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A review by livres_de_bloss
The Ghost Map: A Street, an Epidemic and the Hidden Power of Urban Networks by Steven Johnson
4.0
I’m giving this 4.5 stars with the caveat that one doesn’t read the epilogue.
This book is phenomenal! Such a detailed and engaging snapshot of the devastating cholera outbreak of 1854. The book is highly readable and tells the story in a linear fashion. I really enjoyed the medical sections on how cholera actually works inside the body and how the virus can mutate. It’s all pretty frightening yet fascinating.
My only complaint with the body of the book is the constant banging on about miasma. We got it the first time. It doesn’t need to be mentioned in every subsequent section. We see how loopy it is from the onset.
The epilogue, on the other hand, was odd. It was a lot of fear-mongering and sensationalism. It was almost 30 pages of speculation that was only very loosely related to the book at all. I don’t know why it was put in this excellent book; it kind of made me question the author’s credibility and ends the book on a tremendously weak note.
I recommend this book to everyone. We can all learn something! Just don’t bother with the epilogue.
This book is phenomenal! Such a detailed and engaging snapshot of the devastating cholera outbreak of 1854. The book is highly readable and tells the story in a linear fashion. I really enjoyed the medical sections on how cholera actually works inside the body and how the virus can mutate. It’s all pretty frightening yet fascinating.
My only complaint with the body of the book is the constant banging on about miasma. We got it the first time. It doesn’t need to be mentioned in every subsequent section. We see how loopy it is from the onset.
The epilogue, on the other hand, was odd. It was a lot of fear-mongering and sensationalism. It was almost 30 pages of speculation that was only very loosely related to the book at all. I don’t know why it was put in this excellent book; it kind of made me question the author’s credibility and ends the book on a tremendously weak note.
I recommend this book to everyone. We can all learn something! Just don’t bother with the epilogue.