Saturday, October 5, 2019

Book Haul: Death And Other Inconveniences



Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. I get to show off the books I’ve gotten recently. Lately I’ve acquired several books about death and other inconvenient things. Check them out and tell me what you think.

*This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.





Death And Other Inconveniences







Quackery: A Brief History Of The Worst Ways To Cure Everything by Lydia Kang & Nate Pederson



Discover 67 shocking-but-true medical misfires that run the gamut from bizarre to deadly. Like when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When snorting skull moss was a cure for a bloody nose. When consuming mail-order tapeworms was a latter-day fad diet. Or when snake oil salesmen peddled strychnine (used in rat poison) as an aphrodisiac in the '60s. Seamlessly combining macabre humor with hard science and compelling storytelling, Quackery is a visually rich and information-packed exploration of history's most outlandish cures, experiments, and scams.




















Fear: Trump In The White House by Bob Woodward



With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, author Bob Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.

















The Radium Girls: The Dark Story Of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore



The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.
Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.








I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search For The Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara


For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth.















Sadie by Courtney Summers



Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.




















Have you read any of these? What did you think?










16 comments:

  1. I loved Sadie, I think I read it six months ago and it has still stayed with me. It was such an intense book! I also enjoyed I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

    Here's my STS:
    https://wendimlee.blogspot.com/2019/10/stacking-shelves-29.html

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  2. These all sound really good! Especially Quackery and The Radium Girls. Enjoy!

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  3. I remember kinda wanting to read Fear when it came out but I'm almost afraid to lol. Quackery though I bet is a lot of fun. :)

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  4. The Radium Girls!! One of my favorites from last year!!

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  5. Ooo! Quackery sounds good! I love stuff like that. I have a copy of Radium Girls in my TBR pile. I've heard it is very good. I hope you enjoy all of these, AJ. Have a great weekend.

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  6. I see you picked up a few light reads there (not). Sadie was on the darker side for me, but it was really well written, and stirred some serious emotions in me. Do you know about the companion podcast?

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  7. I got Fear when it was published and started reading it but it was honestly depressing. XD I will probably pick it back up once all of the madness has finally (hopefully) ended.

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  8. Fear is on my bookshelf and I'm looking forward to reading it as I previously enjoyed other books by the author.

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  9. Oh, Sadie, I've heard so much praise about that one - I can't wait to hear what you think of it :) Happy reading! :)

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  10. I loved Radium Girls and put it on my list of my favorites of that year. I'm looking for good nonfiction to save up for Nonfiction November, so I will look for Quackery, I think.

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  11. I'll Be Gone in the Dark was terrifying. I could only read it during the day.

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  12. I still need/want to read Sadie. I have read I'll Be Gone in the Dark and really loved it. Fascinating stuff.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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  13. Quackery sounds like something I would enjoy. 👍✨

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  14. I'm especially curious about Fear and Radium Girls, will be looking out for your review :)

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  15. I haven't read any of these but the book Quackery sounds so interesting!

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  16. I bought Sadie awhile back because everyone raves about it. One of these days I'll actually get around to reading it. :-)

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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