Thoughts: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot last night since it was due back to the library today.  What an incredible book!  It is the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose immortal cells, called HeLa, have been essential in furthering modern medicine.  It is the story of Henrietta's family, particularly her daughter Deborah, and their quest to learn about Henrietta and her cells.  Yet, it is also the story of Rebecca Skloot, as her interest in HeLa cells spurred her desire to meet the Lacks family and tell Henrietta's story. 

This book has its share of joy and triumphs, but it is also filled with injustice, racism, and sadness.  I am so glad that Rebecca Skloot spent a decade of her life trying to learn about Henrietta and her family.  This is a story that needed to be told a long time ago, as you find out in the book.

Yes, a significant portion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks deals with science.  But it does not read like a book about science.  So many of the Lacks family's personal struggles and stories are told that at times you feel almost intrusive.  However, you never stop rooting for Henrietta's family.  You empathize with the injustice and hardship.  Most of all, you are thankful for Henrietta's immortal cells and all the wonderful medical cures, vaccines, and research they have allowed. 

If you want to learn a little bit more about Henrietta and aren't sure if you want to read the book, I recommend reading this piece done by CBS Sunday Morning in March 2010.  It's a nice summary and hopefully will make you want to read the book!

Teaser Tuesday (May 18): The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

My teaser is from Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:

"The cells were growing, but Mary didn't think much of it - other cells had survived for a while in the lab.  But Henrietta's cells weren't merely surviving, they were growing with mythological intensity." (page 40)

Thoughts: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I first heard about The Hunger Games through other book blogs a few months ago.  I was on the waiting list at the library, but I finally got it last week.  A few chapters in, I knew I liked it, but I was able to stop reading.  I was worried about that before I started since I knew that people were so crazy about it.  That was Wednesday.  Then, on Thursday night, I decided to read a few more chapters...

I stayed up until 2am finishing The Hunger Games.  Not so much for the plot because I knew it would turn out alright, especially if so many people loved it and there are two more books in the series.  It was really more about the characters.  I wanted to keep reading about Katniss and Peeta.  I love both of these characters so much.  I was captivated by them, their situation, and their interactions with each other. 

I've already started reading Catching Fire, the second book in the series.  The third and final book doesn't come out until August, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do until then.  Maybe this plan wasn't that well thought out.  I probably should have waited a little while longer to start The Hunger Games.  :)

With a bit of coincidental timing, this review of The Hunger Games at English Major's Junk Food came through my Google Reader just before I started the book myself.  I like what she has to say and if you want to know a little bit more about the plot (which I have neglected to talk about), you should check it out. 

Thoughts: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

It's been a while, but I have been busy with finals and end of semester things.  I also graduated on Saturday!  Woohoo!  I did manage to read The Help by Kathryn Stockett this past week.

The Help is a fantastic book!  I think most of the book blogging community have already read it, but if you haven't, you should probably go find a copy immediately!  It was that good.   I was hooked after the first few pages.  The Help is told through the alternating perspectives of three women: Miss Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny.  Here is the description from Goodreads:

"Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t."

Thoughts: Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There is Lewis Carroll's sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which I wrote about here.  Going into Through the Looking-Glass, I was hoping to find more of the story presented in the movie adaptations of Alice.  Some more of the characters were introduced, but I didn't find much more of the movie storyline.  Though, this book does feature Carroll's famous poem "Jabberwocky." 

I especially liked this description of snow that Alice gives near the beginning of the book before she falls asleep:

"'Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty?  How nice and soft it sounds!  Just as if some one was kissing the window all over outside.  I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently?  And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'" (page 156)

Like the original book, this adventure takes place in a dream.  However, Alice questions whether it was her own dream or not.  Also present in this book are Alice's cat Dinah's kittens, Kitty and Snowdrop.  Kitty, a black kitten, and Snowdrop, a white kitten, become the Red Queen and the White Queen in the dream, which is based on a game of chess.  Much like the first book, Alice meets an array of bizarre characters who challenge and puzzle her with words.  Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There is a delightful continuation of the adventures Alice begins in Wonderland.

Thoughts: Three of Anna Quindlen's Short, Nonfiction Books

Ever since my high school English and Creative Writing teacher told me that my writing reminded her of Anna Quindlen, I have been meaning to read some of her work.  So, last week I finally got around to reading three of her short, nonfiction books: A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Being Perfect, and How Reading Changed My Life.  I can't say much about my writing, but I enjoyed Anna Quindlen's books immensely and can at least appreciate the compliment now.

In all three of these books, Anna Quindlen's writing is fresh and insightful.  Her advice, though nothing I haven't heard before, was a welcome reminder to enjoy life.  I especially liked all of the literary references present in How Reading Changed My Life as Quindlen demonstrated the evolution of her reading.  I identified with many of her thoughts about reading and books in general.  For example, on page 20 she writes, "We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind."  More often than not, I read in bed and had never thought of it this way before, but I like it.

I also liked these lines from Being Perfect: "This is the hard work of life in the world, to acknowledge within yourself the introvert, the clown, the artist, the homebody, the goofball, the thinker.  Look inside.  That way lies dancing to the melodies spun out by your own heart." (page 19)  I'm sure these words appeal to me because of the musical reference at the end.

I have another nonfiction book by Quindlen checked out of the library and waiting to be read.  She also has a few novels that I intend to check out, too.  To end, some truth from How Reading Changed My Life: "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road.  They are the destination, and the journey.  They are home." (page 70)

Thoughts: The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

I recently finished The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey.  This was a beautiful debut novel about a man suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.  As someone who is about to begin a career working with older adults, I can say that Alzheimer's Disease is and will continue to be a major problem.  Approximately 5.3 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's Disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association.  Alzheimer's Disease has no cure and is the most common cause of dementia. 

The Wilderness is told from the perspective of Jake Jameson, a 65 year old architect who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease.  While it is impossible to truly understand what it feels like to have Alzheimer's Disease, I think Harvey gives a moving portrait of a Jake's mind as it unravels due to the progression of the disease.  I got the sense that Harvey did her research before writing the book as well.  I was familiar with the tests given in the book to measure Jake's mental status, such as the one described in this passage:

"One cannot be expected to remember everything, and in fact remembering everything is a hindrance to living; if an event comes as a thousand details the brain needs to forget nine hundred of them in order to derive any meaning from that event.  So a woman with dyed red hair, coarse skin, and a pen in her hand has explained.  But, she has also explained, too much forgetting is bad.  He had wanted to take her to task over this: Define too much, define bad, who do you think you are, do you think I am a child?  I'm going to say three words and I'd like you to repeat them after me: house, shoelace, picture.  He does not remember what answer he gave, only that he wished for the woman to look away as he strove to meet her ludicrous demands; and he knows that he must, despite an effort, have failed to please her." (page 47)

Given that his memory is deteriorating, the details and stories of Jake's life are not always presented logically, if they are ever explained at all.  Each chapter is in Jake's present, which is why it is sometimes difficult to understand his thoughts or references.  However, the chapters are interwoven with stories from his past, which explain some of the thoughts and memories he tries to remember in the present.

This book is filled with beautiful descriptions and language.  I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Alzheimer's Disease, but also to others who may not be as interested in that aspect.  Simply put, this is a moving novel that everyone should be able to find a way to relate to their own life.  There are so many passages from The Wilderness that I would like to share, but I'll leave you with this one:

"Since he dragged the police into his disease things have changed; suddenly he is a liability, suddenly nothing he says or does can be trusted, as if it used to be quite an informal kind of illness and now it becomes official.  The timeline is a mass of crossings out and corrections.  He feels to be the supremely unconfident author of his life.  Question marks appear against words, then he deletes the question marks, thinking that if he doesn't question the truth there is no question about it.  It is only him, as the woman says, only him who is confusing things." (page 227)

Wordless Weekend

A Favorite Poem

Since it is National Poetry Month, I thought I would share one of my favorite poems: "If I can stop one heart from breaking" by Emily Dickinson.  This has become more than just a poem to me over the years.  It's kind of a life motto. 


If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

   - Emily Dickinson

Thoughts: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

With all the hype surrounding Alice these days, I thought it was time to actually read the book.  I grew up with the animated Disney movie and I recently saw the new one in 3D.  (Johnny Depp was pretty creepy as the Mad Hatter.)  Reading this also counts towards The Classics Challenge. 

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a fast and fun read.  I found it incredibly charming.  I enjoyed the wit and humor that Carroll injected into the characters and their conversations.  As a child, I think I was scared of the Cheshire Cat in the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked him in the book.

Since all of my knowledge of the storyline came from watching the movies, I felt like the story was moving quite slowly at first.  I kept thinking that the plot I knew about had to happen.  After all, it is a very short book.   Having finished reading it, I can now say that a considerable portion of the book is left out of the movies and some of the story in the movies is not in the book.  That being said, I'm wondering if the movies cover the story presented in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.  My copy of the book has both so I plan on reading the sequel as well. 

If you like a story that is slightly out of the ordinary and sometimes just plain ridiculous, yet filled with logic and plays on words, then Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a must read for you.  There are many funny passages I could quote, but I think I will end with the last paragraph of the book.  Alice's older sister is thinking about the adventure Alice has just told her about.  There is something about these words that make me happy and leave me feeling hopeful:

"Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days." - Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, page 144

Drop Everything and Read Day

Did you know that today is National Drop Everything and Read Day?  I didn't until a few moments ago.  National D.E.A.R. Day is celebrated every year on April 12, which is Beverly Cleary's birthday.  According to the official website, "National D.E.A.R. Day is a special reading celebration to remind and encourage families to make reading together on a daily basis a family priority."

While I don't have children to read to, this day seems like a good reason for anyone to stop and read for a little bit.   The D.E.A.R. website has some good resources for celebrating the day.  I found the "Favorite D.E.A.R. Books" interesting.  It is a list of children's books compiled by age.  There is also an additional list of multicultural titles. 

I enjoy looking through children's books every now and then.  I wish I had a record of what I read as a child because I read a lot!  My mom took me to the library all the time.  I hope to pass that on if I ever have a family of my own one day. 

Teaser Tuesday: The Wilderness (April 6, 2010)

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

My teasers this week are from The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey.

"Dogged by these uncertainties, willing her ghost to come, he rid the house of milk, knowing Helen's near phobia of it.  For months he settled for black coffee and found himself remembering those days, so far back - before Alice's birth - when she did drink it, when she loved it, when her freckled skin itself was like cream dusted with cinnamon, when she would tell him his eyes were washed with milk, and when she loved the cherry blossom that curdled on the branches."  (page 35)

100 Mile Fitness Challenge

Today I signed up for the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge.  This is the third round of this challenge and it runs April 1 to June 31, 2010.  I have opted to try for 100 miles.  You can find out more about the challenge here, but basically I will try to walk 100 miles before the end of the challenge.  Progress is updated every Friday on the challenge blog and I will post about my progress here as well from time to time.  I hope this gets me moving!

Book to Movie: The Last Song

Well, I just got back from seeing The Last Song.  It came out today.  I hadn't planned on seeing it opening day, but it just sort of happened.  I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with Miley Cyrus.  She did a better job than I though she might.  Of course, the part was written for her, so I'm sure that helped. 

I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who might read the book or see the movie, but I did like both of them.  They are a little different, though.  As everyone knows, books are usually better than their movies, in part because of the details.  I wasn't expecting this movie to have every detail that's in the book, but I was expecting more consistency with the storyline.  Although the ends are essentially the same, the means are pretty different in places.  Some because of left out details for sure, but other parts were in blatant contrast with the story as presented in the book.  I think it was effective for the movie.  I guess I just expected it to be the same since Nicholas Sparks wrote the screenplay before writing the book.  (Weird?  I think so, but apparently it was because they wanted to shoot the movie last summer.)

In summary, I enjoyed both the book and the movie.  If I had to pick, I would probably say I liked the book better.  However, I liked the movie a lot more than I expected.  Although reading the book beforehand certainly helps fill in the details not explained in the movie, it is not necessary before seeing the movie.  In fact, the movie does well on its own.  (At the very least, you wouldn't have to keep thinking about what is different from the book!) 

Thoughts: The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

I read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks last Thursday.  Last year, I kind of decided that I wouldn't read more Nicholas Sparks because I wanted happier endings!  Then, I started seeing previews for the movie version of The Last Song.  Unfortunately, it looked like something I wanted to see.  Eventually, I gave in and bought the book because if I was going to see the movie, I had to read the book first.  Anyways...

To my surprise, I actually enjoyed The Last Song by the time I finished reading it.  Sure, it won't become a classic, but it worked as a quick escape.  I had a hard time with the character Ronnie at first.  She annoyed be so badly that I was tempted to stop reading.  (It's kind of how I picture Miley Cyrus in real life.  She plays Ronnie in the movie.)  Of course, she evolved and got less annoying as the book progressed.  I don't want to give away the ending, but I was satisfied.  It seemed more real to me than some of his other books, like it would actually happen in real life.  Needless to say, I liked The Last Song much better than the last several Nicholas Sparks books I've read.

I'm planning on seeing the movie, so I'll post something about that later.  It comes out on Wednesday, March 31.