The Man Who Touched His Own Heart: True Tales of Science, Surgery, and Mystery Audiobook

Quotes

• “Dunn’s books are always lively, informative, and full of fascinations, but The Man Who Touched His Own Heart is especially so, because he goes straight to the little-known history, medicine, and heart of our most symbolic organ.”

  — Diane Ackerman, New York Times bestselling author of A Natural History of the Senses

• “With stories about medicine from ancient Greek and Egyptian times to the near present, this history tells the tale of an organ that keeps the beat billions of time in our lifetime.”

  — Barnes&Noble.com, editorial review

• “In this entertaining history of cardiac research and treatment, Dunn…explores the heart’s strengths and weaknesses through profiles of the notable scientists, artists, researchers, inventors, and doctors who wrestled with its mysteries…Dunn also covers advances such as bypass surgery, angioplasty, and heart-related pharmaceuticals in this eloquent appraisal of the feats that have given humans ‘a billion and half heartbeats with which to do as we please.’”

  — Publishers Weekly

• “These true stories about the heart pulsate with information and intrigue. Meshing medical history, biography, physiology, and evolutionary science, biologist Dunn scrutinizes a living pump that is simultaneously strong and vulnerable.”

  — Booklist

• “This delightful book is a page-turner, whose pulse never slows. In Dunn’s hands, the evolution and history of the human heart is as engrossing, surprising, and vital as the heart itself.”

  — Dan Lieberman, Harvard professor of human evolutionary biology and author of The Story of the Human Body

• “A perfect mix of science, history and biology, The Man Who Touched His Own Heart is a delightful page-turner that reminds us of all that we have learned by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

  — Charles Nunn, Duke University professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health and author of The Evolution of Sleep

• “A gripping drama that gallops across thousands of years and from graveyard to surgical theater to modern doctor’s office. In the process Dunn sheds light not just on our own hearts but also those of all of the other animals with which we share Earth.”

  — Paul R. Ehrlich, coauthor of The Population Bomb

• “With an interested and inquisitive tone, narrator Robert Fass walks listeners through evolutionary biologist Rob Dunn’s history of the science of the human heart… Fass has a pleasant voice and varies his delivery in ways that make the extensive information clear and engaging.”

  — AudioFile

• These true stories about the heart pulsate with information and intrigue.

  — Tony Miksanek, Booklist (starred review)

• This delightful book is a page-turner, whose pulse never slows. In Dunn's hands, the evolution and history of the human heart is as engrossing, surprising, and vital as the heart itself.

  — Dan Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and author of The Story of the Human Body

• Dunn's books are always lively, informative, and full of fascinations, but The Man Who Touched His Own Heart is especially so, because he goes straight to the little-known history, medicine, and heart of our most symbolic organ.

  — Diane Ackerman, author of The Human Age

• A perfect mix of science, history and biology, The Man Who Touched His Own Heart is a delightful page-turner that reminds us of all that we have learned by standing on the shoulders of giants. Dunn recognizes the importance of historical and comparative perspectives -- historical in terms of our intellectual ancestors, and more broadly in terms of our evolutionary history.

  — Charles Nunn, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health at Duke University and author of The Evolution of Sleep

• These true stories about the heart pulsate with information and intrigue. Meshing medical history, biography, physiology, and evolutionary science, biologist Dunn scrutinizes a living pump that is simultaneously strong and vulnerable.

  — Tony Miksanek, Booklist

• We've all got to have heart, and Rob Dunn's wonderful book will help us have a better one. Or at the very least, it will help us be more informed about the heart we have, with its peculiar history and its fragile yet sturdy operation. Over the course of two billion beats, hearts break and are mended, and Dunn is there to chronicle their stories. In a gripping style, he shows us how our hearts are linked to those of ancient Egyptians, chimpanzees and lungfish, and how these linkages help us solve the modern heart's mysteries.

  — Marlene Zuk, Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota and author of Paleofantasy

• The Man Who Touched His Own Heart is a captivating journey through the history of the human heart. Author Rob Dunn weaves a fascinating tale of the science and humanism that underlie how mankind has worked to understand and control our most vital organ.

  — Aaron Baggish, Associate Director of the Cardiovascular Performance Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center

• Dunn reminds us that the heart remains a fascinating, far-from-understood organ with an incredible biologic and cultural history.... A clear, engaging account of the heart's long and gruesome history.... Dunn is an impressive storyteller.

  — Bret Stetka, Slate

• An encounter with Rob Dunn can change the way you look at the world. Dunn is a modern day explorer who fearlessly and humbly ventures into the unknown. In his latest book, The Man Who Touched His Own Heart, Dunn brings his scientific curiosity, humanity, and uncanny eye for a good story to what many have called "the seat of our souls." In Dunn's telling, the human heart is an entrée to understand our basic biology, our connections to other animals on our planet and, even, one of the greatest scientific frontiers.

  — Neil H. Shubin, Senior Advisor to the President and Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Anatomy at the University of Chicago

• Fascinating.... [An] enticing weave of biography, social history and heart-related scientific drama.... Dunn's book is a great contribution to our understanding of the lifelong work of our beating hearts.

  — Alden Mudge, BookPage

• In this story of one of the body parts I worry about most, Rob Dunn brings the skills of a great writer and the knowledge of a fine evolutionary biologist together in the form of a gripping drama that gallops across thousands of years and from graveyard to surgical theatre to modern doctor's office. In the process Dunn sheds light not just on our own hearts but also those of all of the other animals with which we share Earth.

  — Paul R. Ehrlich, co-author of The Population Bomb and Hope on Earth

• Dunn paints a detailed picture of the myriad ways our hearts can break and the men and women brave enough to try putting them back together.

  — Brenda Poppy, Discover

• The Man Who Touched His Own Heart has "page-turning detail that at times reads more like a novel than nonfiction.

  — Leslie Barker, Dallas Morning News

• A "fascinating book on the mysteries of the human heart.... Rob Dunn's The Man Who Touched His Own Heart shows that the organ's complexities extend beyond the science.

  — Sam Kean, Wall Street Journal

• The writing in this book is clear and understandable.... An extensive collection of medical anecdotes and fascinating history.... I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the heart, in medical history, or in dramatic and improbable stories from the field of medicine.

  — Yevgeniya Nusinovich, Science

• From the tale of the African American doctor in a poor hospital who first dared pierce a beating heart with a surgical needle, Rob Dunn's stirring chronicle of the triumphs and tragedies that have informed our fragile understanding of the heart beats with the energy and emotion worthy of his subject.

  — Jamie Shreeve, Science Editor at National Geographic

• With the engaging prose that has become his trademark, Dunn plumbs the depths of the heart, through the eyes of the ancients, early researchers, and contemporary scientists.

  — Bob Grant, The Scientist

• An "entertaining history of cardiac research and treatment.

  — Publishers Weekly

• A lively, sometimes humorous, and very helpful book.

  — Terri Schlichenmeyer, Naples Daily News

• The account is brisk and accessible...knowledge hoarders will relish Dunn's vivid historical scenes and explanations of cutting-edge research, not to mention the lifeblood pumping through them: the author's enthusiasm.

  — Brian Howe, The Independent Weekly