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Werken van Georgia Bragg

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How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg was a fun and interesting book on 19 world famous people and how they died. The gruesome practices of medicine into the 20th century were often as much to blame for their deaths as the diseases themselves. Saddest of all was the death of George Washington. It’s hard to believe that “doctors” at that time were so ignorant.

Each chapter begins with the life and death of a famous person, and ends with interesting facts. The “sources” and “further reading and surfing” sections at the end of the book provide suggestions for further investigation.

The chapter entitled “One More Thing” shows the interrelatedness of the 19 famous people and thus provides at least some of the reason they were chosen for this book. Overall, it’s an interesting and entertaining book, though perhaps not recommended for the faint-hearted.
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LoriFox | 106 andere besprekingen | Oct 24, 2020 |
These books are varied and interesting reading. Highly recommended.
 
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RobertaLea | 15 andere besprekingen | May 19, 2020 |
A fun YA novel/audiobook, but a little misleading at times.

Charles and Emma Darwin may have had three of their 10 children die, but the others were perfectly healthy, according to Wikipedia. They all went on to have very important lives as well. “The Darwins had ten children: two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children.[15] Whenever they fell ill, he feared that they might have inherited weaknesses from inbreeding due to the close family ties he shared with his wife and cousin, Emma Wedgwood.
He examined inbreeding in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of outcrossing in many species.[178] Despite his fears, most of the surviving children and many of their descendants went on to have distinguished careers.
Of his surviving children, George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society,[179] distinguished as astronomer,[180] botanist and civil engineer, respectively. All three were knighted.[181] Another son, Leonard, went on to be a soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher.[182]”.

You may find this nit-picking, but I don’t. I like the truth. I also like finding out more about the subject at hand, and I can usually be found on Wikipedia and other information laden sites online, reading up on various things that have been mentioned in the audiobooks of ebooks I’m using. (Especially words I’m not familiar with!). And since I didn’t know Mr. Darwin had 10 kids, I thought I’d go look up how they died also, or if they had any health issues, as this novel seems to insinuate. But the remaining Darwin children all lived to a ripe old age, I’m happy to say.
“In 1882 he was diagnosed with what was called "angina pectoris" which then meant coronary thrombosis and disease of the heart. At the time of his death, the physicians diagnosed "anginal attacks", and "heart-failure".[161] Today it is speculated that Darwin was suffering from chronic Chagas disease.[162] This speculation is based on a journal entry written by Darwin, describing he was bitten by the "Kissing Bug" in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1835;[163] and based on the constellation of clinical symptoms he exhibited, including cardiac disease which is a hallmark of chronic Chagas disease.[164][162] Exhuming Darwin's body is likely necessary to definitively determine his state of infection by detecting DNA of infecting parasite, T. cruzi, that causes Chagas disease.[162][163]
He died at Down House on 19 April 1882. His last words were to his family, telling Emma "I am not the least afraid of death—Remember what a good wife you have been to me—Tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me", then while she rested, he repeatedly told Henrietta and Francis "It's almost worth while to be sick to be nursed by you".[165] He had expected to be buried in St Mary's churchyard at Downe, but at the request of Darwin's colleagues, after public and parliamentary petitioning, William Spottiswoode (President of the Royal Society) arranged for Darwin to be honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton. The funeral was held on Wednesday 26 April and was attended by thousands of people, including family, friends, scientists, philosophers and dignitaries.[166][23]”

The other people named and researched in this novel were pretty much spot on, on their lives and deaths. You will find in the comments of this post, more quotes and maybe even link about the people in this novel, that I found to have discrepancies.
The audiobook was narrated by L. J. Ganser. He was also pretty good.
This novel, despite the discrepancies, was a fun, quick read. 3.5 stars, and recommended for the young, the strong of stomach, and the young at heart. Or for those who find themselves on wiki to find out more lol.
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stephanie_M | 106 andere besprekingen | Apr 30, 2020 |
Georgia Bragg wrote the popular How they croaked and How they choked history tidbit collections telling of famous deaths and failures. Both are frequent circulators in my library, especially 4th grade and up, and I was surprised and excited to find out I’d missed a new book in the same vein.

This is a mix of different historical characters, most, though not all, criminals, how they were caught, and what happened to them afterwards. The brief introduction, “Either way, they’re all famous” isn’t really true, since several are obscure, as even the text admits, but explains that they are all people who were “caught” doing something. The chapters average 10 pages long and each begins with the person’s name, birth, and death dates and ends with a spread or two of facts and stats about the person and their time period. It’s illustrated with black and white cartoons and includes a bibliography and index.

The people included are Joan of Arc, Sir Walter Raleigh, Caravaggio, Blackbeard, John Wilkes Booth, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Mata Hari, Typhoid Mary, Rasputin, Vincenzo Peruggia, Bernard Otto Kuehn, Anna Anderson, and Al Capone.

I had mixed feelings after I read this. On the one hand, it’s not as funny as Bragg’s other books and the collection of people included isn’t really very organized. There’s not really much that Al Capone and Joan of Arc have in common! The “caught” theme is pretty loose and I think Bragg would have done better to continue her series and go with a more organized theme, like how criminals were caught or something. However, it is light and amusing to read, well-researched, and offers young readers a different viewpoint on people who they may have only heard briefly in passing, if ever.

Verdict: Buy where Georgia Bragg’s other books are popular.

ISBN: 9781524767419; Published September 2019 by Crown Pub; Purchased for the library
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JeanLittleLibrary | 1 andere bespreking | Feb 15, 2020 |

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Werken
4
Leden
1,120
Populariteit
#22,935
Waardering
4.1
Besprekingen
125
ISBNs
42
Talen
1

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