2025 Morbidly Curious Book Club Wrap Up

This year I participated in my first book club! I joined the Morbidly Curious Book Club in July when they were reading The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris, a book I read years ago and loved. I decided to participate and reread the book, then participated in their live chat about the book at the end of the month. I quickly realized this was a great group of people who had very similar taste in books as me, so I decided to stick with the group.

Now here we are 6 months later and I have read all the books for the year, and starting working my way through the MCBC’s backlog of books. This book club is right up my alley and I have found so many fantastic books since July from their picks. So expect to see a lot more nonfiction books over the next few years as I continue to participate in this book club and read their backlog.

Here are the books we read this year and my reviews for them!

All That is Wicked: A Gilded-Age Story of Murder and the Race to Decode the Criminal Mind by Kate Winkler Dawson

This was an investigation into the mind of Edward Rulloff, a psychopath who was tried multiple times for the murder of his wife and child, and eventually found guilty and hanged in 1871. It was very interesting but I wouldn’t call Edward a serial killer or a genius, like this work claims he is.

Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession and the Birth of the Lie Detector by Amit Katwala

This was an interesting look at the birth of the polygraph device and its progression to becoming a fixture in cases, even if it’s been proven an unreliable source. I found this interesting overall, but a bit long-winded at times to where it got a bit lost on how it related to the polygraph.

Gory Details by Erika Engelhaupt

This is the only book I didn’t technically read this year. I read this last year and still remembered what it was about so didn’t feel the need to reread, especially since I came to this group so late in the year. This basically covers a variety of strange, gross, and morbid things about our bodies and the universe. I found it very interesting.

Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America’s Modern Militias by Kevin Cook

This was a well researched and fascinating account of the siege of the Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. This covers the events that happened at Waco and the aftermath with the increase in homegrown terrorism and modern militias. As someone who knew nothing about this event, I found this so interesting and well written.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

This was a reread for me because I initially read this in 2021. This is just a fantastic and very informative book about cadavers and the human body.

Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail by Andrea Lankford

This was an eye opening book about the dangers of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and tracks a few of the many people who have disappeared from it. As an Appalachian, I have always known the woods could be dangerous, but this book really opened my eyes to even more danger and made me realize I could never do a long distance hike like this.

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

This was the book that started my participation in this club. I initially read this book in 2021 but used this group as a chance to reread it. I loved this book and it got me hooked on reading medical histories.

I found Joseph Lister’s life and achievements fascinating and Fitzharris does a great job at making a gruesome topic interesting.

Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End by Alua Arthur

This book is about the end of life and being a death doula. It was a very emotional book with Arthur taking us through her journey of becoming a doula and the many heartbreaks she had along the way. Also while this discusses very heavy topics, it never felt like a depressing book because Arthur does a great job with keeping the tone hopeful and lively.

In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press by Katherine Corcoran

This discusses the murder/assassination and coverup of journalist Regina Martinez, who I knew nothing about before reading this book because I was a bit too young when this event happened. It was a very interesting investigation but it was easy to become confused by the number of people referenced and how they were related to Regina.

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

This was a fascinating and informative book about ghosts, hauntings, and the history behind them. It discusses the racisms around ghost stories and the tourism and money grabbing aspect of the current industry. Dickey also doesn’t try to prove ghosts are real, he just presents the facts and questions why people believe or don’t.

Nine Pints; A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George

Nine Pints is a fascinating look at blood and its journey through history. It covers medicine, blood donation, menstruation, HIV/AIDs, hemophilia, and quite a few other topics. It did feel a bit repetitive at times though.

The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans

The Unclaimed is about the unclaimed dead in Los Angelus and how they are dealt with. I found this fascinating because it is not something I had ever thought about before, and the percentage of unclaimed continues to rise, showing another issue with the funeral industry. This goes over the lives of four specific people and how they ended up becoming part of the unclaimed.

And that was what we read this year for the MCBC! I had a lot of fun and found a lot of these books to be fantastic and well worth the read.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I also read a few of the backlog books from MCBC and plan to continue this until I have read them all. At least that is the current plan. So here are the backlog books I read this year too!