The Ghost Map

This was fascinating - I love those rare times when a non-fiction book is a page-turner for me! I really couldn't put this down. The insight into the lowest classes of London society and their waste recycling/removal work, the descriptions of living conditions for average people, and how neighborhoods changed and were redesigned around class issues. All really interesting background that set the stage for a good understanding of the cholera outbreak and Dr. Snow's work.

And of course, the horrifying-yet-fascinating descriptions of filth, human waste, and the story of the well being contaminated were captivating. Awful, but incredibly compelling. And seeing John Snow, brilliant at medical observation and analysis, zeroing in on the problem, it really was like a good detective story.

I felt like the book should have just stopped at the end of the cholera story, or gone in a different direction altogether and been structured around how humans live in cities, with the cholera story as one example. Instead, we have a book about the cholera outbreak, then a weird chapter tacked on the end that navel-gazes about city living, terrorism vs. disease as our big fear, and such. It just didn't fit. But it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book overall. Definitely highly recommended!