What happens when you catch strep throat? Why shouldn’t you go foraging for mushrooms? Why should you use only distilled water in your neti pot? If you’re fascinated by questions like these, emergency medicine physician Ashely Alker has the answers.
In 99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them, Dr. Alker takes you on a worst-hits tour of deadly diseases, drugs, food, animals, accidents, and more, along with advice on how not to die if you encounter them. In a voice that’s equally hilarious and horrifying, she covers a wide variety of conditions, their treatments, and how to stay safe. Wear a helmet for contact sports (“The brain is arguably the most important organ in the body, just don’t ask a cardiologist”). Leave snakes alone (“Snakes come in two forms: venomous, also known as a nope-rope, and nonvenomous, also known as a presumed nope-rope”). And don’t eat wild mushrooms, including the friendly-looking red-orange ones with white spots (“In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a hookah-smoking caterpillar claimed the mushroom to be size-altering, but in real life it is deadly… Confirmation by someone more qualified than a stoned caterpillar is crucial in escaping death”).
99 Ways to Die is an informative addition to the collection of doctor-authored literature, falling between memoirs like Anthony Chin-Quee’s I Can’t Save You and Lisa Genova’s Remember, which addresses the various stages of memory loss. You might laugh, your skin might crawl, but you’ll definitely learn something. – Michelle (Sunset)
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