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jenmangler's review against another edition
3.0
I really like the parts that were about the actual pandemic. A lot. That's what I was hoping the book would be. But I just couldn't connect to the rest. If I wanted to read a history of Johns Hopkins, I'd pick up a book on that, you know? Stuff like that was really out of place in this book and distracted from the really interesting parts.
stephaniesteen73's review against another edition
3.0
Disturbing similarities between 1918 and now. The afterword, written nearly 20 years ago, was eerily prescient in predicting our current pandemic: a new respiratory virus originating in Asia, we will not be well prepared, tracing efforts will be hampered by secrecy. Listened to this on audio but it may have been easier to digest via print - a lot of names, quite a bit of repetition.
alexiathethief's review against another edition
3.0
While this book does a great job explaining the 1918 flu pandemic, it does too good of a job. Theres actually too much unnecessary information had quite a few redundancies.
serenacoolbeans's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
kmcquage's review against another edition
4.0
This was extremely entertaining for a work of nonfiction. It was suspenseful and structured tightly for better narrative effect. By remaining with one city or group of doctors for a duration of time Barry was able to keep me interested, but didn't stick so closely to a narrative plot line that the chronological effect was lost.
rsaguilar's review against another edition
4.25
Great context for the influenza pandemic. The first half of the book is mostly about the state of the science/research and medical fields at the time. There are a lot of different players involved, which made for interesting stories about those individuals but made it a bit difficult to keep track of, if just listening to the audio. It can get a bit dry at times but overall is interesting and would recommend to other budding virologists or medical students.
librarygurl's review against another edition
3.0
This is almost entirely focused on the US. The first 1/3 of the book is primarily about the state of medical education before the pandemic and US political nonsense. The second third focuses on the military. The final third is about the communities and political impact. Barry outright says that Wilson came down with the Spanish Flu but they lied and told everyone is was a stroke.
Also, Wilson doesn't come off as a great President... So... yeah, we're doing a little better with Coronavirus. At least the press isn't pretending nothings happening!
Also, Wilson doesn't come off as a great President... So... yeah, we're doing a little better with Coronavirus. At least the press isn't pretending nothings happening!
asnyder331's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
I really struggled to get through this one. It could've been edited into multiple books
pictusfish's review against another edition
2.0
He said on several occasions that deoxygenated blood is blue or blueish, which anybody who has ever had blood drawn knows from personal experience is false. It makes me wonder what other easily-verifiable facts he also gets wrong.
With all that said, i do recommend the book, if for no other reason than for its wonderful message that the United States, from the highest government official to the everyday citizen, simply does not handle pandemic well, and it has nothing to do with "this generation". The click-bait news headlines from 1918 might have been written in 2020 if you change "germany" to "china".
With all that said, i do recommend the book, if for no other reason than for its wonderful message that the United States, from the highest government official to the everyday citizen, simply does not handle pandemic well, and it has nothing to do with "this generation". The click-bait news headlines from 1918 might have been written in 2020 if you change "germany" to "china".