One Drink Minimum Book Club of Princeton

The results are in! The winner of our poll – and the book we will discuss on October 7, 2026 – is The Deadly Dinner Party: and Other Medical Detective Stories, by Jonathan A. Edlow. We used STAR Voting again this month, and nineteen members voted in the poll. Of our four book choices, The Deadly Dinner Party and Complications received the most stars in the scoring round and advanced to the automatic runoff round. The runoff round uses the information from the poll in a slightly different way: we compare the number of stars each member gave each of the finalists, and their vote goes to the book they gave more stars. Six people gave both finalists the same number of stars, The Deadly Dinner Party received seven votes, and Complications received six votes. As you can see from the data and the graphs below, this was the closest vote our club has had so far. Thank you to everyone who voted in our poll!

If you are a member of One Drink Minimum Book Club and didn't hear about the poll or otherwise have not been receiving Meetup messages, we have two suggestions. First, check your Meetup settings and make sure you have notifications from our book club enabled. If that doesn't solve the problem, our second suggestion is guaranteed to work! Send an email to Chris and Gary at one.drink.minimum.book@gmail.com and tell us your name on Meetup (this is so we can match our members to their email addresses). Once we verify your membership in Meetup, we'll be happy to add you to our mailing list! Your email address will remain private as we send all messages blind cc.

Dr. Edlow is a Professor of Medicine and Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an internationally renowned expert on the diagnosis of patients with acute neurological emergencies. He has published over 270 articles, book chapters and editorials and given over 125 international presentations in 30 different countries. He has won multiple teaching awards, including a 2010 national teaching award from the American College of Emergency Physicians. The Deadly Dinner Party is a collection of true medical detective stories published in 2009 and favorably reviewed in the New York Review of Books.
—author’s information from Harvard Medical School

Picking up where Berton Roueché’s The Medical Detectives left off, The Deadly Dinner Party presents fifteen edge-of-your-seat, real-life medical detective stories written by a practicing physician. Award-winning author Jonathan Edlow, M.D., shows the doctor as detective and the epidemiologist as elite sleuth in stories that are as gripping as the best thrillers.

In these stories a notorious stomach bug turns a suburban dinner party into a disaster that almost claims its host; a diminutive woman routinely eats more than her football-playing boyfriend but continually loses weight; a young executive is diagnosed with lung cancer, yet the tumors seem to wax and wane inexplicably. Written for the lay person who wishes to better grasp how doctors decipher the myriad clues and puzzling symptoms they often encounter, each story presents a very different case where doctors must work to find the accurate diagnosis before it is too late. Edlow uses his unique ability to relate complex medical concepts in a writing style that is clear, engaging and easily understandable. The resulting stories both entertain us and teach us much about medicine, its history and the subtle interactions among pathogens, humans, and the environment.
—description from the publisher Yale University Press

"With Atul Gawande and Jerome Groopman, Edlow is one of a distinguished group of literary Harvard medical professors who write lucidly about complex medical issues. . . . Edlow's stories are told with the easy grace of an accomplished writer who builds on, then hides, the depth of his research."
—Hugh Dillon, Sydney Morning Herald

"Edlow presents cases of mass food poisoning, lung cancer, hyperthyroidism, and more, under fun titles (e.g., "The Case of the Overly Hot Honeymoon") and in an engaging narrative full of twists and turns. It is an entertaining read."
—M. M. Gillis, Choice

"Offers mystery stories in the tradition of Berton Roueché that are every bit as exciting and illuminating as the originals. Edlow’s stories are replete with information about strange medical adventures and treatments that any of us might experience one day."
—Philip A. Mackowiak, M.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine

Attendance policy: Please be considerate of others!

• RSVP: Sign up if you plan to attend.
• Cancellations: If you need to cancel, please update your RSVP as soon as possible.
• Attendance: Show up if you are on the “Going” list.
• Emergencies: If a last-minute emergency arises, please communicate as soon as you can.
• Consequences: Repeated lack of consideration may result in removal from the group.

Available in local libraries: ***As of the posting date, the only library that has any copies of this book is STELLA. The other library links have been replaced with Interlibrary Loan Request Links for each library. If your library does not have any copies, any member may request an Interlibrary Loan. This means that your library will reach out to other libraries to borrow the book, and then let you borrow it.***