Why am I passionate about this?

As a hospital clinical lab director, I have a mission to promote the value of my profession. Are we more important than our soldiers protecting our country? Politicians who make laws? Judges who help maintain law and order? I argue that the health of our families is near or at the top of our priorities. While we ask our doctors to achieve this goal, they ask us every day to help them. The lab is not about boiling tubes and colored flasks. The 8 books I have written and the 5 that I have selected illustrate, in an entertaining manner, who we really are and why we matter.  


I wrote

Toxicology! Because What You Don't Know Can Kill You

By Alan H.B. Wu,

Book cover of Toxicology! Because What You Don't Know Can Kill You

What is my book about?

The clinical lab performs testing of blood and other human body fluids and provides critical information for doctors to make…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

Alan H.B. Wu Why did I love this book?

This book describes the early career of Judy Melinek, M.D., who was a forensic pathology fellow in New York City just months before the 9/11 attack.

I liked this book because it is a first-hand account of the forensic investigations that she and her team conducted regarding the deaths that occurred that fateful day.

Dr. Melinek describes the many other investigations she conducted during her time there. While most forensic pathologists have boring personalities, Dr. Melinek knows she works in a ghoulish profession and, therefore, writes with wit and is real. "Nobody shakes hands in the autopsy suite."

By Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Working Stiff as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. While her husband and their toddler held down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation-performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking readers behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple, including a firsthand account of the events of September 11, the subsequent anthrax bio-terrorism attack, and the disastrous crash of American Airlines Flight 587.

An…


Book cover of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Alan H.B. Wu Why did I love this book?

Mr. Carreyrou was the Wall Street Journal reporter who broke the story that eventually led to the downfall of Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos. At its peak, this company was worth over $9 billion. Today, Holmes and her former COO have been convicted of fraud and are serving time.

I like this book because it serves as a curriculum for how NOT to operate a biotech company. It shows that while belief in your vision is essential for all successful entrepreneurs, there is no place for secrecy and arrogance in the business world.

Unfortunately, the “Theranos” effect has led to a decline in investment in new medical technology and has had a negative effect on the value of clinical laboratories.

By John Carreyrou,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Bad Blood as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The shocking true story behind The Dropout, starring the Emmy award-winning Amanda Seyfried, Naveen Andrews and Stephen Fry.

'I couldn't put down this thriller . . . a book so compelling that I couldn't turn away' - Bill Gates

Winner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2018

The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end, despite pressure from its charismatic CEO and threats by her lawyers.

In 2014,…


Book cover of Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory

Alan H.B. Wu Why did I love this book?

I read this book a few years before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is about how the US Government established a research lab on Plum Island, near the eastern end of Long Island, New York.

It describes the mistakes made regarding scientific and medical studies conducted on some of the important infectious diseases of the day, Lyme and West Nile. There were safety violations that could have led to an outbreak.

When I originally read it, I thought that there was no real global impact on these miscues and thought much of this was fear porn. We know today the effects of a global pandemic, and thinking back on it, I realize just how closely we came to a disaster. 

By Michael C Carroll,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lab 257 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Nestled near the Hamptons, the fashionable summer playground of America's rich and famous, and in the shadow of New York City, lies an unimposing 840-acre island unidentified on most maps. On the few on which it can be found, Plum Island is marked red or yellow, and stamped U.S. government—restricted or dangerous animal diseases. Though many people live the good life within a scant mile or two from its shores, few know the name of this pork chop–shaped island. Even fewer can say whether it is inhabited, or why it doesn't exist on the map. That's all about to change.…


Book cover of Brain Chicane

Alan H.B. Wu Why did I love this book?

Dr. Maisel is a media giant. First and foremost, he is a cardiologist and scientist. His work on cardiac biomarkers for heart failure laid the groundwork for clinical lab testing that is conducted in every hospital in the world today. Besides his hundreds of medical and scientific publications, he is a local stand-up comic, a social media influencer, and an author of medical thrillers.

I like this book because it shows the bad side of the dark side of medicine, i.e., where profit and ego are prioritized over ethics. Maisel interweaves numerous accurate references to the importance of lab tests into his story.

Other medical books trivialize how the lab works. Doctors really don’t just go there, randomly look at a microscope slide, and have a diagnostic “aha” moment. 

By Alan Maisel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Brain Chicane as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of The Queen of All Poisons

Alan H.B. Wu Why did I love this book?

Dr. Magnani has created a character, Dr. Lily Robinson, a stylish pathologist who has an encyclopedic knowledge of poisons. She uses her strong, investigational mind to solve some of the most difficult problems in medicine that anyone could face.

Dr. Robinson is not the media-portrayed stereotypical balding pathologist with thick glasses who walks around with a dirty lab coat and cannot carry out a conversation with live humans. Instead, she is confident and highly attractive, has long dark hair and captivating green eyes, and wears designer clothing.

The majority of clinical laboratory technologists are women. To move more into the limelight, the field needs strong role models for future generations, and Magnani has created one. 

By BJ Magnani,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Queen of All Poisons as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Boston physician becomes an assassin for the U.S. government in this medical suspense thriller by an award-winning pathologist (Book 1 in the Dr. Lily Robinson trilogy.)

Hidden under a cloak of legitimacy, I have been pressed to deliver extraordinary service for my country. It has been a successful ruse. A premium blend of dark deception with just an aroma of truth.-Dr. Lily Robinson

Dr. Lily Robinson is a brilliant physician with an encyclopedic knowledge of all toxins and poisons, and a penchant for wearing stilettos. In an unforeseeable twist in her life, the United States Government appeals to her…


Explore my book 😀

Toxicology! Because What You Don't Know Can Kill You

By Alan H.B. Wu,

Book cover of Toxicology! Because What You Don't Know Can Kill You

What is my book about?

The clinical lab performs testing of blood and other human body fluids and provides critical information for doctors to make diagnoses and medical decisions for care. Ongoing budget cuts in lab reimbursements threaten the viability of the profession.  

Toxicology is one of many subsections of laboratory medicine. Testing is conducted for drugs and poisons for impaired and overdosed patients. Directed toward the lab public and using real cases, this book illustrates why the laboratory is essential. While everyone knows that drugs are dangerous, my book is unique as it provides a “behind-the-scenes” look at how tests are used to help patients. More importantly, I describe the limitations of current testing procedures to document the need for further investment in clinical lab science.

Book cover of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
Book cover of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Book cover of Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory

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Draakensky: A Supernatural Tale of Magick and Romance

By Paula Cappa,

Book cover of Draakensky: A Supernatural Tale of Magick and Romance

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Paula's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

A murder. A wind sorcerer. A dark spirit.

On Draakensky Windmill Estate, magick and mystery rule. Sketch artist Charlotte Knight is hired to live on the estate while illustrating poetry under the direction of the reclusive spinster, and wind witch, Jaa Morland—who believes in ghosts. Charlotte quickly encounters the voice of a ghost and a sinister figure lurking in the shadows. 

Charlotte takes refuge in Marc Sexton, a charismatic local with knowledge of Celtic magick—who wears a silver wolf amulet around his neck. With his dark secrets of the Otherworld and his magickal powers, they delve into a world of…

Draakensky: A Supernatural Tale of Magick and Romance

By Paula Cappa,

What is this book about?

A murder. A wind sorcerer. A dark spirit. On Draakensky, magick dictates destiny.

The Chief of Police discovers an elderly woman dead in the Mianus River. There is a ghost who resides here and flings its words through the spinning air. River magic too, streams across Draakensky Windmill estate, conjuring a secret in Bedford, New York.

Sketch artist Charlotte Knight arrives on Draakensky to a bright opportunity. She is hired to illustrate the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke under the direction of Jaa Morland, the recluse spinster of Draakensky. Jaa, a believer in ghosts, instructs Charlotte to ‘draw the ghosts.’…


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