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Christine L. Case, Ed.D.
Biology Professor
Skyline College

Vacation Reading

These books will provide entertaining reading in medical detection. The list includes biographies as well as mysteries and even thrillers. Enjoy!
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Andrews, Michael. The Life that Lives on Man. New York: Taplinger, 1977.

Astor, Gerald. The Disease Detectives. New York: New American Library, 1984.

Barry, John. The Great Influenza: The epic story of the deadliest plague in history. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.

Bear, Greg. Darwin's Radio. New York: Ballatine Books, 1999.

Boudanis, David. The Secret House. New York: Touchstone, 1986.

Camus, Albert. The Plague. New York: Random House, 1948.

Cook, Robin. Outbreak. New York: Berkeley Publishing Group, 1988.
___________. Contagion. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1995.
___________. Chromosome 6. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1997.
___________. Toxin. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1998.
___________. Vector. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1999.
.___________. Critical. New York: G. P. Putnam, 2007.

Crichton, Michael. Andromeda Strain. New York: Knopf, 1969.
___________. Jurassic Park. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Crichton, Michael and Richard Preston. Micro. HarperCollins, 2011.

Cornwell, Patricia. Unnatural Exposure. New York: Berkley Books, 1997.

DeKruif, Paul. Microbe Hunters. New York: Harbrace, 1953.

Desowitz, Robert. The Thorn in the Starfish. New York: Norton, 1987.
___________. New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers: Tales of Parasites and People. New York: Norton, 1981.

Dixon, Bernard. Magnificent Microbes. New York: Atheneum, 1976.
___________. Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1994.

Garrett, Laurie. The Coming Plague. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1994.

Harrison. Gordon. Mosquitoes, Malaria and Man; A History of the Hostilities Since 1880. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978.

Iles, Greg. True Evil. New York: Pocket Books, 2008.

Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map. New York: Riverhead Books, 2006.

Karlen, Arno. Man and Microbes. New York: Putman Books. 1995.

Leavitt, Judith. Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health. Boston: Beason Press, 1966.

Ludlum, R. and R. Lynds. Covert One Novels such as The Hades Factor and The Ares Decision. New York: St. Matrin's Press. The hero in these thrillers is a microbiologist.

Margulis, Lynn. Early Life. Boston: Science Books International, 1982.
___________ and Dorion Sagan. Microcosmos. New York: Summit Books, 1986.

McCormick, Joseph and Susan Fisher-Hoch. Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1996.

McNeill, William. Plagues and Peoples. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1976.

Miller, Judith, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad. Germs: Biological weapons and America's secret war. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

O'Hern, Elizabeth M. Profiles of Women Scientists. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books, 1985. Features 20 microbiologists.

Pendergrast, M. Inside the Outbreaks: The elite medical detectives of the epidemic intelligence service. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Press, 2010.

Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone. New York: Random House, 1994.
___________. The Cobra Event. New York: Random House, 1997.

Rhodes, Richard. Deadly Feasts. New York: Touchstone.

Rosebury, Theodor. Life on Man. New York: Viking Press, 1969.

Roueché, Berton. The Medical Detectives, 2 vols. New York: Truman Talley, 1984. Other true stories of medical detection by Roueché are The Orange Man, Eleven Blue Men, and Annals of Epidemiology.

Slaughter, Frank G. Plague Ship. New York: Pocket Books, 1976.

Swigart, Rob. Toxin. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. Swigart's books are mystery-thrillers with a microbiologist as the protagonist.
___________. Vector. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986.

Thomas, Lewis. The Youngest Science. New York: Bantam Books, 1983.
___________. The Medusa and the Snail. New York: Viking Press, 1979.
___________. The Lives of a Cell. New York: Viking Press, 1974.

Thompson, Morton. The Cry and The Covenant. New York: Doubleday, 1949. Fictional biography of Semmelweis.

Zinsser, Hans. Rats, Lice, and History. New York: Bantom Books, 1934.