What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was apparently Noah Whiteman’s Most Delicious Poison, which I have complex feelings about. The discussion of biology and chemistry is fascinating, and I appreciated the pretty in-depth explanations of how certain toxins mimic chemicals in the human body, how things may have evolved, etc. Buuut on the other hand, it’s also an exploration of the death of the author’s father through alcohol abuse, and addiction is clearly a massive preoccupation of Whiteman’s. It wasn’t entirely clear to me from the blurb etc that the book was part memoir and really intended to focus only on addiction.

What are you currently reading?

Several books at once, of course! Most actively, I started this month’s British Library Crime Classic almost right away: it’s Nina Bawden’s The Odd Flamingo, and so far it’s just okay. There’s some interesting characterisation stuff going on, but the plot isn’t exactly singing (perhaps because the main character isn’t super on the ball about it).

And the other book I’m most actively reading is Devi Sridhar’s Preventable: How a Pandemic Changed the World and How To Stop the New One. I wish I’d read this when it came out, because it was written pretty early in the pandemic, and is unlikely to talk about the stuff that concerns me most now. Namely, that people now believe it’s “over”, when SARS-CoV-2 is still a dangerous virus we don’t fully understand, and which still poses a serious threat to the vulnerable among us… and yet regular boosters are no longer free and routine in the UK.

I’m considered pretty paranoid — and even mentally ill — for still considering it a disease of concern, despite my academic background (soon to graduate from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine with an MSc in infectious diseases). So I’d love a popular-science book which digs into the remaining legit concerns and publicises them a bit.

I’m also just embarking on T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, but I’m not far into it.

What will you be reading next?

I’m not really sure. Every time I say some plans, I’m wrong! I do want to read volumes 8 and 9 of Solo Leveling, and in randomly browsing my newly-organised bookshelves I’m tempted by Stuart Turton’s The Last Murder at the End of the World, but who knows. I do have a book out from the library, as well, Sacha Coward’s Queer as Folklore — so maybe that!