Obsessive Genius: the Inner World of Marie Curie

Was highly recommended by the owner of a local book store here at Jersey City, doesn't disappoint a bit. Apparently there are several biographies for Curie, but none talk about her depression and personal life in such details. It seems as melancholic and detached as the subject of the book during her lifetime. 

The turbulent life of Curie be it her mother's demise, relationship with children and her husband, affair with another man - help complete the personality that is more than the caricature in the textbooks. A must read in my opinion.

A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream

Written by a historian, this book is a reflection of the English Society in 1890s with a crime subtext. Cream who several suspected to be the original Jack the Ripper was imprisoned for murder in the Americas, later goes to England upon his release and then goes on a poisoning spree. A classical caricature of a madman who also manifests the London society of the day. It is a period that will eventually see green shoots of women rights, finally germinating the suffragette movement. A dark study of a dangerous time and place.