Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common”.- John Locke

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

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You have to love a book that starts with a (possibly apocryphal) story of an operation with a 300% mortality rate and ends with the invention of Listerine and the founding of Johnson & Johnson. This biography/medical history tells the life story of Dr. Joseph Lister, pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventive healthcare, considered the “father of modern surgery”. Building off of Louis Pasteur’s then-novel germ theory of fermentation, Lister was one of the first doctors to start sterilizing operating theaters and surgical instruments before […]

If you like lots of snark without too much information weighing it down

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill

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I have a very thoughtful husband who keeps his eyes and ears open for books he thinks I’ll enjoy. Often, these turn out to be winners, and I can see why he thought Unmentionable would be right up my alley. I love Victorian literature and history, having read and enjoyed Judith Flanders’s massive The Victorian City last year. I also like humor and have been known to engage in snarky commentary now and then. Unmentionable, then, seems like a safe bet for me. What I’m […]

Surgery Before Anesthesia and Antiseptics

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris

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Bingo 17 (Science!) The Butchering Art is part biography and part history of medicine, but mostly medicine. Do not read this is you are squeamish about some fairly graphic descriptions of surgery before things like antiseptics and anesthesia. The focus of the book is one the career of a Quaker named Joseph Lister in Victorian England; if his last name sounds vaguely familiar it should, and I’m surprised it doesn’t get more attention or pointed out sooner than it actually does. I’m also slightly ashamed […]

Instead of HBO, Read the Book

Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister by Anne Choma

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Bingo Review 5 (True Story): I was first very excited when I saw the tv ads for the new show Gentleman Jack, and then mildly irritated when I realized it was on HBO, which I do not have. I was then happy when I was browsing a bookstore for some travel reading and saw this paperback: Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister. Another good non-fiction read; this has really been a good year for that (at least for me). This book is based on Anne’s […]



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