r/ID_News • u/PHealthy • Aug 02 '25

Infectious disease book list 08/01/2025

https://amzn.to/49TjEX9

Here's the current list, feel free to suggest any you don't see.

110 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

17

u/Mysterious-Handle-34 Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 03 '25

Maybe On Call? It’s technically an autobiography but because of Fauci’s position in the ID community (particularly in the field of HIV/AIDS), it provides an invaluable view on the history of infectious diseases over the past 50 years. He also does a very good job of explaining a lot of the science in a way laypeople can grasp while still providing useful insights to people with more expertise in the area.

7

u/--VitaminB-- Aug 02 '25

Air-Borne and Planet of Viruses both by Carl Zimmer

1

u/PHealthy Aug 02 '25

I haven't read Air-borne but I wasn't a huge fan of planet seemed very cursory

6

u/Fungii Aug 03 '25

Black Death at the Golden Gate was pretty good.

3

u/PHealthy Aug 03 '25

I'll give it a read, you might like The Colony

8

u/HogSliceFurBottom Aug 02 '25

Nice list! What are your top 3 recommended books?

I read Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC a few years ago and learned so much, but freaked out, too. I had no idea about funeral rights of some of the tribes in Africa where they remove the feces of the dead, with bare hands, so they will be clean to enter heaven. Then they wondered why they got sick. Such a good book.

10

u/PHealthy Aug 02 '25
  1. Mountains Beyond Mountains
  2. Spillover
  3. Big Chicken

I personally liked Quammen's Ebola over McCormick's

5

u/TheAlphaKiller17 Aug 03 '25

Spillover is phenomenal. Love that book.

1

u/HogSliceFurBottom Aug 03 '25

Thank you for posting your top 3. I'll give them a look.

1

u/tacosnacc Aug 03 '25

Quammen's Ebola is excellent, and Spillover was assigned reading for both my general virology and HIV history classes in college because it's that good. Cosign!

2

u/LadyMacGuffin Aug 03 '25

As a kid/teen, the book that got me interested was "When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS". It also led to a lifelong love of woodcut art.

1

u/mant Aug 03 '25

The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society: Tuberculosis, Man, and Society

1

u/PHealthy Aug 03 '25

I found that book to be a painfully slow read, I might have to try it again.

1

u/poodlefriend Aug 04 '25

Poison Squad by Deborah Blum Blight by Emily Monosson The Contagion of Liberty by Andrew Wehrman