Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

William J. Broad, Stephen Engelberg, Judith Miller · 416 pages

Biological War: A Scenario

Annie Jacobsen · 406 pages

The Demon in the Freezer

Richard Preston · 266 pages

"The bard of biological weapons capturesthe drama of the front lines."-Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navyThe first major bioterror event in the United States-the anthrax attacks in October 2001-was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book sinc

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation

Dan Fagin · 538 pages

Recounts the decades-long saga of the New Jersey seaside town plagued by childhood cancers caused by air and water pollution due to the indiscriminate dumping of toxic chemicals.

Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from the Inside by the Man Who Ran It

Ken Alibek, Stephen Handelman · 327 pages

Ken Alibek's straightforward story of massive, state-sponsored bio weapons research by the Soviet Union and Modern Russia was too far ahead of its' time. Looking back with post-9/11 vision, "too far" was a mere two years ahead of its' time. *Biohazard* is an eyeopening autobiography of Ken Alibek, AKA Kanatzhan (Kanat) Alibekov, a leading bio weapons developer and Soviet officer of Kazakh anc

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster

Adam Higginbotham · 538 pages

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot · 381 pages

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

Laurie Garrett · 750 pages

This is an amazing book that Laura Garrett wrote back in the 90's. For anyone that has read the more popular book by Richard Preston "The Hot Zone" this is a must read. It is a much tighter more informative book. She takes us through the history of viruses in a journalistic/story approach. She breaks down the emergence of Ebola and the other emerging viruses and what it could mean in a brilliantl

League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

Mark Fainaru-Wada, Steve Fainaru · 419 pages

Both ESPN investigative reporters, the authors reveal how the NFL, over a period of nearly two decades, sought to cover up and deny mounting evidence of the connection between football and brain damage. This narrative moves between the NFL trenches, America's research labs and the boardrooms where the NFL went to war against science; it examines how the league used its power and resources to attac

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

Douglas Preston · 336 pages

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist

As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl

John Colapinto · 307 pages

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case

Debbie Nathan · 297 pages

The true story of the three women behind Sybil, the famous multiple-personality case.

Three-Letter Plague: A Young Man's Journey Through a Great Epidemic

Jonny Steinberg · 342 pages

In this account, the author seeks to understand the AIDS crisis in South Africa.

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

Randy Shilts · 651 pages

The blueprint of 20th century investigative journalism. Tracing the course of HIV/AIDS through society; from its earliest as then unknown incarnation, to the height of this 1980s hysteria – the death of Rock Hudson: Shilts's book should be in every High School's final academic examinations coursework reading list, as a compulsory item. An unregrettable read.

Ten Days in a Mad-House

Nellie Bly · 97 pages

In the 1800s, journalist Nellie Bly pretended to be mentally ill and spent 10 days in an insane asylum in order to report on conditions and abuses there.

Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It

Gina Kolata · 338 pages

The fascinating, true story of the world's deadliest disease. In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Es

American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic

John Temple · 309 pages

The king of the pill mills was American Pain, a mega-clinic that served as a prototype for the rest. From a pristine former bank building, doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day, mostly traffickers and addicts who came by the vanload. Inked muscle-heads ran security, greeting the morning rush of pill poppers with cries of Welcome to the dope hole! Stripp

Is There No Place on Earth for Me?

Susan Sheehan · 333 pages

Recounts the lonely, harrowing life of a diagnosed schizophrenic, "Sylvia Frumkin", whose experience has included frequent hospitalizations from childhood on, bouts with insulin comas, electroshock treatments, and drug therapy.

28: Stories of AIDS in Africa

Stephanie Nolen · 384 pages

Twenty-eight anecdotal stories that chronicle men, women, and children involved in every aspect of the African AIDS crisis.

Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis---and the People Who Pay the Price

Jonathan Cohn · 302 pages

America's health care system is unraveling. Every day, millions of hard-working people struggle to find affordable medical treatment for themselves and their families—unable to pay for prescription drugs and regular checkups, let alone hospital visits. Some of these people end up losing money. Others end up losing something even more valuable: their health or even their lives. In this powerful wor

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy

David E. Hoffman · 577 pages

This riveting narrative history of the end of the arms race sheds new light on the frightening last chapters of the Cold War and the legacy of the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that remain a threat today. During the Cold War, world superpowers amassed nuclear arsenals containing the explosive power of one million Hiroshimas. The Soviet Union secretly plotted to create the "Dead Hand,"

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

Sheri Fink · 558 pages

Fink provides a landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina-- and a suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal all

Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story

Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peterson Myers · 311 pages

Over thirty years ago, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring first warned that manmade chemicals had spread across the planet, permeating virtually every living creature and the most distant wilderness. Her landmark book documented the deadly toll of these synthetic chemicals to birds and wildlife. Only now, however, are we recognizing the full consequences of this insidious invasion, which is derailing

Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic

Pamela Weintraub · 408 pages

This book is an investigation into the science, history, and politics of Lyme disease as observed by a journalist whose entire family contracted the illness traces its significant rise and the atypical presentations that have made its diagnosis and treatment difficult. It is a narrative investigation into the science, history, medical politics, and patient experience of Lyme disease told by a scie