Get Well Soon

“When the community as a whole swings into action, plagues can be overcome relatively swiftly. That almost never happens.”

As 2020 bleeds seamlessly into 2021 for large parts of the world, this seemed like an appropriate read, particularly because it was written before the outbreak we're dealing with now. I was wondering how prescient this book would be in light of what we know now.... and it turns out, history continues to repeat itself. Who knew.

There's lots of good information in this book. I liked the inclusion of plagues I hadn't heard of before (hello Dancing Plague), and there was some good info here on everything included. What really ended up irking me more and more as the book went on was the tongue-in-cheek nature of the writing. I totally get wanting to make something serious and inherently sad and morbid like plagues into something more approachable for the average person, but I think the author went a little too far. Several times I kept mentally checking out because the author went on one of her tangents intended to ultimately draw a laugh from the reader rather than inform them. I also thought the chapter on Lobotomies – while informative and something I didn't know much about aside from the general idea – was a weird inclusion. Less a plague and more a psychotic guy mutilating brains.

If you're willing and able to read through the “lets see how many jokes about syphilis we can fit in” nature of the book, there really is a lot of good information, from a high level at least. Otherwise, maybe pass on this one in favor of something more academic.

I bought this on Audible years ago, but just finally got around to listening to it. I think it would have been a completely different book to me pre-Covid...

Excellently written, with the perfect combination of wit and scientific knowledge. It covered one plague I knew absolutely nothing about (Encephalitis Lethargica) and a couple I knew less about (crazy lobotomy dude! Typhoid Mary! I mean, I knew the name but not much more.)

Very US-centric for the last half of the book, what a shock. Despite that, I highly recommend!

It was when I started tagging this book that things felt odd: death...disaster...history...and what? Humor? But, yes, that's absolutely right. Jennifer Wright is the Jerry Seinfeld of plague book authors. Wright could read from this book and win at stand-up. It sounds impossible, I know, but Wright writes (had to say it) brilliantly about smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, bubonic plague, and more, and somehow manages to do not only scientifically well, and historically well, but also with humor.

I expected this book to be more science based. I was happily wrong. It is more about society and their response to plagues. It is a quick read and really makes you think. It is clever and funny. It is so interesting!

This was really interesting and horrifying in turn. Like Wright's other book I read earlier this year, I didn't always like some of the joking asides, but still really enjoyed the book. Fascinating stuff.