National Geographic’s ‘Inside the Curve’ Makes Us Wonder Just How Prepared We Are for the Next Health Crisis [REVIEW]

Woman puts a mask on her daughter
Everyone had to adopt a new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by August de Richelieu on Pexels.com)

From the time COVID-19 seemed like the rumblings of distant thunder to the moment it arrived on our doorstep as a full-blown health crisis of global proportions, ordinary men and women rose to become heroes throughout the pandemic. We have all heard some of the stories, particularly those that were local, including those about the front-line workers who kept us fed and the first responders and physicians who worked tirelessly to keep us healthy. Now, in National Geographic’s touching and thoughtful new book (Inside the Curve): Stories from the Pandemic, we get the opportunity to meet many of the folks we didn’t hear about. As we learn to embrace our new normal, this volume helps us never forget how far we have come and yet how much further we still have to go.

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Elly Griffiths’ Dr. Ruth Galloway Faces ‘The Locked Room’ Mystery in Pandemic Era Norfolk [REVIEW]

Augustine Steward House in Norwich, UK
The Augustine Steward House is only one landmark readers will visit in Elly Griffiths’ The Locked Room. (Photo courtesy Canva)

As an archaeologist and educator, Dr. Ruth Galloway has enough to contend with. As she juggles cantankerous colleagues, peculiar students, and the daunting task of sorting through her deceased mother’s belongings, she doesn’t need a pandemic to complicate life any further.

When it seems like lockdown will keep her and DCI Harry Nelson apart, a baffling rash of seemingly unrelated suicides throws them together once again. But how can they crack the case when the world they know is turned topsy turvy and it is ill advised to leave the house? Find out in Elly Griffiths’ brilliant new mystery, The Locked Room.

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WE SHALL NOT SHATTER: An Interview with Elaine Stock

Elaine Stock (Photo courtesy Elaine Stock, Facebook)

World War II has been the inspiration for a great deal of historical fiction. With so many angles to approach the global conflict and how it impacted everyone’s life—whether directly or indirectly—there are just countless stories to be told. As Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See made us examine the war from the vantage point of a blind girl in France, Elaine Stock’s new novel, We Shall Not Shatter demonstrates how the deaf community in Poland fared during the same time. It’s a fascinating glimpse into this aspect of our history that we have not considered before, and we are excited to share this book with you. We hope you find our interview with Elaine as fascinating as we did. Enjoy! —J&H

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In National Geographic’s ‘Fauci: Expect the Unexpected,’ America’s Doctor Encourages Us to Help Our Fellow Man [REVIEW]

Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci as featured in Fauci (Photo courtesy National Geographic)
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By this time, I think most Americans recognize Dr. Anthony Fauci as the face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Soon after the virus first hit American shores in 2020, he was there at President Trump’s side at nearly every press conference, eager to help us through one of the scariest—and deadliest—time periods in recent memory. Every day he approached the microphone to speak, it became increasingly evident that he was intelligent, knew his science, and that we could trust him to tell us the truth, even if it terrified us.

But what drove Fauci, 80, to pick up this torch when many of his colleagues have already retired? Where did he get enough confidence to be so brutally honest with the American people, even if it meant contradicting the president on national television? And who taught him to have such unmitigated compassion for his fellow man? All of these questions are answered in National Geographic’s new book, Fauci: Expect the Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward.

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Gabriel Scheff Explores the COVID-19 Pandemic’s Origins in ‘Wuhan 2019’ [REVIEW]

Wuhan from above
Wuhan from above (Photo courtesy Canva)

In autumn 2019, a sportswriter travels to Wuhan, China with his crew to cover the CISM games. But what they find there will be more than just an athletic event. For something dark and deadly lies in wait, anxious to surface and fulfill an old Mongolian prophecy that threatens to afflict the world.

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