NNO Book Club: The Royal Art of Poison

We are ending the year with a cheery exploration of the myriad of ways our forefathers managed to survived near constant unintentional poisoning in their household goods, cosmetics and medical practices and case studies of those who did NOT survive, whether by poison or misunderstood natural causes. With a highly-readable mix of forensics, social and culture history and lots of primary source accounts of possible poisonings, this may be just the read to prepare us for the holidays. (Kidding! Please don’t take this as a ‘how to’ manual to off your kin!)

Join us for our December 2019 read - The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman.

Book summary from Goodreads
The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots.

Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with mercury and lead. Men rubbed turds on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings, and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. The most gorgeous palaces were little better than filthy latrines. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don’t see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines.

In The Royal Art of Poison, Eleanor Herman combines her unique access to royal archives with cutting-edge forensic discoveries to tell the true story of Europe’s glittering palaces: one of medical bafflement, poisonous cosmetics, ever-present excrement, festering natural illness, and, sometimes, murder.

*This month's restaurant selection
This month we will be trying out a new Peruvian place (one that’s open for lunch, which really helps.

***Not sure about book club or never been to one before? ***
Read the book (or some of the book). Come to the Meetup. Eat yummy food and chat with folks about what you thought about the book. REPEAT!

Didn’t finish/hated this book?
Come to the Meetup anyway! If you didn't finish - just be aware, there will be spoilers. If you hated it, come and rant! We have some of the best conversations about what we didn’t like about books!