Book recs?

[ceebee_eebee]

Hey, flist. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm kind of obsessed with books about plagues. History, fiction, whatever. But I think I've read all the ones I've been able to find at this point and I'm dying for some new ones. Do any of you have a taste for this type of speculative fiction? Got any good recs for me? I'd be SO appreciative.

Comments

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

I...have many books like this. *g* Aren't you surprised??

I'm not sure where to start. I have nonfiction books -- numerous ones. Fiction -- I'll comb through and see what fits. The best fiction to start with is Connie Willis's Doomsday Book. Time-travel to the 14th century. Brilliance.

You must get The Great Mortality. History of the 14th century plague. Also The Great Influenza, history of the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Biohazard is a fascinating look at the Soviet bio-weapons program. Much on infectious disease there.

Stephen King's Cell is an alternate look at a plague of sorts. But you can't go wrong with The Stand.

The Cobra Event is pretty chilling, although more a story of an outbreak than a plague. However, Infected is utterly brilliant, FANTASTIC, and I would recommend it immediately. Also the sequel, Contagious.

Two Laurie Garretts to recommend. Start with The Coming Plague, and then depress yourself with Betrayal of Trust. They're mammoth books, both, so maybe more than you want, but riveting.

Barbara Tuchman, back to the Great Mortality -- A Distant Mirror. Again, brilliant.

Dust was pretty fascinating -- a different fictional plague.

Those are a few I've got. Lemme know if you want more, I'll see what I can paw through.

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

I LOVE YOU

Doomsday book is one of my alltime favorite novels. Hands down. I also TOTALLY loved The Cobra Event. Outbreak books are my bag, baby. The others I don't think I'm familiar with, but I'm gonna be hitting Borders tomorrow. YAAAAAAY!!! I need me some plague stories!

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

*smooch* I know I have more to rec, but I'm pretty zonked so not thinking of 'em all. I have multiple books on ebola; Richard Preston's The Hot Zone was the first I read, but several others -- one by Glenn Close's dad, I think.

I got a book recently on yellow fever but was disappointed, no rec there. Hmm.

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

I think I've read all of Preston's books (I looooved Demon in the freezer) but any other good ebola books you can think of would be VERY welcome.

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

Virus Hunter had some Ebola content.

On a related subject, I found Deep Survival fascinating.

More epidemiology than actual plague, Secret Agents.

I KNOW I have at least one more on Ebola. Hrrm. Ahh. Ebola!

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

YOU PLEASE ME.

I am so damn excited right now!

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

The scary part? FIVE of the books I listed are sitting by my bed right now in various stages of re-read. I am always looking for more, so I'll be haunting your post for new books!

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

We are TRULY disturbed. But this whole swine flu thing has gotten me in the mood for more apocalyptic plague stories. What can I say?

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me of The Great Influenza! I found it at work the other day, but couldn't remember the title when I was updating my Fishpond wishlist.