Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

July Fourth: New York City... Hundreds of thousands line the banks of the East and Hudson Rivers awaiting the nation's largest fireworks display. Soon the sky will explode in cascading showers of silver and gold. Everywhere, faces will turn skyward in wide-eyed wonder. Then the sky will grow dark again--but it will not be empty. The air will be filled with clouds of smoke and specks of debris will rain... (more)

The Soul of Medicine

by Sherwin Nuland

Like all doctors, Sherwin Nuland collects stories, and over thirty years in the practice of surgery, he has collected a consider number of both his own stories as well as the stories of surgeons he has worked with and admires. The remarkable stories told in this book are filled with the lessons of humanity. They describe that sacrosanct connection between two people we call the doctor-patient relationship, and... (more)

The Great Influenza

The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

by John M. Barry

At the height of WWI, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of... (more)

Year of Wonders

by Geraldine Brooks

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find... (more)

The Ghost Map

by Steven Johnson

A thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London-and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world. From the dynamic thinker routinely compared to Malcolm Gladwell, E. O. Wilson, and James Gleick, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner with a real-life historical hero that... (more)

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures

by Vincent Lam

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures welcomes readers into a world where the most mundane events can quickly become life or death. By following four young medical students and physicians – Ming, Fitz, Sri and Chen – this debut collection from 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Vincent Lam is a riveting, eye-opening account of what it means to be a doctor. Deftly navigating his way through 12 interwoven short... (more)

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Tags: disastrous diseases

Plaguemaker

by Tim Downs