury USA | 2004 | ISBN: 978-1582346007 | 352 pages | Adult/college | Nonfiction

Genre: Medicine/history/chemistry/phamaceutical medicine/scientific discoveries

Diarmuid Jeffreys traces the story of aspirin from the drug's origins in ancient Egypt, through its industrial development at the end of the nineteenth century and its key role in the great flu pandemic of 1918, to its subsequent exploitation by the pharmaceutical conglomerates and the marvelous powers still being discovered today.

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke

Riverhead Books | 2022 | ISBN: 978-1594633799 | 336 pages | Adult | Nonfiction

Genre: Memoir/health/medicine/chronic illness

A silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans: these are diseases that are poorly understood, frequently marginalized, and can go undiagnosed and unrecognized altogether. Renowned writer Meghan O’Rourke delivers a revelatory investigation into this elusive category of “invisible” illness that encompasses autoimmune diseases, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and now long COVID, synthesizing the personal and the universal to help all of us through this new frontier. Drawing on her own medical experiences as well as a decade of interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts, O’Rourke traces the history of Western definitions of illness, and reveals how inherited ideas of cause, diagnosis, and treatment have led us to ignore a host of hard-to-understand medical conditions, ones that resist easy description or simple cures. And as America faces this health crisis of extraordinary proportions, the populations most likely to be neglected by our institutions include women, the working class, and people of color.

Mistakes That Worked: 40 Familiar Inventions & How They Came to Be by Charlotte Foltz Jones

Delacorte Press | 1994 | ISBN: 978-0385320436 | 96 pages | Ages 8-12 | Nonfiction

Genre: Children/medicine/scientific inventions/history

The greatest discoveries are made outside the classroom. Learn all about mistakes that changed the world with this collection of the strange stories behind everyday inventions - including aspirin. Sandwiches came about when an English earl was too busy gambling to eat his meal and needed to keep one hand free. Potato chips were first cooked by a chef who was furious when a customer complained that his fried potatoes weren’t thin enough. Coca-Cola, Silly Putty, and X rays have fascinating stories behind them, too. Their unusual tales, and many more, along with hilarious cartoons and weird, amazing facts, make up this fun-filled book about everyday items that had surprisingly haphazard beginnings.

The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia (Simón Bruni, English translator)

Amazon Crossing | 2019 | ISBN: 978-1542040495 | 476 pages | Adult | Fiction

Genre: Historical fiction/early 20th century/Mexican Revolution/medicine/nature/magicla realism

Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable. From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can—visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats—both human and those of nature—Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.

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