Going Viral

I may have mentioned a few months ago I tried reading Stephen King’s The Stand. Definitely too soon.

Being fully vaccinated, and more than a little hopeful, I was still a little hesitant to open one of the books recommended for this week’s challenge. The Pull of the Stars  by Emma Donoghue, as you might expect, also largely takes place in a room. This time it’s in the maternity ward of a hospital in Dublin set during another pandemic, the Great Flu of 1918. Julia, an experienced nurse, cares for her charges despite the scarcity of supplies. In the midst of the inherent drama and uncertainty of childbirth, Julia finds herself drawn to the volunteer helper who infuses the ward with a different kind of life. An added bonus is the inclusion of propaganda signs that might sound more than a little familiar.

Libby’s algorithm also led me to an older book by Alice Hoffman called At Risk. Set during the height of the US AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, it follows a family living in New England. Polly, the mother, has just taken on a new project, photographing the seances of a local seer. Her husband Ivan is an astronomer who has passed his love of science onto their eight-year-old Charlie. Their daughter Amanda is excited about the prospects of her middle school gymnastics team. When Amanda gets sick, her pediatrician decides to check her for the virus.  When the result comes back positive, friendships, school policies, and her parent’s marriage are also tested.