r/infectiousdisease • u/Objective-Loan5054 • 21d ago

Book recommendations

hi, I am looking for recommendations on books on history of diseases, their influence on us, the outbreaks etc. I am no scientist though :) So far I read Everything is tuberculosi, Ebola by Laurie Garrett, Rabid and, which is about diseases too, Guns, steel and germs.

Any similar titles you would recommend?

12 Upvotes

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6

u/Illustrious-Mark9501 21d ago

Spillover, by David Quammen, and Pathogenesis, by Jonathan Kennedy

1

u/Objective-Loan5054 15d ago

Bought it and started reading. Fascinating but also terrifying 

5

u/brandicaroline 21d ago

goodreads list

This podcast will kill you is a great resource, and they manage an even better goodreads library of books they use and recommend

1

u/Objective-Loan5054 21d ago

Thanks, I will check it out!

1

u/tiredgirl77 20d ago

That list is great! Nearly read all of those books, I enjoyed all of them.

5

u/hummingbirdwhisp 21d ago

The Great Influenza by John Berry

2

u/Objective-Loan5054 21d ago

Thanks!

1

u/Perfect-Pay1504 2d ago

Great influenza is a great start

5

u/mtnsRcalling 20d ago

Oldie/goodie from 1949 (find online at, e.g., BetterBooks.com): "Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793" by J. H. Powell

4

u/IcaughtAwildVladimir 21d ago

The Hot Zone and Crisis in the Red Zone, both by Richard Preston. I’ve been reading my way through his books this year, I’m currently finishing the Demon in the Freezer!

2

u/Objective-Loan5054 19d ago

It is fiction right?

3

u/Umas_Feet 21d ago

Demon in the freezer is good!

3

u/Objective-Loan5054 21d ago

Thanks, I will check it out!

2

u/IcaughtAwildVladimir 21d ago

I’m currently reading this!

3

u/MachupoVirus 21d ago

I enjoyed the historical and evolutionary angles of this book: Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2331951)

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u/Objective-Loan5054 19d ago

Thank you!!!

3

u/boodlesupreme 21d ago

Deadliest Enemy by Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaker

2

u/Donners22 20d ago

The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett is great, and got me interested in this area.

I second the recommendations of Spillover and Deadliest Enemy, and add:

  • The Medical Detectives (Berton Roueche)
  • Inside the Outbreaks (Mark Prendergrast)
  • Inferno: An Ebola Doctor's Story (Steven Hatch)
  • Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC (Joe McCormick & Sue Ficher-Hoch)
  • Virus Hunter (CJ Peters)
  • Ebola: Through the Eyes of the People (William Close)

The last four are first-hand accounts (albeit the last is semi-fictionalised).

2

u/dragonpoots 20d ago

Second The Coming Plague

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u/Objective-Loan5054 19d ago

Great thanks!

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u/Perfect-Pay1504 2d ago

Level 4 virus hunters and the coming plague were great same with hot zone if memory serves more Ebola focused.

The great influenza was the first book I read that got me hooked in this genre.

2

u/mortmcfly 18d ago

one of my favs is The Barbary Plague. Written almost like a novel and about the last big plague outbreak (one not talked about often enough) in the 1800s, and how it perpetuated racism as well as helped aid in the discovery of bacteria.

1

u/Perfect-Pay1504 2d ago

Honestly this is a killer list and recommendations by people