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carrieneptune's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
jeanetterenee's review
Did not finish.
If you're looking for a book about what it was like to experience the 1918 flu pandemic, this is not the book you want. The title of this book should be The Search for the Virus That Caused the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918. It starts off with a little bit about the actual pandemic, and the rest of the book is long detailed histories of all the doctors and researchers who tried to figure out how the virus worked, where it came from, and if it had somehow survived for decades in the bodies of those who died from it. There's also quite a lot of discussion of other pandemics of the 20th century, and the efforts to discover if those viruses were somehow "descendants" of that 1918 strain.
This is the third book I have started and abandoned in my quest to find a book that provides a narrative of what it was like to actually live through the 1918 pandemic. Onward!
If you're looking for a book about what it was like to experience the 1918 flu pandemic, this is not the book you want. The title of this book should be The Search for the Virus That Caused the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918. It starts off with a little bit about the actual pandemic, and the rest of the book is long detailed histories of all the doctors and researchers who tried to figure out how the virus worked, where it came from, and if it had somehow survived for decades in the bodies of those who died from it. There's also quite a lot of discussion of other pandemics of the 20th century, and the efforts to discover if those viruses were somehow "descendants" of that 1918 strain.
This is the third book I have started and abandoned in my quest to find a book that provides a narrative of what it was like to actually live through the 1918 pandemic. Onward!
tragiccharacter's review against another edition
3.0
My father, who is slightly more paranoid than I am, recommended this book. I bought it and did the read/listen thing as I am usually doing these days now that I am back commuting for a living. Again, the books seemed good but I had a hard time finishing it as the reader was not ideal. I believe it would have received a whole star more had another reader been performing it.
Now, the topic was super cool and I love the "Hot Zone" style (though I attribute this to "The Coming Plague" actually. It is really interesting how media and history have suppressed or ignored biological plagues. Then again, I am a total nerd for how some choices humans make result in completely unpredictable, often global, tragedy. And if you are too - this book is good for the facts... and look at Connie Willis or Mary Doria Russell for the fiction.
Now, the topic was super cool and I love the "Hot Zone" style (though I attribute this to "The Coming Plague" actually. It is really interesting how media and history have suppressed or ignored biological plagues. Then again, I am a total nerd for how some choices humans make result in completely unpredictable, often global, tragedy. And if you are too - this book is good for the facts... and look at Connie Willis or Mary Doria Russell for the fiction.
reggikko's review against another edition
4.0
This book is fascinating as well as sobering in light of the current situation with COVID-19. Reading about the scientific processes for isolating and studying flu viruses in order to better understand the mechanisms of infection and the factors that make one virus fairly innocuous and another a deadly killer taught me some things in regard to immunology and infectious processes.
Of note is the ways in which flu viruses in animals raised for food—specifically poultry and pigs—is a veritable powder keg of infection waiting to make the jump from animals to humans. After reading this book I am fairly confident that scientists will be able to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. The question is: How long will it take and how successful will the virus be in mutating in order to survive?
One very minor quibble, because I’m a picky pedant: I would expect a science writer to know that ferrets are not rodents.
Of note is the ways in which flu viruses in animals raised for food—specifically poultry and pigs—is a veritable powder keg of infection waiting to make the jump from animals to humans. After reading this book I am fairly confident that scientists will be able to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. The question is: How long will it take and how successful will the virus be in mutating in order to survive?
One very minor quibble, because I’m a picky pedant: I would expect a science writer to know that ferrets are not rodents.
mhendrie's review against another edition
4.0
A book about the 1918 global pandemic was inevitably going to hit differently in the midst of 2020’s own global pandemic, and it does. All that emotional fraught aside, this is an engrossing and well-researched account of our scientific understanding of the influenza.
gal123's review against another edition
3.0
יש חלקים ממש טובים
אך חלקים רבים מדי בספר מרגישים אנליטיים מאוד ובעלי מידע עמוס ולא רלוונטי
וגם יש בסך הכל פרק אחד מעשרה על השפעת עצמה ושלושה על שפעות אחרות יותר משמעותית,מה שמעלה את השאלה על מה הספר בכלל.
אך חלקים רבים מדי בספר מרגישים אנליטיים מאוד ובעלי מידע עמוס ולא רלוונטי
וגם יש בסך הכל פרק אחד מעשרה על השפעת עצמה ושלושה על שפעות אחרות יותר משמעותית,מה שמעלה את השאלה על מה הספר בכלל.
kfor24's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating and frightening, but worth reading even with trepidation.
The last lines of the book, written in 1998, will haunt me:
"It is hard to be complacent. Would a new killer flu look just like the 1918 flu? Or was that virus more of an example of what could happen if a flu virus was perfectly made to be a deadly foe? Will the next terrible influenza virus be a new strain that is, in its own way, ideally made to kill? Jeffrey Taubenberger, for one, thinks we cannot predict what the next flu virus will look like. The only hope we have is vigilent surveillance, keeping a careful eye out for the rough beast whose hour has come at last."
The last lines of the book, written in 1998, will haunt me:
"It is hard to be complacent. Would a new killer flu look just like the 1918 flu? Or was that virus more of an example of what could happen if a flu virus was perfectly made to be a deadly foe? Will the next terrible influenza virus be a new strain that is, in its own way, ideally made to kill? Jeffrey Taubenberger, for one, thinks we cannot predict what the next flu virus will look like. The only hope we have is vigilent surveillance, keeping a careful eye out for the rough beast whose hour has come at last."