These Books Will Kill You

Fiction and Non-fiction books about historical epidemics, medical mysteries, and all things disease.
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354 books · 304 voters · list created September 10th, 2017 by Erin Welsh (votes) .
35 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Erin 1744 books
29 friends
Rachel 187 books
121 friends
Julie 913 books
0 friends
Astrea 319 books
35 friends
Saturday's 1988 books
69 friends
Ashley 3914 books
52 friends
Spooky 2194 books
38 friends
Pamela 464 books
4 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-30 of 30 (30 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by Mackenzie (new)

Mackenzie LOVE the podcast, gals!


message 2: by Elizabeth (new)

Elizabeth Your podcast is my new obsession. You ladies ROCK.


message 3: by Ashley (new)

Ashley Where's the "Add All" button when you need it?


message 4: by Quinn (new)

Quinn Develde Was so excited when Erin mentioned Fever 1793 because I also read that as a child and loved it.


message 5: by Pioup (new)

Pioup I don't know if adding books is ok or if you want to keep it to the books mentioned in the podcast, but Doomsday Book is great and combine the plague with (if I remember correctly) influenza.


message 6: by Lauren (new)

Lauren Loving the podcast and recommending to everyone!


message 7: by Vaeda (new)

Vaeda Pioup wrote: "I don't know if adding books is ok or if you want to keep it to the books mentioned in the podcast, but Doomsday Book is great and combine the plague with (if I remember correctly) inf..."

Yes! Fabulous story. Please add it.


message 8: by Marisa (new)

Marisa I didn’t know I needed this list until now 🙏🏽


message 9: by Kathleen (new)

Kathleen I have been furiously writing down the books mentioned every week. I laughed when I was literally inputing books in good read when you mentioned this list.

From a fellow disease nerd - your podcast (and book list) makes me so happy!


message 10: by Lindsay (new)

Lindsay I'm SO glad I found this podcast- I was itching for something to binge since I'm up to date on My Favorite Murder episodes. I love your personalities, and the podcast is the perfect blend of research/humor and biology/history. Now I need something for when I finish This Podcast Will Kill You.


message 11: by Lizzy (new)

Lizzy I have added The Origins of AIDS, a book that I assign to my world history students, written by an epidemiologist. They find it fascinating.
I am a historian who is the daughter of an infectious disease physician. I absolutely love what you two have done and you've inspired me to develop a class on epidemics and history.


message 12: by Janet (new)

Janet Just found the podcast and I'm binging.

You ought to add Year of Wonder: A Novel of the Plague (fiction) and The Beetle of Aphrodite and Other Medical Mysteries (non-fiction) to this list.


message 13: by Elizabeth (new)

Elizabeth Which episode is "Survival of the Sickest" referenced in? I love that book and am eager to hear where it makes its appearance. :)


message 14: by Erin (new)

Erin Welsh Elizabeth wrote: "Which episode is "Survival of the Sickest" referenced in? I love that book and am eager to hear where it makes its appearance. :)"

We haven't referenced it specifically in any episode yet, but I added it anyway because it's in line with so much of the content we cover. Such a fun read!


message 15: by Elizabeth (new)

Elizabeth Erin wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Which episode is "Survival of the Sickest" referenced in? I love that book and am eager to hear where it makes its appearance. :)"

We haven't referenced it specifically in any ep..."


It was a fun read! Really made me think differently about the role of illness in human history!


message 16: by Jaq (new)

Jaq Check out the Biomolecular Archaeology book if you want a read of how archaeologists look at diseases, especially if you want to know what diseases we can see in the burial record.


message 17: by Sarah (new)

Sarah I recently started listening and am so happy to find this book list on Goodreads! I started making note of the books I wanted to read from the resources section of the podcast, but then I heard there was a Goodreads list, I jumped on finding it so I could browse books and add them to my want to read shelf. Thank you!


message 18: by Maggie (new)

Maggie What was the "Working Stiff" book mentioned in the Q&A? I thought Erin said it was fiction, but I'm not sure...


message 19: by Brandt (new)

Brandt Michaels Maggie wrote: "What was the "Working Stiff" book mentioned in the Q&A? I thought Erin said it was fiction, but I'm not sure..."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...


message 20: by Danielle (new)

Danielle I didn't see "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism" on the list- the author appeared on the podcast and was very compelling!


message 21: by Caterina (new)

Caterina LOVE your podcast. Erin & Erin! Recently discovered, bingeing, motivation to clean the house, my hands are raw from excessive washing, ha! Really, I need to try a quarantini or two to reward myself. Thanks for all you do, and for this great list, look forward to reading more of these.


message 22: by Ximena (new)

Ximena I'd like to contribute this one to your list: Adventures of a Female Medical Detective: In Pursuit of Smallpox and AIDS by Anne D. Mather and Mary Guinan
Also a huge fan of your podcast!!


message 23: by Clancy (new)

Clancy Carr Completely out of my wheelhouse, but I love the podcast and am keen to read some of these books!


message 24: by Brendan (new)

Brendan Love this list, I've already read quite a few. Keep up the amazing work, love y'all!


message 25: by S (new)

S I love love LOVE your podcast, got introduced to it recently and can't believe it took me so long. Look forward to listening more and more and read books from this list when I can. <3


message 26: by Marit (new)

Marit Wow i love the posdcast and you have a reading list. squeee!
adding one of my favs The Island by Victoria Hislop, its a great tale of leprosy.


message 27: by Katrina (new)

Katrina Thank you for your podcast! I am working my way through all the back episodes, and building my reading list.


message 28: by Linda (new)

Linda Love your podcast. (Wish the books were tagged/sortable by episode, or topic).


message 29: by em (new)

em I just started listening to your podcast. It's great!


message 30: by Magena (new)

Magena Love this list! Thank you. Love the podcast too, its my favorite.


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