The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco

A great story of how the Plague came to San Francisco in 1900 and how it was eventually eradicated. Dr. Rupert Blue shines as the hero in the second plague event. Blue promoted and preached sanitation to contain the disease, but it was only when he focused his attack on the newly discovered source of the plague - the infected rats and their fleas - that he finally eradicated it— one of the great, little known, triumphs in American public health history. We see the streets of San Francisco from a "rat" point of view, and how factors like earthquakes can dislodge the rats and bring about illnesses. Hmmmmm.

Beth Dunigan at Mississippi College shared this read with me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know how either of us stayed sane during the Ph. D. crisis, but we both read more than just research for the dissertations. Therein may lie the sanity.

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Strange History

This book is exactly what it promises - bits of information delivered quickly and primarily for entertaining purposes. Being published by the Bathroom Readers Institute, you will appreciate its delivery and humor. Strange History by Bathroom Readers' Institute Printers Row Publishing Group Portable Press

Marie Curie: a Life, by Susan Quinn

Just like most of you, I read Eva Curie's biography of her mother when I was around 10 or 11 years old (mine was is the Reader's Digest for Young Adults). I was, like you, inspired. Recently, I saw the reenactment of Marie Curie by Susan Marie Frontczak, produced on film by Jen Myronuk. The presentation was AMAZING! I really did feel as if Marie Curie was telling her story just to me. MSTA will be discussing sponsoring this presentation at a conference in the future. Susan Marie Frontczak talked with the audience via Skype after the presentation. She told us that she had read Eva Curie's biography in her preparation, but she relyied on the Susan Quinn biography for much of her research and dialogue. I knew I had to read this book, so I downloaded it to my Kindle that very day! The book is, of course, enlightening. I just happened to be reading about Marie's viewing the total eclipse the night before our total eclipse in August. I stopped so I could read th...

Dragon's Teeth - by Michael Crichton

What a fun story based on history! The plot winds around the animosity between paleontologists Marsh and Cope, as told by a fictional member of the dig party. We are taken (in the form of our protagonist, William Johnson) to the Badlands, Deadwood, into Indian raids, labeled as a traitor, attacked on all sides by all kinds of people, and then we get home a changed young man. If you know history, you will enjoy they way Crichton weaves momentous events and remarkable historical persons into the story. You will find yourself thinking "I know what's coming," because you do, if you know anything about the WEST in the 1870's, or know some of the background with Marsh and Cope. I listened to this story as a traveled each week, getting about 2 hours of the book on each trip. After each two hours, I wanted more, but I forced myself to wait for the next week. I was sad to be finished with it yesterday.

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