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Tildes Book Club - The Poisoners Handbook by Deborah Blum - How is it going?
Our discussion at the end of October will cover The Poisoners Handbook. Are you making progress?
I found this nonfiction discussion of the New York City coroners office and the early days of effective forensic toxicology to be a real page turner. I started on the first and I finished it last week. I'm looking forward to our discussion, later this month.
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Oh good, the audiobook is on Hoopla. I’ll get to it after Moby Dick (I’m halfway through the audiobook, never made it past chapter 3 reading).
I listened to it last month and we'll see how much I retained of it for discussion...
I also listened to it last month but I liked the book so much more than I expected to and think I can retain enough for discussion.
I mean, I certainly have some things to say about the audiobook.
It was definitely very interesting! Unfortunately I was very sick around the time I listened to it and the brain fog may have killed my recollection. I already tried to discuss it with my coworkers and the words just wouldn't coalesce (big sad).
I read this book years ago and enjoyed it enough to reread it now.
A warning to sensitive folks - might be considered a spoiler
There is animal testing described. I was surprised because I only remembered one case from reading it before but I’m about 3/4 way through right now and I think I’ve seen at least five descriptions so far. If you’re reading text they’ll probably be pretty easy to skip over, but it would be hard with audio.
Clarification of the above, the note isn't upsetting, it explains what might need a trigger warning in the book.
I am second in line for the audiobook at my library.
I’m hoping the person ahead of me finishes it quickly or suspends their hold so that I can finish it for when the discussion topic goes live.
If not though, I’ll just wait it out and add my thoughts late.
Update: Got the book!
I have two days and six hours left on my current read, and then I’ll start on it.
My copy from when I first read it is MIA, so I ordered a new copy and I'm waiting for it to arrive. It's been 10+ years since I read it, so I'm looking forward to reading it again and seeing other people's thoughts!
Excited about this one, I finished it about a month ago but I did write down some notes.
Finished it on audiobook a few weeks ago. Should be interesting to read what people think about the descriptions of chemistry and methods of testing.
Probably gotta skip this month since I'm out of town for half of it, but I may try and get to this in November! I remember voting for this one and being excited for it
Just finished reading it again thanks to a couple of insomniac nights. Looking forward to the discussion!