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A detailed look into the world of forensic pathology.
I don’t read a lot on non-fiction and when I do it is rarely an autobiography or memoir but when I happened to see Unnatural Causes I decided to jump in and hopefully get a better understanding of a profession so often touched on in my beloved crime thriller books. I didn’t regret it for a second.

Dr Richard Shepherd, as one of the UK’s top forensic pathologists, has performed over 23,000 postmortems; that’s a lot of dead bodies! Fascinated by cracking the puzzle of what killed each one this book covers a whole host of unusual cases. Clearing up many misconceptions of the world of forensic pathology we get a great insight into a job few people could stomach.

As he covers many interesting cases we get a unique behind the curtain look into some famous murders and disasters. Shipman, Stephen Lawrence, the Hungerford massacre, the Marchioness disaster, he is even involved in Diana’s inquest. The look into the very difficult area of the death of babies shows a complicated area where everything is not as black and white as we’d like it to be.

His single minded quest for the truth and the very distressing nature of his work takes a toll on his mental health and family life. Although not as fascinating as the cases themselves it’s important to cover this, bring into sharp focus the debt society owes to those willing to surround themselves in such a grim profession.
  
View the original review on my blog: https://bookmarkedreading.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/book-review-your-daily-brain-24-hours-in-the-life-of-your-brain/

I don’t usually read non-fiction books, but I’m a science geek at heart and couldn’t resist requesting a copy of this in return for my honest review.

It was definitely an interesting read. I loved the humour within the writing, and the combination of complicated scientific terms along with more simplified ones. It was easy to understand for the most part, and I hope I can truthfully say that I’ve learned something over the past two days from reading this.

Due to my habit of reading books at the speed of light, I don’t think the information in this book has sunk in as much as it could have. I personally found it a little hard to follow sometimes, though it was definitely better than skimming a textbook.

This is aimed at an older audience in my opinion, but I was still fascinated by what I read. A lot of it was information that I’d never even considered learning. The effect having a child has on a man’s brain? I can honestly say that it has never crossed my mind.

I did enjoy this book, even though I sped through it and am probably a little too young to fully appreciate some of the references. I’d say Your Daily Brain deserves a strong 3.5 stars, maybe edging up near 4.