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Has anyone read the books Cobra Event or The Hot Zone by..

13 years ago

By Richard Preston? Every time I read them I am shocked and wonder how much else happens that the public is never informed about. His research is amazing. Anyone else familiar with these and are there any other in this genre, well researched and factual, that I may be interested in? Robin Cook's Toxin was great too. Thanks!!

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Comments (3)

lemonhead101
13 years ago
I have read and enjoyed "The Hot Zone"... I used to work for many years in public health so was/am interested in all that stuff.

Another book you might like is called "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance" by Laurie Garrett. This is a bit dry, but mostly interesting. She also wrote a follow up book called "Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health", but I haven't actually read that one so don't know how it is to read.

Here is a list of disease book titles that I have colleced (with help from Fridag here at RP):
* Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer and History - James S. Olson
* The Colony: The Harrowing Story of the Exiles of Molka'i - John Tayman
* The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - Steven Johnson
* Limeys: The Conquest of Scurvy - David I. Harvie
* The Malaria Capers: more Tales of Parasites and People, Research and Reality - Robert Desowitz
* Man and Microbes: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times - Arno Karlen
* Napolean's Glands and Other Ventures in Biohistory - Arno Karlen
* The Plague and I - Betty McDonald (about her bout of TB in the 1930's)
* Plague and Peoples = William H McNeill
* Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of Syphilis - Deborah Hayden
* Purple Secret: Genes, "Madness", and the Royal Houses of Europe - John Rohl
* Quinine: Malaria and the Quest for a Cure That Changed the World - Fiammetta Rocco
* Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea in the age of the Sail - Joan Druett
* Sex, Sin and Science: A History of Syphilis in America - John Parascondola
* The Speckled Monster: A historial tale of Battling Smallpox - Jennifer Lee Carrell
* The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump: John Snow and Mystery of Cholera - Sandra Hempl
* Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria? - Robert S Desowitz
* Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine - Roy Porter

Hope that helps!
mary52zn8tx
13 years ago
What an odd coincidence. I just read the thread about the scariest book you have ever read. I had to do some research to find the book I remembered, and it was the "Hot Zone". I may have to check out some of these other books listed.
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rosefolly
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What about Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond? I enjoyed that as well. I've read several other books on the influence of disease on history but right now I can't remember the names.

A couple of years ago I tracked down the first book I'd ever read on this topic. It really impressed me on first reading, but re-reading it twenty years later I thought it was carelessly researched. Maybe we all just know more now, and it was not the writer's fault.

Rosefolly

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