Scourges, Plagues and Epidemics (nonfiction)
1. 
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
by:
David Quammen
4.42 avg rating — 20,023 ratings 2. 
The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
by:
John Kelly
3.89 avg rating — 11,192 ratings 3. 
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus
by:
Bill Wasik
3.72 avg rating — 11,393 ratings 4. 
Flu: The Story Of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It
by:
Gina Kolata
3.91 avg rating — 7,614 ratings 5. 
Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus
by:
David Quammen
4.18 avg rating — 1,994 ratings 6. 
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by:
Steven Johnson
3.89 avg rating — 55,256 ratings 
8. 
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
by:
Randy Shilts
4.39 avg rating — 28,864 ratings 9. 
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
by:
David France
4.44 avg rating — 4,224 ratings 10. 
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
by:
Laura Spinney
3.91 avg rating — 7,931 ratings 11. 
Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come
by:
Richard Preston
4.42 avg rating — 7,444 ratings 12. 
Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
by:
Jennifer Wright
4.23 avg rating — 13,612 ratings 12. 
Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond
by:
Sonia Shah
4.07 avg rating — 4,009 ratings 14. 
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by:
Jared Diamond
4.04 avg rating — 445,042 ratings 15. 
Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
by:
Carl Zimmer
4.20 avg rating — 5,906 ratings 16. 
The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It 4.03 avg rating — 335 ratings
19. 
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
by:
Norman F. Cantor
3.41 avg rating — 5,388 ratings 20. 
The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness
by:
John Waller
3.46 avg rating — 871 ratings 21. 
The Atlas of Disease: Mapping Deadly Epidemics and Contagion from the Plague to the Zika Virus
by:
Sandra Hempel
3.92 avg rating — 271 ratings 22. 
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by:
John M. Barry
3.98 avg rating — 42,018 ratings 23. 
The Forgotten Plague: How the Battle Against Tuberculosis Was Won - And Lost
by:
Frank Ryan
4.11 avg rating — 98 ratings 24. 
Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe
by:
William Rosen
3.67 avg rating — 2,466 ratings 25. 
Inside the Hot Zone: A Soldier on the Front Lines of Biological Warfare 4.30 avg rating — 91 ratings
25. 
Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
by:
Mark Pendergrast
3.70 avg rating — 497 ratings 25. 
Spanish Influenza: The Story of the Epidemic That Swept America From the Newspaper Reports of 1918
by:
Ken Rossignol
3.44 avg rating — 55 ratings 25. 
Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
by:
Lydia Kang
4.14 avg rating — 2,548 ratings 29. 
Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. Coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat
by:
Jeff Benedict
3.93 avg rating — 642 ratings 29. 
29. 
Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History
by:
Kyle Harper
4.19 avg rating — 646 ratings 
33. 
Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
by:
Jeffrey Kluger
4.12 avg rating — 619 ratings 35. 
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
by:
Richard Preston
4.16 avg rating — 119,583 ratings 35. 
The Miraculous Fever-Tree: Malaria, Medicine and the Cure that Changed the World
by:
Fiammetta Rocco
3.84 avg rating — 284 ratings 
39. 
Climate Change and the Health of Nations: Famines, Fevers, and the Fate of Populations 4.15 avg rating — 75 ratings
43. 
44. 
The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History 3.91 avg rating — 6,648 ratings
44. 
Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope
by:
Jimmy Carter
3.78 avg rating — 343 ratings 46. 
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
by:
Laurie Garrett
4.21 avg rating — 10,688 ratings 
48. 
Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health
by:
Laurie Garrett
4.13 avg rating — 1,345 ratings 49. 
Osler's Web: Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic
by:
Hillary Johnson
4.16 avg rating — 118 ratings 49. 
American Epidemic: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Opioid Crisis
by:
John McMillian
4.19 avg rating — 72 ratings 
51. 
Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic
by:
Abdul El-Sayed
4.36 avg rating — 390 ratings 53. 
Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory 3.76 avg rating — 2,119 ratings
55. 
Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic
by:
Ben Westhoff
4.01 avg rating — 3,271 ratings 
58. 
Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
by:
Albert Marrin
3.78 avg rating — 2,166 ratings 58. 
Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer 3.26 avg rating — 7,483 ratings
60. 
The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics
by:
Stephen Coss
3.73 avg rating — 782 ratings 61. 
American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic
by:
John Temple
4.26 avg rating — 2,453 ratings 62. 
The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug
by:
Thomas Hager
4.09 avg rating — 5,802 ratings 62. 
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
by:
Sam Quinones
4.23 avg rating — 31,637 ratings 64. 
66. 
68. 
Outbreak!: 50 Tales of Epidemics that Terrorized the World
by:
Beth Skwarecki
4.12 avg rating — 346 ratings 68. 
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793
by:
Jim Murphy
3.83 avg rating — 4,661 ratings 
70. 
We're Killing Our Kids: How to End the Epidemic of Overweight & Sedentary Children
by:
Todd Hollander
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating 72. 
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
by:
Judith Miller
3.63 avg rating — 1,132 ratings 73. 
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
by:
Beth Macy
4.07 avg rating — 44,188 ratings 
74. 
Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague
by:
David K. Randall
4.06 avg rating — 1,862 ratings 76. 
Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases
by:
Paul A. Offit
4.30 avg rating — 2,129 ratings 77. 
Smallpox: The Death of a Disease - The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer
by:
D.A. Henderson
4.10 avg rating — 364 ratings 78. 
79. 
82. 
84. 
Deadly Feasts: The "Prion" Controversy and the Public's Health
by:
Richard Rhodes
4.01 avg rating — 1,460 ratings 86. 
Plagues and the Paradox of Progress: Why the World Is Getting Healthier in Worrisome Ways 4.04 avg rating — 230 ratings
87. 
Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750
by:
Lester K. Little
3.90 avg rating — 49 ratings 88. 
Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown
by:
James C. Mohr
3.66 avg rating — 70 ratings 88. 
The Chlorine Revolution: Water Disinfection and the Fight to Save Lives 3.93 avg rating — 30 ratings
90. 
92. 
Black Death: A New History of the Bubonic Plagues of London
by:
Stephen Porter
3.39 avg rating — 31 ratings 92. 
Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World
by:
C.J. Peters
3.98 avg rating — 2,696 ratings 94. 
Plague Wars: The Terrifying Reality of Biological Warfare
by:
Tom Mangold
3.65 avg rating — 111 ratings 94. 
The Panic Virus: Fear, Myth and the Vaccination Debate
by:
Seth Mnookin
4.07 avg rating — 5,763 ratings 96. 
Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC: Tracking Ebola and the World’s Deadliest Viruses really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2,519 ratings
97. 
Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It
by:
Ken Alibek
4.11 avg rating — 2,766 ratings 
