by John Green
First sentence: “Around the turn of the nineteenth century, the Scottish tinkerer and chemist James Watt began working on a new project.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: March 18, 2025
Content: There’s a couple of milder swear words. It will be in the Health section of the bookstore.

When John started talking about tuberculosis on the vlogbrothers YouTube channel, I didn’t know what to think. I mean, I knew about tuberculosis – I got the TB tests when I was a kid – but I didn’t really think about tuberculosis. And so, I watched in fascination as John shared his research and stories over the years in his videos, and learned about how much tuberculosis has influenced human history.

This book, in many ways, is a synthesis of those videos. But, what I found remarkable was how John (can I call him John? I’ve been watching the videos until 2008, and it feels kind of weird to call him Green) made the disease personal. He focuses on Henry, a young man with tuberculosis that John met in Sierra Leone. He focuses on Henry’s struggle with the disease, his struggle to get treatment, and the reasons why. Interspersed with Henry’s story, John gives us the history of the disease and the development of treatment for the disease.

But, what I found most powerful in the book was the ending. John writes: “We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause. We must also be the cure.”

It’s a book that is absolutely worth reading.

P.S. If you’d like to do something to help, may I suggest supporting good.store? The Green brothers have set up a way to get subscriptions of things you might need (from coffee/tea to soap to socks and underwear) and all the profits go to help either building a maternal health center in Sierra Leone or tuberculosis treatment programs. It’s not a lot, but it is something. (And the products are really good as well: I’ve done the Awesome Socks club, and we’re currently getting the soap, and the tea is excellent.)