The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I’m not a big reader of non-fiction books but the story of Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line that came from her cervical cancer cells in 1951 appealed because of the human interest story and the ethical issues surrounding the case.

Product description, pitched from Amazon - Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells -- taken without her knowledge -- became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her 'immortality' until more than twenty years after her death...

The book is well written and is mostly well told, the story of Henrietta, what happened to her cells once they were removed and the impact on her family is interesting and makes for a gripping read. The science is not overdone and is dumbed down enough to appeal to a large audience. That’s not a criticism, the author decided to focus on the human element side so has not gone into too much technical detail on the science thus giving the book more appeal.

The book contains details of Henrietta's life and death, the medical advances made possible as a result of Henrietta's cells and information on the ethics surrounding the issues raised. Unfortunately though the author only half succeeds on human story side as the book started to go downhill during the second part of the book.

Skloot relied very heavily on the co-corporation of the Lacks family to gain information that she needed for her book. The Lacks family could have at any point cut Skloot off and as a result a troubled relationship between Skloot and Henrietta’s daughter Deborah springs up which the Skloot chooses to focus on during much of the second part of the book which gets in the way of the more interesting story. I would have liked to have learnt more about why Henretta's cells were so important rather than endless details about how Deborah refuses to take her calls.

At 300 pages this book is too long but this is a book still well worth reading as it is interesting and very accessible.

Posted by Jess

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Cannery Row is a short book written by Steinbeck as a tribute to his upbringing in California. It is an excellent read full of humour and drama.

The characters in Cannery Row are, without exception, societies outcasts: Drunkards, thieves, prostitutes, gamblers and down-on-their-luck businessmen. From reading this you would be forgiven for thinking this story would be bleak or perhaps unpleasant. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It's refreshing to read about characters who genuinely love life. There isn't a whole lot of brooding or introverted thoughts just a small group with tenuous links in common getting on with their lives and co-existing. There is a subtle thread of mutal love and friendship amidst the grime of their existence.

I found the book uplifting and fun to read. There is tragedy and sadness but also great and simple joys and an honest way of living which has perhaps been lost these days. I don't envy any of their hard lives but in the midst of their poverty, crime and immoral behaviour alot of joy and decency can be found.

On top of all this I love the front cover of this addition. A very powerful book but also great fun.

I am currently reading 'Sweet Thursday', the sequel to Cannery Row which I intend to review here when I finish it.

Final verdict 5/5

Chris

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

This short novel was written in 1937 while Hemingway was living in Key West and features another classic 'Code Hero' in Harry Morgan; A grizzled, no-nonsense charter fisherman turned smuggler. Morgan struggles throughout the book to make a living during the great depression running people and contraband from the Florida Keys to Cuba and vice versa.

Morgan is really an anti-hero; a hard drinking, dishonest and desperate man guilty of murder and not kind to his wife and children. He struggles to make ends meet in a dangerous job where he faces the constant risk of death or imprisonment. By the end of the book (which is very short) he's been involved in three separate gun fights.

The story is bleak, very bleak which I guess is appropriate due to the time in history these events are set in however it is also gripping, exciting and certainly action packed. There is dry humour too but not enough of this for my liking. Unfortunately because the book was published in the 1930s black characters are often referred to as 'niggers' which I found unpleasant but tried to ignore because of the time it was written.

All in all this is certainly not the best Hemingway has to offer but neither is it the worst. It is worth a read if you want something gritty and entertaining.

Final verdict 3/5

Chris

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Housekeeping is the story of two sisters, Ruth and Lucille. The death (or perhaps suicide) of their mother has forced them to live with a series of relatives who each move into the family home to look after the girls. The final relative to arrive is their Aunt Sylvie, a drifter whose eccentricities make her a questionable mother figure. Aunt Sylvie collects rubbish in the living room and kitchen, rarely cooks or cleans and doesn't care whether the girl's attend school. While one sister rebels against this kind of life and searches for normality, the other, Ruth, seems to embrace it and is drawn to Sylvie terrified she may also leave like their other relatives.

The above makes Housekeeping sound like some kind of misery memoir but it really isn’t, its certainly not a tearjerker anyway. While there is an overwhelming sense of sadness throughout it is a haunting, lyrical and a beautifully written book. For such a short novel this seemed to take me an age to read as the writing demands that you read it slowly and indeed I also had to reread many passages when my concentration had lapsed. But the imagery that the writing invokes makes the alienation the small family experience all the more real and profound.

If you are looking for a novel with a gripping plot (or any king of strong plot) or for the ending to be tied up neatly at the end then I wouldn’t recommend this one. This is one where the writing and the story needs to envelop you, it was slow in places but overall this turned into a thought-provoking book.

Posted by Jess

World Night and catching up

I was not a book giver for World Book Day but I was a book receiver. The lecturer from my book reading course was giving away Seamus Heaney's Selected Poetry which was a welcome surprise. I had a great time in front of the TV last night enjoying all the programmes dedicated to it. I fell like the BBC has really spoiled us with all the bookish programmes on lately, some of which I still need to catch up on.

This year so far has been a funny one with regards to my reading habits. I seem to be reading really really slowly and I haven't really brought any books since around January which was not intentional. The books I am selecting to read so far this year have tended to be either classics or if they are contemporary, quite hard going which require a slower reading pace. Am also getting into cooking and baking again so I have been checking out a lot of cookery books out of the library, I can do reviews on these?

These are the books I am currently reading and my progress with them. When I have finished these I think I am going to read a few light a fluffy reads to give my brain a rest.


War & Peace – according to my kindle I am exactly 50% of the way through. I no longer need to refer to my printed family tree as all the characters are firmly rooted in my brain. Its a novel that seems to get better as it goes on and is one I am really enjoying.


Gone with the Wind – I only have around 250 pages to go and boy is it enjoyable. I have to admit that I wasn't sure on this one to begin with but for me the novel turned a corner when the War started and now I can't put it down.


Jane Eyre – I started this yesterday and am reading this as part of a readalong hosted by sheistoofondofbooks and finished off chapter nine today. When I was younger I began to watch the film but I turned it off when she reached adulthood as I found it boring after that, I 'm hoping the book doesn't have the same fate!

I hope everyone else's year is going OK so far. I have some serious catch-up to do with regards to reviews so I best get my head down.

Posted by Jess

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence read-along is hosted by Beth at Bookworm Meets Bookworm. Today we are posting our thoughts on Book Two and the entire novel overall.

Archer Newland has a happy life. He is a member of New York's most prominent society and is newly engaged to May, a women who on the surface is everything he wants in a wife, beautiful, pure, innocent, and sweet. This is all upset when his fiancés cousin Ellen shows up fleeing her abusive husband.
Newland is drawn to Ellen because she is from Europe (gasp) and as you know, in Europe they do things differently and are therefore exciting. OK so he isn't drawn to her just because she has come over from Europe, but the fact that Europeans do things differently is mentioned about ten times in the novel. While Ellen desires to divorce her husband, her family try to convince her otherwise which exposes Newland to the Hypocrisies and inequities of the society he belongs to.

One of the strengths of this novel is the great detail given of the customs that the characters society demands. I personally found these endless details quite tedious after a while but they did help to establish a claustrophobic atmosphere and created a sense of place very well. As a reader I was surprised the characters have any time to breathe within all their constrictions. The treatment of Ellen by her own family while started promising soon became apparent that they did not care about Ellen as a person and were quite happy to see Ellen either cut off completely or to see her return to an unhappy marriage. I enjoyed that it all became a little sinister (in a subtle way) towards the end and I thought the way the family banded together very clever.

Overall though I much preferred Wharton's The Custom of the Country, I just preferred the humour and the easy flowing writing in that one. The Age of Innocence is worth a read but parts of it were dull and I certainly wasn't gripped. I don't think this is her best but I look very much forward to The House of Mirth.

Posted by Jess