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Once again, I‘m a little worried about my state of mind. I found this nonfiction history of poisons, assassinations, accidental poisonings, gruesome death by natural causes blamed on poisoning, conspiracies, and conspiracy theories to be delightfully macabre and informative. 😳 It was a fun listen with a good narrator.

The widespread popularity of poison lasted well into the seventeenth century. Until her execution in 1659, a woman named Giulia Toffana sold poisons for fifty years in Naples and Rome, mostly to would-be widows, killing an estimated six hundred individuals

Thank you @TrishB, @squirrelbrain, @Maike, @DuckOfDoom! 😘😘

Happy Birthday and Thank you to my birthday twin🎂👯‍♂️, @Cathythoughts! 😘💗

Loved this book so much! So full of fun historical details and great information on poisoning, whether purposeful or accidental.

Super interesting and very easy to read. If time travel is ever invented, remind me never to visit a medieval castle.

A page (and often stomach) turning read. Herman provides a fascinating overview of the history of royal poisoning, both intentional but also accidental from medicine, make up, magic potions and other dangerous substances which our ancestors surrounded themselves with. After the overview, she investigates a series of specific cases throughout history, looking at what contemporaries believed and also modern interpretations of the cases.

Almost finished listening to this one. Wow. Did you know that randomly found horns were thought to be unicorn horns and could be used to test drinks for poison when royals were traveling?

This book makes your tum ache, not just from poison descriptions but also from the incurable illnesses of the time that were mistaken for poison.

Fascinating book. Also gross.

#poison #truecrime

Looking forward to chilling this weekend and learning about silly royals using arsenic for makeup! #tbr #currentlyreading

One of my introductions to history was the Horrible History series. They were written in a fun, jaunty tone. You learned not only who did what, but how amazing, odd, and how gross people could be, to our modern eyes. This book reminds me a lot of those books.

Herman's writing feels like an excited friend telling you all about something over a drink. Her work is clearly well-researched though, and she makes the past lively and very human.

This book is equal parts fascinating and disgusting. I can only imagine what people in passing cars thought when they saw me waving my hands frantically and shouting "eeeewwww" at parts like using the hand from a corpse to get rid of hemorrhoids. ?

This book did a good job of presenting historical figures like tabloid celebrities. I felt guilty reading the sordid and scandalous details of Caravaggio‘s life (he might have been a pimp!), or about the relationship between the king of France‘s wife and his mistress, then I sighed in relief and reminded myself, I was reading history...so I could learn. Not JUST for the gossip.

This sounds disgustingly wonderful...how can I resist?

A book that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today.

So basically im gonna be paranoid now lol tons of interesting stories. I had never thought of doing modern autopsies and toxicology tests on centuries-old bones so thats prefty cool. I love that the "Modern Poisons" section was 95% Vladimir Putin being fucking crazy and 5% North Korea being crazy

Non fiction read of the month!

A word of warning: The Royal Art of Poison is not for people with weak stomachs! Herman offers excruciatingly disgusting facts about the horrors of being poisoned. I especially loved the section that broke down several famous poisonings in history (including what scientists have to say now). I'd recommend this to someone who wants to learn some fun facts - and who doesn't mind descriptions of bodily functions and disease! #netgalley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gross, interesting, informative in a murderous kind of way. Loved it

Yay! What a wonderful surprise in the mail!

Thank you SO much, @iread2much , for this gorgeous #JustABookSwap book! 😍😍😍 You chose perfectly for me and I‘m in love with this “Celtic Cats” card. I‘m surprised your Akitas “allowed” you to send a cat card (but you balanced it out nicely with the cute dog wrapping paper 😆). Thank you, my friend!

And thanks to @TheBookKeepers for organizing this fun swap! 😘😘

The whole book is full of lovely little phrases like this one...

#24in48 Stats!

5 books finished (ebook & audio not pictured)
4 books started/progress made (*I‘m actually listening to Art of Asking, which includes music and singing 🎵)

@24in48

#24in48: Hour 6 challenge - dedications

Fuzzy “Sally” (Nightmare Before Christmas) socks: ✔️
First cup of coffee: ✔️
Last half of a fantastic book: ✔️

Let‘s get this party started 😉🤓
#24in48

Next up! 🖤☠️

Someone approves. Or, at least, isn‘t going to let me leave the couch anytime soon. 😼

A delightfully disgusting and quite interesting read. I liked the general discussion of palace life and then the short biographies of specific people, complete with modern forensic analysis. May be of interest if you like books such as Fashion Victims, by Alison Matthews David; or The Arsenic Century, by James Whorton.

Do you ever wish you could travel back to the olden times? Well, if you read “The Royal Art of Poison” I promise you will be content to stay here in 2018 where we have medicine and know about germs. This is a gross and weirdly funny book that I loved reading, but probably shouldn‘t be read in public. Especially not with food and drinks 😵

Somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars? I‘ve read her other books and loved them but felt this started out kind of slow. Glad I stuck with it though because once I got into the discussion of those who might have been murdered by poison throughout the centuries it picked up! I learned quite a bit!

I‘m super excited for this book my friend gifted me this weekend. 🖤

Fascinating — and at times frightening — this is a micro-history you don‘t want to miss. (That is, if you like weird/gross/creepy/awesome stuff.) I flew through this info-packed book as soon as I started. My favorite chapters centered on one person or family and their story of possible poisoning. I no longer want to live back in time (palaces were nasty), but would love to meet Napoleon (he sounds hilarious!). #netgalley #bookreview #screamathon

"Freshly washed sheets were highly dangerous, according to the good doctor, because of the lethal smell of soap."

Next up: The Royal Art of Poison ☠️
#poison #septemberdanes

I hope I can read this one before I have to return it to the library! #Poison #SeptemberDanes

Yay work injuries. I was so excited to start shopping for the #witchplease swap that I overdid it a bit this morning. I‘m resting now with a (hopefully) good book. Fingers crossed the inflammation goes down soon.

Nice popcorn history.

It was dangerous to be royal. Fascinating account of poisons, poison tasters, and how pretty much anything could be dangerous: food, drink, clothing, etc.

One of the library staff I swap book titles with told me this was a great book. Poisoning from yesteryear up to today (!) in royal courts and government buildings. Definitely interesting...

You wonder how many royals really died of natural causes.... 🤔

#history #royals #poison

I did not know where a credenza got its name...

#nonfiction #nonfictionlove

I never knew this about Elizabeth I.

Relaxation means a Blue Moon latte and reading about poison on a thundering Thursday.

I got this book via #netgalley in exchange for my review. This was a fun, more lighthearted look at the use of poisons for assassination through the ages. The author looks at a number of reputed poisonings throughout history in an effort to determine if they were actually more related to poor hygiene, disease, or dubious medical practices of the age. Written in an engaging style, this was an enjoyable read into a tantalizing subject. 4⭐️

Ooooh, look what was in my mailbox! #AmazonVine #VineVoice

I think, if you didn't know about medieval/renaissance medicine etc, then this book would be really entertaining. Herman has a flair for pop history. But for ME, while it was an enjoyable read I didn't get much new information of the book (epidemiology deg/history of medicine courses takes shine off). Most fascinating section: mini-bios of historical figures who were/were not poisoned and whether a modern forensics could make that determination

A nonfiction I enjoyed immensely:

✔ Grossly entertaining
✔ Well-researched & structured
✔ Good storytelling
✔ Witty prose
✔ Informative

❌ Can't read in few days. Lots of information which took me a month to read.

Rating: 4🌟

For more reviews please visit https://www.goodreads.com/thereadingowlvina

#nonfiction #NetGalley #royals #stmartinpress

This book has a section on human body parts consumed as medicine. 🙀🙀🙀🙀

God bless the advent of scientific inquiry and evidence-based medicine 😂😂😂 #amreading

2. Just found out this morning that it's skunk breeding season now that summer is almost here 😦 I'm really afraid of skunks!

3. Sadly no.

4. Refer to pic ⬆. Always find this one funny!

5. Will do! 💖💖💖

Thank you @jesshowbooks for #friyayintro! 🤗