This is science at its best and also a good detective story. My geology professor friend who is part of our book club highly recommended it just for the science here.

The history of ebola outbreaks and how, with each outbreak, a little more was learned about ebola and how to treat it is one of the best parts of this book. It is a disease that has been around a lot longer than probably many in the US realized. From the headlines and drama of 2014 and, now, 2019 I think a lot of us thought ebola was something dramatically new.

The explanation of disease reservoirs and the search for the ebola reservoir are also really interesting. Here is an explanation....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_reservoir. This is a pretty scary concept when you think about it...many of us, including myself encounter disease reservoirs frequently. In my case it is the bats living in our attic or that come down our chimney and somehow wind up flying around our second floor in the middle of the night.

I have read reviews of other books by David Quammen and it sounds as if he is quite a good science writer. I look forward to reading more. ( )

Ebola is a very frightening virus, but unfortunately not the only nightmare worthy one. This book takes you on an interesting journey trying to find the reservoir of Ebola.

It is an absolutely fascinating journey through Africa and other parts of the world. I had no idea that some of the viruses mentioned all had the same suspected reservoir in common. I am not giving that away.... you will have to read the book yourself :-)

I do have one complaint. Sometimes the journey feels disjointed. There are many jumps to and fro and it sometimes feels as if you have lost the narrative thread. Otherwise it was a truly fascinating read. It somehow reminds the reader again how fragile we humans are and how easily we can succumb to the exotic and strange. ( )

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

I like microbiology, as in I like to learn about it (not I like the diseases). For me it's one of the most interesting fields of biomedical sciences. So I've chosen all extra microbiology courses, like Virology and Advanced Microbiology, but did I learn about Ebola?

During my first course Microbiology, back in 2013, about two sentences were spent on the subject of Ebola. It's a virus like Marburg in Africa. And, if you get it, it sucks, because you'll die of it. (This was a lesson where at least 20 viruses were discussed, so real depth was impossible, though Ebola was discussed only very briefly). Because during that time, Ebola was still something far away. I doubt many people knew what it was.

I was wondering how this book would tackle Ebola, as I was afraid that any information given would be outdated as soon as it could be printed, but the problem is solved quite well: It's not about the recent outbreaks. Instead it gives an overview of earlier outbreaks in Africa and outbreaks of similar diseases like Marburg to help understand the nature of the disease. It focuses on the importance of identifying the animal reservoir of the virus (viruses that are very deadly need to be able to replicate/survive in an animal species without killing that species or the virus would go extinct). Like with birdflu (where we know it's certain birds).

Ebola is an extract of Quammen's bigger book Spillover, completely focussed on zoonosis (catching a disease from an animal). I haven't read that book, but reading this part on Ebola made me want to read Spillover as well. What I really liked was the balance in this book. What I find in most (biomedical) non-fiction, is that it is to easy for people who know already about the subject, and not easy enough for people who are new to it. This book was different. It was still very interesting for me, but things where explained very understandably, I believe, for people who only have a very basic knowledge about microbiology. I would recommend.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

A part of a larger book--worth reading if you don't plan to read the larger book, but not worth reading otherwise. It was released as Quammen was updating his work on Ebola in response to the 2014-2015 epidemic. ( )

"We live on a complicated planet, rich with organisms of vast diversity, including viruses, all interacting opportunistically, and although there are seven billion of us humans, the place has not been arranged for our convenience and pleasure."

This book is a very approachable look at the Ebola virus. I picked up this book on sale several months ago because I realized that I knew practically nothing about Ebola, expect people bled to death. Turned out that that was wrong - people die due to systemic organ failure. And that is just the beginning of the information packed into this relatively slim book.

There is some overlap with Quammen's book "Spillover," which is still in my TBR pile (the author states as much), so if you've read that book, some of this may seem repetitive (I am uncertain which parts). But while "Spillover" deals with many viruses and diseases, this book focuses on Ebola and its "cousins" (Marburg, etc). I found it to be completely fascinating, and I am looking forward to reading the book that Quammen wrote about HIV/AIDS as well (I have always wondered how, exactly, that virus made the leap into humans).

Recommended brain food. ( )