Science · Similar reads
Books like Spillover
The best books like Spillover are The Hot Zone, The Coming Plague, and The Great Influenza. Spillover by David Quammen is about zoonotic disease, ecology, epidemics. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- The Hot Zone
01
Richard Preston · Science
The Hot Zone is Richard Preston's account of the discovery of filoviruses — Marburg and Ebola — and, more urgently, the 1989 outbreak of a closely related virus in a primate facility in Reston, Virginia, twenty miles from Washington DC.
Both dig into epidemics.
Read the summary → - The Coming Plague
02
Laurie Garrett · Science
The Coming Plague, published in 1994, is Laurie Garrett's argument that the era of conquest over infectious disease declared in the 1960s was a dangerous illusion, and that the conditions for catastrophic new pandemics were already in place.
Shares ecology and epidemics with Spillover.
Read the summary → - The Great Influenza
03
John M. Barry · History
The Great Influenza is John M.
Both dig into public health.
Read the summary →
- The Gene: An Intimate History
04
Siddhartha Mukherjee · Science
The Gene is Siddhartha Mukherjee's account of the gene — what it is, how it was discovered, and what humanity has done and might yet do with that knowledge.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction
05
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction
David Quammen · Science
The Song of the Dodo is David Quammen's magnum opus on island biogeography — the science of how species are distributed across isolated habitats and why islands, both literal and metaphorical, are where extinction concentrates.
Shares ecology and evolution with Spillover.
Read the summary → - A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
06
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg · Science
A Crack in Creation is Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg's account of how CRISPR-Cas9 works, what it can do, and why its possibilities should give everyone pause.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - A Short History of Nearly Everything
07
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson · Science
A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson's attempt to understand the scientific story of everything — from the Big Bang to the emergence of modern humans — by spending three years talking to scientists and reading science history.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
08
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
Frans de Waal · Science
Frans de Waal's central argument is that we've spent most of the last century asking the wrong questions about animal intelligence.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - Bad Science
09
Ben Goldacre · Science
Bad Science is Ben Goldacre's dissection of how scientific evidence gets misrepresented, distorted, and invented in the service of selling health products, generating media coverage, and protecting bad actors from accountability.
Both dig into public health.
Read the summary → - Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
10
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
Robert M. Sapolsky · Science
Behave is Robert Sapolsky's attempt to explain why humans do what they do — the violence, the altruism, the tribalism, the heroism — by working through every layer of biology that contributes to a single act.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - Climbing Mount Improbable
11
Richard Dawkins · Science
Climbing Mount Improbable is Richard Dawkins's response to the persistent intuition that complex biological structures — the vertebrate eye, insect wings, spider webs — are too improbable to have evolved by chance.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - Cosmos
12
Carl Sagan · Science
Cosmos is Carl Sagan's attempt to tell the full story of the universe and humanity's place in it — from the Big Bang to the origins of life to the rise of science as a way of knowing.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary →
Books like Spillover: quick answers
What are the best books like Spillover?
The best books like Spillover by David Quammen are The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett, The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Spillover, such as zoonotic disease, ecology, epidemics.
What should I read after Spillover?
A natural next read after Spillover is The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Both dig into epidemics. Other strong choices are The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett, The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
What books are similar to Spillover by David Quammen?
Spillover centers on zoonotic disease, ecology, epidemics. Books with a similar feel include The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett, The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen, A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
