Kean's books always scratch my itch to learn and be entertained at the same time. This one is no exception! Enjoyable, if sometimes gruesome.

A really interesting and informational read on historical science that focuses on some of the experiments and research done In ways that send chills down your spin or mail make your stomach churn. I wish the author would have omitted the section on the inhumane and painful testing done on dogs. Other stories were more common like scientists paying people to use corpses in experiments resulting in grave robbers. A very interesting and well written nonfiction book.

The Icepick Surgeon

Full feature for this title will be posted at: @queensuprememortician on Instagram!

Let the title of author Sam Kean's book be a warning to you: this book contains stories about medical procedures that are not for the squeamish. In one chapter, The Icepick Surgeon pulls back the historical curtain on doctors who used ice picks to penetrate living brains to lobotomize patients and supposedly "cure" them. One such unfortunate was young Rosemary Kennedy, sister to the late President John F. Kennedy. Her father arranged the operation in a misguided attempt to stop her seizures and mood swings, only to leave her permanently disabled and unable to speak coherently.

Other accounts of medical and scientific experiments and procedures are equally horrific: the deliberate infection of Black men in Tuskegee with syphilis; monstrous abuses committed by the Nazis; cruelty to animals (an entire chapter I couldn't read) and more.

Publisher's Weekly gave the book a starred review for its thought-provoking commentary on people who may (or may not) have been moral people, but who did terrible and even criminal things. It's well-written and fascinating, and for that, I give it four stars. But it was too disturbing for me to finish.

Science and medicine have transformed the way our world works and increased the life expectancy for many. However, sometimes the path taken to get to the knowledge can be pretty horrific. Author Sam Kean's new book The Icepick Surgeon explores the world of medical exploration and some of the more horrific cases.

While you're going to get the usual suspects like Nazi war criminals experimenting on prisoners in death camps, you're also going to find out quite a bit about people you may not have expected. You'll dive deep into the world of lobotomies. You'll find out how Thomas Edison's support of the electric chair caused a pretty nasty experience for a criminal on death row. You'll also find out how the scientist who founded the Hunterian Museum in London pulled off one of the creepiest grave robbing schemes of all time. Oh, and pirates. There's a whole bunch on pirates.

The Icepick Surgeon plays out with dramatic retellings, tons of fascinating facts, and gut-churning stories. I found myself reading passages out loud to my husband who would look at me like I'd grown a 2nd head. This book is definitely not for the squeamish, but it is extremely eye opening about quite a few people history has told us to revere as heroes.

The Icepick Surgeon is now available from Little, Brown and Company.

The chapters in this book cover the wide range of unethical, illegal, and just plain evil things that have been done in the name of science (or in the name of using science for fame and money). They range from unethical experimentation (you've heard of the Nazi doctors, but have you heard of the US Public Health Service's Tuskegee and Guatemalan syphilis studies?), to grave robbing; murder (and the use of scientific skills to try to cover up) to animal electrification and execution; fraud (falsification of police drug testing on a massive scale!) to over prescription (of LOBOTOMIES). There's a lot in here to humble scientists and remind us that humans are complex in their motivations and behaviors and can do great wrongs for reasons both venal and noble.

The stories were really well told and engaging, but this wasn't a perfect book. Other than the general theme of "scientists doing bad" there wasn't a whole lot connecting the stories in the book. At times it felt like a series of loosely connected magazine stories or podcast episodes - and in fact several chapters included a very annoying "for more information on this check out his podcast episode on my website" plug. The chapter on nuclear espionage didn't really feel like it fit with the rest of the book too either. That said, the stories here were educational (I hadn't heard of many of them before) and important.

This was a great nonfiction book by Sam Kean, my only issue was the podcast plugs. The Icepick Surgeon discusses the ethical and moral limits of science and gives us informative insight into some of the most flagrant cases of immoral behavior in science. Kean bases his arguments on the ethical principles that existed at the time, and not the ones we use today and he also does not defend their actions. Some of the stories can be a bit gruesome, but I loved the scientific history included in this novel. Highly recommend.

The narrator did well at keeping me entertained and did not make it boring.

Thank You NetGalley and publisher for allowing me access to this ARC; This is my voluntary review.

I loved this book. I have read all of Sam Kean’s books and they are wonderful, and this book is no exception. This is great writing about the history of science. The book is fun to read, including the footnotes. I don’t normally pay much attention to appendices, but the one in this book is well worth reading. The subject matter is fascinating and the science is well explained. I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in science and/or history. Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for the advance reader copy.

This book will keep you up at night in all the best ways. I think it will make a surprising and fun book club pick.