Rose George

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 don’t 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 the breakthough of the "liquid biopsy," which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s 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.

A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood

Nine Pints

Justin Jerome Price

A through overview of the history of blood

	Nine Pints is a fascinating read. Written by journalist Rose George, this book explores the myriad of complicated societal issues surrounding blood and its use in medical practices. She accomplishes this through the use of juxtaposition of the present with the past. This creates a helpful throughline, showing how past issues and events creates or relates to present issues.  What one can appreciate from this style is that not only does it help understanding sophisticated issues, it also challenges the reader to reflect on perhaps some of their own beliefs that may perpetuate the contemporary issue. For example, a section of the book explores the history of volunteer blood donations. Previously, hospitals paid people to donate blood directly to a person since the process of storing blood was not created. She points out that often, poor people would be exploited and their blood would be questionable. She then shows how this help contributed to the 1980s HIV/Hep B outbreak since many blood corporations did not screen donors and thus many hemophiliacs were exposed to tainted clotting factors. This led to many countries banning the paying of donors for whole blood. She then explores the contemporary issue of paying donors for plasma, looking at a private Canadian plasma corporation and the health concerns that many experts point out. She interviews two people who used to be volunteer whole blood donors, but switched to paid plasma donations. One a student, the other a fairly fit woman. Both conceded that the money was a big factor. And even though the author told the student some of the history of plasma and blood donations, he was very nonchalant about the revelations.

	And it should be noted that while Rose George does editorialize in terms of sharing her opinions and moralize a little in her interviews, it is never done out of a sense of superiority. She aims her vitriol at the social systems and institutions that truly deserve it. For the downtrodden, she is compassionate and understanding.This particularly noteworthy since her investigations take her around the world. In a lesser reporter’s hand, it would be easy to portray the issues as a result of a “backwards” society. But Rose also points out how western societies share some of the same beliefs even to this day. By doing this, she avoids much of the Western bias many tend to have when it comes to other cultures. 
	
In conclusion, this book was a great read. It forces one to confront their own biases when it comes to blood. It also reveals how little issues concerning blood are discussed in the public sphere. I truly recommend this book for anybody interested

Amy Maddess

This book starts off really strong by mixing passionate phrases with factual information to allow you to become completely enamored by the romance that is blood. However, it falls off quickly. The first thing I noticed that I didn't overly love is the structure - or lack thereof. There isn't really a flow between chapters, or anything connecting different ideas besides the common theme of relating to blood. Structurally, I think this would have been much more enjoyable had it been presented as a series of essays, each with the central focus of blood, but with more room to branch off without seeming tangential. This would have allowed me to be more accepting of some of the randomness of the facts and the way they are haphazardly thrown in. 

I also think that George is just on the tip of the iceberg with his research. None of the information provided in this book is groundbreaking or hard to find on Google, and the authour does not ponder and process any of the information, and certainly does not add an additional unique thought before presenting it to the reader. I would still recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic, simply because I don't know any other books about blood that come to mind, but recommending a quick Google search of the term 'blood' will work just as well. [Also, the authour always ends the chapters in a way that you can tell is supposed to be poetic and make us pause before continuing to read but it falls super flat and it makes me wish she had worked harder on the whole book and not just the last paragraph of each chapter].

Nine Pints A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood

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