Founded so that co-organisers Fran & Carolyn had a reason to read the non-fiction they kept buying but never getting round to reading; Phage Turners (pun credit: Carolyn) is a relaxed book club for the Draper Lab and friends. Loosely focused on public health topics, we read one book every 2-3 months then meet after work to discuss over pizza and drinks. One day we will get round to printing bookmarks with our logo, and Fran will finish a book in time for the meeting.
We are currently reading
'Fighting for Life: The Twelve Battles that Made Our NHS, and the Struggle for Its Future' by Isabel Hardman (2023)
Please get in touch by email (francesca.donnellan@paediatrics.ox.ac.uk and/or carolyn.nielsen@paediatrics.ox.ac.uk) if you are based in the University or Oxford University Hospitals and are interested in joining us.
Previous books
(Recommended read by general and unscientific consensus i.e. Fran picked her favourites)
| The Ghost Map | Steven Johnson |
| Infectious Madness | Harriet Washington |
| House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox | William Foege |
The Wisdom of Whores: Bureauccrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS | Elizabeth Pisani |
| Factfulness | Hans Rosling |
| Dreamland | Sam Quinones |
| The Butchering Art | Lindsey Fitzharris |
| Radium Girls | Kate Moore |
| I Contain Multitudes | Ken Albeck |
| Bad Blood | John Carreyrou |
The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child | Robert W. Sears |
| Nine Pints | Rose George |
| The Gendered Brain | Gina Rippon |
| The Body: A Guide for Occupants | Bill Bryson |
| The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills* | David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu |
| Stuck | Heidi Larson |
| Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty | Patrick Radden Keefe |
| Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams | Matthew P. Walker |
| Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin: Patterns, Proteins and Peace: A Life in Science | Georgina Ferry |
| Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped our History | Dorothy H. Crawford |
| The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I | Lindsey Fitzharris |
| Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind | Sue Black |
| The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World | Michael Marmot |
| Catch your breath: The Secret Life of a Sleepless Anaesthetist | Ed Patrick |
| The Good Virus | Tom Ireland |
| Life in Her Hands: The Inspiring Story of a Pioneering Female Surgeon | Averil Mansfield |
| Systemic: How Racism Is Making Us Ill | Layal Liverpool |
| Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection | John Green |
| The Story of a Heart | Rachel Clarke |
| The Woman Who Fooled the World: the true story of fake wellness guru Belle Gibson | Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano |
| Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society | edited by Bill Bryson |
| The Mould in Dr Florey's Coat: The Remarkable True Story of the Penicillin Miracle | Eric Lax |
*Barney's favourite