Morbid Nonfiction

Updated January 11, 2024
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
A taste for poison : eleven deadly molecules and the killers who used them
Bradbury, Neil
Paper Book
"A fascinating tale of poisons and poisonous deeds which both educates and entertains." --Kathy Reichs A brilliant blend of science and crime, A TASTE FOR POISON reveals how eleven notorious poisons affect the body--through the murders in which they were used.
All the living and the dead : a personal investigation into the death trade
Campbell, Hayley
Paper Book
'A gentle book and, like death itself, sometimes an unexpectedly kind one' Neil Gaiman'This is an absorbing and important book, seeking out stories so many shy away from and telling them with such respect, humanity, heart and, yes, wit. Without exaggeration, an awe-inspiring achievement'<...
From here to eternity : traveling the world to find the good death
Doughty, Caitlin
Paper Book
A New York Times and Los Angeles Times Bestseller The best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with "dignity." Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set...
Smoke gets in your eyes : and other lessons from the crematory
Doughty, Caitlin.
Paper Book
Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty--a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre--took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life's work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both...
Gory details : adventures from the dark side of science
Engelhaupt, Erika
Paper Book
Infused with Mary Roach-style humor and science, this narrative illuminates the gross, strange, morbid, and outright absurd realities of our bodies, the Earth, and universe. Filled to the brim with far-out facts, this wickedly informative narrative from the author of National...
The butchering art : Joseph Lister's quest to transform the grisly world of Victorian medicine
Fitzharris, Lindsey
Paper Book
Winner, 2018 PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Short-listed for the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize A Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2017, Publishers Weekly A Best History Book of 2017, The Guardian "Warning: She...
The facemaker : a visionary surgeon's battle to mend the disfigured soldiers of World War I
Fitzharris, Lindsey
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize | Named a best book of the year by The Guardian "Enthralling. Harrowing. Heartbreaking. And utterly redemptive. Lindsey Fitzharris hit this one out of the park." --Erik Larson, author of...
The invention of murder : how the Victorians revelled in death and detection and created modern crime
Flanders, Judith.
Paper Book
"We are a trading community, a commercial people. Murder is doubtless a very shocking offence, nevertheless as what is done is not to be undone, let us make our money out of it." Punch Murder in the 19th century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment began and became...
The icepick surgeon : murder, fraud, sabotage, piracy, and other dastardly deeds perpetrated in the name of science
Kean, Sam
Paper Book
From a New York Times bestselling author comes the gripping, untold history of science's darkest secrets, "a fascinating book [that] deserves a wide audience" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Science is a force for good in the world--at least...
Working stiff : two years, 262 bodies, and the making of a medical examiner
Melinek, Judy.
Paper Book
The fearless memoir of a young forensic pathologist's "rookie season" as a NYC medical examiner, and the cases--hair-raising and heartbreaking and impossibly complex--that shaped her as both a physician and a mother. Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy...
Spook : science tackles the afterlife
Roach, Mary.
Paper Book
What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's thatthe million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless...
Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher : a monkey's head, the Pope's neuroscientist, and the quest to transplant the soul
Schillace, Brandy
Paper Book
The "delightfully macabre" (The New York Times) true tale of a brilliant and eccentric surgeon...and his quest to transplant the human soul. In the early days of the Cold War, a spirit of desperate scientific rivalry birthed a different kind of space race: not the...
Rabid : a cultural history of the world's most diabolical virus
Wasik, Bill.
Paper Book
A maddened creature, frothing at the mouth, lunges at an innocent victim--and, with a bite, transforms its prey into another raving monster. It's a scenario that underlies our darkest tales of supernatural horror, but its power derives from a very real virus, a deadly scourge known to mankind from...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.