Sam Kean's books have been on my TBR for a very long time. So it's a good thing that books don't expire! Because I would have been disappointed if these books slipped through my fingers.
Now, I'm always a little nervous to pick up a new author. Especially ones where they sound right up my alley, and even more so with nonfiction. I don't want it to feel like I'm reading a textbook, or not like the author's writing style. Or, in this book's case, the narrator.
Thankfully I had nothing to worry about The Icepick Surgeon. Not only did I enjoy the way Kean wrote this book, but I enjoyed the narrator, Ben Sullivan. There was something kind of soothing about his voice. It was perfect for while I was opening at my job, or doing household chores.
Sullivan's voice had a way of keeping my attention while not feeling like I was being talked at. Which, might also speak to how well Kean wrote this book. It doesn't feel like a textbook, or like I'm thrown information left and right. Kean weaves these little histories so well that there's never really a dull moment.
And, there's so much research that went into this whole book. Because there is a lot of information in each chapter, but I never got bored. Maybe because some of these things were so horrible that they kept my attention. Maybe because when I thought it couldn't possibly get worse, in some cases it does. But, Kean has weaved all this information, dates, people, and horrid deeds in a way that I managed to keep up.
I even managed to take set this book aside while I was as sick, a little halfway through, and I was able to pick it right back when I was on the mend. All the information just came back to me as Sullivan started talking.
A plus, because I've never had a great memory. So that's how I know this book had my full attention even at work.
My only sort of hang-up with this book is a personal one. I wasn't sure why there was a conclusion and an appendix. The last part personally felt like too much. I had to back up and start it three different times before I just gave up and called the book done.
I don't know, I felt like it could have just been added to the conclusion without the addition of the fraud case and it would have been fine. Something about that last few minutes that I was like, why aren't we don't yet?
But, despite that one thing I'll be picking up another of Sam Kean's books!
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