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Remembering Smell: A Memoir Of Losing--and Discovering--the Primal Sense (2010)

by Bonnie Blodgett(Favorite Author)
2.87 of 5 Votes: 4
ISBN
0618861882 (ISBN13: 9780618861880)
languge
English
publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
review 1: The story was fine, but the author's grasp of the science is really not very good. I even tried to pretend that I wasn't a scientist who studies olfaction, and tried to read it from the point of view of the lay public - and some of it is just nonsensical. Also, she seemed to get most aspects of evolutionary biology spectacularly wrong - some points were so elementary that they could have been cleared up with a quick visit to Wikipedia. "Season to Taste" by Molly Birnbaum was much better.
review 2: This is a book about Blodgett losing her sense of smell (after using Zicam, although she was never able to prove the link) for about a year. It is a very fine read when Blodgett writes her personal story--her resulting depression, almost losing her career as a garden
... more writer, and the strain on her marriage and personal life. I had never really thought about how important the sense of smell is. BUT, unfortunately, three quarters of the book is an exploration of scientific studies about smell...and it quickly becomes obvious that Blodgett is not a good science writer--she even repeats herself almost word for word a few times (where was her editor?). less
Reviews (see all)
swagg63
Beautiful. Scientific. Boycott Zicam. Will make you truly appreciate your senses, especially smell.
bookergg
Interesting history and science about our sense of smell. I will never take it for granted again!
sanky
Interesting scientific tidbits, not enough memoir.
xingfool
tedious but interesting
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