The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book would have been great if it had had serious editing. The first 13 chapters are background on a number of scientists who fail to capture the imagination -- probably because he simply covers too many of them. In chapter 14, Barry finally starts to write about the pandemic, and by the time you're halfway through the book, the information is basically over. The rest is just a rehash of what you've read. However, the second quarter of the book was very interesting.

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Deadly Companions by Dorothy H. Crawford

Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History by Dorothy H. Crawford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good overview of all the big pandemics plus a bonus chapter about the potato blight in Ireland. This would be a good first book if you’re interested in this topic but if you’ve already read some on this topic you won’t find anything enlightening or entertaining in this one.

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Very, Very, Very Dreadful by Albert Marrin

Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 by Albert Marrin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe 3.5? The main text about the 1918 flu pandemic left a lot to be desired. Notable though is how the political narratives about whether to protect lives or positively spin things for continued economic activity have been repeated in 2020. It's remarkable how very similar a lot of actions have been even as they've differed with more stay-at-home orders. Of the 1918 flu, Marrin wrote, "Throughout the pandemic, the nation lacked a uniform policy about gathering places, and there was no central authority with the power to make and enforce rules that everyone had to obey. Each community acted on its own, doing as its elected officials thought best." Um, yeah.

The last 20% of the book dealt with subsequent research regarding viruses and was really interesting, by which I mean completely terrifying.

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A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer

A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fun at the beginning but drags in the middle so so much. In the end, it's kind of fun again. At the very end, it was so stressful because some days it feels like "the conservatives" might do something like throw out a cure if the cure somehow limited capitalism the least little bit, or cost some huge company a few dollars. I am jaded.

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More Deadly Than War by Kenneth C. Davis

More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War by Kenneth C. Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was good and remarkable in its parallels to our current situation. However, it left me with some questions about about the 1918 and didn’t seem all-encompassing is general. It had a very strong afterword and I strongly recommend that you do not skip that as it provides an important conclusion.

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Black Death at the Golden Gate by David K. Randall

Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague by David K. Randall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Startling how similar the reaction of the Governor of California was over 100 years ago to that of our President today. Just cover up the Bubonic Plague! Don't make a big deal of it and it will go away. Microbes don't care about positive thinking or panic or anything other than actual protective measures and treatment.

All the descriptions of this book say it's the story of Rupert Blue, but can we take a minute for Joseph James Kinyoun? He was the first hero. I have a lot of sympathy for him. It's terrible to live in a world where people won't listen to science and require being constantly charmed to accept reality. The bad guys create a fictional world and force us all to live in it.

Fun fact: You can still get Bubonic Plague from fleas, though early detection and treatment with antibiotics should cure you.

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Bitten by Kris Newby

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There’s a lot of interesting Lyme Disease information here but there’s also a lot of speculation and drama that makes it tough to mentally compartmentalize what I accept as fact or likely.

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Get Well Soon by Jennifer Wright

Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is THE pandemic book everyone should read right now. It's terrifying, hilarious, and ethically-inspiring in equal measure. It will snap you out of your dream-like coronavirus confusion. It's amazing.

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The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is a lot of amazing information in this huge tome, and it took me three weeks to get through, but it was worth it. It could have used a firmer editing hand though. Both the chronology of infectious diseases and the diseases themselves were divided into chapters in ways I failed to understand. Additionally, given the large amount of extremely useful information provided by this book, it would have moved the book along to edit down every individual thought every patient and every doctor ever had, every description of every little leaf in the jungle the disease emerged. I could basically write an entire book review about any chapter, it's so overwhelming.

There was a lot of information about AIDS provided in the second half of the book.

Some of the themes of the book are sleuthing the origins of novel pathogen outbreaks, scientific hubris, and illness containment fails.

I recently watched an interview with Dr. Ian Crozier, an ebola survivor, and I was amazed at how much I understood that I'd only just learned from the information in this book.

I read this for some insight into the novel virus outbreaks like our cures coronavirus outbreak but I definitely gained a great deal more from reading this. And what a great ending!

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The Viral Storm by Nathan Wolfe

The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age by Nathan Wolfe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a bit disorganized for me, and considering how interested (read: worried) I am in this topic, I found it a bit dull. However, the tidbits I learned here and there about pandemic viruses in general and specific viruses in particular, I think it was well worth my time to read. The book had some particularly interesting facts regarding the AIDS virus and the Nipah virus (from bats to pigs to people). The connection between pandemics and eating meat, in general, is interesting. I've read before about Toxoplasma Gondii, but it's so crazy, it never disappoints, and I was interested in the new hypothesis about cat hoarders potentially being infected- why is that so hard to find out for sure though? I've read before about helpful bacteria, particularly gut bacteria, but this is the first I've heard of potentially helpful viruses. Finally, I thought it was interesting that Nathan Wolfe's data collection dreams (for preventing pandemics) are precisely Edward Snowden's nightmares. There seem to be many sides to the data debate, not just two.

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Proteinaholic by Garth Davis

Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat Is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It by Garth Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Davis is persuasive that animal-derived products are mostly terrible for you. I especially enjoyed the section where he explains to the public how to look at scientific studies. I also enjoyed the very scientific bent of the book with study after study because I generally enjoy super-nerdy-science reading.

This book isn't a diet book though. He's strong on the not-eating-meat point, but he doesn't spend much time on other things you shouldn't eat, and he only spends a little bit of time on things he thinks you should eat. I suspect that the vast majority of his research was on meat only, and he has very little idea about the specifics of say, wheat. I'm dubious based on the science that I've read that wheat is a healthy food to consume. Yes, maybe meat is even worse, but that doesn't mean you'll do great on a high wheat diet. The Okinawans don't eat much meat- though they do eat some fish- and they don't eat wheat. I don't doubt that some very specific healthy wheat products are available (and likely to go bad quickly because of lack of preservatives), but it seems like the majority of wheat products are pretty bad. And sugar is the devil.

Conclusion: working on cutting the animal products out of my diet.

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The Longevity Diet by Valter Longo

The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight by Valter Longo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I trust Dr. Longo's research, he's a recognized expert, but I don't think this plan is very useful to normal people. The concept is basically this: do the Longo "Fasting Mimicking Diet" for 5 days a month, every month. The rest of the time, eat the Mediterranean diet and exercise 5-7 hours a week. Okay.

So my problems with the Fasting Mimicking Diet is that it's super hard. Mind you, I've done "every other day fasting" for three months (then I fell off) and I've done time-restricted eating: not eating for 16 hours, and eating for 8. So my objection about difficulty is not fasting per se. It's that eating 800 calories a day for 5 days sounds harder than a water fast for 5 days because hunger actually decreases on a real fast. This low-calorie diet results in constant hunger for 5 days. So maybe I'd actually try what he recommends but just substitute a water fast? (I am not a doctor so you definitely should not follow any of my ideas or advice.)

Then I also have a number of objection about the OPTIONAL ProLon product they sell- just the food measured out for the 5 days so it's a no-brainer for you:
1) Anytime you're trying to sell me something I lose trust in the science (even though it is tempered in this case by the fact that Longo claims to make no personal profit)
2) ProLon isn't real food but packets of things you mix or whatever. Yuck.
3) It's super expensive $250 a box (one box lasts for the one-month 5-day fast) unless you buy a year supply in advance. No. Just no.

A counterargument to my complaints: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpN5V...



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Follow Your Gut by Rob Knight and Brendan Buhler

Follow Your Gut: How the Ecosystem in Your Gut Determines Your Health, Mood, and More by Rob Knight and Brendan Buhler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great little book about bacteria. The stuff everyone should get in an owner's manual to your own body.

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The Gut Balance Revolution by Gerard E. Mullin

The Gut Balance Revolution: Boost Your Metabolism, Restore Your Inner Ecology, and Lose the Weight for Good! by Gerard E. Mullin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

5 stars for nutrition and biology research. I’ll give the actual diet a try and get back to the rating and review. I suspect it works- as the author himself admits, all diets work initially. The issue is if it can be easily maintained. I’ll probably be combining with Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) so my attempt might not be especially instructive to others.

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Pandemic by Sonia Shah

Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond by Sonia Shah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the more interesting science books I've read in a long time, and one of the most important. I strongly recommend it to everyone. I'm also going to try some of the books recommended below.

The author does spend too much time on cholera history in the middle of the book- interesting but not the only focus of the book so it feels belabored. Power through it, it's worth it.

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