Happy Friday! 

I hope you are having a great week so far. 

A few weeks ago I did a post ‘If you like this, read that’. And I came across another book I wanted to share. 

Early during the pandemic, Tj and I wanted to re-watch the 2011 movie Contagion, starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, and Gwyneth Paltrow. You can watch the trailer here. 

We have always really liked this movie and found it so interesting, but it was much different watching it just as COVID was starting to take over the world. Luckily, COVID isn’t as deadly as the virus in Contagion, but we could relate to many of the experiences in the movie, especially the fear and uncertainty. We have watched this movie a few times during lockdown haha,  we can’t get enough of it, even as we are living through a real-life pandemic. 

But I just finished a book about a pandemic that was really interesting and made me think of this movie. Some of it was a little far-fetched, but I really liked the beginning of the novel when this novel flu virus was just starting to spread. And I liked the ending when they finally figured out where it originated. 

So if you like Contagion, read The End of October by Lawrence Wright. 

The End of October by Lawrence Wright 

At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare . . . Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic . . . Henry's wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta . . . And the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.

Have a great weekend!

Happy reading :)