These books do not focus on one specific place. Some of them cover several geographic regions and others are just books that I enjoyed. Click on a book title or image to purchase.

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Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found – Frances Larson

This book is a scholarly exploration of the world’s fascination with severed heads. It is composed of 8 chapters: Shrunken Heads, Trophy Heads, Deposed Heads, Framed Heads, Potent Heads, Bone Heads, Dissected Heads, and Living Heads. The title sounds ghastly, but Larson’s takes a historian’s approach, discussing the morality behind everything from the dissection of heads in the medical field to famous heads mounted on London Bridge to heads claimed as trophies during battle. The academic portions of the book are broken up by interesting stories of people from all walks of life and various cultures.

Thoughts: I found this book at a university gift shop in Edinburgh, days after learning about Mary Queen of Scot’s gruesome beheading. I was immediately grabbed by the cover. I like the scholarly approach Larson takes and really enjoy the entertaining stories each chapter is loaded with. I didn’t care for the chapter on severed heads in art and thought the one on religious heads to be a bit boring. Other than that, I was captivated by the subject matter. I underlined numerous sentences throughout the book and found myself annotating in the margins (something I usually only do with textbooks). The book was incredibly insightful and opened my eyes to things I have never thought about, such as how a lot of museums feature artifacts stolen from the marginalized and whether or not the social media sensationalism surrounding Nick Berg’s beheading lead to more terrorist beheadings than if the public had suppressed their fascination.

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

A luxurious train ride through Europe turns grim when one of the first class passengers is stabbed and left for dead in his room. As the train was stranded on the night of the murder due to a large snow drift covering the tracks, it is impossible that the crime was an outside job; The murderer is one of the passengers on board. Famed detective Hercule Poirot is among these passengers and quickly makes it his mission to solve the case before the train reaches it’s destination. He delves headfirst into the mystery, questioning the 13 suspects (who seem to all have an alibi) and using his “little grey cells” to uncover a startling motive.

Thoughts: This was the first Agatha Christie book I ever read! I just recently reread it and was reminded of why Christie is heralded as the Queen of Mystery. This is a prime example of what a mystery should be, and I love Poirot’s methodical approach to solving it. This novel is classified under “worldly books”, becaus the majority of the novel takes place on the train, and the lively characters are from numerous places including Belgium, the United States, France, Russia, and England.