As author John Green points out in his book EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS, many people view the disease as something from the past; something that befallAs author John Green points out in his book EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS, many people view the disease as something from the past; something that befalls characters in old movies and video games symbolized by the “blood in the rag” following a coughing fit. The sad truth is that the disease is still very much with us killing over one million people every year - just not on a massive scale here in the Western world. This is because, as John points out, the disease is where the cure is not and the cure is where the disease is not.
The book primarily follows Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone, throughout his journey fighting the debilitating disease. John met Henry while traveling with a charitable organization in 2019 and became fascinated with this disease and its grip on much of the underdeveloped world. The fact that the disease continues to spread like wildfire throughout disadvantaged populations often highlights the massive inequality between the rich and the poor in these nations. While the disease is largely curable and treatable, the systems required to keep it at bay are often broken or in most cases, non-existent. For example, while some of these nations have the drugs to fight the infection, they lack basic things like a sustainable food chain allowing the infected to take those drugs on a full stomach, or reliable transportation to and from clinics.
While a short read, it was certainly eye-opening to say the least. I listened to this one and I thought John was a fantastic narrator, but I’m also quite used to hearing him through his YouTube videos through the years and know him to be a wonderful public speaker. EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS is a well-researched, empathetic look at the death and misery this disease continues to inflict on much of the world....more
In THE INDIFFERENT STARS ABOVE, author Daniel James Brown tackles the story of The Donner Party and their ill-fated journey across the United States tIn THE INDIFFERENT STARS ABOVE, author Daniel James Brown tackles the story of The Donner Party and their ill-fated journey across the United States to the promised land of California.
Before reading this book, I had maybe a passing knowledge of The Donner Party in that I only knew them as “those pioneers who ate each other”, but obviously there is much more to the story. Putting any blame at all on the bulk of the eighty-seven members of the party is misguided at best. I mean sure, they were given improbably bad directions by someone claiming to have discovered a shortcut that would save them a few hundred miles on their journey, no one could have expected the unthinkable hardship that would befall them simply by going off the beaten path.
It’s important to remember that these were human beings being forced to make unimaginably difficult decisions in order to protect themselves and one another against the cruelty of nature. In fact, it’s worth noting that they waited an impressively long time before even the thought of consuming the dead became a possibility. However, once that door opens, it’s not easily shut.
What is most remarkable about this book is Brown’s uncanny ability to put the reader in the tattered shoes of the dying. He goes to great lengths to hammer home the incessant cold, the hopelessness, and the unrelenting hunger pains that had plagued every soul trapped in the crushing grip of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Even when you think things take a turn for the better, another seemingly impossible tragedy cuts the feet out from under them. Brown also makes sure to educate the reader as best he can on the hard facts of hyper/hypothermia, hunger pains, the state of the Mexican-American War, and the incoming gold rush to give a sense of time and place. These parts of the book are intensely interesting and never feel like padding or info-dumping in the slightest.
While this is certainly a difficult read that demands of its reader a strong stomach, it’s ultimately worth it. Many of the descriptions of the ravaged bodies subjected to cannibalism will stick with me for years to come. While I can certainly understand and empathize with why they did what they did, it is impossible for any of us to judge them having never been in that unenviable situation.
If you’re like me and live in the Western world and also happen to enjoy a comfortable middle-class life with things like GPS, coast-to-coast roads, and being constantly connected to “the grid”, how can you ever understand the bravery it took to pack up your life and move to a largely unsettled part of the world through a mostly un-navigated trail? It’s unthinkable, but many people did it, facing hardship along the way. It’s hard to imagine a worst-case scenario than this one, however....more