{"id":43580,"date":"2022-03-01T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=43580"},"modified":"2022-02-25T09:17:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T15:17:44","slug":"online-reading-challenge-march-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/online-reading-challenge-march-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Reading Challenge – March"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hello Fellow Readers!<\/p>\n

It’s time for a new Book Flight! This month our books focus on pandemics<\/strong> and how individuals react to a post-pandemic world<\/strong>. There is exploration of what was lost and how to move forward, the search for answers and cures and basic survival. They are not without hope though, as the protagonists in each title grow and change and even thrive.<\/p>\n

Pandemics are not new to human history with the bubonic plague and the 1918 influenza being two of the most notable. Because we are still recovering from COVID-19, some of the subject matter may be triggering. Please read with caution!<\/p>\n

This month’s main title is Station Eleven<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>by Emily St John Mandel. Written before 2020 and the arrival of COVID-19, it nevertheless has several eerie similarities.<\/p>\n

One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production. Jeevan Chaudhary, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur’s chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside as life disintegrates outside. This novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.<\/em><\/p>\n

This book is also available as an e-book<\/strong><\/a> on Libby.<\/p>\n

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Alternate titles are: Year of Wonders<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Geraldine Brooks<\/p>\n

This gripping historical novel is based on the<\/span>\u00a0true story\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0Eyam,\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0“Plague Village,” in\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0rugged mountain spine\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0England. In 1666, a tainted bolt\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0cloth from London carries bubonic infection to this isolated settlement\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0shepherds and lead miners. A visionary young preacher convinces\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0villagers to seal themselves off in a deadly quarantine to prevent\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0spread\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0disease.\u00a0The<\/span>\u00a0story is told through\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0eyes\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0eighteen-year<\/span>-old Anna Frith,\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0vicar’s maid, as she confronts\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0loss\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0her family,\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0disintegration\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0her community, and\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0lure\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0a dangerous and illicit love. As\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna emerges as an unlikely and courageous heroine in\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0village’s desperate fight to save itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Also available as an e-book<\/strong><\/a> on Libby.<\/p>\n

Ghost Map<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Steven Johnson<\/p>\n

A chronicle of Victorian London’s worst cholera outbreak traces the day-by-day efforts of Dr. John Snow, who put his own life on the line in his efforts to prove his previously dismissed contagion theory about how the epidemic was spreading.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Bright as Heaven<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Susan Meissner<\/p>\n

In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even\u00a0as<\/span>\u00a0its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline\u00a0Bright<\/span> and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters a chance at a better life. Their dreams are short-lived. Just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As<\/span>\u00a0the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even\u00a0as<\/span> they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges that surround them, they learn what they cannot live without–and what they are willing to do about it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Also available in Large Print<\/strong><\/a> and as an e-book<\/strong><\/a> on Libby.<\/p>\n

The Pull of the Stars<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>by Emma Donoghue<\/p>\n

A novel set in 1918 Dublin offers a three-day look at a maternity ward during\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0height\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span> Great Flu pandemic. In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0city center, where expectant mothers who have fallen sick are quarantined into a separate ward to keep\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0plague at bay. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders, a woman doctor who is a rumored Rebel, and a teenage girl, Bridie, procured by\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0nuns from their orphanage as an extra set\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0hands.<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Also available as an e-book<\/strong><\/a> and an e-audio book<\/strong><\/a>, both on Libby.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I actually read Station Eleven<\/em> shortly after it was published in 2015 (and I loved it – highly recommended) so I’m going to read As Bright as Heaven<\/em> for this month’s challenge. I think this will be an interesting and eye-opening month of reading!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello Fellow Readers! It’s time for a new Book Flight! This month our books focus on pandemics and how individuals react to a post-pandemic world. There is exploration of what was lost and how to move forward, the search for answers and cures and basic survival. They are not without[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,3371],"tags":[6116,6117,6118,3395,6115],"class_list":["post-43580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-online-book-challenge","tag-1918-influenza","tag-bubonic-plague","tag-cholera","tag-online-reading-challenge","tag-pandemics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-bkU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43580"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43594,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43580\/revisions\/43594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}