In early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to infiltrate public consciousness, sales of The Plague, the classic novel by French philosopher Albert Camus, skyrocketed. At the same time, the virus's toll surged exponentially. Amid the harrowing loss, many sensed a glimmer of possibility--the potential for radical empathy wrought by shared experience--even as the death-dealing divisions of class, race, gender, and citizenship were underscored like...

"This book delves into several illnesses that have infected humans and affected civilizations. Each chapter explores the history of a specific disease, detailing the symptoms, cures, and medical breakthroughs that it spawned"--

Forbidden from practicing magic and burdened by her responsibilities, Jin Zhara's life takes an unexpected turn when she becomes involved with the Guardians of Dawn, a group dedicated to fighting a demonic plague that is corrupting magicians. Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before. Jin Zhara already had enough to worry about--appease...