John Green: Everything Is Tuberculosis

This is not a review of John Green's new nonfiction book, "Everything Is Tuberculosis." We live in a time of great uncertainty about the future, and every day we watch as the guardrails around democracy and government services the world relies on become eroded further and further.

In the midst of this, John Green published a very important book highlighting what it means to live with a disease of injustice. Given the context, I don't think I could be objective about whether it's a good book and whether you should read it.

I preordered the book based on my love of John Green's book of nonfiction essays, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet. To me, that book was simultaneously heartbreaking, fascinating, hopeful, and a meditation on the beautiful yet quirky details that define what it means to be human in the modern era. And while "Everything Is Tuberculosis" was some of those things, I think I was wrong to expect more of that from a book about epidemiology and diseases of injustice.

For me, it was a good book at the wrong time. When I'm already feeling anxious about the world, the last thing I need is to learn more about suffering and unnecessary helplessness that people feel around the world. At best, these kinds of messages can inspire action and make real, lasting change. And they are important stories to tell. But for me, in this moment, it was just a hard way to spend my daily reading practice.