Book Review: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," by Rebecca Skloot

Author's Notes: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells — taken without her knowledge — became one of the most important tools in medicine.

There's no way Henrietta Lacks could have known that her cancer cells would, in no small part, help save the world from deadly disease. She died of cervical cancer in the early 1950s. But, her cells proved to be immortal and, because of that, have been able to help clinical researchers find the vaccine for polio, unlock the chromosomal key of Downs Syndrome, help in the understanding of every type of cancer that afflicts humankind, cloning and much, much more. The saddest aspect of the story...while the medical research industry made a fortune growing and selling her cells, her family never saw a dime of that money and couldn't even afford health insurance. 

Skloot tells the engrossing story from the human perspective, explaining the science in layman's terms. She honors the family's final spiritual acceptance of Henrietta's suffering death as a challenge to learn just what her sacrifice meant to the world and continue that legacy. I found the story singularly moving and enlightening. It should be required reading for any person who works in the field of clinical research. They owe that much to Henrietta. 

"Where We Belong" by Emily Giffin Book Review

Marian is 18, on the threshold of following her dreams of a career in television and in love for the first time. And, then, she gets pregnant. The decisions she makes forever alters the lives of everyone she holds dear, even those she has yet to meet. She could not have known that 18 years later the repercussions of this decision would come knocking on her door and bring her life full circle in a way that changes everything she believed about herself and her life.

Ms. Giffin tells the story of Marian and Kirby in the first person, alternating each chapter to reflect the perceptions of each, ultimately bringing their separate personalities together to create a whole where before there were missing parts. 

The story is real, relevant and recognizable in its poignancy. I found myself reminiscing on life-changing decisions and wondering how life might have been had I chosen another path. In the end, though, we must all reconcile ourselves to the realization that where we are is where we belong.

"Looking for Me," by Beth Hoffman Book Review

This book is the type that makes me glad I'm a reader. While some aspects of the story are a little implausible, Beth Hoffman gives her characters enough depth that I am able to recognize them as people I know in my own life, just as perfectly flawed and commonly unique. Her use of flashbacks to flesh out events kept the pace from dragging. 

While this story could have easily become cliche, Ms. Hoffman's prose is fresh and imaginative. And, I appreciate that she doesn't tie every situation up with a neat bow. I finished the book with some lingering questions but, honestly, I think that is exactly what Ms. Hoffman intended. She reminds us that life is full of life-changing surprises, and we are defined by how we embrace all of them, even the painful ones.

"One Summer" by David Baldacci Book Review

I haven't read any of Mr. Baldacci's other works. I have to feel that this debut foray into a different genre was a beginner's miss. You don't make it on the Time's best seller list with this kind of maudlin prose. A predictable story of unbearable tragedy, unbelievable triumphs, unapproachable characters with unoriginal dialogue... I felt like I was reading the script of a soap opera, all that was missing was the dramatic background music. 

I finished this book in record time, not because it was hard to put down, but because I turned pages unread, knowing exactly what was about to happen. It wasn't so bad that I walked out on it, but almost. However, I do believe a younger audience would enjoy the book. It almost seems to be written for teenagers. And, it could be suitable to carry along on vacation... you won't get invested enough to miss any fun, and it'll definitely help you fall asleep in that strange hotel bed. 

Sorry, Mr. Baldacci. I'm sure you're an excellent writer. Everyone has their off times... this was definitely one of yours.  

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" Book Review

I literally read this book in four days, during a working vacation week jammed with home repairs... it was that hard to put down. It's the debut offering of Ransom Riggs and one of the most original stories I've read in a long time. Using odd vintage photographs, the author weaves a story around the pictures that pulls the reader in, making the implausible realistic. In the vein of Stephen King in terms of weird and wonderful, there's plenty of action, lots of intrigue and some downright scary monsters, all centered around some peculiar children who should be dead and a young man who is just discovering his destiny. It was a New York Times #1 best seller and on the Best Seller List for a year. 

"Z, A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald," by Therese Anne Fowler

In the spirit of the newest incarnation of "The Great Gatsby," which I was very eager to see, I decided to get in the mood by reading "Z," which is a novel about Zelda Fitzgerald. First of all, let me say, if you think the movie was over the top, it wasn't... at least if the events in the book are to be believed. From what I was able to gather, young people in the era immediately following WWI were pretty much out of control, and Prohibition only compounded the "problem." In an excellent example of history repeating itself, I was reminded of the late 60s, another time fraught with the horror of war, during which marijuana replaced alcohol and racial equality became the suffrage movement. 

It's not a book I can necessarily recommend to everyone. It was interesting in the vein of the new Jazz Age focus the movie has inspired which, by the way, is a term Scott Fitzgerald coined. And, as a literary and history geek, it was interesting to get a little more insight into the Lost Generation of artistic giants, including Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Isadora Duncan and Ezra Pound. They were all social peers and on-again-off-again comrades in arms... and, basically, created lightning in a bottle. But, it's a chick book, definitely, told completely from the side of Zelda. Even the author admits that, based on interviews with people who knew the couple, Zelda and Scott, while deeply in love, were poison to each other. And, the story doesn't end happily ever after. But, actual history rarely does. 

While it is fiction, it gives a realistic voice to a time when there was a huge generational gap between the expectations of an older "establishment" seeking a balm for the horrors of the Great War by holding onto the security blanket of tradition, and a younger generation returning home from a brush with death, knowing things could never be the same and ready to make sure by setting new rules. In a frenzy to break away from the staid complacency they felt had cost them their youth and innocence, paid for with the blood of their friends and lovers, they countered with new standards of unbridled living. Most everyone was constantly torn between finding his or her own place in the world with one foot still on the steady platform of the past and the other precariously resting on the step of a fast moving train to the future, unaware that the future was actually moving toward them on its own at breakneck speed and, in the short span of only 30 years, would collide with the present, bringing with it global financial collapse and another World War. 

This book provides the most vividly real and intimately personal portrayal of that brief period of time that brought about one of the most significant turning points for societies on both sides of the Atlantic. And, more specifically, it tells a story of an artist in her own right caught up in this tug-of-war by trying to find an outlet in a world in which female ambitions were considered hobbies and whose light was constantly dimmed by the brilliance of the person she loved best. Trying to find one's footing during this time of frenzied change was sure to drive some to seek solace in a bottle or, even, in the dark recesses of madness. No wonder the artists who were trying to record the era for posterity in prose, dance, music and art were called the Lost Generation. It was a marathon for which they were unknowingly pitifully prepared to run. 
  

"The Widow of the South" by Robert Hicks

This historical fiction pulls you in slowly, but inescapably. Hicks' style of prose reminds me of Charles Dickens. He uses a lot of detail and verbose descriptions and, while I was reading, I couldn't help but think that no one really analyzes their own feelings in that way. Yet, the minute details are absolutely essential to convey the depth of feelings of these real-life characters. And, that is what this book is about... the sentiments and emotions ravaged by life and conflict, especially during the time of our nation's internal rage against itself... the Civil War.

It tells the story of how a senseless and bloody battle which sealed the fate of the Confederacy just may have helped a woman already damaged by irreconcilable loss to find her sanity and her destiny. The true story of how Carnton, her plantation home, became the largest privately held Confederate Cemetery in the U.S. and the final resting place for 1,500 casualties from the Battle of Franklin, is one of determination, honor and redemption, told from a viewpoint of feelings and thoughts of Carrie MaGavock and the people who made up her world. Thought to be insane, unable to find meaning of her life, Carrie begins a painful journey of understanding the mysterious fragility of life by recognizing the unexplainable inevitability of death.

Before delving into the book, I recommend reading a synopsis of the history of the Battle of Franklin, a conflict fraught with failure from the firing of the first shot to the unimaginable number of casulaties at the conclusion. It will help set the scene and the mood of the entire story, while every character searches for the reasons for survival. Is it truly just luck, or is it destiny?