Spare Parts by Paul Craddock is a complex and fascinating look at the history of transplants. Actually, it’s the history of medicine, how medicine impacts us, and even how medicine and research helps us to know us.

The story begins in Renaissance Italy with a look at “skin”, beginning around 1550. From there we visit France and England, perennial rivals in everything, including medicine. In the 1600’s we see how the medical people thought of “blood” and how they conducted their research. From the mid-1600’s to the beginning of the 1800’s we learn all about “teeth” and tooth transplants. “Kidney” and “heart” transplants are covered in the 1900’s. The last chapter looks at the future of transplants. The book features artwork and drawings from all the years which are just as interesting as the words.

Complex topics are considered; this is not really a “beach read”. In addition to describing the progress of medicine in treating people and facilitating transplants, there is also much to consider from a spiritual, moral, and intellectual view. Is God in us.? What makes us “us”? Are we all different or really all the same? Despite covering complex science and philosophical area, the book is enjoyable to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.

4 engrossing stars

Occasionally witty, always well-researched and organized, Paul Craddock’s Spare Parts makes you glad to be born with ‘modern medicine’ available. I’m always surprised at how little was known about the body in the 1600s compared to what I knew in fifth grade. Readers do not need a science background to follow along with the fascinating conversational tone of the book.

The first half of the book covers the very old attempts to transplant parts, including noses and blood. The latter sections cover kidney dialysis and transplants and discuss heart, hand and face transplants.

Trigger warning: Not for the faint of heart (or stomach), some descriptions of early medical experiments can be a bit gross. Descriptions of experimenting on dogs and prisoners bothered me, as did children selling their teeth for money. Nothing is overtly graphic, just a bit yucky.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Subtitled "The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery", first-time author Paul Craddock's "Spare Parts" is an amazing accomplishment. From the sixteenth century onward, he has shared the story of medicine through transplant and how it evolved.

You'd think this would be a boring read, but instead is absolutely fascinating. Written in an accessible style, some of it is gruesome, some funny, and some awe inspiring. Starting with skin in 1550 through Heart 1967 with projections on transplant future, there are surprises on every page. Most significant to me was the number of people over the years who contributed to making transplant a reality.

Alexis Carrel is considered the 'father of transplant surgery' and yet today is forgotten. One of his challenges was finding a better way to repair blood vessels. He took lessons from Marie-Anne Leroudier, one of Lyon's finest embroiderers. With her help he was able to further modify the technique which is considered the basis for today's vascular surgery "including bypass surgery".

The prologue, which describes a kidney transplant operation, was particularly of interest. The first successful one was performed in 1954 between twin brothers and doesn't seem that long ago. I received a kidney November 7, 2019.

Like any well-researched work, there are illustrations, notes, index, and an extensive selected bibliography. You can read "Spare Parts" without reference to them, which I did, but if you want to dig deeper, everything you need is there.

BOTTOM LINE: Highly recommended.

Many thanks to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Spare Parts by Paul Craddock is an absolutely fascinating read. In addition to the science of transplants, I learned so much about the way society has viewed our bodies throughout history. There are incredibly graphic descriptions as well as funny, insightful stories and philosophical musings on the future of transplants. Highly recommend!

What a fascinating history of surgical attempts to replace organs, skin, limbs, and more throughout history. It even includes plates of drawings from earlier centuries as it takes us along a timeline where each advance is a milestone in an ongoing quest to prolong life by surgical means. I loved it!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Aptly named Spare Parts spans barbaric transplant medicine from the 16th century to the present and glimpses into the future of 3D printing and bioglass. Author Paul Craddock injects humour into what is a gruesome and difficult topic. It is not heavy on scientific details, easily readable and endlessly fascinating from medical and social standpoints. Photographs are intriguing such as the portrait of Tycho Brahe and his artificial nose. Chapters are separated into spare parts (skin, teeth, heart...) and also include procedures such as skin grafting, organ donors, bloodletting, transfusions, learning anatomy from fresh cadavers, observing blood stream, injecting dye into blood vessels, animal-to-animal transplants, use of sausage casings and techniques of various transplant physicians throughout history

In the sixteenth century myths abounded but so did transplant experiments from the very weird to almost logical. Dentists hunted for teeth in cadavers and sometimes poor children to implant into the wealthy. There is a focus on human relationships and identities with organs such as skin. Interestingly, some practitioners viewed skin as a "crust" and invaluable. Horrendous experiments were performed on the living as they had to be, some on humans, others on animals, especially dogs. I was most fascinated with the section on skin.

You needn't have a medical background to glean information contained within but an interest in anatomy and medicine is beneficial. Some of the experiment descriptions involve animals and can therefore be disturbing.

My sincere thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this riveting and informative book. I learned so much!

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book is a fascinating and often disturbing account of the progression of early medicine to what we now know of transplants. Early thought, philosophy and religious views played a role as doctors learned from the world of plants, animals and donated human bodies. Interesting book and highly informative. Recommending for students of medicine and history.

Super interesting read about the history of transplants - from the earliest blood transfusions to modern face transplants to what we could do in the future. To me it got a bit long winded at times but this was such an interesting read that I kept going.

I was not able to read this on my kindle device. It is hard to give a star rating when you can not read the matterial. So I gave it a 5.

This was an interesting and informative read. A bit over-informative at times for my taste, but still enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fascinating history of transplants and their possible future, grown to order. It is interesting that it starts with skin transplants, moving a persons skin to repair a nose or ear lost to war or dueling. This history includes Russian two-headed dogs, illegal kidney transplants, and the awkward progress toward understanding the realities of blood transfusion and immune system response including twins, heterogenous transplants from other species, and a surprisingly small pool of 20th Century actors such as:

* perfusion innovator and aviator Charles Lindbergh
* Nobel Prize winning scientist Alexis Carrel
* Willem Kolff: pioneer of hemodialysis, artificial heart, as well as in the entire field of artificial organs

I found Paul Craddock's Spare Parts: The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery to be an interesting look at history of medicine through the past. I am giving it five stars.

An enjoyable book, if not quite what I was hoping for.

The subtitle of this book, "The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery," is a little ambitious and ultimately the reason I was a little let down. The book starts with very early skin grafts, spends a good amount of time following the improvement in the technique from the 1500s to the 1700s, briefly detours into tooth "transplants," before finally and all-too-briefly discussing the origins of kidney and heart transplants.

There was a strong focus on the scientific and religious philosophies underlying the experiments and the sense of self. While I found them interesting, and can certainly see how they shaped medical experimentation, there was a much bigger focus on them and a smaller focus on actual transplant surgeries than I expected.

Many of the critical breakthroughs in the history of surgery in general, and transplant surgery in particular, were glossed over. Anesthesia and antiseptic technique get half a sentence each (I recommend Lindsey Fitzharris' The Butchering Art for a deeper dive into the latter). The discovery and naming of cyclosporine was fascinating, but what about the other immunosuppressants commonly used? Heart-lung bypass machines are described, but there is no mention of modern uses or ECMO. The only whole organs discussed are kidneys and lungs - what about liver, pancreas, small intestine, lungs, uterus, corneas, hematopoietic stem cells? For that matter, fecal transplants (if teeth got their own chapter, this could've gotten a passing mention as something that's actually curative). Dialysis and mechanical hearts are discussed, but not MARS or artificial pancreases or other examples of attempting to replicate an organ's function.

The last section on future directions includes some promising areas - 3D printing, decellularization, etc. but misses so many others - those listed above, along with xenotransplantation which was just done successfully (...temporarily) for the first time and holds great promise.

Overall, I did enjoy reading the book, and I learned some things I didn't already know. But the subtitle seems to promise one thing while the book itself is something else entirely, leading to my disappointed expectations. Had I known it was a history of various schools of thought, rather than of transplant surgery itself, I might have felt differently.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a quirky, interesting, gruesome - mostly in a good way - read that I found fascinating! I had no idea the history of transplantation stretched so far back and that it was so widespread in practice throughout history and geography.

The writing is well done and the topics are interesting. It's a difficult read in large doses, because a lot of the descriptions - particularly of the early processes -are pretty grisly. It's not for the faint of heart but it is definitely worth checking out if you have an interest in the history of science and anatomy.

I liked this book. It gently and pleasantly meanders through medical history and covers quite a bit of ground. The book also provides a good, uncomplicated look at transplantation, with not a lot of scientific detail, but what science there is was clearly explained. There is some cute, clever wording and some humor. Overall, this is an enjoyable read. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance reader copy.

I generally read books that delve into the history of something. So when I saw this book was telling the story of transplant surgery I knew I had to read it.
I wasn't disappointed. It begins in the 15th century and goes thru the archaic beliefs and ideas on how to do transplants beginning with transplanting blood from a lamb to a human.
The author does an excellent job of not only taking about transplants but medicine in general showing, through the centuries, how medicine and transplanting evolved to where we are today, being able to transplant hearts, lungs, kidneys, and yes even faces.
If you have an interest in medicine and especially history of medicine then I highly recommend this book.

I most thoroughly enjoyed reading Spare Parts. Paul Craddock manages to take the reader on a journey of discovery and bring into focus a few of the great medical breakthroughs as it relates to transplants. There are so many little fascinating details that add color to the nuts and bolts of trying to get the experiments right. The backstories and the egos of the people involved helped bring the many trials to life. I don’t have a medical background but found this book extremely interesting and easy to read. I would highly recommend it.

Paul Craddock's Spare Parts offers an original look at transplant surgery from ancient times to the present day. It is a story focused on unacceptable experiments, based on modern standards, that have led to creative solutions to important medical maladies. Craddock provides insights into how transplant surgery has advanced in a well-documented and enjoyable read.

This book is easy for laypeople to understand and it provides insight about transplants. It mostly details the history of these lifesaving methods. How could someone not only consider the (at the time) impossible, but also come up with procedures to make it happen. It also offers surprising facts. I had no idea that Charles Lindberg, the aviator, contributed to this discipline. Obviously, the content leans heavily on science, dates and names, but it provides enough fun facts that it makes for easy reading. One huge trigger warning for people like me: there is a lot of animal cruelty. Not that I didn’t know there would be, but reading about some of the experiments that were necessary to figure out how to perform these miracles, were so disturbing that I had to skip them. My favorite part was the last chapter, about the future of transplants. The technologies that are being developed sound like science fiction and I really hope that they will come to happen. I also loved the illustrations. This is a great read for anyone interested in a subject that has not been explored too much in non-medical books.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#St. Martin's Press!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this medical history and study book.

Medical history is probably one of the most diverse and fascinating areas of study, filled with dreamers, schemers and entrenched personages blocking any sort of change or fresh ideas to take hold, it is incredible that humans are still around. I am still amazed how long it took to get doctors just to wash their hands. Many modern medical marvels were known to ancient times, facial reconstruction, trepanation, even teeth transplants. Paul Craddock in his book Spare Parts: The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery investigates the rich medical history of transplants, where the ideas came from, the many successes and the many failures that increased our medical knowledge, from the middle ages to the present day.

The book starts with our early ancestors and how they had a decent grasp of medicine and knowledge that somehow was lost for thousands of years. The rebuilding of noses, the transplanting of teeth all where documented, but was later forgotten or judges as unnecessary as doctors decided that humours controlled the body's health, and bleeding seemed the cure for all, not putting things back in. The book moves to the 16th century and the rise of war all over the European continent led to many a nose being cut or shot off, leading to a need for artificial noses and skin grafting. The book moves to blood transfusions, again teeth, kidney and heart transplants. Along the way many men with great ideas are introduced, many men try to make a profit, other men try to stop the advance, and notable contributions by women are forgotten or ignored.

The book is very well written with a nice loose style that manages to convey quite a lot without bogging down, or being to filled with terminology. Readers don't need a medical degree to understand, which shows a very gifted writer. Everything is clear, sometimes funny, sometimes very sad, with a lot of knowledge being shared. Readers will learn quite a bit, without feeling they are being lectured to.

A very thoughtful book, which raises a lot of medical questions that still need to be answered or addressed today. Who can get transplants, what are the ethics of using poor people for organ farms. A few incidents at the end of the book are very frightening and disquieting, with not real answers or enforcement. Definitely recommended for people who enjoy books on medicine,or for readers who enjoy books on odd medical facts such as Dr. Mutter's Marvels, and general history readers. A captivating study of the growth of medicine with many ethical questions, and very funny asides. A very good gift for Father's Day.