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Book review: Fascinating biography examines author behind Harriet the Spy

Reviewed by Michael L. Ramsey Ramsey is president emeritus of the Roanoke Public Library Foundation. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LIE: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet The Spy. By Leslie Brody. Seal Press. 335 pages. $30. If you were a teenage girl in the 1960s (and the following decades), it is likely that you read “Harriet the Spy,” a novel about a cheeky girl who embodied the spirit of female liberation that had been planted by women such as Betty Freidan and other societal trailblazers. It was a coming-out novel for a generation of girls who would embrace women’s liberation.

Book review: Invention of Medicine opens doors to ancient Greek culture

THE INVENTION OF MEDICINE: From Homer to Hippocrates. By Robin Lane Fox. Basic Books. 448 pages. $35. Medicine is an important part of our lives, especially in times of pandemic. When human society shares an invasive, and sometimes lethal, virus, we turn to medical researchers and practitioners to protect us from the pestilence. In Roanoke, medicine is replacing the blue-collar railway business (which has made tracks out of town) with the blue-scrubs business of medical research. In that context, a book about the very beginnings of a scientific approach to medicine seems appropriate. Robin Lane Fox is an emeritus fellow at New College, Oxford, and author of many books on ancient and classical history. In his latest, “The Invention of Medicine,” Fox focuses on the ancient Greeks who invented modern medicine — especially Hippocrates, who gave us the basic advice for medical professionals: “Do no harm.”

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