Gibson recounts how she and her husband, an active pastor, battled his West Nile disease armed with Scripture, prayer, love, humor, and determination.

Emily's the sick one . . . all of the time. Plagued with some sort of cold or fever or bizarre aches and pains for much of her life, Emily thought the dizziness and stomachaches at the start of her senior year were just another bout of "Emily flu." But when they didn't go away, she knew something was seriously wrong. Eventually diagnosed with the rare and incurable West Nile virus, Emily watched her senior year and the future she had planned for go up in smoke. "I want a normal life for a teenager. I want to ache from a long day at work. I want to be so busy that I don't have time to post on my blog. I want to run the race of life instead of being pushed along it in a wheelchair. I want to be on the ride of my life, you know?" Because Truth Is More Fascinating Than Fiction

As new cases of West Nile Virus begin to appear across the United States, this book offers a timely discussion of this potentially devastating disease. Author Melissa Abramovitz outlines the mechanics of virus transmission and how mosquitoes and disease-carrying birds have played a key role in the West Nile Virus epidemic. This book covers basic information about the virus and its possible effects, as well as a discussion of personal and governmental prevention plans. The last chapter focuses on treatments currently in development.

**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award “Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village. Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable. Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

The life you planned vanishes instantly when a devastating illness strikes. Everything you took for granted, the ability to walk, to eat, to talk, is suddenly stripped away. Torrie Nguyen is living a typical middle-aged life when a mosquito bite changes the course of her life. Diagnosed with West Nile Virus, the life she hoped for is suddenly gone as paralysis overtakes her body and swelling infiltrates her brain. The struggle to survive brings interactions with bedside angels, and a doctor, willing to take a chance on a treatment for an otherwise "untreatable" disease. In this astonishing memoir, Nguyen gives us a peek into the dark recesses of the mind and spirit when the body fails. She poses the idea that illness is not merely physical, but a mental, emotional, and spiritual journey. The West Nile Diary is a story of perseverance and the realization that we are more than our bodies or our minds.