Bad Pharma, Very Important book

Dr Ben Oldacre is a young Brit doctor that is incensed by the state of the medical industry, particularly the big Pharma. He shows how they hide clinical trials that do not come out the way they want, and distort the results they do let get published. They pay medical journals to publish their papers, and support monetarily professional societies to favor them. Doctors are paid to give talks favoring drugs manufactured by the company, without admitting the connection. The detailers lie to doctors about the efficacy and side effects of drugs they are marketing. Drug companies spend twice as much on marketing as on research. Much of what they call marketing, in my opinion, could be called bribery.

Regulators cravenly ignore the problems, and hide data that should be public.

Read some of the reviews and comments from the link below, then read the book if you have the stomach for it.

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Pharma-How-Medicine-Broken-ebook/dp/B008RLTUUA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388447537&sr=1-1&keywords=bad+pharma

Dr Oldacre makes many good suggestions to help fix these problems.

Also see his blog for an update on happenings since the publication of his book.
http://www.badscience.net/2013/12/free-here-is-the-new-what-happened-next-update-chapter-from-bad-pharma-2013/#more-3056

Fiction book list

Here are some of the fun fiction books I have read lately.  

The latest in the C J Box series. All are good reads.
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Point-13-Joe-Pickett-ebook/dp/B008U45T7C/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387301157&sr=1-4&keywords=cj+box+novels

Minette Walters writes good intricate mysteries
http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Feather-Minette-Walters-ebook/dp/B000JMKNRY/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387301302&sr=1-10&keywords=minette+walters+books

I like the Scandinavian authors. Nesbo is a good one. Here is one of a series with the detective Harry Hole. You may want to read an earlier one, but this is where I started.
http://www.amazon.com/Snowman-Harry-Hole-thriller-Sequence-ebook/dp/B004G5ZY7E/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387301455&sr=1-8&keywords=jo+nesbo+harry+hole+in+order

Neal Stephenson is an acquired taste, but I love reading his novels. Here is a recent that might be a good starting point, but all are excellent reads. I agree with the review in this link.
http://www.amazon.com/Reamde-Neal-Stephenson-ebook/dp/B004XVN0WW/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387301823&sr=1-2&keywords=neal+stephenson+books

Richard North Patterson writes well-constructed thrillers. This is an early one, but he has written several good ones since.
http://www.amazon.com/Balance-Power-Kilcannon-Richard-Patterson-ebook/dp/B000FBJCOE/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1387302040&sr=8-15&keywords=richard+patterson+north

Of course, there are also good reading finds in the Edgar awards winners lists.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_12?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=edgar+awards&sprefix=edgar+awards%2Caps%2C147&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Aedgar+awards