It’s Top Ten Tuesday again, and this week’s theme is a freebie. I get comments now and then on how much non-fiction I read and how random some of my choices are, so this list is about the non-fiction books I’ve loved! It’s a topic I know I’ve covered before, so I’ll try to keep it to recent-ish reads. I’ll link the review, where I have one written.
I know that thumbnails of book covers are missing from some of my older posts. It’s probably been an error since I migrated to my new blog host, and we’re working on it. Sorry about that! Where a thumbnail is missing and you just see the fallback text, you can click on that to see the actual image if you want to check out the cover.
As a side-note, I’m behind on replying to comments and visiting people back, but I’m working through it steadily, I promise!
- Overkill: When Modern Medicine Goes Too Far, by Paul Offit. I’ll start with the book I just absolutely inhaled last night. I was worried at first that this was going to be some kind of anti-medicine, unevidenced rant, but Offit is very careful to refer to specific studies and to specific numbers and stats from those studies. His introduction indicates that he wants to be fact-checked, and a quick skim through the topics reassured me a bit as well. Having read it now, I might not 100% agree (I need to read some of the original sources first), but the evidence he presents is definitely food for thought. I think doctors should read this, for sure, but patients should as well in order to be informed. In the end, I worry that it may erode a little too much trust in doctors (if a doctor tells you that you must keep taking a medication even though you feel better, it’s probably true), but it’s an important wake-up call.
- The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes, by Kate Strasdin. I haven’t actually finished this yet, but I’m enjoying it very much. Mrs Anne Sykes was a newly married Victorian woman who kept a record of her clothes and the clothes of people special to her through pasting in scraps of cloth. Kate Strasdin is an expert on the history of fashion, and has also dug deeply to find out who Mrs Anne Sykes was, so the book is a mixture of general social history, fashion history, and zooming in to look at the life of one person.
- Around the World in 80 Trees, by Jonathan Drori and illustrated by Lucille Clerc. This book (and the companion, Around the World in 80 Plants) is just beautiful, thanks to Clerc’s illustrations, and each mini-biography of a tree has interesting titbits about the trees, where they come from, how they’re used, and/or where they live now and why. If you’re interested in plants and trees particularly, or just curious enough to read anything, I recommend this. The illustrations are beautiful, and it’d make a good gift, too.
- A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, by Emma Southon. Ever been curious about murder in Ancient Rome? Before I read this book, me neither, but Southon’s humour and fascination with the topic carries the book. It’s a fascinating angle for a history of ancient Rome which reveals a lot about the lives and attitudes of the Romans, and I recommend it highly.
- The Good Virus, by Tom Ireland. We are approaching a crisis of anti-microbial resistance. For some infections, it’s already here. The Good Virus has some suggestions about where we go from here, with the help of viruses — to be more accurate, very small viruses that kill bacteria, called bacteriophages. They’ve been used for decades in some parts of the world, but they’re hard to regulate, hard to test in the kind of gold standard settings designed for non-living pharmaceuticals, and as such, rolling them out to people has been a big ask. Still, as someone who’s studying for my MSc in infectious diseases, we need them, and Ireland sets out to convince people of that.
- Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A-Z of Literary Persuasion, by Louise Willder. Willder is one of the people who writes blurbs for the books we read, the short and informative summaries of plot or the kind of information you can find in books. It’s been her job for years to tantalise and entice, and this is her book about that. I didn’t find any of that part surprising, but I really enjoyed her writing style.
- Personal Stereo, by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow. This is a book from the Object Lessons series, and I could happily choose half-a-dozen of those titles to include here, but I’ll stick to just this one, where I really got hooked. I love the idea of focusing in on a single object and figuring out its history, and sometimes relatively modern items — like a personal stereo or a fancy toaster — can have a surprising history. I found this particular book from the series a particularly easy read, despite having no actual interest in consumer electronics and the history thereof per se.
- Murder: the Biography, by Kate Morgan. This is a history of murder (mostly in the United Kingdom), illuminating how our laws about murder ended up the way they are through the historic cases that led us here. Each chapter is illustrated by at least one real-life case, usually more than one, which helps to explain both the law and the cultural reaction at the time which shaped it. It’s not just old brutal murders or something, but also modern issues like Grenfell. I have no particular interest in the law for its own sake, but of course this sheds light on my beloved mystery fiction too, and I’ve also handed my copy on to my sister (who studied law) because I think she’ll find her own interest in it.
- Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive, by Philipp Dettmer. This book is beautifully illustrated, and goes through the way the immune system works from the basics to stuff I hadn’t been taught yet (bearing in mind that I’m doing an MSc in infectious diseases, that came as a surprise!). It’s very easy to read, everything is very well explained, and I have a terrible habit of trying to convince everyone that they want it because I was myself so fascinated with it. Did you know that some of our white blood cells, called neutrophils, can create a sticky net that captures invading pathogens? They do it by extruding their own DNA in big loops. We only discovered this in 2004, and learning about it in this book made me want to dance with fascination at how our bodies work.
- Index, a History of the, by Dennis Duncan. I know, I know, a history of indexes doesn’t sound too fascinating: aren’t they just a way of finding the information you need in a non-fiction book, often a textbook? Can there really be much to say about them? The answer is yes, and Duncan makes it a fun read. Also, you’d be surprised — someone has, in fact, managed to use an index to further their feud with someone else, which honestly gave me a giggle.
There! I tried to bring to this list some of the weird randomness of my own reading, jumping from topic to topic in a way that may not make much sense, but works surprisingly well to ensure that I have interesting background to a lot of things. I know some people prefer to read only about their pet topics, but I mostly just let the random searchlight of my interest pick out things that I don’t know, and then learn about them. I hope there’s something of interest here for others!
Interesting topic. I’m curious about Blurb Your Enthusiasm. Here’s my TTT: https://bonniereadsandwrites.com/2023/12/05/top-ten-tuesday-freebie-week/
It was a really fun read — Willder’s writing is great!
Around the World in 80 Trees is one of my all-time favorites, hands down! If only I had a glossy hardcover to love and to hold…. But I do have a copy of “Immune” and I do plan to read it… soon… shall I try before the end of this year? Sigh
Did you see there’s actually a matching puzzle, as well? I was tempted!
Immune is really good, and I found it a quick read… but it can always wait if you’re feeling snowed under. That’s the nice thing about books. 😀
Overkill sounds really good!
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
I really liked it! Especially the fact that he carefully referred to stats and studies; pop-science books often don’t, which is always a bit of a risk.
This is such a nice variety, and I would love to check out Around the World in 80 Trees:-)
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It’s really pretty! I definitely recommend it if you’re curious. (There’s a companion book about plants, too!)
Index is on my tbr. Great post this week!
I found it really fun! Way more engaging than I’d expected.
Thanks for sharing your non-fiction loves. I don’t read much nonfiction, so I should try them out.
I somewhat randomly started getting into reading a lot of non-fiction a few years ago, after only really reading fiction for aaages. I can’t even say quite why, but I love the way I can learn all kinds of random, unrelated things.
This is a great topic for a genre freebie! I really need to keep it in mind as I read a fair amount of nonfiction as well.
I’ve been reading more and more non-fiction over the years — I didn’t always enjoy it, but of late, sometimes it’s all I want to read!
I really liked The Good Virus.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
It was really fascinating; I knew a bit about bacteriophages, but not that they’d been actively used in treatment for so long already, for example.
I’m excited about Murder: The Biography. I really liked The Art of the English Murder by Lucy Worsley a couple of years ago.
Yes, I read that one too! Being a fan of the crime/mystery genre, it’s also fascinating to see the roots of how it became popular in how we think about real crime.
I’d like to read Offitt’s book, especially since you addressed some of the questions I would have had about it too. The Good Virus sounds fascinating as well.
Both were surprisingly like pageturners for me! Which isn’t always true of popular science books, however fascinating I find them.
I love the sound of Around the World in 80 Trees!
I liked it a lot, and definitely recommend the companion volume about plants, too! They’re so beautifully illustrated.
I’ve only read a few nonfiction titles, though I want to read more. These sound very intriguing!
Here’s my Top Ten Tuesday.
I find it pretty relaxing to read non-fiction — I didn’t like it much when I was younger, but it seems to be something that really works for me these days! Hope you enjoy it if you try any of these.
Nice topic choice this week! I should probably read more non-fiction. 🙂
I didn’t always read much non-fic, but I’ve really enjoyed it in the last few years. I can always find something new to learn! I just follow my curiosity, heh.
I think some of the medical book sound interesting. Anti-microbial resistance is very concerning! Murder Biography sounds like something I’d enjoy. I need to read more non-fiction. Great list and thanks for visiting my TTT!
Thanks for visiting back! I definitely enjoyed all these on my list — I’ve been spoilt by good non-fiction lately!
I don’t tend to read a lot of nonfiction, but I try to go to ones that pique my curiosity. The last one was a series of essays on the Indigenous experience.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/short-holiday-reads-for-a-busy-season/
Ooh, that sounds fascinating. I tend to read really random-seeming choices.
Some interesting picks here! I do like books about viruses and other medical subjects, so I’ll have to take a closer look at some of these. I need more non-fiction in my reading life.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Ah, hope you enjoy if you give them a shot!
I don’t think I’ve heard of any of these. I’m glad you’ve found some good ones though! I rarely read non-fiction but I should look up the ones I have to see if I’d have enough to make a list. 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting my website this week.
I didn’t always read non-fiction much, but I got into it in the last few years! I love learning random new things.
Wow, this sounds like such an interesting list of non-fiction books! What I wouldn’t give to just browse through your shelves. I’ve only gotten into non-fiction recently, but I have been missing out, because I’ve found some pretty interesting ones lately too. Next time there’s a freebie I might just steal your topic idea!
Haha, I have such a random spread of interests! I got into reading non-fiction in the last few years; I find it so relaxing, somehow!