charlottejones952's review
5.0
*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I thought that this book would be too much to read at this moment in time but it turns out that this is the perfect time. By explaining how contagion works, and in particular how the climate crisis and living in an increasingly globalised world has led to this coronavirus pandemic, the author manages to deliver a message of hope based not on wishing for miracles, but on scientific fact. For a naturally anxious person, this isn't an easy read but it did leave me feeling that it's not all about what politicians are saying, it's about what the people on the ground are doing to stem the spread and keeping our healthcare services running.
I would highly recommend this if you can get hold of it. It is well written, in short chapters that make it digestible even if you don't normally read non-fiction. It important to maintain mental wellbeing during this time, but I believe that in order to solve a problem, you must first understand the problem, and this book provides that understanding.
5 out of 5 stars!
I thought that this book would be too much to read at this moment in time but it turns out that this is the perfect time. By explaining how contagion works, and in particular how the climate crisis and living in an increasingly globalised world has led to this coronavirus pandemic, the author manages to deliver a message of hope based not on wishing for miracles, but on scientific fact. For a naturally anxious person, this isn't an easy read but it did leave me feeling that it's not all about what politicians are saying, it's about what the people on the ground are doing to stem the spread and keeping our healthcare services running.
I would highly recommend this if you can get hold of it. It is well written, in short chapters that make it digestible even if you don't normally read non-fiction. It important to maintain mental wellbeing during this time, but I believe that in order to solve a problem, you must first understand the problem, and this book provides that understanding.
5 out of 5 stars!
tildafin16's review
3.0
Started off well, and no doubt had lots of really interesting info but it felt as though it belonged in different books. One about how things take off on social media, one about pandemics. I realise the point was the link, but I’m not sure that’s what most readers will have been going for and I must admit I got a bit fed up mid way through with the dry style....as a result of which I probably won’t have retained as much as I could have.
jonbrady's review
3.0
Physicist Paolo Giordano promises to show us how to work together to create change but How Contagion Works doesn’t quite achieve this goal. It does, however, remind you of how pandemics take hold, how they spread, and how we endure throughout lockdown. It reminded me of what to be grateful for, and at a time like this that’s unarguably important.
_nothankyou_'s review
Super short hit list of many aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, written early in its course, including how it's hard for humans to conceptualize exponential growth rates, various aspects affecting our ability to self-isolate and why it's necessary to protect the super-susceptible. Then it spreads to much farther reaching concepts, including climate change and the environmental impact of 7.5 billion humans on the planet that will inevitably lead to future crisises. Just a giant ray of sunshine, and this was before the death toll hit over 400,000 (in early June 2020). Woof. I'm sure there will be many books expounding on each of these issues in the years to come.
stargazerb09f7's review
3.0
This is a quick read by a physicist in lock down in Italy at the beginning of the pandemic. We are now where he was when he wrote this but with far, far more people infected and dead from COVID-19.
Giordano wrote this to make use of the void, the emptiness in his schedule with all the cancelations, the halting of our society. He wrote this essay because he didn't "want to lose what the pandemic is revealing about ourselves."
Thus, it resonated deeply with me. As he writes, "This is the time of anomaly; we need to learn to live with it, in it."
Giordano wrote this to make use of the void, the emptiness in his schedule with all the cancelations, the halting of our society. He wrote this essay because he didn't "want to lose what the pandemic is revealing about ourselves."
Thus, it resonated deeply with me. As he writes, "This is the time of anomaly; we need to learn to live with it, in it."
stephend81d5's review
4.0
interesting and reasoned essay and made an insight into the growing issue of the covid19 pandemic as this was written in the early days of the virus in Italy. this essay should be read by people as we could learn things.
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