Week Four - I'm done!

[Rachel]

Have you finished the book? Use this post to discuss the book in its entirety!

[Caitlin]

Thought this book was pretty good. Main issue was that I like to read while I eat breakfast, and that wasn't really going to happen here... lol.
I'll be honest, I'm not really interested in the animal parts much and when he said he was a zoologist that made me nervous. But he brought up a lot of concepts I hadn't heard of, especially the idea that kuru might be viral. This was really surprising as in all my bio classes kuru, MCD, and CJD were always THE examples of prion related diseases. I'm especially excited by the anthro viewpoints which he brought up, as I'm taking a social anthropology course right now and this actually fits really well with what we're studying.
Sorry I don't have any good jumping off points for a discussion. My overall impression was pretty much just, 'huh, interesting'.

[Nonni]

Caitlin wrote: "Thought this book was pretty good. Main issue was that I like to read while I eat breakfast, and that wasn't really going to happen here... lol.
I'll be honest, I'm not really interested in the an..."

I've only just started, but I'm finding myself in a similar situation when it comes to lunch-time reading, hehe.

[Emma]

I loooooved this book. I haven’t done much nonfiction reading for fun but this had me HOOKED. I was a bit icked out at parts but overall a captivating read

[Kathleen]

Caitlin wrote: "Thought this book was pretty good..."

Glad you enjoyed it! I definitely got more interested when the book moved from animals to humans as well.

The anthropological parts are so interesting but I also find it really frustrating that we'll never have any solid answers.

'huh, interesting' was kind of where the week two discussion stalled on facebook. I have high hopes for the next section though.
(Unfortunately, I haven't been able to read ahead.)

[Kathleen]

Emma wrote: "I loooooved this book. I haven’t done much nonfiction reading for fun but this had me HOOKED. I was a bit icked out at parts but overall a captivating read"

That's awesome! I'm a huge fan of micro-histories. I was sold on this one from the prologue alone.

[Brea]

Just finished this. I agree that you can’t eat and read at the same time! I liked the animal chapters because they were kind of short so it was like “cool.” But I liked that he moved on quickly.
I do feel like I wanted more Mad Cow and some more implications of cannibalism.

[Brea]

Overall I did love it though!

[Daniel Ramsden]

Really enjoyed this! He has a natural and intriguing style which made it a lovely book to spend tome with and I love the topic. Some bits were a bit slow but necessary as we needed the history. The case studies such as the Caribs, Donner Party and Mad cow bits where the most interesting as they played out as little stories.

I was also looking forward to some true crime bits but understand and respect his justification of their omission.

[Lannie]

I am definitely the one reading this during my meals. I found the animal examples to be fascinating, lost interest with the dinos and paleo sections, then got brought back in by the Donner Party (which I somehow had not heard of) and the mad cow discussion (though i almost feel it needed its own book)

I also respect his choice to leave out criminal references, but I am definitely perusing the further reading section for future reads, and am on the hunt for a book specifically on criminal cannibalism.