Crisis in the Red Zone
The 2013-2014 Ebola epidemic was the deadliest ever--but the outbreaks continue. Now comes a gripping account of the doctors and scientists fighting to protect us, an urgent wake-up call about the future of emerging viruses--from the #1 bestselling author of The Hot Zone, soon to be a National Geographic original miniseries. This time, Ebola started with a two-year-old child who likely had contact with a wild creature and whose entire family quickly fell ill and died. The ensuing global drama activated health professionals in North America, Europe, and Africa in a desperate race against time to contain the viral wildfire. By the end--as the virus mutated into its deadliest form, and spread farther and faster than ever before--30,000 people would be infected, and the dead would be spread across eight countries on three continents. In this taut and suspenseful medical drama, Richard Preston deeply chronicles the outbreak, in which we saw for the first time the specter of Ebola jumping continents, crossing the Atlantic, and infecting people in America. Rich in characters and conflict--physical, emotional, and ethical--Crisis in the Red Zone is an immersion in one of the great public health calamities of our time. Preston writes of doctors and nurses in the field putting their own lives on the line, of government bureaucrats and NGO administrators moving, often fitfully, to try to contain the outbreak, and of pharmaceutical companies racing to develop drugs to combat the virus.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
2mentions
2people
2021years
100% recommend
What Hacker News says
- Oh boy, you're gonna release the Kraken here.
Nonfiction that reads like a thriller is my favorite genre.
The last book that truly surprised me for how good it was and had been sitting unread in my queue for a while because the descriptions didn't give it justice was Empty Mansions: Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_Mansions
It's basically like rise and fall of Sackler family 1.0 in dynastic wealth and all crazy things that happen to the next generations. Her dad was a mining baron who created the US' largest superfund site and bought himself a Montana Senate seat and then it gets more wild from there. Unlike the Sacklers, the daughter who does seem to have arrested development re: emotional maturity- she played with dolls and ordered customized artisanal dollhouses from Japan for 500k and up into her 80s - did have a very kind heart and gave large gifts to her staff, her relatives, friends, even the guy who came in to repair the TV in her hotel room got a $40k tip. At the end there is a giant fight over multiple versions of the will, allegations of elder abuse by both Doctors Hospital in NYC and her nurse, CPA and attorney and pursuit by the IRS for unpaid gift taxes of millions of dollars.
She lived such a long life that you basically get a tour through American history throughout the book because it starts in the Gilded Age and she lives to be 105 years old! Even at the end of the book the main character who seems easy to write off as a batty old rich lady sort of earns your respect because she doesn't let the hospital push her around too much and stands her ground to many predatory family members and other sharks circling for her estate and largess.
There are some tie ins with modern tech wealth as well- a few of the purchasers of her assets including her Stradivarius violin for $2.5 million is one of the original microsoft guys!
Def check out John Carreyrou's book about Theranos, Bad Blood if you haven't already. That's imo the GOAT of this genre.
The Smartest Guys in the Room about the rise and fall of Enron is AWESOME and truly outrageous, as is Nobody would Listen by Harry Markopolos is about the Bernie Maddof ponzi scheme.
Another long read but REALLY GOOD was The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which has a sloooooow start (there are a few chapters off the bat about philosophy and the origins of various schools of political theory etc) but once the Beer Hall Putsch happens it really takes off. It was written by William Shirer, an American journalist who lived in Germany and stayed through from the end of WW1 through WWII.
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder was horrific reading and just gruesomely sad but also incredibly well researched and fascinating. I liked it so much I then when on an Ann Applebaum kick of Iron Curtain, Gulag and Red Famine, all of which were very good. If you were going to pick one of hers, I'd do Gulag.
John Kraukauer's Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven are excellent, as is Crisis in the Red Zone about the origins and spread of ebola in the Sierra Leon.
edit: Oh! Also Midnight in Chernobyl was amazing, especially great if you listen to it before or after watching the HBO show. It's a fantastic read even if you don't watch the show and I think is what kicked off my interest above in life in the Soviet bloc.
Red Notice by Bill Browder details his experience as a global investor during the economic transition and rise of the oligarchs in Russia under Putin and details so much of the corruption and fraud of the current regime. It was written in 2014 after Browder's partner was tortured and murdered and brought about the Magnitsky Act. All the more relevant today with Navalny's recent revelations and very good background for what is happening in Russia now.
Re: tech co books, I'd say STAY AWAY from Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez - was awful and the author is just totally unlikeable douchebag. He's not particularly insightful and the whole book was poorly written, sparsely edited bloviating.
Dear Leader by Jang Jin-sung about his life as a Pyongyang party elite, defectation and escape from North Korea was fantastic, thrilling and actually read like a real life spy novel. Some of the portions where he gets close to the border and as he survives on the lam in the Chinese border adjacent countryside while being hunted are... heart pounding.
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick is also about life in North Korea but focuses less on the party elite and more on the suffering of the general population. Heart-wrenching, horrific, well-researched and depraved.
And the Band Played on by Randy Shilts about the origins and spread of HIV & AIDs is another fantastically written and educational medical themed nonfiction about the development of the AIDS epidemic and the world spread and US and world research responses. Several infuriating portions especially the disinformation campaigns by the blood bank industry and lobbyists once the supply was tainted with the virus.
Ugh... I have so many more, but this should get you started. Have fun and don't forget book reports are due in 5 weeks so get cracking :P
- Here is my list:
Fiction:
* The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50623864-the-invisible-l...
* Shorefall (The Founders Trilogy #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45200535-shorefall
* The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34912895-the-great-alone
WOW, beauty and pain mixed together on canvas of Alaska.
* The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21853621-the-nightingale
What an excellent book! It tells about hardship and sacrifices that people experienced during WW2. But considering current situation (corona virus, economy, etc.) it's 100 time better - it teach us to value simple stuff in our life (cup of coffee, laugh with friends, etc) because it may not last. Live here and now!
* The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43521657-the-ten-thousan...
WOW, pure magic on every page!
Non-Fiction:
* Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers by Andy Greenberg - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41436213-sandworm
Excellent book about cyber-security and Russian hacker. If you think it's not related to you, think again! Among their targets were big ports, hospitals in different countries, bank machines in Ukraine, etc. Nobody could be safe with such level of technology spread that we depend more and more each day. USA and Israel did attacks on Iran nuclear program using StuxNet (for excellent account of that check Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon). But apparently not just USA and Israel can do that, China, North Korea, Russia and other countries are using hackers more than conventional weapons now - and it make sense, cheaper and less dangerous for those who initiated attacks. With coming year we'll see more and more of such issues, so read the book to be prepared to what is coming.
* Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic by Ben Westhoff - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44643351-fentanyl-inc
Holy shit, what a ride! Drug users, China chemical producer making precursors for fentanyl (which is legal to produce in China and even government subsidy provided in form of tax cuts), Mexican cartels (main supplier to USA), Chinese gangs in Vancouver (main supplier to Canada), people who try to save kids on rave parties by supplying test kits and get kicked out and threaten to be sued.
According to this book fentanyl is more powerful and dangerous then cocaine, heroine and meth. I've never heard about it before this book, it's like an eye-opener.
* Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32284263-black-edge
The say goes "There are three verdicts: guilty, not guilty and rich". This book shows exactly this. It's better to be rich guy and end up with wrist slap (5% of his net worth - right, it's 800M, but still 5% of 16B). And scapegoat who agreed to help justice will go to jail for long time. Disgusting, but again "greed is good!"
* Capitalism in America: A History by Alan Greenspan, Adrian Wooldridge - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38712616-capitalism-in-a...
Excellent book about different stages of capitalism in America.
When I saw the author is Greenspan I've prepared myself to pages full of "quantitative easing" and "irrational exuberance" sentences. The book was very vivid and refreshing, excellent language and information, highly recommended.
* Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41795733-range
* Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep
Excellent book about sleep and all bad stuff happens to you when you don't get enough of it. Read it!
* The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37877606-the-ravenmaster
March 2018 we went to London and of course visited Tower. In it we saw some beautiful raven with pink ribbon on it's leg. Thanks to the book I know now it was one of the oldest and smartest raven in the Tower - Merlina. Likes this book a lot, quite interesting read.
* Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29496076-killers-of-the-...
First white people stole their land and moved them to some shitty place in middle-of-nowhere. And when oil was found on that land and Osage people become rich from oil leases the same white people was upset and said it's not fair. Some of them went further - they married Osage men and women and started to kill them one by one to get birthright - money for oil.
Another line of that book is how FBI became to be and their first case related to Osage killings.
I was listening to audio version, it's great they have 3 narrators: woman for Osage part, man that sounds like FBI agent (you can hear steel in his voice) and 3rd part narrated by author about his research for the book and other stuff related to it.
Highly recommended!
* Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come by Richard Preston - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44526650-crisis-in-the-r...
With current corona-virus outbreak it's good to get some perspective on other deadly viruses such as Ebola. Did you know that 1.5 millions die annually from TB alone? How about regular flu - around 60 thousands gone last year. When was last time you worried about TB or flu? We are scared of wrong stuff, stuff they show us on TV with "Breaking News" red color frame. Read the book and get information and most important of all things - wash your hands often!
* Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37486540-dopesick
* Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World by Christopher Steiner - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542772-automate-this
Excellent review on how automation impact all directions of our live (investments, health, dating, education, etc) and how it'll eliminate some professions (such as pharmacist) and replace them with robots. Don't be scared yet, but read the book to find what is waiting us behind the corner. Highly recommended, bought it today on BookOutlet for $5.79 you cannot beat the price - planning to read it more times.
* The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43582376-the-body
WOW, what a ride! This books covers everything from head to toes, telling you how different park of your body function and malfunction. Loved it, planning to read many more time, too much info to digest in one time. Highly recommended!
* Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212124-nomadland
These people didn't choose to live in RVs and vans, they had no choice due to financial problems (bad investments, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, etc). The only way to survive was to hit the road - and they did it. Author has been following nomad people for 3 years on different part of USA (Amazon warehouse in Kentucky which has special program to hire campers for season load, state parks who need people to clean toilets, fill forms, sell campers' stuff, etc, down the south and up to north). It's interesting peek in life of people without home travelling across USA, trying to survive. It shows comradery of people in need, helping each other to survive when times get tough - it could be as simple as loaf of bread or complicated as bunch of mechanics help you to fix your wheels - the only stuff you have to ensure your survival.
When you live day by day sure about where you'll sleep at night or what you will eat for dinner - you don't see life of nomad people, the only way to know it is to read this kind of books - or travel and live with that people (which most of us won't do). So read the book and see other side of USA, one of the richest country in the world where some people are loaf of bread away from been broke.
* The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton, Lara Love Hardin, Bryan Stevenson - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34964905-the-sun-does-sh...
Sometimes your only crime is been a black guy and it's enough to send you to death row.
This book resonates with couple of other books I've read recently (The Guardians, American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City). It shows that sometimes they are not even interested in truth, they just need some scapegoat to put the blame on. It's painful to read about innocent man who spent 28 years behind bar for a crime he didn't commit. On other hand I was amused by his sympathy to other people (KKK guy who claimed to his parents who taught him that way - "this black guy is my friend", organizing book club behind the bar, so you can travel at least in your dreams). This book teaches you to value precious moments of our life, cannot recommend it high enough!
* On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane by Emily Guendelsberger - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42779084-on-the-clock
Excellent overview of current low-paid labor economy in USA (pretty sure it's the same in Canada, England - check out Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain and everywhere else). She is talking not just about her experience of working for Amazon, calling center and McDonald, but about what's wrong with such low paying jobs (insecurity, level of stress, etc). She did excellent job on connecting dots from low-paid job to elevated level of stress, inability to plan your future (and how could you if you shift can be revealed less than 24 hours before it starts), level of medicine these workers can afford (never would imagine going 4 hours to pick some left-overs of antibiotic, try to fix swallowed tooth by myself, or using horse/dog/fish antibiotics because that all you can afford without medical insurance).
Another sections I liked a lot are related to how stress works on your body (fight-or-flight preparation from the body) and history of Wanda (how technology/society became to be).
I wish they make this book mandatory for kids to read in school so they would pay more attention to home works and getting into universities/colleges (I think kids just don't know what alternatives are - like flipping burgers at McDonald - may be cool when you are 16 years old, but not so cool when you are 30+ and have wife and kids to support - so swallow you pride, smile and get back to work).
Great book, highly recommended to everybody - just to get a perspective what some people going through in their life to put bread on the table. After reading that book you will look different at somebody who takes your order in McDonald, speak to you over the phone about issues or find stuff that you ordered from Amazon. These are people with their problems and troubles which we don't see, so read the book to at least get glimpse of what they are dealing with, such as customers throwing things at you or screaming over the phone.
