Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.42 AVERAGE
4.42 AVERAGE
Zoonoses are diseases that cross over from other animals to humans. As the human population grows and we put more pressure on natural environments the chance of these “spillovers” increases. David Quammen surveys the current state of the science on zoonoses, as dives into stories of how they have affected people around the globe. This is a fascinating, and at times horrific, look at what may yet come.
One of the best books I have read. The style of writing is very engaging which helped make technical information easy to follow. The writer's sense of humor mixed with the delivery of the sense of awe accompanying zoonotic infections and pandemics gives the book a very unique atmosphere.
This is not medical knowledge, it is common knowledge that I think everyone should know. A must read book. 5 stars.
This is not medical knowledge, it is common knowledge that I think everyone should know. A must read book. 5 stars.
Easy five stars! David's writing is phenomenal and accessible to anyone (in my opinion). This book (I kept thinking) could have been written today. I feel as if I took a fantastic and educational trip to many countries; some I had been to, and some I might stay away from after reading this book.
It was the last two chapters however, that made me pause. I felt pretty good throughout, i.e., we got this!, but not at the end. Humans are the ones that brought on this current pandemic. Humans are the only ones that can stop another pandemic.
It was the last two chapters however, that made me pause. I felt pretty good throughout, i.e., we got this!, but not at the end. Humans are the ones that brought on this current pandemic. Humans are the only ones that can stop another pandemic.
informative
medium-paced
It took me a year of starting and stopping to finish this book. It’s packed with information and stories, and I enjoyed reading it.
David Quammen does it again. His previous book "Song of the Dodo" was my first foray into non-fiction that really engaged me like I thought only fiction could do. Now in "Spillover" he reminded me of how good non-fiction can really be. In "Spillover" Quammen sets out to track the sources of various animal viruses that spillover into humans, viruses like Ebola, Hendra, HIV-1 and a host of others, including Lyme's. The book is informative without being too scientific, adventurous without rambling and humorous despite its dire message. What Quammen continues to point out through the book is the encroachment of humans into animals habitats which leads to more possiblity of spillover. The detective work virologists do to track the source of these various spillovers is the most fascinating aspect of the book. The fact that patient zero for AIDS was not Gaëtan Dugas, as was widely believed in the late 70's and early 80's, but the disease has been around since 1908 and actually arrived in the US via tainted plasma from Haiti. Who knew? Well a bunch of really smart dedicated scientist knew and now thanks to another great book by David Quammen, I do too.
Quite the travel book, chasing pathogens in time and space. We know the current knowledge base is the result of many people's very careful work that span decades. But to have Quammen weave together the various actors and ecological context gives me new appreciation for disease and the delicate balance of life on the planet. Well researched, referenced, with some imagination tossed in as well to help readers connect the dots. Learned quite a bit; it piqued interest in disease history.
This book came on my radar when I picked up a physical copy at a library sale. I grab books at great prices for my Little Free Library - but I check ratings/reviews and set some aside to read before I release them. This was added to my list, although I was a bit intimidated by the size and the material (and the cover ... scary!) As I was attempting a "Non-Fiction November" I added it to my list. The audio was an Audible exclusive, so I had picked it up during a sale, and I snagged the Kindle copy from the library. I had this in all three formats.
General impressions - this was heavy, scientific and I'm not sure how much I'll really remember in detail, but it kept my interest and I felt like I learned a lot along the way. Very interesting to hear some of the history, explanations, theories and predictions (as this was written pre-covid, but I read it post-covid ... the next human pandemic as the title intimated).
This had nine sections, 1. Pale Horse 2. Thirteen Gorillas 3. Everything Comes From Somewhere 4. Dinner at the Rat Farm 5. The Deer, The Parrot and the Kid Next Door 6. Going Viral 7. Celestial Hosts 8. The Chimp and the River 9. It Depends ... multiple chapters within each (115 chapters in all). The physical copy had a Table of Contents, showing just the nine sections, thankfully the Kindle and audio linked all chapters. I went primarily with audio, but used the Kindle app to play, so that I could stop and have the text right there (for highlights, notes, review). At one point a read a few chapters on my own.
So many words that are not as common/unknown to me, or ones I notice and mark: preternaturally, concatenation, pogrom, deign, rifled, halcyon, scrum ... a mention of bonobo monkeys (Come From Away). Uncommon/Unknown words (and I didn't get them all!) ... temerarious, prelapsarian, concomitant, recrudesce, sedulously, pusillanimity, debouched, liquescent, teleological, salubrious, limned. And that's not even including any of the more medical terms. Another serendipity ... I played the NYT Strands game on Wednesday/Nov13 and "Bipedal" was the Spanagram, and I thought the other words were poorly chosen ... on being "pangolin" ... I remember it was the last word I had to find, so I just had to put the letters in the right order and still I struggled! Pangolin? What is that? I've NEVER heard of that animal. Then later that day, reading this book ... there it was. Really??? Crazy coincidence! I did a Kindle search and the word had been said once earlier in the book, but I hadn't registered it. Many other animals I hadn't heard of before (muntjac, civets,etc). Many names I wouldn't have known how to pronounce (kudos to the audiobook narrator) ... of people, places and scientific labels.
Discussing so many different diseases, viruses, bacterium ... while I remember the H1N1 scare, it didn't really impact me (I recall a college friend posting that they stood in long lines to get the new immunizations). My brother and another FB friend have struggled with Lyme disease (discussed in one section). I'm trying to remember if SARS in 2003 was something that was feared where we were at.
Much of it was presented as historical, research. Some chapters were first person with the author traveling and experiencing close contact, interviewing others, etc. At times very medical, and completely conversational in other portions. There was one section, talking hypothetically about "The Cut Man" and "The Voyager" which ... felt more like a novel. I guess of what might have happened, but then it went into such storytelling detail. I wasn't sure about that ...
Super interesting to pay particular attention to the predictions of "The Next Big One" which has now happened, and it was a big one. Which I did know "of" some people who died, and some close family was affected long term with lost of taste/smell, Covid really didn't hit us hard personally. Coronavirus was mentioned as one of the possibilities for the next big one.
It would be interesting to have a follow up post-Covid addressing it in connection to this book.
General impressions - this was heavy, scientific and I'm not sure how much I'll really remember in detail, but it kept my interest and I felt like I learned a lot along the way. Very interesting to hear some of the history, explanations, theories and predictions (as this was written pre-covid, but I read it post-covid ... the next human pandemic as the title intimated).
This had nine sections, 1. Pale Horse 2. Thirteen Gorillas 3. Everything Comes From Somewhere 4. Dinner at the Rat Farm 5. The Deer, The Parrot and the Kid Next Door 6. Going Viral 7. Celestial Hosts 8. The Chimp and the River 9. It Depends ... multiple chapters within each (115 chapters in all). The physical copy had a Table of Contents, showing just the nine sections, thankfully the Kindle and audio linked all chapters. I went primarily with audio, but used the Kindle app to play, so that I could stop and have the text right there (for highlights, notes, review). At one point a read a few chapters on my own.
So many words that are not as common/unknown to me, or ones I notice and mark: preternaturally, concatenation, pogrom, deign, rifled, halcyon, scrum ... a mention of bonobo monkeys (Come From Away). Uncommon/Unknown words (and I didn't get them all!) ... temerarious, prelapsarian, concomitant, recrudesce, sedulously, pusillanimity, debouched, liquescent, teleological, salubrious, limned. And that's not even including any of the more medical terms. Another serendipity ... I played the NYT Strands game on Wednesday/Nov13 and "Bipedal" was the Spanagram, and I thought the other words were poorly chosen ... on being "pangolin" ... I remember it was the last word I had to find, so I just had to put the letters in the right order and still I struggled! Pangolin? What is that? I've NEVER heard of that animal. Then later that day, reading this book ... there it was. Really??? Crazy coincidence! I did a Kindle search and the word had been said once earlier in the book, but I hadn't registered it. Many other animals I hadn't heard of before (muntjac, civets,etc). Many names I wouldn't have known how to pronounce (kudos to the audiobook narrator) ... of people, places and scientific labels.
Discussing so many different diseases, viruses, bacterium ... while I remember the H1N1 scare, it didn't really impact me (I recall a college friend posting that they stood in long lines to get the new immunizations). My brother and another FB friend have struggled with Lyme disease (discussed in one section). I'm trying to remember if SARS in 2003 was something that was feared where we were at.
Much of it was presented as historical, research. Some chapters were first person with the author traveling and experiencing close contact, interviewing others, etc. At times very medical, and completely conversational in other portions. There was one section, talking hypothetically about "The Cut Man" and "The Voyager" which ... felt more like a novel. I guess of what might have happened, but then it went into such storytelling detail. I wasn't sure about that ...
Super interesting to pay particular attention to the predictions of "The Next Big One" which has now happened, and it was a big one. Which I did know "of" some people who died, and some close family was affected long term with lost of taste/smell, Covid really didn't hit us hard personally. Coronavirus was mentioned as one of the possibilities for the next big one.
It would be interesting to have a follow up post-Covid addressing it in connection to this book.
From a gifted science writer, the depressing prospect of a future zoonotic pandemic being *when* not if. Using previous near misses, and describing protocols with chilling examples, Quammen makes a pretty good prediction that somewhere in recently disturbed bat habitat, viruses in bat guano will be amplified by pigs and broadcast out of every orifice, hitting a human population that lacks good decentralized health care but has the ability to travel via jet plane, that corrupt officials will probably stall reporting anything so as to not harm tourism or the local economy (or insist on believing that local traditional cures can handle it) and things will go unchecked until it hits first world population centers instead of being handled when it was still controllable for lack of decent infrastructure and basic services.