Recent reads and review of Pandemic by Daniel Kalla

Books read since last entry:
STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (non-fiction)
Pandemic by Daniel Kalla (thriller)
The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley (fairy tales)
The Secret Country by Pamela Dean (fantasy)
The Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park (children's historical fiction)

Today's review:

Pandemic by Daniel Kalla (medical thriller)

Summary: A deadly new flu virus emerges in rural China, and Islamist terrorists move in to exploit it. The story follows the efforts of many characters to stop the spread of the virus, or in the case of the terrorists, to carry out their deadly plans.

This novel provides a realistic story with lots of detail, although all that detail could also become a bit cumbersome if you like a more fast-paced thriller. The medical and scientific aspects of the story are especially interesting. The author does very good job of making each character a unique individual with his or her own story. The subject is familiar to those who went through the SARS outbreak. One warning: as you can imagine, some passages were pretty shocking and gross (ie, many references to "bloody sputum").

New additions to my To Read list:
Hotter Than Hell by Mark Tushingham
Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix
Bones: Buried Deep by Max Allan Collins and Kathy Reichs
Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan (non-fic)

~Happy reading!