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betsygant's review against another edition
4.0
Very good book!! I really enjoyed it. More extensive book review coming...
kellyelizabeth27's review against another edition
5.0
A pretty fascinating story about influenza, especially about the search for the genome of the 1918 "Spanish flu" virus.
anywhoozle's review against another edition
2.0
Unfortunately I found the writing horribly awkward and clunky. And worst of all for me, extremely repetitive and long-winded. I'm fairly certain the book could have been at least a third shorter if the redundancies, unnecessary re-explanations, barely related tangents, and overly wordy sentences had been pruned. It brings to mind the way I was taught to write as a history major in college and so many dry history books I had to read: more words are always better, and it's good to restate the same things several times with slightly different wording. The two stars are for the wonderful book this could have been if the fascinating science and history had not been buried beneath all that terrible prose.
heavenlyspit's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
hardyboy's review against another edition
4.0
Very readable and interesting account of the work of virus “detectives.”
nikkithegeek's review against another edition
2.0
Well, this was a big disappointment. It was the last of my non-fiction pandemic reading since we got into this mess about a year ago. It wasn't a bad book per se, I think it was well written and researched - but I expected something completely different. I expected to learn something about the Flu in 1918. I did not. There was very little about the flu itself, most of the book was dedicated to the virus, not the illness and to the scientists who searched for it and hoped to get to know it. There were a lot of laboratory procedures and quite a lot of digging in permafrost and some chapters were more or less just resumees of the scientists themselves. Definitely not what I was signing up for.
caitrunswild's review against another edition
4.0
History and science, written like a mystery novel. Learning more about the individual players in the story made it even more interesting. Would definitely recommend.
ashleysbooknook's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating! It got a little slow toward the end, but then all came together. This is not just about the 1918 flu epidemic. We are taken on a journey from then to now, stopping along the way to talk about other epidemics that I didn’t know about, but which helped scientists learn more about what may have happened in 1918. It was interesting to see how the government, doctors, and scientists reacted to new findings or threats of new outbreaks. We also got a look into how scientists are able to predict, with a certain level of accuracy, what types of illnesses we will see and how dangerous/rampant they will be. The author also touched on the dilemma (a few decades ago) of whether to push a vaccine out to the general public or keep it until they had more information about the disease they were seeing. Doctors and scientists had been working on it and then they started seeing cases. It wasn’t enough to justify a panic, but they also did not want to sit on a bunch of vaccines and risk it being too late to save lives if they waited too long. I am not doing justice at all the this struggle or the details in the book. It’s late. I’m tired. But I’m trying to make the point that I learned a lot which helped me see why things are being done the way they are right now, with the novel corona virus. This context explains all the “gotcha” questions nay sayers and conspiracy theorists bring up to try to prove this is planned or a political tool or whatever craziness they came up with today.
jessferg's review against another edition
3.0
Seemed like an appropriate read for a COVID-19 lock-down activity. The first half is much more interesting than the second but mostly because the second half is also INFURIATING because of what feels like a women-in-science discriminatory issue. The author does not take that stand at all - in fact she almost defends the other scientist who is acting "professionally" but c'mon - you read it and tell me there isn't a hint of derision...and then there's factual disappointment. So not as fun to read as the stuff about earlier infections and groundwork.
Of course there's a lot of follow-up needed on my part. The book was published 1999 and even the added epilogue in this edition is 2005. Guess I'll be able to keep busy for awhile longer.
Of course there's a lot of follow-up needed on my part. The book was published 1999 and even the added epilogue in this edition is 2005. Guess I'll be able to keep busy for awhile longer.