How They Croaked

Bragg, G.(2011). How They Croaked. New York, NY: Walker & Company.

Do you like to read about famous people?  Well this book is about famous people and how they died.   The author tells interesting facts about each person's life, then interesting facts about their death, burial, and other creepy facts.  For example, did you know Einsteins's brains were stolen from his body during his autopsy?   Did you know that when George Washington became ill, the doctors drained his blood , called bloodletting. Galileo slowly poisoned himself by drinking wine laced with lead.  He also had gout, a hernia, and finally died of kidney failure.  This gruesome, but interesting book is filled with little-known facts about famous people and how they died. 

Even though the topic is morbid, this book is filled with very interesting facts about the famous people, their life, and work.  The author tells about different diseases and ailments that these famous people had and some of the different treatments doctors used long ago.  An interesting book to read, if you are not too squeamish to read it.