libraryofblood's reviews
157 reviews

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris

informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

another morbid non-fiction read to start off the year! this biography focuses on joseph lister, a surgeon whose discovery that germs were the source of all infection, who transformed the medical industry in the victorian era. author and historian lindsey fitzharris details the gruesome world of 19th-century surgery and how it was transformed by the advances made in germ theory and antiseptics from 1860-1875.

this was a bit of a slow read for me; it took me about 2 weeks to finish. there was a lot of technical medical terminology i had to get used to, as well as keep the names straight of all the scientists, surgeons, and doctors that crossed joseph lister's path. but a lot of what i did learn was super interesting. the writing felt a little clunky at times; it felt like i was reading a medical textbook, not a biography.

one of my favorite periods to learn about in history is the victorian era, and i had never read much about the medical industry at the time, so this provided a lot of insight! before lister, surgery in the 19th century was not for the squeamish. operating theatres, no anesthesia, tools and instruments being reused and unwashed, rampant infections. even if a surgery was a success, a patient was likely to die from infection or sepsis.

joseph lister's contributions to science and medicine are still felt today. it was an interesting, albiet slow - and sometimes clunky - read.

tw: medical trauma, medical content, blood, gore

Content Warnings

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown

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dark informative slow-paced

4.25

my first read of the year and, wow. i finished this book last night and have not been able to stop thinking about it. brown expertly weaves the story of the infamous donner party, detailing their journey from the midwest to california. told from a perspective that focuses on sarah graves, she leaves with her family, husband, and other american hopefuls in search of a prosperous future in the west.

brown pulls no punches with his descriptions of the horrors the donner party experienced, from starvation, hypothermia, violence, death, storms, and cannibalism. it took a little while for me to get invested in the story, but towards the middle - around when the group gets stranded in the now named donner pass - i could not put this down.

i'm a big lover of described morbid or macabre non-fiction, so this did not disappoint. as i read through sarah's journey, i was so heartbroken for her and the other members of the donner party. i grieved with her, i desperately wished for her survival. brown's attention to detail made these infamous historical figures come to life on the page.

truly a harrowing, gripping, and gruesome read.

TW: cannibalism, child death, murder, animal death, racism, war

The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow

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dark fast-paced