Welcome to Litsy!

I‘ve been waiting to read an analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic that has the temporal distance needed to draw real conclusions. This is the first book that I‘ve read the feels that way. There is still much to know but this is a step in the right direction.

I LOVE Lynn Cullen! Her historical fiction is top notch and always does that wonderful thing of truly great hisfic: it makes me crave to learn more about the topics/people being discussed and sends me down so many google rabbit holes. I had never heard of Dr. Horstmann before but she was amazing! I was born in the late 70s so I don‘t have any memory of polio being a huge problem but I couldn‘t help but relate it to what we‘ve all gone through ⬇️

I stayed up reading way too late a few nights because I could not put this down. It was like the direst of cases from Call The Midwife all happening in one room at the same time. Highly recommend it!

Not my pic but wish it was. 😊

A real eye-opener, especially for these times, unless, of course, you don‘t want to think about pandemics😉.
A really thorough explanation of the Spanish flu, including its precedents, false nomenclature, impact and diverse responses all over the globe and particularly links to World War I, outcomes related to healthcare support systems and deeper understandings of the biology of viruses and pandemics.
#Booked2023 #Pandemic
#Nonfiction2023 #Toxic

War has a victor, and to him the spoils, the version that is handed down to posterity… when the story of the Spanish flu was told, it was told by those who had got off most lightly, the white and well-off. With very few exceptions, the ones who bore the brunt of it, the ones living in ghettos, or at the rim, have yet to tell their tale. Some, such as the minorities whose language has died with them, never will.

“Hemoglutamine, ‘H,” looks like a lollipop. It‘s stalk projects into the membrane. It is the metaphorical crowbar that allows the virus to break into a cell, while neurominidase, ‘N,‘ is the glass cutter that allows it to exit again.”

H1N1 was the later-assigned code for the “Spanish” flu, as well as the more recent “swine” flu.

An absorbing, in-depth account of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically as it swept over New York City. In an effort to describe the full scope of the unprecedented health crisis, there‘s a lot of stuff in here and a lot of people mentioned. It might have flowed better if the author had picked just a few nurses/doctors/officials and followed them throughout. Still a strong pick.

#Nonfiction2023
Prompt: Livin‘ on a Prayer

This book sucked me in. It was also not what I expected, but in a good way. Set during the early days of the pandemic when no one knew what was happening & everyone thought if we shut down & quarantined for two weeks everything would go back to normal. Boy did things not turn out as expected.

An interesting take on a dystopian era novel. Set from multiple perspectives over a seven year period including before, during, and after pandemic. A book that addresses country reform, work drafts, and fertility when a flu takes out 90% of the worlds male population. Heart wrenching and surprising at times realizing how much the world would potentially change without a male population.