Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

DNF

While I was in initially excited to read this book, though once I started reading I began struggling with how the author uses very scientific language. This was not as accessible as I would of liked it to be so I decided to stop reading the book.

Another informative and entertaining volume in the wonderful Object Lessons series, this one explores the deeply troubling subject of psychopharmacology. The author states “…how life is measured out not in T S Eliot’s proverbial coffee spoons, but in 1mg, 10mg, or 500mg pills, simple nondescript objects which profoundly alter the course of our lives.” Often speaking from personal experience Robert Bennett takes us through the principal drugs, form the earliest, Thorazine, and on through Lithium, Prozac, Valium and Adderall. He examines how the enthusiasm with which these remedies were initially greeted has been tempered over the years. He points out that “pills emerged as psychiatry’s next big thing”, supplanting psychoanalysis and psychosurgery, but inevitably there are dangers in taking pills that act on the brain, personality and identity and which are quite literally mind-altering drugs. He also explores representations of these drugs in popular culture – film, TV, music and literature – and shows how ubiquitous and acceptable they have become. Concise yet comprehensive, the book is a chilling reminder of our increasing reliance on these pills, and presents a thought-provoking, if worrying, account of their evolution and prevalence.

This book was thought provoking and informative, and I love that this book isn't some lengthy monstrosity that I have to battle my way through. It's a short read that is easy to understand and makes you think about how something as small as a single pill can change the way we live our lives.

This is my first foray into the Object Lessons series. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I like it! This scientific exploration of psychotropic medications was interesting and well researched. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series.

Pill was my most recent dive into the Object Lessons series. This book is about specific pills and how they, and our perception of them, have changed. The author primarily focuses on psychotropic pills, specifically Thorazine, Valium, Lithium, Prozac, and Adderall. It's a fascinating presentation of the discovery of these types of medications, and the treatments that preceded them- when people were institutionalized and given electroshock therapy or lobotomies. The idea of a pill having a chemical reaction on the brain changed the course of history from a dark world of institutions and extreme procedures. The book takes us from a time when an anti-psychotic pill would only appear in science fiction, to a time when pharmaceutical ads are everywhere and our beloved characters on television have a relationship with these pills.

I received a free advance copy of this book from Netgalley for review. The only complaint I have with the book is Chapter 3, about Lithium, the analysis leans heavily on relating the plot of various tv shows and movies. I think there's a reasonable connection between characters behavior and the general acceptance and lack of concern in the general culture, but there is just a little too much play by play there for my taste and it becomes a distraction from the greater point.

This short read was at once chilling and informative. The statistics alone will make you stop to think: are you one of the 5 US adults who uses a drug for a psychiatric problem? Are you on a “cocktail” of drugs to manage your condition? If you are not, certainly someone around you is on psychotropic medication.

The first 5 chapters are reserved for discussions of drugs such as Lithium, Prozac, and Adderall. The last portion describes the author’s personal experiences of manic times, complete with eye-opening photos of what his journal looked like while in the grip of mania (omg!) and when he returned to a more stable state.

As I read on, I became concerned with the writer’s sentiment. I suffer from depression and was quite stable until about a year ago. My medication stopped working and I have been trying different ones, hoping for one to work so I can be happy again. Reading about how many “cocktails” are in use and their failure rate was not encouraging. At one point I needed to put the book aside until I felt prepared to read the rest. After I told myself that this was just one person’s opinion and that there is still hope for me, I returned to the story with a grain of salt. I can equivocally say that my first medication did not alter my personality at all – I was still “me”, just a happier version.

The book shines in its in-depth illustration of just how debilitating mental illness can be, and how the search for the “right” medication can be a struggle. However, I would strongly suggest to the author to check his writing for the word “quotidian”, as the presence of the word on nearly every page grew wearisome. I am sure he would be able to find an acceptable substitute. Otherwise, PILL was an informative and easy read. I learned some new information and have a new respect for those who struggle with trying to find the right medicine so their life will be worth living.

I chose this book because I'm unfortunate enough to take two dozen pills a day. This was informative and engaging. I appreciate the different approach to the thought process around the pill. It's definitely a subject that should be addressed much more than it actually is. Necessary medication is one side. It's the unnecessary medication that ruins the entire purpose. Even if you don't read nonfiction, try this one. It's an important read that brings a thought provoking variation to an everyday object. I highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for allowing me to read "Pill" by Robert Bennett. This is my honest review.

5 stars.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I loved it! Not at all what I thought! BETTER!

Very interesting and easy to read. I'm not in the medical field and could understand it, and English is my second language. It is for everyone. Very informative. Well done!
I especially loved the mention of tv shows and movies explaining how characters were taking this or that, the effect it had... You've at least seen a tv show (ER, Scrubs, Homeland...) or movie (The Matrix, Limitless...) they're talking about to explain effects of certain pills. I really loved how they explain pills using tv shows and movies, it is things we love, watch, and now can understand better!

This is the first book I read in this series and I will probably read more!

Review shared online on NetGalley, Goodreads, Twitter...

3 stars.*

I wasn't entirely sure what this book would be about after reading the blurb. "Object Lessons" brought to mind some kind of scientific deep dive. I honestly expected an educational treatise on the origins of the pill in medicine.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Pill reads like a doctoral thesis. That is not to say that it isn't interesting. It is thoroughly researched and cited and includes original connections and theories by the author, Robert Bennett. Pill is a look into psychotropic medications-and then links the appearance of these medications in modern entertainment media (primarily film & book, although some music and television as well).

I found the last chapter the most interesting, when the author delves into his own history of mental illness and his journey through various psychotropic medications. I didn't love it when he basically re-told episodes of television shows and movies to prove particular points in regard to the medications he was discussion.

Overall, however, it is an interesting read.

Robert Bennett takes us through the world of psychiatric medication and the impact each new discovery has not only on the people who take them, but society as a whole. Bennett weaves these narratives together through the prism of how pop culture presents mental illness and the drugs used to treat them. I didn’t agree with every conclusion reached, but that doesn’t make Pill any less enjoyable a read.

I didn't love this book as much as some in this series, which was a same. The way that Bennett explores pills and our relationship to them was in-depth and some of the statistics were slightly shocking. Big pharma is an area that interests me and Bennett's exploration of that did not disappoint. This could have done more in other chapters as sometimes it felt very rushed and like he had too much information for the word count. It should have been paired down or had more pages to give the information full exploration.

I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into when I requested this arc but it was so intriguing I needed to see what it was about.
'Pill' is one in a series referencing everyday objects, which is such an interesting idea within itself.
This was an intricate look into how the world and big dollar pharmaceutical giants have impacted and changed the way we manage our health.
The impacts and changes from "popping a pill" can be both beneficial and devistating.
Our culture & society depends heavily on popping a pill to relieve an ailment as has transcended into our culture and society overall.
The title heavily reference the entertainment area mainly pop culture, movies & music providing a deluge of examples from the idolised Rock Stars who are celebrated for drug use to the devistating effects from misuse.
It was an insightful look into how we are all impacted by a 'pill'.
3.5 Stars.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and Netgalley for an arc in return for an honest review.
(All opinions stated are my own and are unbiased)

*I have received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher"
I've requested this book, thinking that it's about how pills were created. It has turned out that it's something else, something so much better! The author tells the story of the Pill, the One that we pop every day (at least once), to be happy. Or chill, or fall asleep, or whatever. It's our new religion - psychopharmacology. Robert Bennett has a bit odd way of telling this story - he's showing us how the meds work through a series of examples: literature and movies mostly. It can be slightly annoying at times, but overall it makes the book easier to read. I truly enjoyed how the author is telling the story and how he's asking the questions about our reality/society. It's a book placed in the USA, but I believe it could be about any given civilised country. Psychotropic meds are gaining its popularity, they are like a disease, spreading everywhere. Are we ourselves still or are we just medicated zombies? This book has terrified me, but also made me want to try some of the stuff described in this book. So yeah, let's pop another pill and rewire our brains some more.

This book was really interesting.
My favorite part was when the author highlighted Aldous Huxleys a Brave New World.
He talked in depth about the premise of the book and the drug "soma" to show the correlation between life and fantasy.

While an interesting and enjoyable read it did talk a lot about different drugs portrayed in movies, at times to exhaustion. However it was still a good read.

Three and a half stars.

The average in the USA in 2013 was more than one prescription for an antipsychotic drug for every single American, of any age. Shocking, yes, but don't come to this book for pages of such trivia. In discussing everything from Huxley's 'soma' to ''Homeland'' – and the actual history of us dosing ourselves up with psychoactive drugs – we get a personal look at what certain types of pill have come to mean, both medically, sociologically and culturally. It's certainly not an anti-meds diatribe, however much the evidence would make any sane man doubt the reasoning behind the entire industry – and that's partly for reasons we learn at the end. I turn to this series, when I can, for books that the average reader (such as myself) can use to learn unexpected things about unexpected topics. This was certainly that, to some extent, but I don't know if the average reader is the ideal audience here. I didn't test it scientifically but I'm damned sure the average letter-length of the words on these pages is a heck of a lot longer than the average for words in nearly all other books, and once you notice that you're aware of it throughout. Certainly there is much more "titration" and things "quotidian" than in the, er, more quotidian reading material. It may be more specialist then, and not just because it refrains from being an anti-drugs polemic, but it may well be worth considering.

I don't read much non-fiction, but this short little book caught my eye.
"Pill" is one in a series about everyday objects published by Bloomsbury Academics.
I found it interesting to read about the impact pharmaceuticals had and have nowadays on our culture and society.
The author finds a plethora of examples in pop culture, music and movie references throughout the book and there are some chapters about the most used drugs further in the book.
I found the book leaning a bit too much on the entertainment examples of drug use, but altogether an okay read for me.

Thank you Bloomsbury Academics and Netgalley for providing me with an egalley.

One might expect ‘Pill’, in Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, to discuss topics such as the current opioid crisis in the United States and the chequered history of the birth control pill. In fact, the latter does not feature at all and the former is fleetingly referred to in a single sentence.

Instead, in the space between the Introduction and a personal Coda, there are chapters on Thorazine, Valium, Prozac, Adderall and Lithium. This is because the author, as someone subject to bipolar disorder and an erstwhile Lithium user, is principally concerned with how such psychotropic drugs can affect one’s personality or identity.

He persuasively argues that Huxley, Glynn and Lem - the sci-fi prophets of ‘Pharmageddon’ (a society based around mind-altering drug use) were extraordinarily prescient and that our psychopharmacological world threatens our very humanity.

The best thing about Bennett’s argument is that it is illustrated by pertinent examples drawn from popular culture ranging from The Rolling Stones’ ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ to the ‘Brother’s Little Helper’ episode from The Simpsons, and from Ken Kesey to Kanye West. Anyone who has not yet watched ‘Homeland’ should be warned that there are spoilers relating to seasons 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7, whilst surprising omissions from the text include ‘House’ and ‘Nurse Jackie’ given the importance of the former’s addiction to Vicodin, and the latter’s reliance upon Vicodin, Percocet and Xanax.

The worst thing about the book is the author’s sometimes pretentious style. Given the need to have an alternative to “everyday” or “daily” when dealing with frequent pill popping I guess one can overlook “quotidian” appearing fifteen times in this short book but is there really a need for “verisimilitude” to occur nine times?

Sometimes words are piled on words in a way which detracts from rather than enhancing the reader’s understanding: “taking psychotropic pills raises profound questions about how modern psychopharmacology radically alters – refashions, adjusts, shapes, sculpts, recreates, manages, curves, transforms, and even reprograms – human identities at a fundamental neurochemical level.”

The author definitely over-uses “literally”, which features no less than fourteen times, sometimes incorrectly: “Our pills are literally becoming us, and we are becoming them in return.”

All this is, however, a relatively small price to pay for a book which addresses important questions about a central feature of modern life. It asks the right questions even if it offers no comprehensive answers.

Another in the wonderful Object series ,items we never think much about shoes ,blankets each brought to life.The pill is another addition to the series the pill in all its complexities the issues pill taking can cause. Excellent addition to this series.#bloomsburyacademic #pill #netgalley

"For we all have some secret object, some hidden thing, some clandestine artefact, some personal wheelbarrow to which we literally tether our lives"

Pill fits within a series of short books titled 'Object Lessons' which seek to delve into the hidden lives of ordinary things, and the impact that these quotidian items have on our everyday psyche. In Pill, Bennett explores the scientific advances of the psychopharmacology and how the modern age perhaps revolves around it.

Whilst acknowledging the medical importance and the capacity of these drugs to aid mental illness, Bennett showcases a number of key drugs in the history the advancing field from Thorazine to Lithium to Prozac, and then uses a plethora of popular culture, literature and cinematographic references to explore how they are portrayed in the media and how they have arguably shaped modern identity. I thoroughly enjoyed the adept juxtaposition between scientific descriptions and detailed discussions of Homeland, The Matrix or Brave New World and found Pill to be a refreshing change from my traditional novel to read. I did find however that when Bennett explored the numerous television or literature reference of which I was not familiar, the book became a little repetitive and difficult to maintain interested.

All in all, it was an enjoyable short read but the seemingly endless examples of each drug's representation in various media could afford to be reduced.