Quarantine, Wine,
Venice, Croatia,
and You.
First face mask in history, 16th century Venice
Our LitWine Series* Continues!
Thurs, Aug. 19th.
6 - 7:30 PM, at Elmwood:
Until Proven Safe:
A VB LitWine* Event.
Authors Geoff Manaugh
and Nicola Twilley in the house!
Begin the journey! Buy the book here, and join us in 9 days' time!
________
In just over two weeks' time? Acclaimed authors Geoff Manaugh & Nicola Twilley will be in the house — well, outdoors, in an airy and well-spaced backyard parking lot — to discuss their timely new book, Until Proven Safe!
Geoff and Nicola are freaky-deaky knowledge wizards: in addition to writing for The New Yorker, The Guardian, New York Times, Wired, The Atlantic, and more, they also have their own popular media channels in the form of BLDGBLOG and Gastropod (which, weirdly, our very own Dan Polsby named while hiking with Twilley in Tilden!)
File under: "luck beats skill" and/or "timing is everything..." but — believe it or not — Manaugh and Twilley had been researching the history of quarantines for well over a year when, um, well, you know how this sentence ends.
Until Proven Safe is a lively and riveting take on the history and future of quarantine: it chases the story of emergency isolation all across space and time — from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean (built to contain the Black Death), to experimental Ebola units in London, and from the hallways of the CDC to closed-door simulations where pharm execs and epidemiologists prepare for the outbreak of a novel coronavirus.
Geoff Manaugh & Dr. Luigi Bertinato, in plague gear from two eras
Warning: a dry history this is not!
"Maybe reading a book about quarantine sounds like the last thing you want to do this summer . . . but indulge me in a counterargument. Manaugh’s and Twilley’s extensive history of a concept we might otherwise take for granted is actually the perfect postpandemic read — an imaginative, layperson-friendly way to make sense of and contextualize what we just lived through."
—Arianna Rebollini, Buzzfeed
(Let's bracket for the moment the question of whether we're "postpandemic" or not!) Acclaim for Manaugh & Twilley's book seems as universal as it is massive. I.e.:
________
“Until Proven Safe is uncanny in its prescience . . . Twilley and Manaugh see things that others don’t. Their insatiable curiosity reveals itself through all of their endeavors.”
—Allison Arieff, SF Chronicle
"A riveting and timely look. This thoughtful study couldn’t arrive at a better moment."
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)
"Captivating . . . Manaugh and Twilley meld a global view of a timely subject with vividly detailed accounts . . . But a larger charm of this smart book lies in their ability to bring potentially dry topics to life . . . An infectiously appealing overview of efforts to contain the potentially infectious.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)
________
We'll be pouring Croatian wine (where quarantine was invented!), pouring Venetian wine (where quarantine was perfected!), and chatting with two of California's coolest minds... about the larger historical context behind the crappiest 18-month year of our lives!
Buy the book here (with us, not at BigBox-azon!) now... and come join us for our newest LitWine* event on Thursday, the 19th!
Until Proven Safe:
A LitWine* Event.
Thurs, Aug. 19th.
6 - 7:30 PM, at Elmwood.
Buy the book here!