S T I C K • W I T H • ME

I know, a book about infectious disease during a pandemic? No thanks. But it’s not what you think and is actually pretty interesting!

The Plague Cycle by Charles Kenny examines the topic of infectious diseases and their relationship with population growth, the development of civilizations, colonialism, exploration, warfare, diet, technology/innovation, feminism, the sexual revolution, economy/trade, poverty, and violence. Although the ideas were at times repetitive (a major gripe of mine with many non-fiction books) and although some of these ideas seemed to be purported as causal in nature when they are likely more correlated, it was nonetheless intriguing to explore the interconnectedness of these ideas. We often consider our experience of things like this within our own small bubble, so viewing infectious disease through a much wider lense in time and space was thought-provoking. Learning of the history behind the development of some of the most world-changing vaccines was also fascinating, although the ethical violations involved were horrifying to say the least!

I think the saddest thing to see in reading this one is that, even after millenia of infectious disease and with all of the valuable tools, technology, and scientific advances with which we can fight them, we still resort back to our base primal instincts of exclusion when faced with these threats.

I’d recommend this one to anyone who is a fan of science-based non-fiction - the Discovery Channel lovers of the reading world - so long as you can put up with a bit of repetition and some jumping back and forth in the chronology of the narrative.

Thank you @simonschusterca @scribnerbooks @netgalley for the #gifted copy!

Excellent look at pandemics

I loved this book. It has everything I want in non-fiction: politics, economics, history, and of course some science. The science however is very well explained. Kenny tells a riveting story, in plain language. I found the book hard to put down, especially since it provides context for the current COVID-19 pandemic. I recommend this book for anyone interested in history or medicine and especially for those interested in both.
Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.