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.