The Pulitzers were announced this week, in case you missed Alison's post on the fiction award Monday. I've been reading the nonfiction book, because I read nonfiction, which is in fact my sole qualification for being the book blogger.

The Emperor of All Maladies is "a biography of cancer." Written by oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee and in the works for seven years, it is a fascinating read, visceral and unflinching in its portrayal of cancer patients and treatments. The more technical bits about the history and medical details are clear and interesting, something important for a science dunce like myself. It includes archaic accounts of cancer, with all the painful, blind stabs (literally) that 19th century physicians took at curing the disease. And it opens with a terrifying stat, "In 2010, about six hundred thousand Americans, and more than 7 million humans around the world, will die of cancer. In the United States, one in three women and one in two men will develop caner in their lifetime."

But don't worry! This book will not turn you into a hypochondriac. Unless you're a smoker. The chapter on tobacco companies is enough to turn you into one of those people who openly glares at smokers or at least constantly harasses your friends about quitting. And maybe that's not a bad thing. Though of course I just quit smoking.

The rest of the Pulitzer winners are here.