Ghost Map

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World Steven Johnson.

When I was reading this, Dan asked me what it was about. I was only a few pages into it, so my response was a pretty basic "Cholera. London." And he immediately came back with "Oh, Broad Street Pump?" Granted, he does have a graduate degree in Modern British History, but that fact that "Cholera. London." is enough for him to know which outbreak is pretty amazing. As he explained to my shocked face "It's the outbreak where they discovered what causes it."

And it was. Not that anyone believed it for awhile, but.

In the summer of 1854, a cholera outbreak hit London. While not unheard of, this was a pretty severe one, decimating a neighborhood. When a scientist and the local clergyman teamed together to investigate the outbreak, one's knowledge of science and one's knowledge of the neighborhood and patterns of daily life led them to conclude something earth-shattering-- Cholera lives in the water, and all the cases stemmed from one pump, the Broad Street Pump.

Johnson does a wonderful job of tracing many threads of this story-- the dramatic rise of London as metropolis and the changes it was undergoing at the time, the reality of the working poor, the theories of science and disease at the time, the science of cholera, and the outbreak itself. The plot most closely follows the outbreak and investigation (which started before the outbreak ended) with the other threads woven in to help paint a complete picture.

The title refers to a map that John Snow made of the outbreak, clearly showing the deaths radiating out from one point, the pump. The Map is what helped convince the establishment that Snow's theory was correct.

Fascinating and readable.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Invincible Microbe

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank.

I'm back taking a closer look at the long list of this year's YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults.

Murphy and Blank do a wonderful job of weaving in multiple strands of the TB story. There's the story of the disease itself, starting in prehistory and going until today, how it affects the body, how it kills, and how we've come to the drug-resistant types we have today. There's the story of those searching for a cure, the doctors with medicine, the quacks with schemes, what has worked, what hasn't, and where we are today. Then there's the story of TB's role in pop culture and policy-- the romantic idea of the consumptive waif, border closings to quarantine areas, the way it spread through centers of urban poor. Lastly, but most importantly, it's the story of those who have suffered from this disease, from prehistoric times until today.

They dip in and out of these stories seamlessly and tying it all together as they follow TB across time and space. It gets scary at the end, when they talk about TB's comback and how what little we had to combat it is no longer working.

It's fascinating and medical and social history at its best.

Amazingly, after I read this, I discovered that I actually know several people with TB. I was even able to explain the reasons behind some of the more annoying parts of their treatment!

Today's Nonfiction Monday is over at Supratentorial. Check it out!


Book Provided by... the publisher, for award consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Deadly

Deadly Julie Chibbaro

When I was in high school, I wanted to be a virologist*, a disease hunter for the CDC. The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story, And the Band Played On, Outbreak, and The Andromeda Strain were rather influential texts.

Then I realized that I have a pretty crap immune system, so it probably wasn't the best career path to choose.

BUT! I do still enjoy a good virus-hunting thriller, something that I had kinda forgotten about until we rented Contagion a few weeks ago. Fresh off my "what is killing everyone? Smart people will figure it out!" high, I remembered that I wanted to read Deadly. So I did.

Prudence Galewski isn't like most of the other girls in her finishing school. She wants to know real things. Science things. She wants to know why people die and how it can be stopped. She had to watch her brother die after a carriage accident when his wounds became infected. Her mother is a midwife and Prudence often helps-- why do some births go well and some go so wrong? She applies for a job a secretary at the Department of Sanitation and Health. She's hired to do more than take notes, but to take an active part in an investigation in a new series of typhoid outbreaks. Soon, the only thing linking the outbreaks together is an Irish cook named Mary Mallon, but Mary's never had typhoid, so she can't be making everyone sick, can she?

An excellent look at the investigation that brought in Typhoid Mary and the controversy surrounding it-- a controversy dealing with personal rights, crazy ideas in science, and discrimination against immigrants.

It's not as fast-paced as the books and movies I mention above and it's not gross (there are NO descriptions of what happens during typhoid!) but I still really liked it. I liked how Mary was a real person, not villainous joke she's become. I liked the relationship that Prudence has with her mother-- there are a lot of walls (but no acrimony) between them at the start of this book and it's interesting to read how their relationship grows and changes over time.

A very solid historical fiction novel about something that we don't often read about.

Also! I like the original cover, but I have to say I think the new paperback cover is much more exciting and enticing to readers.

Oh, and here's an excuse to link to Hark! A Vagrant!'s cartoon about Dr. Sara Baker, who is a character in the book.


*A (guy) friend of mine initially thought this meant I wanted to study (male) virility.


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer. Doctors took the cells they had taken in her biopsy, and more collected after her death. They were the first cells scientists were able to keep alive in the lab. Not only did they stay alive, but they continued to divide and grow. The strain, named HeLa, has been the foundation of most medical advancement of the past 60 years. Her family had no idea.

While HeLa is famous, Henrietta Lacks is not. HeLa cells are a multimillion dollar industry. Her children can't afford health insurance.

This is multiple stories in one-- there is the story of Henrietta's life and death and her children's lives. There is the story of medical advancement-- what her cells allowed people to discover. There is a history of changing medical ethics and morals. There is also the story of Skloot finding the story. After years of mistreatment by the medical establishment, the Lacks family didn't trust her and didn't want to talk to her. It's the story of how Skloot proved herself trustworthy and what she learned.

One of the most heartbreaking things in the story is the family's search for answers. Most of them didn't understand the basics of cell science and didn't understand how their mother could be dead, but her cells still alive and growing. Her daughter, Deborah, wondered if her mother felt pain when her cells were injected with disease. One of the reasons Deborah (and the rest of the family) eventually trusted Skloot was that she promised them answers. She shared all of her discoveries about her life, her death, and what her cells have done with family-- something no one had ever bothered to do before (at least not in a way they understood.)

There is also the story of Henrietta's oldest daughter, Elsie. Elsie was epileptic and mentally retarded, probably as a result of neurosyphilis. After Henrietta died, Elsie was institutionalized, where she died at the age of 15. Part of Deborah's deal with Skloot wasn't just for her mother's story, but also her sister's. Deborah wanted to know what had happened to them.

The lack of information, and much of this story, is tied to race and class issues and the sickening history of the medical establishment and African-Americans.

One of the most chilling things is that, while many laws of changed, many haven't. If a doctor or hospital collects your cells for a biopsy or blood test or any of the other routine things we go in for, after the tests they can use the samples for research--including selling it. Disclosure that this might happen is recommended, but not required, and up to the institution.

Overall this is a fascinating book about a story that needs to told and known. It's gripping and Skloot explains the science parts really well for those of us without a background in medical research. The people jump off the page and grab you. You want to know more and want it to end differently, knowing that it won't. Highly recommended.

Read an excerpt here.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Yellow Fever Edition

The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing Suzanne Jurmain

In the summer of 1900, Walter Reed (he of Walter Reed Army hospital, and a major street near my house) went to Cuba. There he met with a team of doctors to figure out what caused Yellow Fever. The disease had been ravaging areas every summer, killing thousands of people and sickening even more. While in Cuba, they had to disprove or prove the popular theories at the time. One theory that everyone thought was crazy was that it was spread by mosquitoes. Through many experiments, illnesses, and even a death, the doctors find some of their answers.

One of the most interesting aspects (to me) is that Reed refused to use human test subjects without their consent (a novel idea at the time!) Everyone had to sign a consent form and that the made in English and, for recent Spanish immigrants to Cuba, in Spanish.

Jurmain walks us through the ravages of yellow fever and the steps and experiments the doctors went through to prove that it is, indeed, spread by mosquito. This book is more about the search for a cause, rather than the disease itself. I liked the way Jurmain handled inconsistencies in the historical record, presenting all the versions out there and explaining which one she thought was correct and why, if she had an opinion. Excellent lay-out, really informative citation notes (with a lot of extra information, which is my favorite kind) an appendix with information on the human-test subject volunteers, glossary, and index.

Book provided by... my local library

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 Jim Murphy

In 1793, Philadelphia had a massive outbreak of Yellow Fever. Although record keeping wasn't great at the time, it's estimated that 5,000 people died between August and November of the disease. In this heavily-awarded* book, Murphy outlines the outbreak of the disease and the toll it had on the town.

We see how the disease spread, the controversy among physicians in how to treat it, and what the local, state, and federal government did to help and hinder the crisis.

I was most struck by the constitutional crisis it caused. The federal government was located in Philadelphia at the time, and George Washington and many other administration officials fled the town to avoid the illness. However, at the time, it was thought of as unconstitutional for Washington to convene Congress outside of Philadelphia, plus many of his papers with important information were still in town, making the federal government essentially shut down for several weeks.

The last chapter talks about other Yellow Fever outbreaks, as well as how the cause was found. Here, where the content overlaps with The Secret of the Yellow Death, the two books disagree, especially with Walter Reed's feelings on the mosquito theory and how Lazear contracted the disease. I am more inclined to agree with Jurmain's telling of the facts because she used mostly primary sources while, for this chapter** Murphy used secondary ones. Also, Jurmain's research focus was on this, while for Murphy it is essentially an epilogue to his main story.

I think the two books work very well together, especially if you add in Laurie Halse Anderson's wonderful historical fiction novel about the 1793 Philadelphia outbreak, Fever 1793.

*Newbery Honor, National Book Award Finalist, and Siebert Winner
**Murphy, of course, used mostly primary sources for most of this book, just not for this bit.

Book Provided by... my local library

Round up is over at the Lerner Books Blog! Check it out!

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Non Fiction Monday, Challenges, Awards, and ZOMBIES!

First things first, HT to Bookshelves of Doom.

You may want to preorder your copy NOW of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance+Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! How can you resist?!

Y'all saw the results of this morning's ALA Youth Media Awards, right? For me, it provided the perfect excuse not to work out. Ok, the cuteness of the dog would have worked this morning, but obviously, a good children's librarian should watch the awards webcast instead of working out, right? RIGHT!

I have very strong opinions in some of these categories, but they're the same categories that I'm sitting on non-ALA awards committees for (Cybils and Blue Crab) so I'll keep my trap shut until I'm allowed to discuss such things.

In other news, The New Classics Challenge ends on the 31st. This started in AUGUST, but I forgot about it until this month. Whoops. So far, I've read 2.5 of my 6. Also, I was supposed to read The Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel but I couldn't find our copy, so given I was checking a book out of the library, I figured it should be The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes.

Anyway, the two I finished are both nonfiction! Yay!

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Anne Fadiman

I have long wanted to read this book because of the fact it deals with Hmong culture. Growing up in the 80s and 90s in Northeast Wisconsin, the Hmong made up the vast majority of the non-white population, but this isn't an ethnic group that you hear a lot about, which has always surprised me.

One of the reasons I love the Jackson Friends series so much is because there is a Hmong character.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a heartbreaking tale of a young Hmong girl in Merced, California, who has severe epilepsy. Due to the language and cultural barriers between her family and the medical community, the system fails her utterly.

Fadiman's account explains how each side tried its hardest to help Lia Lee and how each side completely failed her. Mostly, she does this without judgment and anger, but once and awhile, she can't, and I can't really fault her for that.

Fadiman does an excellent job of explaining the medical issues surrounding Lia's condition and treatment, as well as the cultural issues surrounding her life, and the history of the Hmong people and their life in America.

My only fault with the book is that it tends to treat Hmong culture as completely homogeneous, without the usual disclaimers or sentence weakeners you see in other cultural books, such as "traditionally X culture does... " or "many member of Y ethnic group feel..."

My other wish is for an updated version, as many of the troubles facing the community Lia and her family lived in had to deal with immigration and welfare status--both contentious issues that have undergone drastic changes since this book first came out in 1997. Luckily, the book's website does offer updates on how the people we meet in these pages are doing since publication.

Oh, and when discussing China, it uses the Wade-Giles instead of Pinyin system of romanization, but that's a China-geek complaint, and the book isn't about China, so I'll let it slide.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir Jeannette Walls

I picked this one because it's on the scary list.

Jeannette Walls grew up unbelievably poor. Her father was a dreamer and drunk, her mother an artist who didn't want to be tied down with a regular job. As a result, they moved a lot, lived in places with no water or electricity and often went hungry. Despite this Jeannette managed to attend Barnard and is now a gossip columnist for MSNBC.

While Walls life was unbelievably hard, the plot is the only driving factor in this book. The events make it readable, but the characters are flat--there's little insight, or feeling. (Except for Walls embarrassment when she feels people are laughing at her, or staring. So it's odd that she became a gossip columnist, right?) Many times when writing about something horrible, survivors tell their tale in a detached manner--as if truly engaging in the subject matter again would inflict great physiological damage, which it might. While this is quality I will forget in stories that we would otherwise might not hear, such as This is Paradise!: My North Korean Childhood, I'm less forgiving in instances such as these. First this happened, then this, then this, then this. No analysis, just plot.

While engaging, I'm not entirely sure why it won so many awards because the literary merit isn't as there as it could be.

Overall, I give it a resounding "meh"

Nonfiction Round up is here.

New Classics Round up is here.